Chapter 5 - THE VOTEBy 8:45 a.m., Daniel Mercer had every law-enforcement officer available searching for his son.
By 8:50, he was inside Mercer Development’s forty-second-floor boardroom.
Officer Ruiz hated the plan.
Daniel hated it more.
But Keller’s instructions were explicit.
Come alone.
Vote.
No police visible.
No attempt to contact Victoria.
Daniel entered wearing a wire beneath his shirt.
Eleven board members sat around the walnut table.
Nobody looked comfortable.
At the far end stood Martin Keller.
He wore a navy suit and the calm expression of a man presenting quarterly earnings instead of participating in a kidnapping.
“Daniel.”
“Where’s my son?”
Several board members shifted.
Keller frowned.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Daniel walked toward him.
“You texted me from your phone.”
“My phone was stolen last night.”
Convenient.
“Where is Leo?”
“I suggest you sit down.”
Daniel wanted to hit him.
Instead, he sat.
The board chair cleared his throat.
“We are convened to consider the emergency removal of Arthur Mercer as chairman due to medical incapacity.”
“My father is mentally competent.”
Keller slid a folder forward.
“Medical professionals disagree.”
Daniel opened it.
Dr. Pike’s report.
Signed.
Stamped.
Detailed.
Completely fraudulent.
Daniel looked around the table.
“My father spent six days imprisoned inside a hidden room in his home.”
Shock moved around the room.
One board member whispered, “Jesus.”
Keller remained still.
“That is being investigated.”
Daniel stared at him.
“By police.”
“Yes.”
“Who are also trying to locate my eight-year-old son.”
This time the room erupted.
“What?”
“His son?”
“What happened?”
Keller raised a hand.
“We cannot allow unrelated personal matters—”
Daniel slammed his palm against the table.
“My son being kidnapped is not unrelated.”
The room fell silent.
Then Daniel noticed something.
Keller was wearing a watch.
A distinctive vintage Rolex.
Daniel had seen it before.
In family photographs.
It belonged to Stephen Mercer.
His dead uncle.
Daniel stared at it.
Keller noticed.
And for the first time, his composure cracked.
“Where did you get that watch?”
Keller covered it with his sleeve.
“It was a gift.”
“From whom?”
“This is irrelevant.”
“My uncle owned it.”
Keller’s face hardened.
Daniel remembered his mother’s recording.
Stephen wasn’t working alone.
Suddenly the past and present felt connected.
“How long did you know Stephen Mercer?”
Keller leaned back.
“I knew him professionally.”
“You were twenty-six when my mother died.”
“I’m aware of my age.”
“Did you work for him?”
Keller’s jaw tightened.
Daniel saw it.
There.
Fear.
Before he could push harder, a board member’s phone rang.
Then another.
Then three more.
Keller frowned.
Daniel’s own phone vibrated.
A news alert.
MERCER DEVELOPMENT CHAIRMAN FOUND IMPRISONED IN FAMILY ESTATE.
Someone had leaked the story.
Within seconds, the company’s stock in several publicly traded affiliated funds began dropping.
Keller stood.
“We need to vote immediately.”
Daniel understood.
Chaos was part of the plan.
Force the vote.
Gain control.
Move money.
Disappear.
The board chair spoke.
“Motion to remove Arthur Mercer as chairman.”
Daniel’s phone vibrated again.
A text.
Vote yes.
Then a photograph.
Leo holding today’s newspaper.
Alive.
Daniel felt physically ill.
“Daniel?” the chair asked.
He lifted his eyes.
Keller was watching him.
“Your vote?”
Daniel thought of Leo.
Then of the wire under his shirt.
“Yes.”
The motion passed.
Arthur was removed.
Next motion:
Appoint Daniel chairman.
Passed.
Keller immediately presented proxy documents granting Victoria Daniel’s temporary voting authority.
Daniel pretended to object.
The documents were upheld.
Victoria Mercer, absent from the room, now controlled the Mercer family voting block.
Exactly what she wanted.
Keller gathered his papers.
Daniel stood.
“I did what you wanted.”
Keller looked confused.
“Excuse me?”
“Tell whoever has Leo to release him.”
Keller smiled faintly.
“Again, Daniel, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Daniel moved closer.
“You’re going to make a mistake.”
“What kind?”
“You think because my family is wealthy, we’re easy to manipulate.”
Keller lowered his voice.
“No, Daniel. Your family is easy to manipulate because all of you believe money is the most important thing in the room.”
He walked away.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Ruiz.
He answered after leaving the boardroom.
“We traced the message relay,” she said.
“Where?”
“Burner system. But we got traffic-camera footage.”
“Leo?”
“We believe the vehicle is heading west.”
“Toward where?”
A pause.
“Hawthorne Road.”
Daniel stopped.
The lake house.
His mother’s message.
Check the basement wall.
It wasn’t coincidence.
Victoria wanted something hidden there.
And Leo might know where it was.
Daniel ran for the elevator.
By the time he reached the parking garage, police units were already moving.
The Mercer lake house stood ninety minutes outside Boston, hidden behind pine trees and decades of neglect.
Daniel arrived to find the front door hanging open.
“Leo!”
Ruiz grabbed his arm.
“Wait for the tactical team.”
“That’s my son.”
“And charging inside gets him hurt.”
Daniel forced himself to stop.
Officers entered.
Thirty seconds.
A minute.
Then:
“Clear!”
Daniel ran in.
No Leo.
No Victoria.
No Keller.
But footprints marked the dusty floor.
Small footprints.
A child’s.
They led toward the basement.
Daniel followed.
At the bottom, he saw a brick wall.
The same wall his mother had mentioned twenty-eight years earlier.
One brick had been removed.
Behind it was an empty compartment.
Whatever Margaret had hidden there was gone.
On the floor sat Leo’s sneaker.
Daniel picked it up with shaking hands.
Then he heard a tiny electronic beep.
Inside the sneaker was Leo’s smartwatch.
Daniel pressed the screen.
One unsent voice recording appeared.
He played it.
Leo’s terrified whisper filled the basement.
“Dad, Victoria keeps asking where Grandpa put the red book.”
A man’s voice barked in the background.
Leo continued quickly.
“I told her I don’t know.”
Then Victoria’s voice came through clearly.
“You saw Arthur hide it.”
“No!”
“Leo, stop lying.”
“I’m not!”
A slap-like noise came from somewhere distant—not necessarily hitting Leo, but Daniel flinched anyway.
Then another man spoke.
Martin Keller.
“Forget the boy. We have the ledger.”
Victoria answered.
“No. Arthur said the child knows about the second copy.”
The recording ended.
Daniel looked at Ruiz.
“Red book.”
She nodded.
“The ledger.”
Daniel stared at the empty compartment.
His mother had hidden evidence twenty-eight years earlier.
Victoria had finally found it.
But apparently Arthur had made a copy.
And Leo knew something about it.
Daniel stood slowly.
“Victoria isn’t kidnapping Leo to control me anymore.”
Ruiz understood.
“She thinks he knows where the evidence is.”
Daniel looked at his son’s tiny sneaker.
“And if she believes he’s the only person who knows…”
He couldn’t finish.
Then his phone rang.
Arthur.
Daniel answered.
“Dad?”
Arthur’s voice was urgent.
“Daniel, I remembered where I put the second ledger.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Tell me.”
May you like
Arthur whispered:
“Leo’s treehouse.”
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