Chapter 6 - The House Where Everything Began
The address led to a weather-beaten house outside Concord.
Grace hadn't returned there in twenty-two years.
She sat beside me in the SUV, staring through the windshield.
"That window was my bedroom."
I followed her gaze.
Second floor.
Broken shutter.
"You don't have to go inside."
"Yes, I do."
"Mia and Lily stay with Marco."
She nodded.
No argument.
That worried me more than resistance would have.
Before leaving the car, Mia caught my sleeve.
"Mr. Duca?"
"What?"
"Bring Mommy back."
I looked at her small hand.
"I will."
"Promise?"
Promises are dangerous things.
I'd avoided making them for years.
"I promise."
Grace heard.
She said nothing.
We entered.
Dust covered the furniture.
The house looked abandoned.
It wasn't.
Someone had left fresh footprints.
We followed them to the kitchen.
Grace stopped.
Her breathing changed.
"This is where I found her."
"Your mother?"
She nodded.
"She was on the floor."
I waited.
"Police said aneurysm."
"It wasn't?"
"I was nine. I believed adults."
She opened an old cabinet.
Empty.
Then we heard a voice.
"Grace."
She froze.
Elias Mercer stepped from the hallway.
He was seventy, silver-haired, immaculate.
The kind of man newspapers photographed beside hospital wings bearing his name.
He looked at Grace as though I wasn't there.
"You look like Margaret."
Grace's jaw clenched.
"You killed her."
Mercer sighed.
"Your mother made unfortunate choices."
I moved between them.
"Where is Evelyn?"
"Alive."
"Show me."
"In time."
His eyes returned to Grace.
"I wondered whether Nicholas would protect you."
Grace laughed.
"You drugged me."
"Necessary."
"You threatened my daughters."
"I never intended to hurt them."
I nearly crossed the room.
Grace caught my wrist.
"Don't."
Mercer noticed.
He smiled.
"Interesting."
"What's interesting?" I asked.
"You."
His smile disappeared.
"Your father spent his life believing affection was weakness. Yet here you are making exactly the same mistake he did at the end."
"What mistake?"
"Having something to lose."
A door opened behind him.
Two armed men entered.
I had expected them.
What Mercer hadn't expected was Marco.
The windows shattered inward.
My security team breached simultaneously.
Mercer's men dropped their weapons.
Marco entered.
"Clear."
Mercer looked almost amused.
"You think I came here without insurance?"
He held up a phone.
Live video.
Evelyn.
Bound to a chair.
A digital clock beside her.
42:16.
"Where?"
"Somewhere you'll never reach in forty-two minutes."
"Then what do you want?"
"The locket."
Grace removed it.
I stopped her.
"No."
"It's mine."
"It's also what he wants."
She looked at me.
"And your mother is what you want."
Mercer smiled.
"Smart girl."
Grace held up the locket.
"Release Evelyn first."
"No."
"Then watch me destroy it."
She dropped it.
Raised her heel.
Mercer's calm cracked.
"STOP."
Grace smiled.
Now I understood where Mia got it.
"Tell us where she is."
Mercer stared at her.
Then gave an address.
Marco verified it through the video feed's metadata.
A warehouse in Charlestown.
"Go," I told him.
He left with half the team.
Mercer extended his hand.
"The locket."
Grace picked it up.
Then something happened none of us expected.
The front door opened.
Thomas entered.
Holding a gun.
He aimed it at me.
My mother's warning returned.
Do not trust Thomas.
Grace whispered, "Nicholas."
Thomas's hand shook.
"I'm sorry."
Mercer smiled.
"There you are."
I stared at my uncle.
"You work for him."
"For thirty-four years."
Something inside me hardened.
"Why?"
"Because your father destroyed everything he touched."
"And Mercer didn't?"
Thomas looked ashamed.
"At first, we thought we were building something that could keep powerful men accountable."
Mercer laughed softly.
"Don't become sentimental now."
Thomas's gun moved.
Not toward me.
Toward Mercer.
Mercer's smile vanished.
"I said I worked for him."
Thomas looked at me.
"I didn't say I still do."
He fired.
Mercer dove.
Chaos erupted.
One of Mercer's men fired back.
Thomas spun and hit the floor.
I tackled Mercer.
Grace grabbed the locket and ran.
A bullet struck the wall beside her.
I hit Mercer hard enough to break his nose.
He laughed through the blood.
"You think this ends with me?"
"No."
I hit him again.
"It ends with evidence."
Police sirens approached.
Mercer's confidence disappeared.
Grace had triggered the emergency signal Marco had given her.
Thomas was bleeding badly.
I knelt beside him.
"Stay awake."
He gripped my jacket.
"Your mother... knows."
"Knows what?"
"Your father didn't order her death."
"Margaret?"
He nodded.
"I did."
Grace heard.
She stopped.
Thomas looked at her.
Tears filled his eyes.
"I was told Margaret was taking the archive to Mercer. I didn't know she was escaping him."
Grace's face became unreadable.
"You killed my mother."
"I poisoned her medication."
The room went silent.
"I've regretted it every day."
Grace walked toward him.
For one terrifying moment, I thought she might pick up the fallen gun.
Instead she knelt.
"You don't get forgiveness because you're dying."
Thomas nodded.
"I know."
"You don't get to make me carry your guilt either."
His eyes closed.
"Good."
The paramedics arrived minutes later.
Thomas survived.
Barely.
Mercer was arrested.
And forty minutes later, Marco called.
"We have Evelyn."
I closed my eyes.
"Alive?"
"Alive."
Grace touched my arm.
I looked at her.
For the first time in twenty-three years, my mother was coming home.
But Mercer had been right about one thing.
It wasn't over.
Because when federal agents examined the locket, they discovered the encryption wafer had already been copied.
Three months earlier.
The access signature came from inside my Beacon Hill house.
May you like
And the user account belonged to someone impossible.
Grace Harper.
