Chapter 6 - THE VOICE BELOW THE GROUND
Police searched every tunnel beneath the cemetery.
Most had been sealed decades earlier.
Others were partially collapsed.
Detective Ramirez divided officers into teams.
Claire and Ethan were ordered to remain aboveground.
Ethan lasted four minutes.
Then he heard it.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
His head snapped toward the mausoleum.
Claire heard it too.
Three faint knocks.
They came from somewhere beneath the stone floor.
Ethan looked at his mother.
Claire’s face changed.
“Someone’s down there.”
Ramirez returned immediately.
Officers entered the tunnel again.
Ethan followed until Ramirez blocked him.
“You stay here.”
“Three knocks saved my mom.”
“I know.”
“Then listen.”
They all became quiet.
Nothing.
Then.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Ramirez pointed toward the western tunnel.
Officers ran.
Behind a stack of rotting wooden panels, they discovered another steel hatch.
It had been disguised to look like part of the foundation.
The lock was new.
Police cut through it.
Nora Bennett was inside.
Her hands were bound.
Tape covered her mouth.
She was conscious but weak.
Beside her sat the padded envelope Claire had mailed.
Unopened.
Victor Hale had captured Nora before she could deliver the evidence.
But he had not yet recovered the envelope.
Nora had kicked it beneath a drainage pipe before being restrained.
Paramedics carried her outside.
When she saw Claire, she began crying.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you.”
Nora grabbed Claire’s wrist.
“I thought they buried you.”
“They almost did.”
Nora looked toward Ethan.
“He stopped them.”
Ethan stared at the reporter.
“You knew about the knocks?”
Nora shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why did you tap three times?”
“I didn’t.”
Everyone froze.
Ethan looked toward the tunnel.
The sound came again.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
It was farther away.
Ramirez ordered officers back underground.
They followed the sound beyond the chamber where Nora had been held.
Behind a crumbling brick wall, they discovered another room.
Inside was an elderly woman.
Alive.
Barely.
Margaret Bell.
The woman Richard claimed had disappeared voluntarily.
She had been imprisoned beneath the cemetery for nearly eleven weeks.
Her husband’s trust had been emptied.
Her home had been transferred.
Her identity had been legally erased through forged paperwork.
She had survived because one of Richard’s lower-level employees secretly brought her water and food.
Margaret was rushed to the hospital.
Before leaving, she whispered one sentence to Ramirez.
“There are more.”
The investigation changed instantly.
State police arrived.
Federal investigators were contacted.
Search warrants expanded across Richard’s properties and Bellweather Capital offices.
Claire’s envelope was finally opened.
Inside were 142 pages of financial records.
There were bank transfers.
Fake death certificates.
Insurance claims.
Property deeds.
And handwritten notes.
One page contained a diagram of the entire operation.
At the center were two names.
RICHARD PARKER.
VICTOR HALE.
But a third name appeared above both of them.
No first name.
Only one word.
MERCER.
Nora stared at it.
“I’ve seen that name.”
Ramirez looked at her.
“Where?”
“In courthouse records.”
“What is Mercer?”
Nora swallowed.
“A judge.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
May you like
If Nora was right, Richard’s conspiracy reached far beyond a dishonest husband and his attorney.
It reached into the system that was supposed to stop them.
