Chapter 12 - Warehouse Seven
Vance stared at the photograph.
The woman was older than Elena would have been when she disappeared.
But the eyes were the same.
Maya took the evidence bag with trembling hands.
“Is this my mother?”
“We cannot confirm that,” Sloan said.
Vance did not look away from the image.
“It could be.”
Maya’s heart pounded.
“Where was the photograph taken?”
“The metadata was removed.”
A portion of a sign appeared behind the woman.
Only three letters were visible.
R-V-A.
Vance recognized the pattern.
“Riverton Veterans Annex.”
The facility had closed eighteen months earlier after a private medical contractor purchased it.
That contractor was controlled through shell companies.
The final parent company was Sterling Medical Holdings.
Maya looked toward the interview room where Adrian remained.
His family’s reach seemed to extend into every part of her stolen life.
The tactical team entered Warehouse Seven before sunset.
Mercer was not inside.
But the building contained old Vaughn records, medical equipment, and a room with restraints fixed to the floor.
Blood traces were found beneath fresh paint.
A wall had been covered with photographs.
Maya appeared in many of them.
Her graduation.
Her first apartment.
Her wedding.
Her pregnancy.
Someone had watched her for years.
On another wall were photographs of Noah.
Agent Sloan called Maya from the scene.
“We believe Mercer used this location as an operational base.”
“Did he take the pictures?”
“Some of them.”
“What about the others?”
“We found surveillance images dating back twenty-four years.”
Maya sat beside Noah’s crib.
“Someone has watched me since I was a child.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“We are still determining that.”
Vance searched a locked cabinet at the rear of the warehouse.
Inside, he discovered medical files from Riverton Veterans Annex.
Most patient names were coded.
One file contained the photograph of the silver-haired woman.
Patient E-17.
Female.
Estimated age fifty-eight.
Severe memory loss following prolonged trauma.
No confirmed identity.
Transferred four days earlier.
Destination unknown.
Attached to the file was a handwritten order.
Relocate patient before the Vaughn merger banquet.
The authorization bore Victoria Sterling’s electronic signature.
Sloan contacted the estate immediately.
Victoria was no longer in the library.
Her attorneys claimed she had gone to the bathroom.
The bathroom window stood open.
A section of fencing near the service road had been cut.
Victoria Sterling had escaped federal supervision less than one hour after Mercer’s abandoned vehicle was found.
Maya received another message.
This one contained no photograph.
Only an address.
May you like
Beneath it were seven words.
Come alone if you want your mother alive.
