I called Jessica six times before I accepted that she wasn’t going to answer.
The seventh call went to voicemail.
Maya was already dialing emergency services.
I gave the dispatcher Jessica’s last known location and the details of the crash I had heard through the phone.
Then we drove.
Daniel Mercer’s house became irrelevant.
My mother became irrelevant.
For the next twenty minutes, the only thing in the world that mattered was reaching the shopping center.
Police beat us there.
Jessica’s car sat crooked against a concrete parking barrier.
The driver’s door was open.
The front bumper had been crushed.
The other vehicle was gone.
So was Jessica.
I ran toward the car.
An officer stopped me.
“Sir.”
“That’s my wife’s car.”
“We need you to stay back.”
“She was on the phone with me.”
“Was she injured?”
“I heard the impact.”
The officer looked inside the car.
“There’s blood.”
My stomach dropped.
“How much?”
“Not a lot.”
That did not help.
Maya showed the officers the threatening photograph.
They expanded the search.
Within minutes, more patrol cars arrived.
A helicopter was requested.
Officers checked the nearby stores and alleys.
I stood beneath a flickering parking lot light watching people search for my wife.
The contradiction of that sentence nearly broke me.
My wife.
My possible half-sister.
The woman who had approached me under a false identity.
The person whose disappearance made me terrified in exactly the same way it would have the day before I learned any of this.
Maya joined me.
“They found tire marks.”
“What kind?”
“Likely SUV.”
“Black?”
“They don’t know.”
I paced.
“Why take her?”
“Leverage.”
“Against who?”
“Maybe you.”
“Why?”
“You have the flash drive.”
I touched my coat pocket.
I had been carrying it since the break-in.
“Maybe they think Dad has more.”
“They know he does.”
“Then why Jessica?”
Maya didn’t answer.
I did.
“Because she matters to Elena.”
Maya looked at me.
“If Elena is alive,” I said, “and Jessica is her daughter…”
“She’s leverage against Elena.”
Exactly.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Every officer near us seemed to notice at once.
I answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
“Jessica?”
Nothing.
Then a man spoke.
“Ethan Hayes.”
His voice was calm.
Older.
“You took my wife.”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“You misunderstand the arrangement.”
“What arrangement?”
“Your family has spent decades keeping property that doesn’t belong to them.”
“What do you want?”
“Arthur knows.”
“Tell me.”
“Ask him about the ledger.”
Maya mouthed, Keep him talking.
“What ledger?”
“The original.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Your father does.”
“If you hurt Jessica—”
“You’re very protective of her considering what you recently learned.”
My blood went cold.
They knew.
“You've been listening.”
“We’ve been paying attention.”
“Where’s Daniel?”
A pause.
“Alive.”
“Prove it.”
“You already saw him.”
“That proves he was alive when you filmed him.”
The man chuckled softly.
“You’re more like Elena than Arthur.”
That was not meant as a compliment.
“Who are you?”
“You can call me Thomas.”
Maya heard it.
Thomas Barrett.
“Where’s Linda?”
Another pause.
“My wife has always been better at getting close to people than I am.”
“Was she the one in Dad’s hospital room?”
“You already know the answer.”
“Why photograph him?”
“Pressure.”
“You poisoned his water?”
“No.”
I wasn’t sure whether to believe him.
“What do you want?”
“The ledger.”
“What’s in it?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Then you don’t understand the arrangement either.”
Silence.
“Listen carefully, Ethan. Arthur has until midnight tomorrow.”
“For what?”
“To give us the ledger.”
“Or?”
“Victoria becomes another family tragedy.”
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone.
Victoria.
Not Jessica.
They still thought of her by the name Victor had given her.
Maya immediately called Dad.
We met at the hospital under police escort.
Security had doubled outside his room.
Dad saw my face.
“What happened?”
“They took Jessica.”
His expression changed.
“Who?”
“Thomas Barrett.”
Dad closed his eyes.
“Damn it.”
“He wants a ledger.”
Dad looked away.
Maya shut the door.
“What ledger?”
“I don’t have it.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That answer isn’t going to work anymore.”
“I mean I literally don’t have it.”
“Then who does?”
“Elena.”
The room went silent.
“You’ve spent thirty years saying you don’t know where she is.”
“I don't.”
“But you know she has the ledger?”
“She had it the last time I saw her.”
“When was that?”
Dad stared at the wall.
“Nineteen ninety-eight.”
Two years after the fire.
“You saw her.”
“Yes.”
“After letting me think she was dead.”
“Yes.”
Anger flared through me.
“Where?”
“Seattle.”
“What happened?”
“She contacted me through Daniel.”
“Daniel was already alive then.”
“Yes.”
I turned away.
“Every sentence is another lie.”
“They were trying to keep you alive.”
“Stop using that as permission for everything.”
Dad flinched.
Good.
I wanted him to understand some part of what this felt like.
Maya intervened.
“Arthur, tell us about the ledger.”
Dad took a slow breath.
“It wasn’t one book. Not exactly. Elena called it the ledger because that’s how she started it. She recorded transactions Victor thought nobody could trace. Payments. Bribes. property transfers. Trust distributions.”
“Names?”
“Yes.”
“Cole?”
“Yes.”
