Chapter 14 - A Ghost Named Anthony Mercer
Andrew refused to believe the photograph.
Daniel wanted to.
That was the difference between them.
Andrew had spent nine years learning that hope could be weaponized.
Daniel had spent nine years surviving because of it.
"Could be old footage," Andrew said.
Rebecca shook her head.
"Timestamp verified."
"Deepfake."
"Security system is analog-to-digital conversion. Difficult."
"Look-alike."
"Possible."
Daniel stared at the image.
"That's Dad."
Andrew turned.
"Don't."
"What?"
"Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Decide because you want it."
Daniel's face hardened.
"I know what he looks like."
"So do I."
"Then look."
Andrew did.
Same jaw.
Same walk.
Even the slight lean to the right from an old knee injury.
Anthony Mercer had died seven years earlier.
Andrew saw the body.
Unlike Daniel, there had been a body.
He had touched his father's cold hand.
He had watched the coffin close.
"Impossible."
Rebecca nodded.
"Probably."
"Probably?"
"We're verifying DNA from exhumation."
Daniel looked sick.
"You dug him up?"
"We obtained emergency court authorization."
Andrew almost laughed.
His week had become so strange that federal agents exhuming his father barely ranked.
Rebecca continued.
"The upstate facility is called Green Hollow Recovery Center."
"Another Harbor Light property?"
"Formerly."
"Now?"
"Owned by Mercer Legacy Trust."
Andrew frowned.
"My trust?"
"No."
"Thomas?"
"No."
"Beneficiary listed as Anthony Mercer."
Daniel whispered:
"Maybe Dad created it."
"Before dying?"
"Yes."
Andrew looked at Rebecca.
"When established?"
"Three weeks after his reported death."
Silence.
Andrew turned away.
If his father had survived, everything changed again.
His grief.
His inheritance.
His mother's final years.
Daniel's imprisonment.
Why remain hidden?
Unless Anthony was also trapped.
They traveled north under federal escort.
Ivy stayed behind.
She objected.
Everyone ignored her.
Claire remained with Lucas.
Marco came.
Daniel insisted.
Doctors objected.
Daniel ignored them.
"Family tradition," Andrew muttered.
Green Hollow sat near the Adirondacks.
Quiet.
Private.
Surrounded by trees.
Unlike Ashwood, it didn't pretend to be ordinary.
High fence.
Security.
Few patients.
Federal agents secured the property without resistance.
The man in the photograph wasn't there.
His room was.
Patient 12.
Anthony Mercer.
Medical files showed mild dementia.
No medication strong enough to explain captivity.
Fingerprint records had been removed.
The bed was empty.
Andrew searched the room.
A photograph sat on the table.
Two boys.
Andrew and Daniel.
Children.
Andrew remembered when it had been taken.
Coney Island.
Daniel age eight.
Andrew eleven.
Their mother behind camera.
That photograph had been in Anthony's office until his death.
Daniel touched the frame.
"Whoever was here knew us."
Andrew opened the drawer.
A letter.
His name.
Again.
He stared at the envelope.
Daniel whispered:
"Open it."
Andrew did.
The handwriting was Anthony's.
Andrew,
If you found this, Thomas failed to keep you away.
Andrew stopped.
Daniel grabbed the page.
They read together.
Anthony confessed.
His reported death had not been natural.
Vale attempted to poison him.
Anthony survived but realized pretending to die was his only chance to continue the investigation.
The funeral body had been an unidentified man altered through corrupt medical records.
Andrew felt physically sick.
His mother had mourned a living husband.
Anthony claimed he stayed away because Vale watched the family.
He believed Daniel had been moved and couldn't locate him.
He believed Andrew was safest if he thought both father and brother were dead.
Andrew crumpled the letter.
"Everyone keeps deciding what's safest for me."
Daniel looked at him.
"He's alive."
"If letter's real."
"It is."
"He abandoned Mom."
