Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO DIDN’T EXIST
By midnight, we were in a hotel twenty miles from home.
Maria came with us.
She tried to refuse.
I insisted.
“You saved Lily.”
“She is my baby too,” Maria said softly.
That broke something in me.
I looked away before she saw my eyes fill.
Emma sat on the bed with Lily asleep beside her.
Neither of us wanted to talk.
At 12:43 a.m., Detective Cole called.
“We found the car.”
“Vanessa?”
“No.”
“Where was it?”
“Parking garage downtown.”
“Any sign of her?”
“No.”
“Cameras?”
“Working on it.”
I stood by the hotel window.
“What else?”
He paused.
“That’s why I called.”
I didn’t like his tone.
“Tell me.”
“We ran Vanessa Hale.”
“And?”
“No Vanessa Hale matching her date of birth exists.”
I said nothing.
Cole continued.
“The Social Security number she used belongs to a dead woman in Ohio.”
My stomach turned.
“She stole someone’s identity?”
“Looks that way.”
“Then who is she?”
“We’re trying to answer that.”
Behind me, Emma whispered, “Dad?”
I raised a finger.
One second.
Cole said, “We also found the owner of Northbridge Consulting.”
“Who?”
“Jason Mercer.”
“The man in the photograph?”
“We think so.”
I gripped the phone.
“Who is he?”
“Career fraudster. Two arrests. No convictions.”
“How?”
“Witnesses disappeared. Victims stopped cooperating. Money moved offshore.”
“Is he dangerous?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
My throat tightened.
“How dangerous?”
“In 2022, a woman in Maryland testified that Mercer targeted wealthy widowers.”
I looked toward Emma.
“What happened?”
“According to her statement, Mercer used women to enter relationships with men who had money, property, or life insurance.”
I felt sick.
“The women gained access.”
“Yes.”
“Changed wills.”
“Yes.”
“Stole money.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“And if the man figured it out?”
Cole went quiet.
Then said, “Sometimes accidents happened.”
I didn’t sleep.
At 2:17 a.m., Lily woke crying.
Maria picked her up.
At 3:05, Emma finally fell asleep.
At 3:40, someone knocked on our hotel door.
Three slow knocks.
I froze.
Maria looked at me.
“Who knows we are here?”
“Only police.”
Another knock.
I checked the peephole.
No one.
I called Cole.
He answered instantly.
“Don’t open it.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Officers are two minutes away.”
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A text.
I opened it.
A photograph appeared.
It was taken through the hotel window.
It showed me standing in the room.
Taken minutes earlier.
May you like
Under it was one sentence.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET HER FALL.
