Chapter 7 - Uncle Grant
By sunrise, the hospital had police at every entrance.
Daniel hadn’t slept. He sat in a plastic chair beside Lily while Sarah rested.
Lily drew with crayons on a clipboard.
“What are you making?” Daniel asked.
“A bad man.”
The picture showed a tall stick figure near the mansion’s side gate.
Daniel noticed the black square on the figure’s wrist.
“What’s that?”
“A watch. Uncle Grant has one like that.”
He leaned closer.
“How many times have you seen him by the side gate?”
Lily shrugged. “A lot. Vanessa told me not to tell you because they were planning a surprise.”
Daniel’s skin prickled.
“What kind of surprise?”
“She never said.”
Sarah had opened her eyes.
“Daniel,” she whispered, “Grant was using the old service tunnels.”
The mansion had been built in 1912. Daniel’s grandfather once told him about servants’ passages connecting the pantry, carriage house, and boiler rooms, most sealed during renovations.
“The metal door,” Daniel said.
Sarah nodded. “It wasn’t a prison originally. It was part of a storm cellar. Grant knew the tunnels because your father showed him the property plans years ago.”
Daniel remembered his father’s death eighteen months before Sarah vanished. Robert Mercer had fallen from a hunting platform on family land. Grant had been the one who found him.
Sarah watched Daniel’s face.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Your father suspected Grant first.”
Daniel stood so quickly the chair tipped.
“No. Dad trusted him.”
“At first. Then he found duplicate invoices.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He planned to. He called me the night before he died.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Daniel whispered, “You think Grant killed my father.”
“I don’t know. But your father was scared.”
Lily’s crayon stopped moving.
“Daddy?”
Daniel forced himself to soften his voice. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”
A hospital security officer appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Mercer? There’s a package for your daughter downstairs. No return address.”
Daniel’s blood ran cold.
“Do not bring it up.”
The officer nodded. “Bomb squad is checking it.”
Five minutes later, the state police captain returned carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a child’s silver bracelet.
Lily touched her bare wrist.
“My bracelet.”
She had been wearing it the night before.
Attached to it was a note.
Daniel read the handwriting.
May you like
YOU OPENED THE WRONG DOOR.
NOW I’LL OPEN ONE OF MINE.
