Chapter 7 - Blue BirdThe farmhouse looked abandoned.
Agents searched the drainage network for hours.
Nothing.
Richard knew every route beneath the factory.
Eli was gone.
Daniel blamed himself.
Marcus found him sitting on the hood of an ambulance at two in the morning.
“You didn’t take him.”
“I let him come.”
“You told him to stay in the car.”
“I should’ve sent him somewhere safe.”
“He spent months sleeping behind abandoned buildings. Safe wasn’t exactly a concept he trusted.”
Daniel looked at his hands.
The kid had saved his life.
Daniel had failed to protect him for one night.
Inside the ambulance, Eleanor Mercer was being treated for dehydration and bruising.
Vanessa sat in another vehicle under federal supervision.
Not arrest.
Not yet.
Her role had become complicated.
She admitted knowing Richard was alive.
She also claimed she had been working against him for years.
Daniel didn’t believe her.
At least he didn’t want to.
Eleanor asked to speak privately with Daniel.
He stepped inside.
His mother looked smaller than he remembered.
At seventy-two, Eleanor still carried herself with rigid elegance.
Tonight her gray hair was loose and blood had dried near her temple.
Daniel sat.
“Who is Eli?”
She closed her eyes.
“Daniel…”
“No more lies.”
Her hands trembled.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“When?”
“When you were eighty?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Your father made me promise.”
“My father has been dead for twenty-two years.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“No, Daniel.”
His anger disappeared.
“What?”
“Thomas was alive much longer than you think.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“How long?”
“Fourteen years.”
He stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“He contacted me three months after the accident.”
Daniel stood.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“You let Claire and me bury him.”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“For fourteen years?”
Eleanor began crying.
Daniel had seen his mother cry only twice in his adult life.
“Richard had people everywhere. Thomas believed if the world knew he survived, you would become leverage.”
“So he abandoned us.”
“No. He watched you.”
“That isn’t being a father.”
“He knew.”
Daniel turned toward the ambulance door.
“Who is Eli?”
Eleanor whispered, “Your father had another daughter.”
Daniel froze.
“With Rachel?”
“No.”
Eleanor swallowed.
“Before Thomas met me, he had been engaged to a woman named Evelyn Bennett.”
Bennett.
Daniel sat again.
“She became pregnant. Thomas never knew.”
“What happened?”
“Her family sent her away. She later married and raised the girl as her husband’s child.”
“Who was the daughter?”
“Rebecca Bennett.”
Daniel had never heard the name.
Eleanor continued.
“Years later, Rachel discovered Rebecca’s identity while investigating Richard’s financial network.”
“How?”
“Rebecca worked for one of Richard’s shell companies.”
Daniel’s mind raced.
“Eli is Rebecca’s son?”
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Eli was Thomas Mercer’s grandson.
Daniel’s nephew.
No wonder Rachel had protected him.
“Where is Rebecca?”
Eleanor looked away.
“Dead.”
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
“When Eli was born.”
Eleanor nodded.
“She died shortly after childbirth.”
“Who is his father?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel stood again.
“You all knew this child existed?”
“Rachel did. Thomas learned later.”
“And nobody told me?”
“Thomas feared Richard would use Eli to regain control of the Mercer estate.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Why would Eli have any claim?”
“Because Thomas changed his will.”
Daniel’s anger turned to disbelief.
“He left part of the company to a grandson he barely knew?”
“Not part.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Controlling interest.”
Daniel said nothing.
Eleanor continued.
“Thomas never trusted what would happen after his disappearance. He placed fifty-one percent of the original Mercer family shares into a dormant trust for his first biological grandchild.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“So this entire thing is about Eli.”
“Partly.”
“Richard doesn’t need the evidence. He needs Eli.”
“He needs both.”
Daniel stepped outside.
Marcus saw his face.
“What?”
“Eli owns controlling interest in Mercer Development.”
Marcus blinked.
“Excuse me?”
Daniel explained.
Marcus swore.
“If the trust is valid, Richard can’t take control merely through your signature.”
“Unless Eli is dead.”
“Or controlled.”
Daniel looked toward Vanessa.
She was sitting inside a federal SUV.
He walked over.
The agent opened the door.
Vanessa looked exhausted.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“I’ve been trying to give it to you.”
“You drugged me.”
“To keep you out of Vale Tower last night.”
Daniel stopped.
“What?”
“Richard planned to force you to sign documents there. He had men waiting.”
“You said you were helping him.”
“I said what he told me to say.”
“Why?”
“Because he was listening.”
Daniel stared.
“At the restaurant?”
“My necklace.”
She touched her bare throat.
“It had a microphone.”
Daniel remembered the diamond pendant she wore.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Richard threatened your mother.”
“You could’ve gone to police.”
“He owns cops. Judges. Private investigators. He spent twenty years building protection.”
“Then why marry me?”
Vanessa looked down.
“At first?”
The answer hurt before she gave it.
“To get close.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“And later?”
“I fell in love with you.”
He laughed once.
“No.”
“Daniel—”
“No.”
“I did.”
“You poisoned my plate.”
“It was a mild sedative. The dose wasn’t dangerous.”
“You drugged your husband.”
“Yes.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“And I will regret that for the rest of my life.”
Daniel wanted to hate her cleanly.
It would have been easier.
“Why did you stay connected to Richard?”
“Because I was trying to find where he kept Thomas.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“What did you say?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Your father didn’t disappear fourteen years ago.”
Daniel felt the air leave his lungs.
“He died.”
“I don’t know.”
“My mother said—”
“Your mother believes he died.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“What do you know?”
“Seven years ago, I heard my father talking about someone he called Blue Bird.”
Daniel’s skin prickled.
“He said Blue Bird was still alive because killing him would reveal where the original evidence had gone.”
“Where?”
“I never found out.”
“You think Blue Bird is my father?”
“I know it is.”
“How?”
Vanessa reached inside her coat.
An agent moved instantly.
She raised her hands.
“It’s paper.”
She removed an old photograph.
Daniel took it.
Thomas Mercer.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Standing behind the barred window of what looked like an industrial building.
The date:
Three years ago.
Daniel stared until his vision blurred.
His father.
Alive.
After twenty-two years.
Vanessa whispered, “Richard moved him five months ago.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“But I can help you find Eli.”
That changed everything.
“How?”
“My father implanted a tracker in the silver pendant Rachel gave him.”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“His necklace?”
Vanessa nodded.
“Richard didn’t know Rachel gave it to Eli. He thought she still had it.”
Daniel remembered the pendant marked M.D.
“Can you track it?”
“If Richard hasn’t destroyed it.”
“Do it.”
Twenty minutes later, Vanessa opened an encrypted app.
One red dot appeared.
Moving west.
Daniel leaned over.
Interstate 88.
Marcus looked at the map.
“Where are they going?”
Vanessa zoomed out.
The answer became obvious.
An isolated property outside DeKalb.
Owned by a company Daniel recognized from Locker 317.
Vale Agricultural Holdings.
Vanessa whispered, “That’s where he keeps people when he wants the world to forget they exist.”
Daniel stared at the red dot.
Eli was there.
Maybe Thomas too.
Daniel reached for his coat.
Marcus grabbed his arm.
“We do this right.”
Daniel looked at him.
“No.”
“What?”
“We do it before Richard discovers that necklace is telling us exactly where he is.”
For the first time in twenty-two years, Daniel wasn’t going to chase ghosts.
May you like
He was going to find his father.
And bring his nephew home.
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