Chapter 4 - The DollhousePolice searched the hotel.
No intruder.
No useful fingerprints.
The hallway camera had gone black for eleven minutes.
Detective Hale stared at the envelope for a long time.
“Your daughter’s room.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Has Monroe ever been inside your home?”
“Never.”
“At your daughter’s school?”
“Not that I know.”
“Any connection to your family?”
“No.”
Rachel looked thoughtful.
“What about the fundraiser?”
I turned.
“What fundraiser?”
“Two years ago. Halcyon sponsored Lily’s school auction.”
I remembered.
A dozen employees had volunteered.
“David may have been there.”
Rachel opened old photographs on her phone.
After several minutes she found one.
A group of Halcyon employees stood beneath a banner in the school gymnasium.
David Monroe was at the far end.
Hale enlarged the image.
“He knew which child was yours.”
That fact made me sick.
“But what could he have left in her room?”
Rachel suddenly looked at me.
“The dollhouse.”
“What?”
“Lily won a dollhouse at the auction.”
I remembered carrying it home.
Large wooden Victorian style, handmade.
Lily still kept it beside her bookshelf.
“You think Monroe put something inside it?”
“I don’t know.”
Hale refused to let us return personally.
Officers went instead.
Three hours later, he received a call.
His expression told me they had found something.
“What?”
He put the call on speaker.
“Detective, we found a hidden compartment beneath the dollhouse base.”
My pulse accelerated.
“What’s inside?”
“A flash drive.”
Silence.
Rachel whispered, “Oh my God.”
Hale arranged for it to be analyzed offline.
That afternoon, he returned with a grim expression.
“Monroe left evidence.”
“What kind?”
“Financial records. Emails. Contract logs.”
“Proving what?”
“That Mercer’s fraudulent billing predates Halcyon’s acquisition by years.”
“That isn’t surprising.”
“No.”
He placed a folder on the table.
“The surprising part is who appears to have financed it.”
I opened the first page.
A shell company.
Several subsidiaries.
Payments routed through consulting firms.
Then a name I knew.
Peter Lawson.
One of Halcyon’s board members.
I stared.
“He pushed the acquisition.”
“Yes.”
“Because he needed Halcyon to buy Mercer.”
“It appears Mercer was becoming unstable. The acquisition buried its liabilities inside a larger company and gave insiders time to erase records.”
“Walter Dane?”
“His name appears too.”
My CEO.
My friend of twelve years.
The man who hired me.
Rachel saw my face.
“You trust him.”
“I did.”
Hale continued.
“Monroe’s files suggest he discovered Lawson and Dane were involved. He copied records before the acquisition.”
“Why hide them in Lily’s dollhouse?”
“He may have believed you would eventually find them.”
“Two years later?”
“Or perhaps he planned to tell you.”
I thought about David canceling our meeting.
Maybe he had become frightened.
Maybe someone discovered what he had done.
“Why target Lily now?”
“Because they may have learned the drive existed but not where.”
I shook my head.
“Then why approach her?”
“To scare you? Pressure Rachel? Search your home while you were distracted? We’re still working it out.”
My phone rang.
Walter Dane.
Everyone looked at the screen.
Hale motioned for me to answer.
“Walter.”
“Ethan, where are you?”
“Home.”
A lie.
“We have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“Federal investigators served requests this morning relating to Mercer.”
I glanced at Hale.
He nodded.
Walter continued.
“I need you in the office.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Family emergency.”
Pause.
“Lily okay?”
The room went silent.
I had told no one at work about Lily.
“How do you know it involves Lily?”
Another pause.
Longer.
Then Walter laughed lightly.
“Rachel called your assistant yesterday, didn’t she?”
I looked at Rachel.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Walter’s voice became cautious.
“I assumed.”
“Interesting assumption.”
“What’s going on, Ethan?”
“You tell me.”
Hale pointed to a notebook and wrote:
KEEP HIM TALKING.
I leaned back.
“Did you know David Monroe?”
“Of course.”
“How well?”
“Not well.”
“He came to see me before he died.”
“I know.”
My breath stopped.
“You know?”
“He told me.”
“About what?”
Silence.
Then Walter said, “Ethan, I don’t think we should discuss this by phone.”
“Why not?”
“Because there are things you don’t understand.”
“Then explain them.”
“I can’t.”
