The first problem with Dererick’s message was obvious.
Paul Mercer had not been buried.
According to official records, he had been cremated.
Anna looked at Harper.
“Then what does ‘where he buried Paul’ mean?”
Nobody assumed the phrase was literal until they verified the old records.
Paul’s body had been identified by his brother.
Autopsy performed.
Cremation authorized.
Ashes released to family.
There was no missing corpse.
Clare read the report twice.
“Could the identification have been wrong?”
Harper ordered the original evidence reviewed.
Fingerprints had confirmed identity.
Paul Mercer had died.
So Dererick meant something else.
A secret.
Evidence.
Records.
Perhaps “Paul” referred to material Vale had hidden after Mercer’s death.
Susan Bell provided the first clue.
Paul kept duplicate medication logs.
He distrusted the department’s recordkeeping and privately documented discrepancies.
Before he died, he told Susan that if Vale ever tried to blame him for missing drugs, he could prove who authorized them.
“Where did he keep the logs?”
Susan did not know.
She remembered Paul joking that hospitals were terrible places to hide evidence because everyone had keys.
He preferred somewhere nobody associated with work.
Paul loved gardening.
After his death, his small community-garden plot was reassigned.
Anna thought of Dererick’s wording.
Where he buried Paul.
Not where Vale buried him.
Ask Vale where he buried Paul.
Harper searched Vale’s basement notes.
One entry dated shortly after Mercer’s death contained two words:
Garden cleared.
Investigators located the old community garden.
Most of it had been redeveloped into a public park.
Historical maps identified Paul’s former plot.
Ground-penetrating equipment detected a small metal object beneath what was now a flower bed.
Police excavated carefully.
They found a rusted lockbox.
Inside, protected by layers of plastic, were notebooks.
Paul Mercer’s handwriting.
The logs documented medication removed under Vale’s authorization but never properly entered into patient records.
Several quantities corresponded to Vale’s questionable research.
More disturbing, Paul recorded his suspicions.
K.V. using D. off books.
At first investigators assumed D meant Dererick.
The dates were wrong.
Dererick had not yet met Vale.
Susan recognized the reference.
Daphne Lewis.
A research nurse.
She had worked with Vale before leaving suddenly.
Another associate.
The system before the system.
Daphne had died twelve years earlier in a traffic accident.
Investigators pulled her records.
No obvious connection to Mercer’s death.
But Paul’s notebook described her transporting medication and participant files outside the hospital.
Vale’s methods had already moved beyond institutional walls before Dererick arrived.
Anna felt as though every excavation uncovered an older foundation.
Dererick had modernized the machinery.
He had not built its first version.
Paul’s final notebook entries became increasingly alarmed.
He believed Vale was using information learned during research sessions to influence participants outside the studies.
Personal secrets.
Addictions.
Affairs.
Financial trouble.
The earliest form of leverage.
One line stood out:
He says people tell the truth when they no longer trust their own memory.
Anna had to stop reading.
That sentence belonged to her marriage.
Not literally.
Structurally.
Vale’s idea had survived for years and eventually reached her bedroom through Dererick.
Paul planned to report everything.
His final dated entry said:
Meeting K.V. tomorrow. Copies safe.
Paul died the next evening.
Harper reopened the death as a suspected homicide.
The lockbox gave investigators motive and evidence of misconduct, but not proof Vale killed him.
Dererick appeared to know more.
That created the problem.
The fugitive they were hunting possessed information investigators needed.
He knew it.
Anna knew he knew it.
The next contact came directly to her.
Despite security measures, a letter arrived through an attorney.
Not Dererick’s criminal attorney.
A different lawyer contacted Harper and said he had been retained years earlier to deliver a sealed envelope if specific conditions occurred.
The trigger had been news coverage linking Kenneth Vale to Rachel Boone.
Inside the envelope was a letter addressed to Anna.
Harper inspected and copied it before she read it.
Dererick’s handwriting was unmistakable.
Anna,
If you are reading this, then Nolan talked, Kenneth panicked, or both. You will be told that I am trying to manipulate you. That will be true. It will also be true that I can prove things they cannot.
