Chapter 3 - LOCKER 418Union Station was packed with commuters when Victoria, Lucas, and Evelyn arrived just after six.
She did not call the police either.
Not yet.
Her father, Judge William Mercer, had taught his daughters one rule before he died: when frightened, separate what you know from what you fear.
Victoria knew three things.
Elena was probably alive.
Conrad had seen her recently.
And whoever had followed Lucas knew about the café almost immediately.
Everything else remained dangerous speculation.
Victoria asked the taxi driver to stop three blocks from Saint Catherine Medical Center.
She and Lucas entered through the emergency department, walked through the hospital, and exited through another entrance.
Then Victoria ordered a rideshare using a prepaid account maintained by her foundation.
“Where are we going?” Lucas asked.
“To someone Conrad doesn’t know.”
That was almost true.
Dr. Evelyn Price had known Victoria since college, long before Conrad entered her life. She ran a small pediatric practice in Lincoln Park and had spent the previous decade refusing invitations to Victoria’s society events.
Thirty minutes later, Evelyn locked the clinic door behind them.
“Tell me why I’m hiding a child in my examination room.”
Victoria placed the photograph on her desk.
Evelyn stared.
Her face changed.
“Victoria…”
“That’s Elena.”
“It looks like her.”
“It is her.”
Evelyn picked up the photograph.
“And that’s Conrad.”
“Yes.”
Lucas sat on the examination table eating crackers.
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“How much does the boy know?”
Victoria told her everything.
Evelyn listened without interrupting.
When Victoria finished, Evelyn studied Lucas.
“Can I examine you?”
Lucas stiffened.
“No needles.”
“No needles.”
He allowed her to check his pulse, lungs, weight, and the cut beneath his chin.
Victoria noticed bruises on his upper arm.
“Who did that?”
Lucas pulled his sleeve down.
“We fell.”
Evelyn and Victoria exchanged a look.
“Who is ‘we’?” Victoria asked.
“Mom.”
“Where is she now?”
Lucas stared at the floor.
“This morning she took me to the café. She said I had to sit across the street and watch for you.”
“How would she know I’d be there?”
“She reads about you online.”
The answer hurt more than Victoria expected.
Elena had watched her life from a distance.
Victoria’s wedding.
The charity foundation.
Magazine photographs.
Perhaps even the interview in which Victoria tearfully described losing her twin.
“Why didn’t she contact me?”
“She tried.”
Victoria went still.
“When?”
“A lot.”
Lucas slid down from the examination table and reached into his pocket.
He removed another object.
A small plastic key.
“Mom told me this opens a storage locker.”
“Where?”
“Union Station.”
“Did she tell you what’s inside?”
“Proof.”
Victoria sat beside him.
“Proof of what?”
Lucas looked terrified.
“That Mr. Conrad made everybody think she was dead.”
Evelyn inhaled sharply.
Victoria tried to remain calm.
“Tell me about the accident.”
Lucas shook his head.
“I wasn’t born.”
Right.
Victoria calculated.
Elena had been three months pregnant when the car disappeared into the river.
Lucas was almost seven.
“My sister was pregnant when she disappeared.”
Lucas nodded.
“With me.”
Victoria had imagined that unborn child thousands of times.
A niece or nephew who had died before being born.
Now he sat six inches away from her, crumbs on his sweatshirt.
She touched his cheek.
Lucas flinched.
Victoria withdrew her hand.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
Her phone began vibrating again.
Conrad.
Twenty missed calls.
Then another message.
Your mother just called me. She’s worried.
Victoria froze.
Her mother.
Margaret Mercer had never emotionally recovered after Elena’s disappearance.
If Conrad suspected Victoria knew the truth, he might use Margaret.
Victoria dialed her mother.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
“Something’s wrong,” Victoria said.
Evelyn reached for her coat.
“I’ll go.”
“No.”
“You can’t go. Conrad knows your car, your staff, probably your usual routes.”
Victoria thought quickly.
