Chapter 3 - THE LAST MESSAGE
Nathaniel stared at the screen.
He couldn't touch it.
For five years, he had believed Elizabeth's final attempt to reach him had been lost forever.
Now her name was glowing in his hand.
Maria stood behind him.
Lily watched from the doorway.
Nathaniel pressed the message.
Static filled the room.
Then Elizabeth's voice.
Soft.
Breathing quickly.
“Nathan, if you're hearing this, I need you to listen carefully.”
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
His knees weakened.
Elizabeth continued.
“I don't know who I can trust anymore.”
A pause.
“I know you think I'm overreacting.”
Another pause.
“But I'm not.”
Nathaniel gripped the desk.
“Someone has been following Grace and me.”
His eyes opened.
Maria covered her mouth.
Elizabeth continued.
“I found records in your father's old office.”
Nathaniel's face changed.
His father had died eleven years earlier.
The old office had been sealed after his death.
“I thought they were financial records at first.”
Elizabeth's voice trembled.
“They aren't.”
Static interrupted her.
Then she whispered,
“They're names.”
Nathaniel leaned closer.
“People who were paid.”
Another burst of static.
“People who disappeared.”
Then the recording stopped.
Nathaniel stared at the phone.
“That can't be all.”
He replayed it.
Same message.
Same ending.
He checked the duration.
Thirty-two seconds.
“There must be more.”
Maria shook her head.
“Maybe she didn't finish.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“No.”
He replayed it again.
This time, he noticed something.
A faint sound behind Elizabeth's voice.
Rain.
And a horn.
A truck horn.
He knew that sound.
Interstate 91.
The accident site.
He listened again.
Then heard something else.
A man's voice.
Very faint.
“She's here.”
Nathaniel froze.
The message had not ended.
Someone had spoken after Elizabeth.
He increased the volume.
The voice returned.
“She's here.”
Then Elizabeth screamed.
The recording ended.
Nathaniel dropped the phone.
Maria caught it before it hit the floor.
“Mr. Cole.”
He couldn't speak.
Elizabeth had not simply been driving alone.
Someone had been with her.
Someone had been waiting.
Someone had known where she was.
Nathaniel stood.
“Call my security team.”
Maria nodded.
But before she could move, the house alarm sounded.
One sharp tone.
Then silence.
Nathaniel immediately looked toward the hallway.
“Who has access to this house?”
“Only staff and security,” Maria said.
“Who has a key to this room?”
“No one.”
Nathaniel looked at the open door.
He had locked it.
He knew he had.
Yet it was open.
He walked downstairs.
Marcus, his head of security, entered through the front door.
“We have a problem.”
Nathaniel looked at him.
“What?”
“Someone accessed the east gate.”
“Who?”
“The system shows your credentials.”
Nathaniel's face hardened.
“I was upstairs.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I know.”
He handed him a tablet.
The access record showed Nathaniel's personal code.
Used ten minutes earlier.
Nathaniel stared.
“Someone copied my code.”
“Apparently.”
“Can you identify them?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“The camera went offline at the same time.”
Nathaniel's anger sharpened.
“Fix it.”
Marcus hesitated.
“There's more.”
“What?”
“We found tire tracks near the east gate.”
Nathaniel followed him outside.
Rain had turned the driveway into mud.
A set of fresh tracks disappeared into the woods.
Marcus crouched.
“Luxury SUV.”
Nathaniel stared toward the trees.
Then Lily tugged Maria's sleeve.
“Mommy.”
“What?”
“The man was here.”
Maria froze.
Nathaniel turned.
“What man?”
Lily pointed toward the woods.
“The man with the black hat.”
Marcus immediately stood.
“Where?”
Lily pointed again.
“Over there.”
Security officers spread through the grounds.
They found nothing.
No person.
No vehicle.
But they found something else.
A small silver button in the mud.
Nathaniel recognized it.
It belonged to a Cole Freight executive coat.
He knew exactly whose coat used those buttons.
His brother-in-law.
Daniel Mercer.
Daniel had been the last person to speak to Elizabeth before the accident.
Nathaniel had never suspected him.
Not once.
Daniel had helped organize the funeral.
He had stayed beside Nathaniel for weeks.
He had even helped raise money for the search.
Nathaniel stared at the button.
Marcus asked quietly,
“Should I bring him in?”
“No.”
“Sir?”
“If Daniel is involved, I want to know why.”
They returned inside.
Maria was waiting with the old brass key.
Nathaniel looked at her.
“Give it to me.”
She hesitated.
Then placed it in his hand.
“Elizabeth told me never to let anyone else have it.”
“Anyone else?”
“She said, especially family.”
Nathaniel looked at the key.
A tiny number was engraved beneath the bow.
17.
He knew what it meant.
Warehouse 17.
Cole Freight's oldest storage facility.
The place where his father's original records had been kept.
Nathaniel looked at Marcus.
“Get the car.”
Maria stepped forward.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“I know what Elizabeth wanted.”
Nathaniel stopped.
Maria held Lily close.
“She told me if anything happened to her, Lily would be safer with me.”
Nathaniel stared.
“What does my wife's death have to do with your daughter?”
Maria's face broke.
“I don't know.”
“But Elizabeth did.”
Maria nodded.
“She said Lily was the only reason she trusted me.”
Nathaniel looked down at the child.
Lily was holding something.
A tiny pink ribbon.
Grace's ribbon.
Nathaniel recognized it immediately.
He knelt.
“Where did you get that?”
Lily looked at him.
“The pretty lady gave it to me.”
His stomach dropped.
“Where?”
Lily pointed upstairs.
“The yellow room.”
Nathaniel looked at Maria.
Then at the staircase.
There was no longer any doubt.
The mystery was not outside his family.
May you like
It had been hidden inside his house for five years.
And Warehouse 17 might contain the reason why.
