Chapter 6 - The Red Eye in Grandpa’s House
Officer Brooks treated the hidden camera as if it were a loaded weapon. Nobody touched the bookshelf until the evidence technician arrived. Ethan sat at Thomas’s kitchen table drinking chocolate milk while Daniel tried not to stare at every smoke detector, lamp, and picture frame as though each might be watching them. The technician found three more devices before noon: one inside a hallway clock, one beneath the lip of the dining-room hutch, and one in the vent outside Ethan’s guest room. None belonged to Thomas’s home security system. All had been installed recently. “How recently?” Daniel asked. The technician studied a strip of adhesive. “Days, maybe two weeks.” Thomas swore softly. Daniel had never heard him do that in front of Ethan.
The cameras transmitted to an encrypted cloud account registered through a shell company called Hearthstone Family Solutions. Brooks searched the name and found almost nothing: a Delaware filing, a mailbox in Virginia, and a disconnected number. Thomas recognized the phrase on the incorporation paperwork. “Family stabilization services.” His voice turned bitter. “Warren Vale used those words in court.” Daniel leaned against the counter. “So Warren is alive, connected to Victoria, and spying on my father’s house?” Brooks answered carefully. “We know someone using an organization tied to his methods is spying. We do not yet know who installed the cameras.”
Ethan heard more than adults believed. He placed his cup down. “The man with the gray eyebrows did.” Every head turned. Daniel crouched beside him. “What man?” Ethan picked at the paper wrapper around his straw. “He came when Grandpa was outside.” Thomas frowned. “When?” “Before Victoria got mad about the cereal.” Daniel’s heart kicked. “Was Victoria here?” Ethan nodded. “She said he was fixing the internet.” Brooks sat across from him, not too close. “Can you tell me what he looked like?” Ethan scrunched his face with concentration. “Old. Tall. Hair like Grandpa but less. Gray eyebrows that go down.” He drew two steep lines over his eyes with his fingers. “He smelled like the doctor’s office.”
Thomas stood. “Warren.”
Daniel looked at him. “You know his smell now?”
“Disinfectant and clove mints,” Thomas said. “He always chewed them before testimony.”
The description was too old to prove anything, but it was enough to bring the retired consultant back into the center of the investigation. Brooks found a recent prescription record in North Carolina under Warren’s name and a rental car paid with a card linked to Hearthstone. The car’s plate had been captured two blocks from Thomas’s neighborhood three days earlier.
Victoria’s attorney called by lunchtime. His name was Graham Pike, and his voice had the polished patience of a man who charged by the minute. “Ms. Lane denies any involvement in surveillance at Judge Mercer’s residence. She also denies harming Ethan.” Daniel said, “She put him in a windowless room.” “She disputes the characterization.” “There was a chair and writing on the wall.” “Mr. Mercer, I’m not here to litigate facts with you on the telephone.” “Then why are you calling?” Pike paused. “Because Ms. Lane wants to surrender voluntarily for questioning and avoid a spectacle.” Brooks mouthed, Let me handle it.
Victoria arrived at the station at three wearing a gray suit and no jewelry. She looked smaller without the house around her. Daniel watched through one-way glass as Brooks asked about the cameras. “I never entered Thomas’s home without permission,” Victoria said. “Did Warren Vale?” Brooks asked. For the first time Victoria’s fingers stopped moving. “I haven’t seen Warren in years.” “You spoke to him during incidents with Ethan.” “I spoke to a consultant.” “You called him Warren.” Silence. “You told your sister you had a family worth protecting.” Victoria’s face tightened. “Celeste has hated me since childhood.” “She says Sarah Mercer contacted you before her death.”
Victoria looked up slowly.
“Sarah was scared,” she said.
Daniel felt his stomach drop.
Brooks leaned forward. “Of whom?”
“Not me.”
“Then who?”
Victoria stared toward the mirror. Daniel had the strange feeling she knew he was behind it.
“Thomas Mercer,” she said.
Daniel nearly stepped into the room.
Brooks did not react. “Why Thomas?”
“Because Sarah discovered he had approved sealed guardianship transfers when he was a judge. Children taken from one parent and placed with donors connected to Briar House. Warren built the recommendations. Thomas signed the orders.”
Daniel turned toward his father. Thomas had gone completely white.
“That’s a lie,” he said.
“Is it?” Daniel asked.
Thomas’s mouth opened, then closed.
Brooks continued questioning. “Why would Sarah take Margaret’s tapes?”
“To keep them from Thomas.”
“And why did you later become involved with Daniel?”
Victoria’s eyes shone. “Because Sarah asked me to watch him.”
Daniel whispered, “No.”
Victoria kept talking. “She knew she might die. She thought the trust was the reason. She thought Ethan would be safer if someone from Briar House stayed close enough to recognize the signs.”
Brooks asked the obvious question. “Then why did you use Briar House methods on Ethan?”
Victoria’s composure cracked. “Because Warren came back.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“What did he want?”
“He said Ethan was having attachment problems and that if Daniel saw how unstable the boy was, he would postpone the wedding.”
“You wanted the wedding.”
Victoria laughed once, broken and bitter. “I wanted Daniel alive.”
Brooks stared at her.
Victoria leaned closer. “You think I was trying to make Ethan afraid of his father. I was trying to make Daniel afraid enough to stay home.”
Daniel’s anger collided with confusion. “She locked him in a room to protect me?” he said.
Thomas answered, “People can hurt children while believing they are saving adults.”
Victoria suddenly looked toward the mirror. “Daniel,” she said, though she could not see him. “Ask your father what happened to Case 4418.”
Brooks froze at the number. It matched the final four digits of Margaret’s resurrected phone.
Thomas sat down.
Daniel turned to him. “What is Case 4418?”
May you like
Thomas closed his eyes.
“A custody case,” he whispered. “The one decision I have regretted for twenty-six years.”
