Chapter 5 - Lake Mercer
Lake Mercer lay ninety miles north of Boston.
Thomas Whitmore had owned a cabin there through a company that did not appear in the family’s public records.
Claire remembered visiting the property once with her mother.
She had been fifteen.
The cabin had seemed abandoned even then.
Ethan insisted Claire remain in the hospital.
Claire refused.
“Your mother knows I survived.”
“She already tried to silence me once.”
“A hospital room won’t stop her.”
Daniel arranged an unmarked vehicle.
They reached Lake Mercer shortly after noon.
The cabin stood beyond a narrow road surrounded by pine trees.
Its windows were boarded.
The dock had collapsed into the dark water.
Daniel checked the doors.
No alarm sounded.
Inside, dust covered the furniture.
A cold fireplace dominated the main room.
Ethan found old photographs in a drawer.
Most showed Thomas with business partners.
One showed him beside Claire’s mother, Laura Bennett.
They were reviewing documents at the dining table.
Claire stared at the picture.
“My mother never told me she knew him.”
“Maybe she was helping him investigate,” Daniel said.
Laura had died eight years earlier in what police described as a single-car accident.
Claire had never questioned the report.
Now she wondered whether her mother’s death had been another warning.
Ethan examined the floor.
One section beneath the dining table had been recently disturbed.
They moved the table aside.
A trapdoor lay beneath a faded rug.
The brass key did not fit.
Daniel forced the lock.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
The basement smelled of mold and gasoline.
Shelves held medical supplies, canned food, and old blankets.
There was a bed in the corner.
Leather restraints had been bolted to the frame.
Claire stepped back.
“Someone was held here.”
Ethan found bloodstains beneath the mattress.
They had darkened with age.
On the wall, dozens of lines had been scratched into the wood.
Someone had counted days.
Daniel photographed everything.
Claire found a small wooden box beneath the bed.
Inside was a hospital bracelet.
The printed name had nearly faded.
Samuel Ward.
The admission date was three weeks after Thomas’s accident.
The hospital listed beneath the name was White Oak Recovery Center.
Ethan searched the facility on his phone.
No current address appeared.
The center had closed nine years earlier after losing its medical license.
Daniel found another item inside the box.
A gold cuff link shaped like an anchor.
Ethan recognized it immediately.
His father had worn a matching pair on the last night Ethan saw him alive.
Ethan sank onto the edge of the bed.
“He was here.”
Claire touched his shoulder.
“He may have survived.”
“Then where is he?”
A floorboard creaked above them.
Daniel raised his gun.
“Stay here.”
May you like
He climbed the stairs.
A gunshot exploded inside the cabin.