"He thought he was protecting her."
"She died believing him dead."
Daniel's face tightened.
"So did I."
Andrew looked at him.
Both sons carried the same wound now.
A father who believed love justified disappearance.
Rebecca entered.
"DNA result preliminary."
Andrew turned.
"The grave?"
"Body is not Anthony Mercer."
Daniel closed his eyes.
Andrew felt nothing at first.
Then everything.
"Where is he?"
"We believe someone removed him from Green Hollow last night."
"Who?"
Rebecca held up security logs.
Access card.
Name: Thomas Mercer.
Impossible.
Thomas was in federal custody.
"Cloned badge?" Marco asked.
"Probably."
Andrew studied the log.
"Time?"
"2:14 a.m."
Daniel frowned.
"Thomas has a son."
Everyone looked at him.
Andrew had forgotten.
Not literally.
Thomas's son had left New York years earlier.
Nathan Mercer.
Andrew's cousin.
Forty.
Investment banker in Switzerland.
At least officially.
"Find Nathan."
Rebecca typed.
Several minutes.
Then:
"Entered U.S. six days ago."
Andrew's eyes narrowed.
"The day Claire was kidnapped."
"Yes."
"Current location?"
"Unknown."
Daniel whispered:
"Another Mercer."
Andrew wasn't amused.
Nathan had grown up with them.
Older than Daniel.
Younger than Andrew by a year.
Competitive.
Quiet.
Always closer to Thomas than anyone.
If Nathan was involved, the family conspiracy reached another generation.
A phone rang inside the empty room.
Not anyone's.
The bedside phone.
Andrew stared.
It rang again.
Rebecca signaled agents.
Andrew picked up.
"Hello?"
Silence.
Then an old voice.
"Andrew."
He froze.
Daniel heard.
His face changed.
Andrew couldn't breathe.
The voice continued.
"I'm sorry."
Andrew closed his eyes.
"Dad?"
Daniel grabbed the phone's speaker button.
"Father?"
Silence.
Then a sob.
"Daniel."
Daniel sat down hard on the bed.
Alive.
Anthony Mercer was alive.
Not theory.
Not photograph.
Voice.
Memory.
"What did you do?" Andrew whispered.
Anthony sounded exhausted.
"Too much."
"Where are you?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why?"
"Nathan has me."
Andrew's eyes sharpened.
"Thomas's son?"
"Yes."
"What does he want?"
"The archive."
"It's gone."
"No."
Anthony coughed.
"The church archive was only half."
Andrew looked at Daniel.
Daniel shook his head.
He didn't know.
"What's the other half?"
"Names Vale didn't know."
"Where?"
Anthony breathed heavily.
"With me."
Andrew stared.
"You're the second archive."
"Yes."
Anthony had memorized or carried something.
"Nathan wants it."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To rebuild."
Andrew's face hardened.
Not expose.
Rebuild the network after Vale and Thomas fell.
"Where are you?"
"I can't—"
A younger voice appeared in the background.
"That's enough."
Nathan.
Andrew gripped the phone.
"Nathan."
"Hello, cousin."
"Let him go."
"Bring Daniel."
Daniel's expression changed.
"Why?"
Nathan answered:
"Because Uncle Anthony isn't the only person who knows where the final ledger is."
Daniel stared.
"I don't."
Nathan laughed.
"You do."
"I was sedated nine years."
"Exactly."
Silence.
Nathan continued.
"Your father hid the location in a memory you already have."
Daniel went pale.
Andrew looked at him.
"What memory?"
Daniel's eyes filled with sudden realization.
"Coney Island."
The photograph.
Nathan laughed softly.
"Very good."
Then he hung up.
Daniel turned the photograph over.
On the back was a faded handwritten number.
Not a date.
A locker number.
Coney Island terminal storage.
Andrew stared.
Their father had hidden the last piece of evidence inside a childhood memory.
May you like
And Nathan Mercer was already on his way there.
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