Chapter 9 - Back to the CoffinPolice surrounded St. Matthew’s.
Emergency evacuation had cleared most of the building before Daniel arrived.
Six officers suffered injuries.
Noah needed twelve stitches above his eyebrow.
Evelyn returned to the hospital.
Richard vanished.
Victor remained missing.
For forty-eight hours, the Carter family stayed under police protection.
Daniel barely slept.
Then Victor called.
Not Daniel.
Noah.
The call came at 2:13 in the morning.
Noah answered from the hospital waiting room.
“Hello?”
“Your mother is going to die.”
Noah sat upright.
“Victor?”
Daniel woke immediately.
Noah put the call on speaker.
“You should have stayed out of this,” Victor said.
Daniel grabbed the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Does it matter?”
“You drugged my mother.”
“No.”
Daniel froze.
“What?”
“I didn’t drug Evelyn.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“I expect nothing from you.”
“Then why call?”
Victor breathed heavily.
“He’s cleaning everything.”
“Richard?”
Silence.
“Victor.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You worked for him.”
“I worked with him.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Victor sounded exhausted.
Almost frightened.
“I was supposed to marry Evelyn. Gain access. Keep Richard informed.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“So Mom was targeted from the beginning.”
“Yes.”
“Did you love her?”
A long pause.
“That wasn’t part of the plan.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Victor continued.
“I was supposed to obtain Meridian credentials within two years.”
“You were married six.”
“Because Evelyn wouldn’t give them to me.”
“So Richard ordered you to kill her.”
“He ordered me to prepare.”
“What does that mean?”
“Leonard was hired to create a false death. Richard wanted Evelyn moved to Lake Briar.”
“Alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To force access.”
Daniel looked at Noah.
“Then who drugged her?”
“Richard.”
“You were in the house.”
“I tried to stop him.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“You expect sympathy?”
“No.”
“Why did you run from the funeral?”
“Because when Evelyn woke up, I knew Richard would assume I betrayed him.”
“Did you?”
Victor went quiet.
Finally:
“I delayed the dosage.”
Noah leaned toward the phone.
“What?”
“Richard wanted enough sedative to keep her unconscious for eighteen hours. I reduced it.”
Daniel stared at the speaker.
“You saved her?”
“I gave her a chance.”
“Then why not call an ambulance?”
“Because Richard had men watching everything.”
“You could have gone to police.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“You still don’t understand him.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“Help us understand.”
Victor whispered, “Richard has your daughter.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“What?”
Noah shot to his feet.
“Daniel?”
Daniel’s hands started shaking.
“My daughter is with my wife.”
“Call Rachel.”
Daniel already was.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He called Rachel’s sister.
She answered crying.
“Daniel?”
“Where are Rachel and Lily?”
“They left twenty minutes ago.”
“Why?”
“Rachel got a message from you.”
Daniel went cold.
“What message?”
“You said the police were moving them to another safe house.”
“I sent nothing.”
Noah was already alerting Brooks.
Victor remained on the line.
“Richard has Lily.”
Daniel’s voice broke.
“If you touch her—”
“I don’t have her.”
“Where is she?”
“I can help you find her.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard is going to kill me too.”
Daniel wanted to smash the phone.
Instead he forced himself calm.
“What does he want?”
“The real Meridian key.”
“Of course.”
“No.”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“He doesn’t need the key anymore.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then why Lily?”
“Because he discovered Thomas Carter hid a second archive.”
“My father?”
“An offline backup containing evidence of every Meridian transaction Richard made.”
“Where?”
“Thomas encrypted the location using a family memory.”
Daniel stared at Noah.
“What family memory?”
“I don’t know. Richard thinks Lily does.”
“She’s seven!”
“She knows something you told her.”
Daniel’s mind raced.
Bedtime stories.
Family photographs.
Thomas’s old watch.
The cabin.
Fishing.
A phrase.
Then he remembered.
Lily loved treasure hunts.
Two months earlier, Daniel had shown her a wooden puzzle box his father made.
Inside was a handwritten card:
WHERE THE FIRST CARTER DREAM TOUCHED WATER.
Daniel had assumed it was sentimental.
Maybe it wasn’t.
Victor gave them an address.
An abandoned railway depot.
“Come before sunrise.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
The call ended.
Detective Brooks refused to let Daniel go alone.
This time Daniel agreed.
They reached the depot at 4:30.
Victor stood inside.
Unshaven.
Blood on his shirt.
A gunshot wound grazed his shoulder.
No weapon.
He raised his hands.
Noah wanted to hit him.
Daniel stopped him.
“Lily.”
Victor handed Daniel a map.
“Richard’s taking her north.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Then you’re useless.”
“The phrase. First Carter dream touched water.”
Daniel showed him the puzzle-box clue.
Victor stared.
Then smiled weakly.
“I know where.”
Daniel grabbed him.
“Tell me.”
“Lake Geneva.”
“What’s there?”
“Your grandfather’s first workshop.”
Daniel remembered stories.
Before Carter Advanced became a corporation, Thomas’s father had built radio equipment inside a lakeside boathouse.
It burned down decades ago.
Or supposedly burned down.
Brooks ordered units north.
Victor slumped against the wall.
Daniel looked at him.
“Why are you helping us?”
Victor’s eyes filled with shame.
“Because Evelyn told me once that a man is more than the worst thing he’s ever done.”
Noah’s expression remained stone.
Victor continued.
“I spent six years lying to her.”
He looked at Daniel.
“But she made me want to become the person she thought I was.”
Daniel felt no forgiveness.
Not yet.
Maybe never.
But he understood regret when he saw it.
They drove north before dawn.
At the edge of Lake Geneva, they found the remains of the old Carter property.
The original boathouse still stood behind overgrown trees.
Daniel ran inside.
“Lily!”
No answer.
A chair lay overturned.
Rachel’s scarf was on the floor.
Blood stained one corner.
“Rachel!”
Brooks searched outside.
No bodies.
No captives.
No Richard.
Then Noah noticed an old brass plate on the wall.
CARTER RADIO WORKS — 1968.
Beneath it were three carved words.
DREAMS CROSS WATER.
Daniel touched the plate.
It moved.
Behind it was a keyhole.
The key from Thomas’s puzzle box.
Daniel had brought the box with him.
He inserted the key.
A section of floor opened.
Stone steps led underground.
They descended into darkness.
At the bottom was a vault.
Inside stood shelves of old equipment.
Documents.
Hard drives.
And in the center—
A computer monitor was already on.
A live camera feed filled the screen.
Lily sat in a chair beside Rachel.
Both were alive.
Richard stood behind them.
“Daddy!” Lily screamed.
Daniel lunged toward the screen.
Richard smiled.
“Good. You found the archive.”
A countdown appeared.
20:00.
Richard’s voice came through speakers.
“Now bring it to me.”
Daniel shouted, “Where?”
The camera pulled back.
Behind Richard was a familiar wall of stained glass.
Noah recognized it first.
“The chapel.”
St. Matthew’s Memorial Hall.
The place where this nightmare had begun.
May you like
Richard had taken Daniel’s family back to the funeral home.
And in twenty minutes, he planned to finish what the broken coffin had started.