Anna almost stopped there.
The arrogance of admitting manipulation felt calculated to create credibility.
She continued.
Dererick wrote that Vale was responsible for Paul Mercer’s death and that the proof existed among the originals.
He claimed Rachel had discovered enough to connect Vale to Paul.
Vale sent Dererick to recover the evidence.
Rachel refused to reveal where she kept it.
Dererick escalated.
Rachel died.
He admitted responsibility without using the word murder.
Anna noticed.
Even in a letter prepared for catastrophe, he shaped language around himself.
Then came the bargain.
If Anna publicly promised to hear him before cooperating further with prosecutors, he would surrender the originals.
Clare read that section and said, “Absolutely not.”
Anna agreed.
The letter continued.
Dererick claimed Vale would destroy remaining evidence and disappear if police cornered him without the originals.
He offered a location for one piece of proof as a demonstration.
A safe-deposit box.
The key number matched a code in the master ledger.
Harper obtained lawful access.
Inside were copies of Paul Mercer’s medication logs.
Photographs of Vale meeting Daphne Lewis outside the hospital.
And a cassette.
The cassette contained Paul’s voice.
He had secretly recorded a confrontation with Vale.
Paul accused him of unauthorized medication use and manipulating research participants.
Vale denied nothing directly.
Instead he told Paul to consider what accusations would do to his career.
Then Vale mentioned Paul’s dependence on prescription pain medication after an old injury.
Paul became furious.
Vale remained calm.
“You see the problem,” Vale said. “The person making the accusation must be more credible than the person being accused.”
Anna felt cold.
There was the entire system in one sentence.
Control the evidence.
Control credibility.
Control whose memory counts.
The recording ended before any explicit threat.
Still, it supported Paul’s notebook.
It also explained why Vale believed he could survive allegations.
He had information about the accuser.
Harper moved to arrest Vale on charges supported by the developing evidence while continuing the homicide investigation.
But Vale was still missing.
His finances showed no recent activity.
His passport had not been used.
His known vehicles were accounted for.
Then a foundation employee reported something she had previously considered irrelevant.
Vale maintained a private apartment under the foundation’s name for visiting scholars.
It was not listed among his personal properties.
Police entered.
The apartment was empty.
Recently occupied.
A cup in the sink.
Medication on the counter.
Vale’s.
He had been there.
A closet contained clothing.
A trash bin held bloodstained gauze.
His hand injury from the lake house.
Vale had treated himself there.
On the table sat a newspaper opened to the first public article naming him in connection with the investigation.
Several paragraphs were circled.
Beside them he had written:
D will trade.
Dererick.
Vale understood the same thing investigators did.
Dererick intended to use the originals.
The apartment also contained a printed map.
One location marked.
The abandoned railway depot where Dererick had tried to arrange the journalist meeting.
Vale had known about it.
“How?” Anna asked.
Harper considered the possibilities.
Vale might still have access to Dererick’s communications.
Or he might understand Dererick well enough to anticipate his choices.
A more troubling possibility emerged.
Dererick may have contacted him again.
Forensics recovered deleted browser activity from a tablet.
An encrypted webmail account had been accessed.
One message survived in cache.
From Dererick:
You want Paul and Rachel. I want a way out.
Vale replied:
You no longer have one.
Dererick:
Neither do you.
The exchange continued.
Vale demanded the case.
Dererick proposed a meeting.
Vale refused the location.
Dererick offered another.
A place identified only as M.
Nolan recognized it.
“Mercer.”
Paul’s old house had been demolished years earlier.
But his family owned a small fishing property outside the city.
Paul used it frequently.
After his death, the property changed hands.
The current owner?
Meridian Advisory.
Vale’s trust-connected entity.
Vale had purchased Paul Mercer’s fishing property after his death.
Anna stared at the ownership record.
“He buried Paul there.”
Not his body.
His history.
Perhaps evidence.
Perhaps something Dererick knew.
Police raced toward the property.
No one was there.
But two sets of recent tire tracks crossed the wet ground.
Inside the cabin, the air smelled of smoke.
A fireplace contained burned documents.
One unburned corner showed Paul’s handwriting.
