Chapter 6 - What Teresa Brooks Died ForThe gunshot came before Hannah could speak.
Daniel fired first.
Julian disappeared behind the stairwell wall.
His men returned fire.
Gideon grabbed Hannah and pulled her through a records room.
“Move.”
“My mother—”
“Move!”
Daniel slammed a steel security door behind them.
“Service tunnel,” he said.
“What tunnel?” Hannah demanded.
“Your boyfriend’s family liked emergency exits.”
Gideon looked at him.
“She is not my—”
“Can we have this discussion after we’re not being shot at?”
Even Hannah might have laughed under different circumstances.
They escaped through an underground loading passage and emerged two blocks away.
Police sirens approached.
Julian vanished again.
But he left something behind.
A flash drive.
It had been placed deliberately inside Teresa’s file.
Daniel scanned it on an isolated computer at the Mercer mansion.
The drive contained one video.
Date stamped April 17, 2007.
Hannah sat between Gideon and Daniel.
When the video started, Teresa Brooks appeared on the screen.
Thirty-two years old.
Alive.
Terrified.
Hannah stopped breathing.
“If anyone is watching this,” Teresa said, “then I probably didn’t make it to federal investigators.”
Hannah covered her mouth.
Gideon remained absolutely still.
Teresa continued.
“I work in financial compliance for Mercer Shipping. Six months ago, I found missing payments connected to Crown accounts.”
Julian.
Hannah already knew.
“I initially believed Silas Mercer was moving money without documentation. I was wrong. Someone was stealing from him.”
Teresa looked off camera.
Then back.
“Julian Mercer has been diverting shipments, selling weapons independently, and working with a group called Black Crown.”
Gideon’s eyes hardened.
Daniel whispered, “That explains the symbol.”
Teresa continued.
“I told Silas what I found. He promised protection.”
Her expression became bitter.
“He lied.”
Hannah’s hands shook.
“Silas didn’t want federal authorities involved because exposing Julian would expose Mercer Shipping. Instead, he ordered me to leave Savannah permanently.”
Teresa swallowed.
“I refused.”
Hannah closed her eyes.
Of course she had.
“I have a daughter. Hannah. She is twelve years old.”
Hannah made a broken sound.
Gideon reached for her hand.
She did not pull away.
“Julian knows I have evidence. If I disappear, he will eventually look for her because he’ll assume I gave her something.”
Teresa leaned closer to the camera.
“Hannah, if somehow you ever see this, you need to know something.”
Hannah was crying now.
“You were the best thing that ever happened to me. I did not leave because I wanted another life. I left because Julian Mercer threatened to kill you.”
The video blurred through Hannah’s tears.
“I asked your grandmother to tell you I abandoned you. I knew you would hate me. I chose that because hate was safer than grief.”
Hannah’s shoulders broke.
Gideon wrapped an arm around her.
She allowed it.
On the screen, Teresa took a breath.
“I hid the evidence somewhere Julian will never find it. The key is in Hannah’s birthday song.”
The video ended.
Hannah stared at the black screen.
For several minutes, she could not speak.
Everything she had believed about her childhood had been a lie designed to keep her alive.
Her mother had not abandoned her.
She had sacrificed her daughter’s love to protect her.
“What birthday song?” Daniel asked gently.
Hannah wiped her face.
“My grandmother used to sing something weird every birthday.”
“What?”
Hannah closed her eyes.
She could almost hear Grandma Ruth in the tiny kitchen of their Georgia house.
Not “Happy Birthday.”
A strange little rhyme.
“Bluebird over cedar tree,
Three steps north where roots run deep,
When the river meets the stone,
What is lost will find its home.”
Daniel stared.
“That’s not a birthday song.”
“I was six when she started singing it.”
Gideon stood.
“Cedar tree.”
Hannah looked at him.
“My grandmother’s property.”
Three hours later, they drove to Hannah’s childhood home outside Statesboro.
The house had been sold years ago.
But the new owners allowed them to inspect the back property after Gideon offered to replace anything they disturbed.
An enormous cedar tree still stood beside a dry creek bed.
Hannah counted three steps north.
Daniel dug.
Two feet down, his shovel hit metal.
Hannah’s heart pounded.
They pulled out a rusted waterproof box.
Inside were accounting ledgers, photographs, shipping numbers, and a small cassette recorder.
More importantly, there were handwritten letters.
One was addressed to Hannah.
She opened it.
My sweet girl,
If you are reading this, then I failed to come home.
Hannah stopped.
Gideon stood a respectful distance away.
She continued.
You may have been told terrible things about me. Believe whichever version helped you survive. I only need you to know that leaving you was the hardest thing I ever did.
There is something else.
Silas Mercer is dangerous, but he is not the person you should fear most.
Julian is building something worse.
And there is someone inside Gideon’s life helping him.
Someone Gideon trusts completely.
Hannah read the sentence twice.
She looked at Gideon.
“Your mother said someone close to me was involved?”
“Yes.”
Daniel frowned.
“Teresa died nineteen years ago. Whoever helped Julian might still be around.”
Gideon’s phone rang.
Margaret.
He answered.
Her voice was frantic.
“Mr. Mercer, you need to come home.”
“What happened?”
“It’s Noah.”
Hannah’s blood went cold.
Gideon gripped the phone.
“What about him?”
“He’s gone.”
The world stopped.
Margaret cried.
“I turned away for less than thirty seconds. There was a fire alarm. The east corridor filled with smoke.”
Gideon’s face became empty.
“Cameras?”
“Disabled.”
“Gates?”
“One vehicle left using your personal authorization code.”
Gideon’s eyes slowly moved toward Daniel.
Only three people possessed Gideon’s personal override authorization.
Gideon.
Daniel.
And one other person.
Margaret.
But Margaret was on the phone.
Hannah whispered, “Who else knows the code?”
Daniel looked pale.
“No one.”
Gideon stared at him.
Daniel’s face changed.
Realization.
“My office.”
“What?”
“I keep emergency codes in a sealed safe.”
Gideon’s voice turned deadly.
“Who knows where the safe is?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Then he said one name.
His wife.
Caroline Reed.
The woman who had served as Gideon Mercer’s private attorney for twelve years.
The woman who had managed every legal secret in the family.
The woman who had comforted Noah after Rebecca died.
Gideon called her.
No answer.
Daniel called.
No answer.
Then Hannah’s phone vibrated.
A video appeared from the same unknown number.
Noah sat tied to a chair inside an old warehouse.
He was frightened but alive.
Julian stepped into frame.
Beside him stood Caroline Reed.
Daniel made a sound like he had been physically struck.
Caroline looked directly into the camera.
“I’m sorry, Daniel.”
Then Julian smiled.
“Bring Teresa Brooks’s evidence to Pier Nine by midnight.”
May you like
He placed a hand on Noah’s shoulder.
“And Hannah comes with it.”
Related Stories
