Chapter 4 - BOX 317
I wanted to smash the phone against the wall.
Instead, I forced myself to breathe.
“If you touch him—”
“I already did,” Shaw said. “The next time won’t leave him breathing.”
The call ended.
Lena contacted the hospital. Two federal agents were stationed outside Dad’s room, and surveillance showed no one had entered.
Shaw wanted me scared.
It worked.
At eight the next morning, we entered First National Bank through a service entrance. Lena arranged for the building to remain closed to the public.
The brass key opened Box 317.
Inside sat an old flip phone, a sealed envelope, and a photograph of my mother standing beside a blue metal door.
On the back, she had written:
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO CAROLINE, LOOK UNDER THE BOILER ROOM.
My hands shook.
Mom had died one year before the fire. Cancer, according to the doctors.
“What boiler room?” Lena asked.
Marcus studied the picture.
“The old Mercer textile mill.”
My grandfather had built the mill outside Baltimore. It closed when I was a teenager and had stood empty ever since.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a handwritten letter from my mother.
Caroline,
If you are reading this, I failed to protect you. Your father believes the family company was built through honest work. It wasn’t. Someone has been using Mercer properties to move illegal money for years. I tried to stop it. Juliette found out and chose the money.
Trust Marcus Vance.
Do not trust anyone wearing a Mercer name until you know what they have done to earn it.
Mom
I read the final sentence twice.
“Did my mother know you?” I asked Marcus.
He nodded.
“She came to me three weeks before she died.”
“You never told me.”
“She made me promise not to unless you found the box.”
Anger rushed through me.
“Everyone keeps deciding what I’m allowed to know.”
“She was trying to keep you alive.”
“She failed.”
The old flip phone powered on when Lena connected it to a charger.
There was only one saved video.
My mother appeared on the screen, thinner than I remembered but very much alive.
“If you’re watching this, Juliette knows about the ledger,” she said. “The blue door hides the original records. Douglas cannot know. His heart won’t survive the truth.”
A noise sounded behind her.
Mom turned.
The video shook.
Juliette entered the frame.
“You should’ve stayed out of this,” my sister said.
The screen went black.
I couldn’t move.
“Your mother didn’t die of cancer,” Lena said quietly.
“No,” Marcus answered. “She was murdered.”
A bank employee knocked and stepped into the room.
“Agent Ortiz, there’s a problem with the fire alarm.”
Red lights began flashing.
Lena reached for her weapon.
Smoke poured through the air vent.
Not ordinary smoke.
It had a sweet chemical smell I remembered from the lake house.
Marcus pulled his shirt over his mouth.
“We need to move.”
The lights went out.
Someone struck Lena from behind.
A gunshot exploded inside the vault.
When the emergency lights came on, the safe-deposit box was empty.
May you like
Marcus was on the floor with blood spreading across his chest.
And Juliette stood in the doorway holding the old flip phone.
