Chapter 11 - The Courthouse After Midnight
By morning, every local station reported Bryce’s death as a family tragedy.
None mentioned the trust.
None mentioned the guardianship fraud.
None mentioned Judge Mercer’s disappearance.
The courthouse announced that Mercer had taken emergency medical leave.
Dr. Fallon’s clinic released a statement claiming he was unavailable due to a family matter.
Tessa read both statements from Judith’s hospital room.
“They’re covering for them,” she said.
Officer Ruiz stood near the window.
“They are trying.”
Judith looked older beneath the hospital lights.
But without the heavy coat, she also looked freer.
A nurse had photographed every injury.
Blood tests confirmed large doses of sedatives and antipsychotic medication in her system.
Some had never been prescribed by an independent physician.
“Can Mercer leave the state?” Tessa asked.
“The state police issued a warrant.”
“But?”
Ruiz looked frustrated.
“But someone warned him before it was approved.”
Tessa thought of the courthouse.
“The music box.”
Ruiz nodded.
“We requested a search warrant for Mercer’s office.”
“And?”
“A replacement judge denied it.”
Tessa laughed in disbelief.
“Of course.”
“They say Bryce’s dying statement is unreliable.”
“It’s on video.”
“They say the chain of custody is unclear.”
“Because Mercer controls the chain.”
Judith opened her eyes.
“Your father anticipated this.”
Tessa turned.
“What do you mean?”
“He never trusted courts to protect ordinary people from powerful men.”
“He used to say documents needed more than one hiding place.”
Tessa sat closer.
“Was there another copy?”
Judith thought for several seconds.
“I don’t know.”
“But the music box played a song.”
“What song?”
“Always in My Heart.”
Tessa remembered it.
Her father used to hum the melody when repairing things around the house.
Judith whispered,
“He said the song would tell you where to look.”
Tessa closed her eyes.
The lyrics meant nothing.
The melody meant nothing.
Then she remembered an old family phrase.
Whenever their father misplaced something, he would joke,
“If it matters, keep it where the music sleeps.”
Tessa stood.
“The piano.”
Judith frowned.
“What piano?”
“The old upright from the youth center.”
“Dad bought it at the charity auction after the fire.”
Judith’s eyes widened.
“Kendra sold that too.”
“To the church,” Ruiz said.
Tessa looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“It’s listed in the property inventory Bryce submitted.”
The piano had been donated to St. Matthew’s Church.
Tessa and Ruiz drove there immediately.
The sanctuary was empty.
Father Daniel Reese led them into a storage room behind the parish hall.
The old piano stood beneath a white cloth.
“It has not played correctly in years,” he said.
“Bryce donated it last winter.”
Tessa removed the cloth.
The wood was scarred by heat along one side.
She pressed several keys.
One stuck.
Inside the piano bench, they found only sheet music.
Then Tessa noticed the phrase carved beneath the lid.
Always in My Heart.
She pressed the carved heart.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside was a small envelope.
Not the ledger.
A single photograph.
It showed the blue music box sitting on Mercer’s desk.
Behind it was a calendar.
One date had been circled.
October 14.
Ruiz looked at Tessa.
“That was three days after the youth center fire.”
On the back of the photograph, her father had written:
The box is not the evidence.
The song is the key.
Tessa stared at the old piano keys.
She played the melody slowly.
Several keys produced normal notes.
One did not.
The dead key near the center pressed farther than the others.
Ruiz removed the front panel.
Behind the hammer mechanism was a narrow metal tube.
Tessa pulled it free.
Inside was a strip of paper covered in numbers.
Bank account numbers.
Property parcel numbers.
And a sequence of courthouse file codes.
Father Reese looked at them.
“What are those?”
Ruiz went pale.
“Sealed juvenile case numbers.”
Tessa looked at her.
“From the youth center?”
“Maybe.”
Ruiz studied the final code.
Then she froze.
“What?”
“This one belongs to a current case.”
“Whose?”
Ruiz looked up slowly.
“Your mother’s guardianship file.”
Tessa’s stomach tightened.
The file code ended with a storage designation.
B-17.
The courthouse basement.
Ruiz’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed immediately.
“What happened?”
Tessa heard shouting through the speaker.
Ruiz ended the call.
“Judith is gone.”
Tessa could not move.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“Someone removed her from the hospital.”
“Who?”
Ruiz looked at the caller information.
“A man wearing a doctor’s coat.”
May you like
Dr. Fallon had taken her.
And security footage showed him driving toward the courthouse.
