Chapter 8 - RECORD 417
The police took Thomas into custody.
Margaret, Noah, and Eli were moved to a secure interview suite at Seattle Police Headquarters.
The room had beige walls, a bolted table, and no windows.
Eli sat in Margaret’s blazer and ate soup from a paper cup.
Noah did not touch his food.
Margaret’s legal team arrived just after midnight.
Her attorney, Evelyn Shaw, entered carrying two phones and a leather folder.
She was sixty, silver-haired, sharp-eyed, and one of the few people Margaret trusted without qualification.
That trust now felt reckless.
Evelyn looked at the boys, then at the pendant in Margaret’s hand.
“I saw the restaurant footage.”
“How much is online?”
“All of it.”
“Of course.”
“Your board wants a statement.”
“My board can wait.”
“They’ve called an emergency meeting for eight in the morning.”
Margaret stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because the Georgetown property is owned by Hayes Strategic Holdings, and early records show Daniel Mercer worked there under a contractor identity.”
Margaret leaned back.
“My company employed him?”
“For at least six years.”
“How did I not know?”
“Someone buried the payments through maintenance vendors.”
“Who approved them?”
Evelyn placed the folder on the table.
“Your chief financial officer.”
Margaret’s stomach tightened.
Owen Price had worked beside her for twenty-two years.
He had attended Daniel’s memorial.
He had helped finance the search for the twins.
“He knew Daniel was alive,” Margaret said.
“We don’t know that.”
“We know he paid him.”
“Through a shell vendor.”
“Then he either knew or chose not to ask.”
Noah pushed his chair away.
“We need to find Dad.”
The detective at the door told him search teams were working.
Noah glared.
“You searched the wrong house first.”
Evelyn looked at Margaret.
“Who is the boy’s legal guardian?”
“Rebecca Mercer.”
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“We need emergency protection orders before child services places them with her.”
“She kidnapped Daniel.”
“That may take time to prove.”
“We have the video.”
“A prerecorded video, sent from an unverified account, showing a weapon that may or may not have been real.”
Margaret understood.
Rebecca had created uncertainty.
Not enough to seem innocent.
Enough to survive the first legal challenge.
“What about the key?” Evelyn asked.
Margaret set it on the table.
Thomas believed 417 referred to a birth record.
Evelyn examined the tag.
“Did Dr. Voss deliver your twins?”
“No. My obstetrician was Dr. Helen Ward.”
“Was Voss involved in fertility treatment?”
Margaret went still.
Years before the twins were born, she and Daniel had undergone a short course of fertility treatment at a private clinic.
Samuel Voss had been the clinic’s laboratory director.
Margaret had met him twice.
Quiet man.
Soft voice.
Immaculate hands.
She remembered disliking how he looked at people as if they were specimens.
“The twins were conceived naturally after treatment failed,” she said.
“Are you certain?”
“My doctor said so.”
“Did anyone preserve embryos?”
Margaret stared at Evelyn.
“No.”
“Were you told they were destroyed?”
“Yes.”
Noah stopped pretending not to listen.
“What’s an embryo?”
Margaret looked at him.
“A very early beginning of a baby.”
His face tightened.
“Are you saying we came from a freezer?”
Eli looked alarmed.
“No,” Margaret said quickly. “No one is saying that.”
Evelyn gave her a careful look.
Not yet.
The detective entered with a laptop.
“We traced the property surveillance system. It was routed through an offshore server, but we recovered archived footage.”
“Of Daniel?” Margaret asked.
“Of the boys.”
He turned the laptop.
Security video showed Noah and Eli entering the Georgetown building six months earlier with Daniel.
The man beside them was unmistakably Margaret’s former husband.
Then Rebecca appeared behind him.
The four entered together.
Another clip showed Daniel teaching Noah how to lift the drainage grate.
A later clip showed Rebecca striking Daniel across the face.
Noah jumped forward, but the video had no sound.
Daniel blocked the second strike and pointed toward a camera.
Rebecca immediately stepped away.
She knew they were being recorded.
“She’s been hurting him,” Eli whispered.
Noah looked at his brother.
“You said you never saw.”
“I heard.”
The detective skipped to the final recovered clip.
It was from that morning.
Daniel walked into the basement alone.
Minutes later, a second man entered.
Same height.
Same coat.
Same gray hair.
When he turned toward the camera, his face was Daniel’s.
Two identical men had entered the building eleven minutes apart.
Margaret stared at the screen.
Noah shook his head.
May you like
“That’s impossible.”
Eli whispered, “That’s why Dad said not to trust his face.”
