Chapter 6: The Night They Took John
Two attendants arrived with a transport chair.
Nora held Old John’s coat while Mrs.
Gable watched from the staircase.
“Tell them no,” Nora whispered.
Old John caught her wrist.
“Protect...
baby.”
“I won’t let them frighten me.”
Mrs.
Gable descended the final step.
“Your room must be empty within an hour.”
Daniel faced her.
“Nora lives here as part of her employment.”
“Employment that has ended.”
“You do not have the authority to dismiss her.”
Mr.
Reed raised the temporary order.
“Until tomorrow’s review, Mrs.
Gable controls household staffing.”
Nora placed John’s coat around his shoulders.
“Where are you taking him?”
“That information is private,” Mrs.
Gable said.
“I feed him, wash his clothes, and sit with him when he wakes frightened.”
“And yet you are not family.”
Old John looked up at Nora.
“Family.”
No one spoke for a moment.
Mrs.
Gable broke the silence.
“Put him in the transport chair.”
John held tightly to his wheelchair.
Daniel stepped forward, but the deputy lifted one hand.
“Don’t make this harder for your father.”
Mrs.
Gable turned to Nora.
“Adam begged people to believe him too.
Look how much good it did.”
Nora’s face folded.
She backed against the wall, both arms around her belly.
Mrs.
Pike crossed the hall and stood beside her.
“Say his name again, and I’ll play that recording from every window in this house.”
“You will be dismissed as well.”
“Then I’ll finally have time to play it twice.”
The attendants wheeled John out.
He twisted in the chair until he could see Nora.
“Blue book,” he called.
“Pike knows.”
Mrs.
Gable spun toward the cook.
Mrs.
Pike met her eyes.
“Yes.
I do.”
An hour later, Nora stood outside with one suitcase and a paper bag of baby clothes.
Rain spotted the pavement, and Daniel held an umbrella over her.
“I can arrange a hotel,” he said.
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“You have every right to hate me.”
“Hating you will not bring Adam back or bring John home.”
Mrs.
Pike pushed open the gate.
“She’s coming with me.”
Nora looked at her.
“I can’t impose.”
“You can sleep in my spare room, and tomorrow we will get Mr.
Mercer back.”
Mrs.
Pike led them to her small car and unlocked the trunk.
Beneath a folded blanket sat a blue ledger and a sealed metal box.
“Adam gave me both.”
Daniel touched the box.
“Why didn’t you come forward?”
“I tried.
Peter Lang met me at the company entrance and said I would lose my pension and my home.”
Nora rested her hand on the ledger.
“You kept it all this time?”
“I kept my nerve badly, but I kept the evidence well.”
Inside the box lay a flash drive and a letter addressed to Nora.
Her fingers shook as she opened it.
“If anything happens to me,” she read aloud, “tell Nora I did not take the money.
Tell her I was trying to come home with the truth.”
Mrs.
Pike wrapped both arms around her.
Nora pressed her face against the older woman’s shoulder and wept.
“He knew about the baby,” Nora whispered.
“He told me,” Mrs.
Pike said.
“He smiled when he said it.”
Daniel turned away, but Nora called him back.
“No.
You need to hear this too.”
“I’m listening.”
“You failed him.
But if you help us save John and clear Adam’s name, I will stand beside you tomorrow.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then I won’t fail twice.”
They connected the flash drive to Mrs.
Pike’s old laptop.
Adam appeared on the screen, seated in the Mercer office.
“Peter and Mrs.
Gable created false vendors,” he said.
“The blue ledger contains the original payment numbers.
But if John disappears, check the private facility owned by Gable Care Services.”
Daniel grabbed his phone and called the facility.
A receptionist answered, then placed him on hold.
When she returned, her voice was uneasy.
“Mr.
Mercer was never admitted here.”
May you like
Daniel looked at Nora.
“Then where did they take him?”
