Chapter 12 - The Old Factory.
The old Mercer factory had been closed for seven years.
Daniel's father kept the property because he could never bring himself to sell the place where the company began.
The red brick buildings stood behind rusted gates on the edge of the river district.
Daniel called Officer Cole before doing anything else.
"My mother sent me a picture from the factory road."
Cole's answer was immediate.
"Do not go there."
"I'm at the hospital."
"Stay there."
Daniel looked through the glass toward Claire and Sophie.
For once, he listened.
Police units moved toward the factory while detectives tried to trace Evelyn's phone.
The signal disappeared shortly after the text was sent.
At 4:32 p.m., Ramirez entered the factory administration building with a small team.
Dust covered the lobby.
Old framed photographs lined the wall.
One showed Daniel's father shaking hands with workers on opening day.
Another showed a younger Evelyn standing beside him.
The building looked like a monument to a family that no longer existed.
A sound came from the second floor.
Ramirez followed it.
Evelyn was inside the former boardroom.
She was alone.
Her phone lay smashed near the door.
She was shaken but unharmed.
"Where is Grant?" Ramirez asked.
Evelyn pointed toward the rear stairwell.
"He left when he heard the sirens."
"Why did you come here?"
Evelyn's answer was painfully simple.
"Because he called me."
"And you came alone?"
"He said he would tell me where he kept the last copy."
Ramirez stared at her.
"You still cared about documents after what happened to Claire and Sophie?"
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"No."
She opened them again.
"I cared because the copy could prove Victor and Grant planned this before I ever brought them into the house."
"You were trying to save yourself."
"Yes."
The honesty surprised Ramirez.
"And maybe," Evelyn added, "I was trying to save whatever part of me Daniel might someday believe was still human."
Police searched the factory.
They found no Grant.
They did find a temporary workspace in an upstairs records room.
A laptop charger.
A blanket.
Empty food containers.
A printed map of the city.
Several locations were circled.
The Mercer house.
The hospital.
Victor Shaw's office.
The bank.
And Daniel's corporate headquarters.
One location had a line drawn through it twice.
Mercer headquarters.
Daniel learned this from Cole at 5:10 p.m.
His stomach tightened.
"Why the company?"
"We don't know yet."
Daniel did.
The company held an emergency board meeting every Monday morning.
Tomorrow was Monday.
Grant knew the schedule.
He also knew Daniel had not been in the office since the dinner.
Claire looked at Daniel from her bed.
"What is it?"
Daniel told her.
She thought for a moment.
"Grant doesn't want the company."
Daniel frowned.
"That's exactly what he wants."
"No."
Claire's voice was weak but certain.
"He wants everyone to think he deserves it."
Daniel understood the difference.
Grant needed legitimacy.
A forged document alone might not give him that.
A public crisis might.
Officer Cole called again.
Investigators had opened Grant's laptop backup from the storage drive.
They found a draft email scheduled for 8:05 Monday morning.
It was addressed to every Mercer board member.
The subject line read:
DANIEL MERCER - IMMEDIATE REMOVAL.
Attached was a document accusing Daniel of financial misconduct.
The supporting files looked real.
Cole said experts already suspected they were fabricated.
Then he added the most troubling detail.
May you like
The email was still scheduled to send automatically.
And nobody had yet found the account password.
