Chapter 7: The Room Without a Name
The transport van’s registration led them to a closed nursing home on the edge of town.
Daniel, Nora, Mrs.
Pike, and the deputy arrived just before midnight.
The front door was locked.
Nora pounded until a nurse appeared behind the glass.
“We are looking for John Mercer.”
“No one by that name is here.”
Daniel held up a photograph.
“He arrived tonight in that van.”
The nurse’s gaze shifted toward a corridor behind her.
“Wait here.”
Mrs.
Gable appeared instead.
Peter Lang stood beside her in a dark overcoat.
“You should have accepted defeat,” Mrs.
Gable said.
Nora stepped toward the glass.
“Where is John?”
“Safe from people trying to use him.”
Peter unlocked the door and walked outside.
“Daniel, we can settle this privately.”
“You framed Adam Ellis.”
“I corrected an accounting problem before it destroyed the company.”
“You opened an account in Nora’s name.”
Peter glanced at Nora.
“She can keep the money.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Fifty thousand dollars, a home, and a trust for your child.
Give me the ledger and the drive.”
Nora took the blue ledger from her bag.
Peter’s eyes fixed on it.
“You mean this?”
Mrs.
Gable moved closer.
“Think about your baby before you make yourself unemployable.”
“I thought about my baby every time I bought John’s lunch.”
“You are a maid.”
“And you were trusted with a helpless man.”
“He was not helpless,” Mrs.
Gable snapped.
“He was stubborn.
He refused to sign control of the trust to us.”
The deputy’s hand moved to the recorder clipped inside his coat.
Peter seized Mrs.
Gable’s arm.
“Stop talking.”
The nurse opened the door wider.
“Mr.
Mercer is in Room Twelve.
They told us his family had abandoned him.”
Mrs.
Gable turned on her.
“You signed a confidentiality agreement.”
“I signed it before I saw bruises on his wrists from the transport straps.”
Nora hurried down the corridor.
John lay awake in a narrow bed, still wearing the coat she had buttoned around him.
“Nora,” he whispered.
She took his hand.
“We found you.”
Daniel entered with a doctor summoned by the deputy.
The doctor asked John his full name, the date, and the names of everyone in the room.
John answered each question slowly but correctly.
“Do you want Mrs.
Gable to control your care?” the doctor asked.
“No.”
“Do you want your son involved?”
John looked at Daniel.
“If he listens.”
Daniel knelt beside the bed.
“I will.”
Peter appeared in the doorway.
“This examination has no legal standing.”
Mr.
Reed came behind him, carrying his leather case.
Mrs.
Gable smiled.
“Tell them.”
Mr.
Reed set the case on the bed and opened it.
“The guardianship request contains a medical letter bearing Dr.
Samuel Hart’s signature.”
“That is correct,” Mrs.
Gable said.
“Dr.
Hart passed away eleven months ago.”
The smile left her face.
Mr.
Reed handed the original file to the deputy.
“Mrs.
Gable gave me a copy.
Tonight, I obtained the supposed original from her office.”
Peter moved toward the exit.
The deputy blocked him.
Mrs.
Gable snatched the flash drive from the open laptop in Mrs.
Pike’s bag and threw it to the floor.
Her heel came down on it twice.
“There,” she said.
“Now you have nothing.”
Mrs.
Pike calmly lifted her phone.
“Adam’s video was copied before we came.”
Daniel opened the blue ledger.
“And these numbers match twelve million dollars in false payments.”
Peter’s face went gray.
“Daniel signed the approvals.”
Everyone looked at him.
Daniel took the ledger and compared the dates.
His hand stopped on one page.
May you like
“He’s right,” he said.
“This signature is mine.”
