Chapter 9 - The Woman Who Disappeared
I found Dominic in the security office and showed him the photograph.
He recognized the location immediately.
"That's the northern gate."
"Who took it?"
"We're trying to determine that."
I handed him the note.
"Who was the woman who worked here before me?"
Dominic's expression changed.
"What did you hear?"
"Nothing. That's why I'm asking."
He hesitated.
Then he opened a secure file on his computer.
Three years earlier, a housekeeper named Lydia Mercer had worked at Blackmere House. She had been dismissed after an incident involving missing documents. Two weeks later, she disappeared.
No police report had been filed.
No missing-person investigation had been opened.
"Why?" I asked.
"Her family said she wanted to leave town."
"Did she?"
Dominic closed the file.
"I don't know."
"Did Roman?"
"Mr. Blackmere was away when she left."
I stared at him.
"That's a convenient answer."
"Miss Vale, I'm trying to help you."
"Then tell me what you know."
Dominic rubbed a hand over his face.
"Lydia worked in the archive room. She had access to old financial records, including documents related to the warehouse fire. When several files went missing, she became the obvious suspect."
"Was she guilty?"
"The investigation was incomplete."
"Who ordered her dismissal?"
Dominic didn't answer.
I already knew.
"Julian."
He looked at me sharply.
That evening, I confronted Roman.
He listened without interrupting, then summoned Dominic and requested every document connected to Lydia Mercer.
When the file arrived, I found a photograph of a young woman with dark hair and a tired smile.
A handwritten note had been clipped to the back.
She asked about the original transfer ledger.
I read it twice.
"Why was this never investigated?"
Roman's face hardened.
"Because my father died, the family was in chaos, and Julian convinced the board that Lydia had stolen confidential documents."
"And you accepted that?"
"I was trying to keep the businesses from collapsing."
"That isn't an answer."
"No," he admitted. "It isn't."
For the first time, Roman looked ashamed.
He ordered Dominic to reopen the investigation and locate Lydia's relatives.
Two hours later, the security chief returned with news.
Lydia had been living under another name in a small town in Vermont.
She had recently contacted a private attorney.
And three days before the photograph of Victor appeared at the estate, she had filed a request to testify about the Blackmere warehouse.
Roman read the report.
"She knows something."
I looked at the photograph again.
"Perhaps she knows who killed the bookkeeper."
"Or who ordered the murder."
A message arrived on Dominic's phone.
The sender was an unknown number.
The message contained a location and a time.
Lydia Mercer. Tomorrow. Come alone.
Roman immediately ordered the message traced.
But before Dominic could respond, a second message appeared.
If Roman Blackmere comes, she dies.
I felt the old terror return.
Someone was moving the pieces faster than we could understand them.
May you like
And Lydia Mercer was about to become the next person punished for remembering the truth.
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