“Pike?”
“Yes.”
“Barrett?”
Dad nodded.
“Linda?”
“I don’t know.”
“What makes the original different from the copies?”
“Signatures.”
My attention sharpened.
“Whose?”
“Victor’s. Cole’s. Others.”
“So it’s evidence.”
“Enough to reopen everything.”
“And Thomas believes Mom still has it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he never found it.”
“Where did she hide it?”
Dad shook his head.
“Elena never told me.”
“What happened in Seattle?”
Dad looked older with every answer.
“She wanted to take you and leave the country.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“Because she had been followed.”
“By Barrett?”
“We thought so.”
“So she disappeared again.”
“Yes.”
“And you came home.”
“With you.”
I thought about my childhood after that.
Dad making pancakes badly.
Dad showing up for parent-teacher conferences in dirty work boots.
Dad sitting awake beside me when I had pneumonia.
All those ordinary acts existed alongside this impossible secret.
“Did you ever hear from her again?”
“Through Daniel.”
“How often?”
“Rarely.”
“When was the last time?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Before Victor died?”
“Shortly before.”
“What did she say?”
Dad swallowed.
“That she was tired.”
The words hurt.
“She wanted to come home?”
“She wanted to see you.”
“Did you stop her?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Victor died.”
“That should have made it safer.”
“We thought it did.”
“But?”
“Someone tried to kill Daniel three weeks after the funeral.”
Maya looked sharply at him.
“Who?”
“Barrett, we believed.”
“So Victor’s death didn’t end anything.”
“No.”
The old conspiracy had survived its architect.
“Why keep pursuing the ledger after Victor was dead?”
“Because it implicated living people.”
“Cole.”
“Among others.”
“How many others?”
Dad shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Thomas.
One image.
Jessica sitting in a chair.
Her forehead was bandaged.
She was awake.
Alive.
Another message followed.
Midnight tomorrow.
I showed Dad.
His face hardened.
“What does he think I can do?”
“Find Elena.”
“I can’t.”
“Then Daniel can.”
“If Daniel is still alive.”
“He is.”
“How do you know?”
“Thomas said so.”
Dad looked almost amused.
“You’re trusting Thomas Barrett now?”
“No.”
“But you’re using his word as evidence.”
I hated that he was right.
Maya spoke carefully.
“If Daniel knew where Elena was six weeks ago, he may have contacted her.”
I remembered the note.
She asked about Ethan.
“He did.”
Dad stared at me.
“What?”
I showed him the photograph.
For the first time since his surgery, my father looked completely defenseless.
His hand rose toward the image.
“Elena.”
He touched the screen.
“She looks…”
He stopped.
“Older?” I asked.
He nodded.
“So do you.”
A tiny smile crossed his face and vanished.
“Where was this?”
“Mendocino.”
Dad looked toward the window.
“What?”
“Elena loved the coast.”
“You knew she might go there?”
“No. But she used to talk about it.”
Maya unfolded a map on her tablet.
“Daniel left Ethan a warning not to go to California.”
“Then we don’t go.”
I stared at Dad.
“Jessica is missing.”
“I know.”
“Thomas wants something Mom has.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel found Mom.”
“Yes.”
“So California is the only lead.”
“Which is exactly why someone warned you away.”
“Daniel warned me because Elena wasn’t safe.”
“Then going there makes her less safe.”
“He may have been forced to say it.”
Dad looked at me.
“You’re determined.”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t make my mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“Going alone.”
I thought of Maya.
Jessica.
Daniel.
My mother.
Then Dad reached for the water beside his bed and stopped.
He stared at the cup.
“What?”
“Linda.”
“What about her?”
“She asked me a question.”
“When?”
“Before they took me into surgery.”
“What question?”
Dad frowned.
“She asked whether Elena still had the blue book.”
“Blue book?”
“The ledger.”
“So Linda knows what it looks like.”
“Yes.”
“Did you answer?”
“No.”
Dad’s expression changed.
“What?”
“She knew something she shouldn’t have known.”
“What?”
“That it was blue.”
“Maybe Thomas told her.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the only people who ever saw that ledger were Elena, Daniel, me…”
He stopped.
“And?”
Dad looked directly at me.
“And Rebecca Barrett.”
Daniel’s wife.
Thomas and Linda’s daughter.
The person who had recently been in Mendocino.
The person Daniel had apparently been searching with.
Maya whispered, “Rebecca.”
Dad nodded slowly.
“If Linda knew the color, Rebecca told her.”
I understood.
Daniel may have married Thomas Barrett’s daughter.
But we had assumed that meant Rebecca had chosen Daniel over her family.
Maybe she hadn’t.
My phone buzzed again.
A new photograph.
Not Jessica.
Rebecca Mercer.
I knew her from the records Maya had found.
She stood beside a roadside sign.
WELCOME TO MENDOCINO.
Behind her was the same older woman from Daniel’s photograph.
Elena.
My mother.
Underneath, Thomas had written:
Now you understand why we don’t need Arthur anymore.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: Rebecca Reached My Mother Before We Did, and the Woman Beside Her Wasn’t Acting Like a Prisoner
My Father Had Never Asked Me for Money Until He Appeared at My Door With a Deadline
Part 10 of 35
