The Boy With the Brooch From 25 Years Ago

Chapter 10 - Nathan Mercer, Patient 417

The ambulance was found beneath the Grand Bellweather Hotel in a private loading garage, washed clean except for a smear of blood under one wheel.

Hotel security denied knowledge of any patients. James Mercer responded by buying the parking company before lunch, then firing its director.

Ortiz informed him that purchasing businesses during an active investigation was not a recognized law-enforcement technique.

“It got us the access logs,” James said.

“It also got you a subpoena.”

“I’ll frame it.”

The logs showed the ambulance had entered using credentials assigned to the Mercer Foundation medical team. Two gurneys were unloaded and taken through a service elevator to the hotel’s sealed fourteenth floor, officially under renovation.

Police could not raid immediately. The foundation’s lawyers claimed the floor contained confidential donor medical suites and demanded review by a judge. Ortiz suspected delay was the point.

Rebecca and James entered the hotel posing as gala planners. Eleanor accompanied them because, in her words, no one questioned an old woman carrying orchids and disappointment.

Lucas remained with Margaret under guard, though he objected that being nine did not automatically make him decorative.

On the fourteenth floor, Rebecca heard tapping behind a locked door.

Three taps. Pause. Three taps.

She pressed the sapphire brooch against the narrow glass panel.

A man inside rose from the bed.

Nathan Mercer was thinner than in the farmhouse photographs. His hair had silvered, and bruises ringed one wrist. For several seconds he stared at the brooch without moving.

Then he touched the scar behind his ear.

“Caroline?” he whispered.

“My name is Rebecca. I’m her sister.”

His knees buckled.

James opened the door with a stolen master key. Nathan looked at him and showed no recognition until James held up the half silver coin.

“You pushed me out of a treehouse,” Nathan said.

James laughed and cried at the same time. “Gravity pushed you. I provided opportunity.”

Nathan gripped his brother’s coat and pulled him into an embrace so sudden both men nearly fell.

The reunion lasted only seconds. Nathan asked for Caroline. She had been separated from him during transport. He had heard Elias mention a service elevator and “the blue room.”

Before they could leave, alarms sounded.

Hotel guards blocked the corridor. James stepped in front of Nathan and announced his full name, title, and intention to make every guard unemployed before dessert. It was an impressive speech until Eleanor rolled a laundry cart into the guards’ knees.

“Less announcing,” she said. “More escaping.”

They moved Nathan through a housekeeping stairwell. Rebecca treated his wrist while walking. He told her Gideon wanted the sapphire feather because Nathan’s mother had hidden financial evidence inside it before her death. Eleanor stopped on the landing.

“I hid nothing in that brooch,” she said.

Nathan stared at her. “You gave it to Caroline.”

“I gave her a family jewel because you planned to propose.”

“Then someone else modified it.”

Rebecca thought of Caroline’s instruction not to open it until both families were present.

Nathan’s expression changed. “Caroline did it. She must have placed the newer records inside after we escaped.”

They reached the parking level, where Ortiz waited with a warrant finally approved.

Nathan was placed in an ambulance not controlled by his father.

As paramedics worked, he caught Rebecca’s hand. “Lucas?”

“Safe.”

Nathan closed his eyes with relief. “Caroline told me he was yours. I wanted to tell you. She said not until we could prove it, because Gideon would use hope to control you.”

Rebecca could barely form words. “Did you raise him?”

Nathan nodded. “He thinks bad jokes are a personality. That part may be genetic, but I accept responsibility.”

A paramedic asked Nathan to stay awake.

He looked at Rebecca once more. “Gideon didn’t steal Lucas for money.”

“Why, then?”