Chapter 2 - The Maid Who Was Never Just a Maid
The lockdown lasted eleven minutes.
To anyone else, those eleven minutes would have felt like an eternity.
To Elias Mercer, they passed in fragments of information.
Camera feeds.
Vehicle plates.
Names.
Phone records.
Door access.
He stood in the center of his penthouse while six screens filled the far wall, Marcus moving rapidly through data from the security room below.
Nakia sat on the edge of the sofa.
She had stopped trembling.
That surprised Elias.
Fear usually arrived in stages.
The first stage was denial.
The second was panic.
The third was either submission or irrational action.
Nakia seemed to have skipped all three and gone directly to observation.
She watched Marcus work.
Then watched Elias.
Then looked at the security feeds.
"You think I know something about a ledger."
It wasn't a question.
Elias turned.
"I think someone believes you do."
"That's different."
"Very."
"So do you believe them?"
His eyes met hers.
"I don't know."
The answer hurt her.
He saw it.
And hated that he saw it.
"How long have you been suspicious of me?"
"I haven't."
"But now you are."
"Now I am suspicious of everyone."
"Including me?"
"Especially you."
Nakia nodded slowly.
"Fair."
Marcus looked up.
"We found Brendan."
Elias crossed the room.
"Where?"
"St. Luke's emergency entrance."
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Talked to him?"
"Not yet. He's in an ambulance."
"Why?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Because somebody shot him."
Nakia went pale.
Elias turned toward her.
"Stay here."
"No."
"Nakia."
"I said no."
"This isn't a negotiation."
"I realize that."
She stood.
"You don't get to drag me into a penthouse lockdown and then tell me to sit quietly."
Elias stared at her.
"You don't understand what is happening."
"Then tell me."
"I can't."
"Because you don't trust me?"
"Because I don't know enough."
Her voice softened.
"You've known me eight months."
"I know."
"You know what time I arrive every morning. You know how much sugar I put in coffee. You know I hate lilies because they smell like funerals. You know I call my mother every Tuesday and that I send money to my younger brother every month."
Elias said nothing.
Her expression changed.
"You know all that?"
"I notice things."
"Then notice this."
She walked directly toward him.
"I didn't hurt Brendan."
"I believe you."
She stopped.
"But?"
"But I believe someone is using your name."
Marcus stepped closer.
"We also found something else."
He placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Nakia leaving the laundromat three weeks earlier.
A man stood twenty feet behind her.
Baseball cap.
Dark coat.
Face partially hidden.
Elias picked up the image.
"Who is that?"
Marcus shook his head.
"We don't know."
Nakia stared.
"I've never seen him."
Elias studied her face.
No hesitation.
No defensive calculation.
Just confusion.
Marcus handed him another photograph.
Same man.
Different location.
Outside a grocery store.
Then another.
Outside a bus station.
Then another.
Outside Elias's building.
A cold line formed down Elias's spine.
"How long?"
Marcus said, "At least five months."
Five months.
Nakia had worked for him for eight.
Elias looked at her.
Someone had been watching her for almost the entire duration of her employment.
Why?
The answer came from the only person who might know.
His father.
Gabriel Mercer.
Dead for fourteen years.
The old man had hidden more secrets than Elias had ever uncovered.
Elias returned to his office.
Nakia followed.
He opened an old encrypted archive.
"There's something I need to check."
"What?"
"My father's records."
She frowned.
"Why would your father have anything to do with me?"
"I don't know."
The screen loaded.
Hundreds of names appeared.
Elias searched.
KING.
Several results.
He clicked the first.
Nothing.
Second.
Nothing.
Third.
His fingers stopped.
Nakia King.
He stared.
She came closer.
"What?"
He turned the monitor toward her.
The file contained only three lines.
Nakia King.
Father: Daniel King.
Status: Deceased.
Connection: Mercer estate — classified.
Nakia read it twice.
"Daniel King."
Her face changed.
"That's my father."
Elias stared at her.
"You told me he worked construction."
"He did."
"Where?"
"Detroit, mostly."
"How did he die?"
Nakia swallowed.
"Car accident."
Elias opened the file.
The date of death appeared.
Sixteen years earlier.
Three months before Gabriel Mercer disappeared from public life.
Another line appeared beneath it.
PROJECT MERCY — SUBJECT SURVIVED.
Elias stopped breathing.
"What does that mean?"
Nakia shook her head.
"I don't know."
He clicked the archive.
Access denied.
Then another screen appeared.
PASSWORD REQUIRED.
Elias entered his father's old security phrase.
Wrong.
He entered another.
Wrong.
Nakia looked at the screen.
"I remember something."
"What?"
"My father had a phrase."
"What phrase?"
"He used to say it when I was little."
Elias turned toward her.
"What was it?"
She hesitated.
"Mercy remembers."
The system unlocked.
The file opened.
Inside was a scanned photograph.
A younger Gabriel Mercer stood beside a man Elias recognized immediately.
Daniel King.
Nakia's father.
Both men were smiling.
Elias had never seen his father smile like that.
Beneath the photograph was a handwritten note.
SHE IS NOT TO BE FOUND.
Nakia whispered, "Found by whom?"
Elias's phone rang.
Marcus answered it.
The color drained from his face.
He passed the phone to Elias.
A recording began.
A man's voice.
"Mr. Mercer, you're looking in the wrong place."
Elias's expression hardened.
The voice continued.
"The ledger isn't in your organization."
A pause.
"It's in your home."
Nakia looked toward the kitchen.
Elias followed her gaze.
The room was silent.
Then they heard it.
A metallic click.
From inside the wall.
Elias immediately drew his weapon.
He moved in front of Nakia.
The kitchen lights went out.
A hidden compartment opened behind the wine rack.
Inside was a black metal box.
Marcus swore.
Elias stepped forward.
He opened it.
Inside was a ledger.
Not a copy.
The Black Ledger.
Nakia stared at it.
"I've never seen that before."
Elias believed her.
But then he saw the final item inside the box.
A small photograph.
Nakia at age ten.
Standing beside her father.
May you like
And on the back were six words.
WHEN SHE REMEMBERS, SHE WILL KNOW EVERYTHING.
