Chapter 8 - Mara Ellis
Mara Ellis had not been living quietly in Maine.
Someone was.
Investigators visited address.
Woman there was real Mara Ellis.
She produced identification, employment records and wrist scar from 2019 training.
She denied receiving token.
Signature on Vanessa receipt looked hers but forged.
So why name?
Because whoever orchestrated scheme understood scar history.
Rachel and Mara were both injured in same exercise.
Using Mara’s name created plausible confusion if records surfaced.
Then forensic review of dead woman produced breakthrough.
DNA matched distant relatives through consented genealogy database.
Identity:
Natalie Price, thirty-one.
Former employee of Meridian Event Logistics.
No known military connection.
She disappeared two days before Rachel crash.
Her family had reported missing in another state, but data systems never connected due jurisdiction differences.
Natalie’s wrist scar?
Medical records showed she received it six months before death after glass-door accident.
Natural scar.
Similar to Rachel’s by coincidence.
But photographs before accident showed no scar.
Could someone have engineered injury?
No evidence.
She cut wrist when restaurant door shattered.
Witnesses confirmed accident.
Then why choose Natalie as body?
Because she resembled Rachel in height/build and had convenient similar scar.
Someone selected her.
This was darker.
Natalie died from injuries consistent with vehicle crash? Medical re-review suggested yes, but whether alive when placed in SUV uncertain. Toxicology showed sedative.
So likely kidnapped, sedated, put in vehicle, crash staged.
A homicide investigation opened.
Rachel’s case changed.
Someone did intend create dead Rachel.
Voss’s false-death protection merely reinforced attacker’s plan.
Who had access to Natalie?
Meridian Event Logistics provided hospitality staffing for military charity events—including Fort Brennan.
Owner:
Gregory Shaw.
Former Project Haven procurement officer.
Rachel recognized name.
One of shell vendors in File 12.
She had investigated him before attack.
Shaw was sixty-six.
Could he be mastermind?
He had died two months earlier from cancer.
Natural.
Records seized from estate.
Invoices showed $4.8M routed through Meridian.
Most money supported real protected housing.
But $620,000 lacked documentation.
Rachel had been tracing it.
Then investigators found internal email:
G. SHAW TO A. VOSS:
RACHEL FOUND MERCER CONTINUITY ACCOUNT. IF SHE KEEPS DIGGING SHE WILL FIND FAMILY 6.
Voss stared at email.
“I never received this.”
Header showed draft stored in Shaw local archive, unsent.
What was Family 6?
Project Haven protected-family file from 2002.
Primary caseworker:
Elizabeth Mercer.
Rachel’s mother.
Family:
REDACTED.
Outcome:
IDENTITY SEPARATION SUCCESSFUL.
Rachel asked:
“Was this why my mother died?”
No evidence.
Her plane crash occurred later and investigation showed mechanical failure/weather. No sabotage.
Still Family 6 mattered enough Shaw feared discovery years later.
Then Sarah found handwritten note in father’s old Project Haven binder:
FAMILY 6 MUST NEVER BE USED AS DECOY MODEL AGAIN.
Decoy model.
Rachel looked at Sarah.
“What does that mean?”
Sarah whispered:
“I think your scar isn't what they copied.”
“What did they copy?”
Sarah turned page.
There were two photographs.
One showed Rachel’s mother Elizabeth.
The other showed a masked woman wearing Elizabeth’s clothes.
Same height.
Same build.
May you like
Same silver bracelet.
Project Haven had been using decoys long before Rachel.
