Chapter 6 - THE FATHER WITHOUT A GRAVE
Lena refused to answer at first.
That frightened Gideon more than an immediate denial would have.
Norah slept two rooms away under armed protection.
Whitaker was in custody.
Gideon stood beside Lena.
“Who was Norah’s father?”
“My husband.”
“Name?”
“Evan Mercer.”
“When did he die?”
“Six years ago.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
“Body recovered?”
Lena closed her eyes.
Gideon understood.
“No body.”
“The car burned.”
“DNA?”
“No.”
“Lena.”
“I believed he was dead.”
“Who was he?”
“A software engineer.”
“For whom?”
She looked at Gideon.
“Vale Biomedical.”
The floor seemed to shift.
Evan Mercer had designed claims-processing software.
He discovered hidden code diverting fractions of insurance reimbursements into shadow accounts.
Small amounts.
Millions of transactions.
Hundreds of millions of dollars.
“He told me he was going to expose it.”
“Then his car crashed.”
“Yes.”
“Norah was one.”
Lena nodded.
Gideon’s mind accelerated.
“If Evan survived…”
“I don’t know.”
Whitaker had said get her back.
Not silence her.
Gideon asked, “Did Evan have syndactyly?”
Lena frowned.
“No.”
“Anyone in his family?”
“No.”
So Whitaker was not Norah’s father.
But perhaps the Benefactor was.
Or believed he had a claim to her.
Shaw entered carrying a tablet.
“We found Evan Mercer.”
Lena sat up despite the pain.
“Alive?”
“Maybe.”
A passport photograph appeared.
Different name.
Evan March.
Entered Switzerland four years after his supposed death.
Then Prague.
Then Montreal.
Then vanished.
Lena began shaking.
“He left us.”
“We don’t know that,” Gideon said.
“He was alive.”
“Lena.”
“He let me tell his daughter he was dead.”
The pain in her voice was not romantic heartbreak.
It was parental fury.
Norah had spent six birthdays speaking to a photograph of a dead father who might have been breathing somewhere.
Lena covered her mouth.
Gideon sat beside her.
For once he did not know what to say.
So he said nothing.
Sometimes silence was kinder than wisdom.
Later that afternoon, Norah was allowed to visit.
The reunion destroyed every adult in the room.
“Mama?”
Lena opened her arms.
Norah ran.
Lena cried into her daughter’s hair.
“I came back.”
“You took forever.”
“I know.”
“I waited.”
“I know, baby.”
“You said twenty minutes.”
Lena sobbed.
“I know.”
Norah pulled Clover between them.
“She waited too.”
Gideon stood outside the room.
He should have felt relief.
Instead, loneliness returned.
Norah had her mother.
He was unnecessary again.
He hated himself for noticing.
He turned away.
“Mr. Vale?”
Lena’s voice stopped him.
“Come in.”
“This is your time.”
“Come in.”
He did.
Norah reached toward him.
“Gideon saved me.”
Lena looked at him.
“I know.”
Norah frowned.
“He doesn’t have a coat anymore because he gave it to me.”
“I own another.”
“He says things like that.”
Lena smiled.
“I’ve noticed.”
For twenty minutes, the world became strangely normal.
Then Norah asked:
“Mama, why did Daddy come back?”
Silence.
Lena went white.
“What?”
Norah played with Clover’s ear.
“At the park.”
Every adult froze.
“What did you say?”
“I saw Daddy.”
“Where?”
“Across the street.”
“When?”
“Before you left.”
Lena’s breathing changed.
“You remember Daddy?”
“From pictures.”
“What did he do?”
“He was watching us.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were scared.”
Norah’s eyes filled.
“And Daddy looked scary too.”
Gideon crouched.
“Norah, did your father speak to you?”
She shook her head.
“He pointed at Bunny.”
Clover.
The drive.
Evan knew Lena had evidence.
He had been watching.
Then why not intervene when she was abducted?
Unless—
“He wanted them to take her,” Gideon said.
Lena stared.
“What?”
“Maybe Evan needed to know who was following you.”
“You think he used me as bait?”
“I don’t know.”
Lena’s anger flared.
“If he did—”
Her monitor accelerated.
Gideon raised his hands.
“Later.”
“I am going to murder a man who has technically already died once.”
Norah gasped.
“Mama!”
“Figure of speech.”
Gideon almost laughed.
Then Shaw entered.
“We traced Whitaker’s payments.”
“To whom?”
“A shell foundation.”
“Owner?”
“No owner. But one authorized signatory.”
She turned the tablet.
Gideon read the name.
His mother.
Victoria Vale.
Gideon stared.
“My mother died eleven years ago.”
Shaw nodded.
“Someone has been using her identity ever since.”
The room became silent.
Then Gideon noticed the signature.
Not Victoria’s.
He knew that handwriting.
He had seen it on birthday cards for thirty years.
Malcolm.
His uncle.
But beneath the signature was a second authorization.
A digital code.
Lena recognized it.
She whispered:
“E.M.”
Evan Mercer.
May you like
Her supposedly dead husband and Gideon’s uncle were not enemies.
They were working together.
