Chapter 14 - THE ASSISTANT WITH TWO PHONES
Rachel Kim was found at 4:10 p.m.
Not hiding.
Not fleeing.
Sitting alone in a coffee shop two blocks from Mercer Industries.
A laptop open.
One phone on the table.
Another inside her bag.
Police approached quietly.
Rachel did not resist.
She only asked one question.
“Is Elena okay?”
Ruiz sat across from her twenty minutes later.
“You tell me.”
Rachel looked exhausted.
“I never wanted her hurt.”
Ruiz placed a photograph of the staircase on the table.
“Elena fell here.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Camille wasn’t supposed to go inside.”
“So you knew she was going.”
“Yes.”
“Who told you?”
“Helena.”
“Why are you working for Helena Vale?”
Rachel opened her eyes.
“Because my brother owed money.”
Ruiz waited.
“To who?”
“A gambling group.”
“How much?”
“Three hundred thousand.”
“And Helena paid it?”
“Yes.”
“In exchange for you spying on Elena.”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“At first, just schedules.”
“That’s always how it starts.”
“I know.”
“Then medical information?”
Rachel nodded.
“Passwords?”
“Yes.”
“Northgate Fertility?”
Rachel looked down.
“That was Helena’s clinic connection.”
“You recommended it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She told me it was harmless.”
Ruiz stared at her.
“You gave someone access to Elena’s fertility treatment.”
“I didn’t understand Haven then.”
“When did you?”
“Last year.”
“Before David died?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell him?”
Rachel looked up.
“Yes.”
Ruiz became still.
“You were David Mercer’s source.”
Rachel nodded.
“That’s how he found Haven.”
Everything shifted again.
Rachel had betrayed Elena.
But she had also warned David.
“Why keep working for Helena afterward?”
“She knew I told David.”
“Then why didn’t she expose you?”
Rachel’s voice shook.
“Because she said if I stopped helping, my brother would disappear.”
Ruiz believed the fear.
He did not excuse the choices.
“Where is Helena now?”
“I don’t know.”
“She used Elena’s car.”
“I gave her the access code.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Why?”
“She said she needed to retrieve files before Graham destroyed them.”
“What files?”
“Project Haven backups.”
“Where?”
Rachel hesitated.
Ruiz leaned forward.
“Rachel.”
“The old Helix clinic.”
“Northgate?”
“No.”
“A research facility beneath it.”
Ruiz stared.
“Beneath the fertility clinic?”
Rachel nodded.
“There’s a restricted basement.”
“What’s inside?”
“Servers.”
“Medical data?”
“Yes.”
“Anything else?”
Rachel’s face became pale.
“Video archives.”
Ruiz frowned.
“Video of what?”
“Patient consultations.”
Elena’s private fertility consultations.
Possibly every vulnerable conversation she had ever believed was confidential.
Ruiz stood.
“We’re going now.”
Rachel grabbed his sleeve.
“Detective.”
He looked down.
“Helena will destroy it.”
“Then we move fast.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
Rachel’s voice dropped.
“She won’t destroy only the servers.”
Ruiz stared.
“What else is down there?”
Rachel whispered.
“A gas fire suppression system.”
Ruiz understood.
If Helena triggered it incorrectly in a sealed underground space, evidence could disappear.
And anyone inside could be placed in serious danger.
Northgate Fertility closed early under an emergency police order.
Ruiz entered with a digital forensic team.
The basement access was concealed behind a locked records room.
Rachel provided the code.
The door opened.
A stairwell descended beneath the clinic.
Cold air rose from below.
Ruiz entered.
Rows of servers filled the underground facility.
Green lights blinked.
Hundreds.
Maybe thousands.
Maya Chen stared.
“This is Haven.”
Ruiz nodded.
A wall of monitors displayed archived files.
Patient names.
Appointments.
Video timestamps.
Elena Mercer appeared on one screen.
Two years earlier.
Sitting inside a consultation room.
Crying while Adrian held her hand.
Ruiz looked away.
This was not research.
It was surveillance.
Then alarms began.
Red lights flashed.
AUTOMATED PURGE INITIATED.
Maya ran toward a terminal.
“They’re deleting everything.”
“Can you stop it?”
“I can try.”
The ventilation system changed.
Ruiz looked upward.
A warning appeared.
FIRE SUPPRESSION ARMED.
“Everyone out!”
Maya kept typing.
“I need thirty seconds.”
“You have ten.”
The server room doors began closing automatically.
Ruiz grabbed one.
An officer wedged equipment beneath it.
Maya shouted.
“I found the remote source!”
“Where?”
She stared at the screen.
“Someone’s controlling it from Mercer House.”
Ruiz froze.
Elena’s mansion.
Crime scene.
Supposedly secured.
Ruiz grabbed his radio.
“Units at Mercer House, report.”
Static.
Then an officer answered.
“Detective, we have a problem.”
“What problem?”
“The basement alarm went off.”
“What basement?”
A pause.
“We didn’t know the house had one.”
Ruiz remembered David’s letter.
Access to our family records, security systems, and private medical information.
Helena was not only inside the mansion’s network.
May you like
She might be physically inside Mercer House.
And Elena had never known there was a hidden basement beneath her own home.