“Sounds familiar.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
He sighed.
“Come into the office tonight. After everyone leaves.”
Hale shook his head.
I said, “Why?”
“I can show you something.”
“What?”
“The reason Monroe died.”
Rachel grabbed my arm.
Walter continued.
“And Ethan?”
“Yes?”
“Do not bring the police.”
The line disconnected.
Hale smiled without humor.
“Well.”
“What?”
“He either wants to confess or kill you.”
Rachel said, “He’s not going.”
Hale nodded.
“Not alone.”
Two hours later, we created a plan.
I hated leaving Lily.
She hated it more.
“Don’t go, Daddy.”
I knelt beside her.
“I have to help make this stop.”
“What if the man comes?”
“There are police right outside.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
My eyes burned.
“You never have to apologize for being scared.”
“Mommy said secrets can protect people.”
Rachel’s face crumpled.
I looked at her.
“We’re going to change that rule.”
I turned back to Lily.
“Surprises are okay. Birthday presents. Christmas gifts. But if somebody tells you that you have to keep a secret because someone will get hurt if you tell?”
She nodded.
“You tell us immediately.”
“Even if they say you’ll get hurt?”
“Especially then.”
She hugged me harder.
I left with Hale and two undercover officers positioned nearby.
Halcyon’s headquarters occupied thirty-two floors of a glass tower overlooking downtown.
At 10:03 p.m., I entered using my regular badge.
Walter’s office lights were on.
He stood at the window.
“You came.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I wasn’t sure.”
I kept my hands visible.
A recording device sat beneath my shirt.
“What happened to David?”
Walter poured two drinks.
I did not touch mine.
“He got greedy.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
Walter looked exhausted.
Older than he had three days earlier.
“You were never supposed to be part of this.”
“Part of what?”
“Lawson’s operation.”
“You mean fraud.”
“I mean survival.”
“Tens of millions stolen from hospitals is survival?”
“You think companies this size stay clean?”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“That is why I liked you.”
“Liked?”
His expression saddened.
“Past tense might be appropriate.”
Every muscle tightened.
“Did you send someone after Lily?”
Walter’s face changed.
“What?”
“My daughter.”
“I would never touch your child.”
“Someone using Halcyon credentials did.”
Walter stepped closer.
“You need to listen carefully. Lawson is not the biggest problem.”
“Then who is?”
Before he could answer, the lights went out.
The entire office floor went dark.
Walter whispered, “Oh, no.”
A faint metallic sound came from the hallway.
The elevator.
Someone had arrived.
Walter grabbed my arm.
“We need to move.”
“Who is it?”
He looked genuinely terrified.
“The person David was really afraid of.”
Footsteps sounded outside the office.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Walter pulled open a hidden side door leading to the executive conference suite.
We slipped inside.
The footsteps stopped outside.
I heard the office door open.
Walter leaned close.
“The flash drive—did you find it?”
I stared at him.
His face answered my question.
He knew.
“How?”
“David told me before he died.”
“Why didn’t you take it?”
“Because whoever killed him was watching me too.”
A shadow crossed the frosted glass.
I whispered, “Who?”
Walter barely moved his lips.
Then he gave me a name.
A name so impossible that for several seconds I thought I had misunderstood.
“Richard Vale.”
I shook my head.
Vale was Halcyon’s chairman.
One of the wealthiest healthcare investors in America.
Seventy-one years old.
A public philanthropist.
He had known me since I was twenty-eight.
“He controls Lawson,” Walter whispered. “He controlled Mercer. He controls everything.”
The conference-room door handle began turning.
Walter shoved me toward a second exit.
“Go.”
“What about you?”
“Go!”
The door opened.
I ran.
Behind me, a voice said calmly:
“Walter.”
Then came a sound like furniture crashing.
I reached the emergency stairs.
The undercover officers were already climbing.
Hale grabbed me.
“What happened?”
“Walter’s still inside.”
They rushed past.
We heard a sharp crack.
Then silence.
Minutes later, officers emerged.
Walter was alive but unconscious.
His attacker was gone.
One of the conference windows stood open onto a maintenance balcony connecting two sections of the tower.
But on Walter’s desk, the attacker had left something behind.
A childhood photograph of Lily.
Taken at age three.
May you like
And written across her face in black ink were the words:
LAST WARNING.
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