“My mother’s house has security cameras.”
She opened the monitoring application.
The screen showed the front entrance.
Empty.
Back garden.
Empty.
Kitchen.
No movement.
Living room—
Victoria stopped.
Conrad stood beside the fireplace.
Her mother sat on the sofa.
He was pouring tea.
Lucas saw the screen.
“That’s him.”
Victoria zoomed in.
Conrad looked calm.
Perfectly calm.
The same handsome man who kissed Victoria’s forehead every morning.
He handed Margaret a cup.
Then he looked directly toward the security camera.
And smiled.
Victoria’s phone rang.
She answered.
“Conrad.”
“Finally.”
His voice was warm.
“You had me worried.”
“Why are you at my mother’s?”
“She invited me.”
Margaret’s voice sounded faint in the background.
“Victoria?”
Her heart jumped.
“Mom!”
“I’m fine, darling.”
Conrad returned to the phone.
“She is fine.”
“What do you want?”
A brief silence.
Then his voice changed.
Only slightly.
“Bring Lucas to me.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“Who is Lucas?”
“Don’t do this.”
“You tell me.”
“He is a disturbed child being manipulated by people who want money.”
“Who is his mother?”
Silence.
Victoria pressed harder.
“Say her name.”
“Victoria.”
“Say my sister’s name.”
“Your sister is dead.”
Lucas began shaking his head.
Victoria stared at him.
“No, Conrad. She isn’t.”
The silence lasted four seconds.
Then Conrad sighed.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“I know you met her three months ago.”
Another silence.
Victoria understood.
The photograph was real.
Conrad’s voice became almost gentle.
“Come home. We will talk.”
“Let my mother leave.”
“She can leave whenever she wants.”
Margaret suddenly called from the background, “Victoria, don’t—”
The call disconnected.
Victoria stood.
Evelyn grabbed her arm.
“You cannot go there.”
“My mother is inside.”
“And that is exactly why he went there.”
Lucas tugged Victoria’s sleeve.
“My mom said something about your mother.”
Victoria turned.
“What?”
“She said Grandma doesn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“That Elena wasn’t driving the car that night.”
Victoria stared.
“What are you talking about?”
Lucas swallowed.
“Mom said Conrad was.”
Victoria felt the room spin.
Elena’s accident report had stated she had been driving alone.
Her car had broken through the guardrail around midnight.
But if Conrad had been driving…
“Lucas, how would your mother know that?”
“Because she was in the passenger seat.”
Victoria’s blood chilled.
“What happened after the crash?”
“She woke up in a hospital.”
“What hospital?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what?”
Lucas looked at the floor.
“A man told her she had two choices.”
Victoria whispered, “What choices?”
“Disappear forever…”
He raised his eyes.
“…or Conrad would kill you.”
The clinic became completely silent.
Then Evelyn’s phone rang.
She glanced at it.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Dr. Price.”
A woman whispered on the other end.
“Is Victoria with you?”
Evelyn’s face drained.
Victoria seized the phone.
“Who is this?”
For several seconds, only breathing.
Then a voice Victoria had heard in dreams for seven years said:
“Vicky?”
Victoria nearly dropped the phone.
Nobody had called her that since the river.
“Elena?”
A sob escaped from the other end.
“Don’t let Conrad find Lucas.”
Victoria’s knees buckled.
“Elena, where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“Why did you leave me?”
“I didn’t.”
Victoria began crying.
“Then come to me.”
“I’m trying.”
A loud sound came through the phone.
A door.
Elena whispered urgently.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“He found me.”
“Elena!”
“Go to Union Station. Locker 418. Everything is there.”
“What is?”
“The reason Conrad needed me dead.”
Footsteps sounded.
“Elena’s breathing accelerated.
“And Vicky?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t trust the police.”
The line went dead.
Victoria stared at the phone.
Then a message appeared from Conrad.
One photograph.
May you like
Elena’s diamond hair clip lying on a concrete floor.
Beside it was a single drop of fresh blood.
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