Chapter 7 - The Match
Melissa possessed a rare blood and tissue profile.
So did Sophie.
The file contained both.
That frightened me more than anything else.
Ruiz brought in federal investigators.
The case was no longer simply homicide.
The Mercer network appeared to be facilitating illegal transplant procedures for wealthy clients who could not or would not wait through legitimate channels.
The blue clinic was one node.
The flights were another.
Melissa had discovered fraudulent insurance data being used to identify potential biological matches.
Then she discovered her own profile inside the system.
She confronted Brent.
He told Wade.
Wade told someone else.
Harrison.
But there was a problem.
Melissa’s removed tissue could not explain her death by itself.
The procedure had been limited.
Something went catastrophically wrong afterward.
And instead of taking her to a hospital, they brought her home.
Why?
Because legitimate doctors would discover what had been done.
Brent had watched his wife deteriorate and protected the secret.
That was enough for me.
But Sophie’s file terrified the FBI.
Someone had already begun testing whether she matched another unidentified recipient.
“She’s five,” I whispered.
Agent Ruiz’s federal counterpart, Special Agent Nathan Cole, answered quietly.
“They may never have intended to operate on Sophie.”
“May?”
Nobody reassured me.
Good.
I no longer wanted comforting lies.
Brent was arrested for obstruction and conspiracy.
Wade disappeared before police could arrest him.
Rebecca remained missing.
Harrison remained a ghost.
Then Sophie said something strange.
“Daddy didn’t want Mommy to go.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The night Mommy got sick.”
She squeezed my fingers.
“Daddy was crying.”
That contradicted everything I believed.
“Did you see him?”
She nodded.
“He said, ‘Dad, please.’”
Harrison.
Not Wade.
Brent had been speaking to Harrison.
Sophie continued.
“Then Grandpa’s daddy said Mommy chose this.”
“What did Mommy say?”
Sophie’s expression changed.
“She said, ‘If you touch Sophie, I’ll destroy everything.’”
My daughter had known.
She had not merely been a victim.
She had been fighting them.
Agent Cole searched Melissa’s hidden files again.
There was one heavily encrypted archive nobody could open.
Its password hint:
Sophie knows.
We asked Sophie carefully.
“Did Mommy ever tell you a special word?”
Many.
Princess.
Bunny.
Moonlight.
Then Sophie remembered something.
“Three men.”
Ruiz and I looked at each other.
We entered THREE MEN.
Wrong.
Sophie shook her head.
“No. Mommy said, ‘Remember the third man.’”
THIRDMAN.
The archive opened.
Hundreds of documents appeared.
At the top was a video.
Melissa sat inside her car.
Alive.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Mom, if you’re watching this, I’m probably dead.”
I began sobbing.
Then Melissa said:
“Brent and Wade are guilty.”
A pause.
“But neither of them is the third man.”
May you like
She held up a photograph.
“And the third man is the one person you will never suspect.”
