Chapter 12 - Beneath the Sculpture Garden
The search warrant was executed two days later.
Richard’s attorneys fought unsuccessfully to narrow it.
Investigators brought ground-penetrating radar to the east garden.
Victoria did not attend.
Henry did.
He stood with Rebecca Mercer behind the permitted perimeter.
The first anomaly appeared beneath a stone sculpture Richard had installed in November 2006.
The work was titled Silence.
Henry stared at the name.
“Of course.”
Excavation began.
At six feet, investigators found fabric.
Then human remains.
Rebecca Mercer collapsed.
Henry caught her.
Twenty years.
No miracle.
No secret second life.
No escape overseas.
Elias Mercer had been buried beneath North Hollow.
A forensic identification would take time, but personal effects included his Calder & Rowe identification card.
And one shoe.
Only one.
Rosa had seen the pair left behind in Brooklyn.
Someone had apparently put one back on him.
Henry cried openly.
Victoria learned through Agent Mills.
She sat alone in her apartment for an hour.
Then Richard called.
She declined.
He called again.
She declined.
A third time.
She answered.
“They found him.”
Silence.
Victoria continued.
“Under Mom’s garden.”
Richard whispered, “I did not choose that location.”
She almost laughed.
“Is that your defense?”
“Nathan handled it.”
“You built the emergency drainage invoice.”
“My company paid it.”
“You signed the approval.”
No answer.
“Dad, they have it.”
Richard’s voice cracked.
“I never touched Elias.”
“You refused him medical care.”
“I was not there when he died.”
“You helped hide him.”
“He was already dead.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“Listen to yourself.”
Richard breathed heavily.
“You think turning me into a monster cleans your hands?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
Victoria continued.
“I humiliated Henry because I thought people beneath me existed to absorb whatever I felt.”
Silence.
“You taught me that power meant controlling consequences.”
“Victoria—”
“I did what I did.”
She swallowed.
“And you did what you did.”
Her father ended the call.
That evening, Nathan disappeared.
His passport had been flagged for monitoring, but he was not under arrest.
Laurent House security found his office empty.
Two hard drives missing.
A shredding bin full.
And one storage-access badge gone.
The badge belonged to Laurent Freeport, a bonded art-storage facility near Newark Airport.
Henry immediately understood.
“The frame.”
“What frame?” Victoria asked.
“The current painting is evidence, but Nathan may have stored the removed 2006 frame.”
Victoria stared.
“Arendt said it was burned.”
“He said Richard told him it was burned.”
If the blood-stained original frame still existed, it could contain Elias’s DNA and physical evidence from the confrontation.
Laurent checked storage records.
One unit had been controlled by Cole Provenance Services since 2007.
Unit C-119.
Nathan’s access badge had opened the facility forty minutes earlier.
Laurent called security.
They sealed the outer exits.
Nathan was inside.
Special Agent Mills and local law enforcement were notified.
Victoria wanted to go.
Henry said no.
“This isn’t yours to fix.”
“My father is part of this.”
“So?”
“So I need to—”
Henry cut her off.
“You need to stop believing being emotionally involved makes you useful.”
She stared.
He continued.
“Let professionals handle Nathan.”
Victoria hated that he was right.
Then Laurent received a call from the facility manager.
Unit C-119 was empty.
Nathan had accessed it.
But someone had moved its contents three days earlier.
Authorized by:
RICHARD VALE.
Victoria stared at the screen.
Her father had taken the old frame before Elias’s body was found.
May you like
And now Nathan had discovered the same thing.
Two men who once protected the same secret were suddenly competing for the last piece of physical evidence.