Vale had been destroying material.
Then investigators found a hidden floor compartment.
Empty except for an old photograph.
Paul Mercer stood beside Susan Bell and several research staff members.
Kenneth Vale was among them.
So was Daphne Lewis.
On the back Paul had written names.
One unfamiliar man stood at the edge.
Susan identified him.
“Gerald Boone.”
Rachel’s father.
The connection stunned everyone.
Rachel’s father had worked as a hospital facilities contractor during Vale’s research years.
That was how Rachel first obtained the volunteer position.
Gerald Boone knew Paul Mercer.
After Paul died, Gerald may have helped Rachel preserve his evidence.
Rachel’s involvement was no accident.
She inherited the secret.
Vale knew.
Years later, he sent Dererick to retrieve it.
The chain finally connected.
Paul documented Vale.
Gerald helped preserve material.
Rachel inherited it.
Dererick targeted Rachel.
Rachel died.
Emily witnessed the aftermath.
Nolan fled the system.
Dererick continued it.
Anna eventually discovered the camera.
One night in her bedroom had opened a history stretching back more than a decade.
Harper searched the property grounds.
Near an old shed, officers found a second buried container.
Inside were water-damaged documents and one sealed envelope.
Gerald Boone’s handwriting appeared on the front.
If anything happens to Rachel.
Anna felt a pressure in her chest.
The letter described Gerald’s fear that Rachel had become determined to expose Vale after learning more about Paul’s death.
He begged her to give the records to police rather than confront anyone.
Gerald died before Rachel acted.
She kept going alone.
Anna understood that impulse too well.
The need to know before trusting anyone else.
The belief that one more piece of proof would make danger manageable.
It nearly killed Anna.
It had killed Rachel.
The letter contained one final clue.
Gerald wrote that Paul had hidden the most important recording somewhere “Kenneth could never retrieve without admitting why he wanted it.”
No location.
But Dererick apparently knew.
The originals case might contain it.
As police processed the fishing property, Anna’s secured phone received an incoming call routed through Harper’s monitoring system.
Unknown number.
Everyone became still.
Anna answered.
Dererick.
His breathing sounded strained.
“You found Paul’s place.”
Anna said nothing.
“I told you there was more.”
“You told me because you need something.”
A pause.
Then a quiet laugh.
“You finally stopped answering the question I ask and started asking why I asked it.”
Anna felt no satisfaction.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
Clare stiffened.
Harper signaled Anna to continue.
“For what?”
“To listen.”
“I listened for six years.”
Silence.
Dererick’s voice changed slightly.
“I loved you.”
Anna looked at the wall.
“You drugged me.”
“Yes.”
“You recorded me.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to take me to that room.”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
The admissions came without excuses.
That frightened her more than denial.
“You targeted Clare.”
“Yes.”
“You used me to reach people.”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to hear that you loved me?”
“I want you to understand that both things were true.”
Anna’s voice remained steady.
“No. You want me to agree that one changes the other.”
Dererick said nothing.
“It doesn’t.”
The line remained quiet long enough that Anna wondered whether he had disconnected.
Then he spoke.
“Kenneth never understood you.”
“Neither did you.”
That landed.
She heard it in his breathing.
Harper pointed toward the trace status.
Not enough yet.
Anna continued.
“Where’s the case?”
“With me.”
“Where’s Vale?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you lying?”
“Not about that.”
“What happened at the lake house?”
“He tried to take the case.”
“You fought.”
“Yes.”
“You left him alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dererick gave a tired laugh.
“Would you believe me if I said I’m done killing people?”
Anna’s stomach tightened.
The wording.
Not hurting.
Killing.
Plural implication or careless phrasing?
Harper heard it too.
“Rachel?” Anna asked.
“Yes.”
“Who else?”
Silence.
“Dererick.”
He breathed once.
“Ask Kenneth about Daphne.”
Daphne Lewis.
The research nurse whose death had been ruled a traffic accident.
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Did Vale?”
“I wasn’t there.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because he showed me what happens when someone mistakes evidence for protection.”
Anna closed her eyes.
Vale had used Daphne as a warning.
