CHAPTER 3 THE FALSE TRANSFER
Clara Wynn had worked for the Lily Project since the foundation opened.
She had interviewed every employee.
Reviewed every security procedure.
Approved every family that entered the mansion.
Daniel had trusted her with access to nearly every room.
Now she stood twenty feet away, holding a phone moments after Nathan tried to identify someone whose name began with the same two letters.
Clara approached him.
“Was that the prison?”
Daniel kept his expression neutral.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Because two federal officers arrived downstairs. They said there was an incident involving Nathan.”
“What incident?”
“They wouldn’t tell me.”
Daniel studied her face.
Clara did not look nervous.
That made him trust her even less.
Elena came out of Mara’s room carrying a clipboard.
“Daniel, I need to show you something.”
They entered the nearest office and closed the door.
Elena placed a medical transfer form on the desk.
The form authorized Mara’s removal to a private pediatric facility.
At the bottom was Elena’s signature.
“I didn’t sign this.”
Daniel examined the page.
The signature was nearly perfect.
“What time was it submitted?”
“Six minutes before she arrived at the gate.”
Clara read over his shoulder.
“That’s impossible.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Is it?”
Clara met his stare.
“You think Nathan was trying to name me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Before Daniel could answer, the main intercom activated.
“Medical transport has arrived for Mara Mercer.”
Elena turned toward the door.
“No one called for transport.”
Daniel drew his phone.
The security cameras were active again.
Two men in dark medical uniforms stood in the foyer beside an empty stretcher.
Their badges displayed the logo of St. Matthew’s Children’s Hospital.
Daniel called the hospital directly.
The emergency administrator answered.
They had sent no transport team.
Daniel contacted Marcus.
“Do not let those men near the medical wing.”
“We already locked the interior doors.”
“Keep them in the foyer until police arrive.”
Daniel returned to Mara’s room.
Lily sat beside the bed.
Mara was awake, staring through the glass at the two men in the distant foyer.
She began shaking.
“That’s them.”
Daniel stepped in front of the glass.
“You know those men?”
“They moved us at night.”
“From where?”
“The Second House.”
One of the men looked directly toward the medical wing.
He smiled.
Then he removed something from beneath his uniform.
A black electronic box.
Every locked door in the mansion released at once.
The men pushed the stretcher forward.
Marcus and two guards blocked the corridor.
“Stop where you are.”
The taller man drove the stretcher into Marcus.
The second sprayed a chemical mist toward the guards.
Daniel pulled Lily and Mara behind the medical room’s reinforced door.
Elena activated the manual lock.
Outside, Marcus fought to remain conscious.
The two intruders moved quickly.
Not like medical employees.
Like trained extraction officers.
Clara ran toward them from the side corridor.
The taller attacker swung at her.
She ducked, drove her shoulder into his chest, and knocked him against the wall.
Daniel saw the movement clearly.
Clara had been trained too.
The second man reached the medical room.
He pressed a device against the lock.
Sparks appeared around the frame.
Daniel aimed his weapon through the narrow window.
“Step away from the door.”
The man looked at him.
Then his eyes shifted toward Lily.
“Your uncle told us where you sleep.”
Lily’s fear became anger.
“My uncle is in prison.”
The man smiled.
“Not anymore.”
Daniel fired into the wall beside him.
The attacker jumped back.
Marcus recovered enough to tackle him from behind.
The two crashed onto the floor.
Clara disarmed the taller attacker, but he struck the emergency glass panel with his elbow.
An exterior service door opened.
He escaped into the rain.
Marcus and Daniel restrained the second man.
Police arrived eight minutes later.
The prisoner refused to give his name.
His fingerprints were not in any database.
He carried no identification.
Inside his pocket, however, Daniel found a heavy gold ring.
The Whitmore family crest was engraved across the front.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
It had belonged to his father.
Richard Whitmore had worn it every day until his death.
Daniel had searched for the ring after the funeral.
It had never been found.
Clara stood near the damaged medical door.
“Why would one of Arthur’s men have your father’s ring?”
Daniel closed his fist around it.
“Maybe Arthur’s network didn’t begin with Arthur.”
His phone rang again.
This time, the call came from Leonard Shaw, the attorney who had managed the Whitmore family trusts for thirty years.
Daniel answered.
Leonard sounded frightened.
“Daniel, I need you to come to my office.”
“What happened?”
“A sealed trust was activated when Arthur Bell was convicted.”
“What trust?”
“One created by your father.”
Daniel looked down at the ring.
Leonard continued.
“You were named the successor trustee.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“That was intentional.”
“How much money is involved?”
Leonard hesitated.
“More than the Lily Project will spend in its entire existence.”
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“Has anyone accessed it?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“That wasn’t me.”
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the person used credentials issued in your name twelve years ago.”
Daniel felt Elena take his arm.
May you like
Leonard lowered his voice.
“And whoever made the withdrawal transferred the money to a place called House 201.”