That meant Dererick had known about another suspicious death for years.
“You stayed anyway.”
“Yes.”
“You learned from him anyway.”
“Yes.”
“You did the same things.”
“Yes.”
Anna felt something inside her settle.
For days, revelations had kept complicating Dererick: student, abuser, husband, target, fugitive, witness against Vale.
But complexity did not erase responsibility.
He had choices at every stage.
He had chosen.
“You want a bargain,” Anna said.
“I want to give you the originals.”
“Give them to police.”
“No.”
“Then you don’t want to give them up. You want to trade them.”
Silence.
Harper watched Anna closely.
Dererick finally said, “Come alone and I’ll hand you the case.”
“No.”
“You want Rachel’s truth?”
“Yes.”
“Paul’s?”
“Yes.”
“Daphne’s?”
“Yes.”
“Then come.”
“No.”
The word surprised even Anna with how easy it felt.
Dererick’s voice hardened for the first time.
“You think Morales and Harper can protect everything?”
“This isn’t about them.”
“It’s about you.”
“No. That’s the mistake you keep making.”
Anna looked toward Clare.
Then at Harper.
Then back toward the phone she could not see him through.
“You built your whole life around deciding what other people would do when you frightened them enough. You still think I have to choose between obeying you and losing the evidence.”
Dererick said nothing.
“I don’t.”
“You will if Kenneth finds me first.”
“Then give Harper the case.”
A long pause.
The trace indicator changed.
Location narrowing.
Harper motioned for another thirty seconds.
Dererick’s voice softened.
“Do you remember what you said at the lake when I proposed?”
Anna did.
She had told him she wanted a marriage where neither person ever needed to be afraid of telling the truth.
The memory hurt.
She refused to give him the satisfaction of repeating it.
“You remember,” he said.
“Yes.”
“I did too.”
“Then you knew exactly what you were destroying.”
Silence.
The trace locked.
Harper moved.
Officers were dispatched to an industrial corridor east of Paul Mercer’s fishing property.
Dererick seemed to sense the change.
“Anna.”
She waited.
“When this ends, Kenneth will tell you I was the monster.”
“You were.”
A breath.
“And he’ll be right about himself too.”
Anna disconnected.
Harper’s teams converged on the traced location.
An abandoned cold-storage facility stood beside a freight yard.
One entrance was open.
Blood marked the floor.
Dererick had been there minutes earlier.
But he was gone.
On a crate in the center of the building sat a black camera.
Recording.
Beside it was one envelope addressed to Anna.
Inside was a memory card.
Not the originals case.
One copied file.
Harper reviewed it first.
Then she came to Anna.
“This is about Daphne.”
The video had been recorded twelve years earlier.
Kenneth Vale appeared in frame.
Daphne Lewis sat across from him.
She was frightened but fully conscious.
They argued about missing medication and altered research records.
Daphne said she had made copies.
Vale told her to surrender them.
She refused.
Then Vale leaned forward and said:
“You’ve seen what happens to people who force this into the open.”
The recording ended.
No murder.
No confession.
But direct evidence of intimidation shortly before Daphne’s fatal crash.
Anna stared at the final frame.
Dererick had begun releasing pieces.
He was no longer waiting for her agreement.
Something had changed during their call.
Or perhaps this had always been another contingency.
Harper’s phone rang.
A search team had found a vehicle leaving the freight yard.
It crashed three miles away after striking a barrier.
The driver had fled on foot.
Blood inside matched Dererick.
The metal case was not in the vehicle.
But officers found another object beneath the passenger seat.
Kenneth Vale’s phone.
And on it, a message sent less than an hour earlier to Dererick.
I have Clare. Bring the case.
Anna looked across the room.
The chair beside her was empty.
Clare had stepped out ten minutes earlier to answer what she believed was a secure hospital call.
She had not returned.
Click here to continue reading: PART 17: Clare’s Empty Chair Turns Vale’s Threat Into a Desperate Search, but Anna Notices the Detail That Proves Her Sister Left a Trail
The Cup Anna Refused to Drink Became the First Crack in a Marriage Built Around Secrets She Was Never Meant to See
Part 16 of 22
