Chapter 6 - The Service Road
Nicole waited until darkness turned the mansion windows into mirrors.
Before attempting to leave, she spent nearly forty minutes studying the house the way Paxton had taught her to study a contract.
Not for what it said.
For what it assumed nobody would question.
The security system assumed family members used the main halls.
Staff used the service corridors.
Guests used the central staircase.
Deliveries used the rear drive.
The cameras were positioned around those habits.
Nicole had spent years moving through the mansion as a guest who never fully belonged, which meant she noticed routes the family ignored.
The laundry corridor behind the guest suites connected to a narrow pantry passage.
The pantry passage opened near the conservatory.
The conservatory doors led to the garden without crossing the main foyer.
A housekeeper named Rosa confirmed the west camera had been malfunctioning for weeks.
She did not know why Nicole asked.
Nicole told her she wanted fresh air without upsetting Evelyn.
Rosa rolled her eyes.
"Everything upsets Mrs. Mercer."
Nicole almost laughed.
Then Rosa surprised her.
"Mr. Paxton always says the side garden is quieter."
Nicole looked at her.
"He talks to you?"
"He talks to everybody."
Rosa shrugged.
"His mother doesn't notice because she talks at everybody."
The distinction stayed with Nicole.
Paxton's greatest strength had always been that employees trusted him personally.
That was why the board fight mattered beyond family control.
Mercer Holdings was not only buildings and aircraft.
It was people who remembered who listened when they had a problem.
Nicole thought about Leon in the headquarters lobby.
Maria on the cleaning staff.
Dana risking her license to preserve records.
The company had a second network beneath the formal one.
Not a conspiracy.
Relationships.
People who might help because Paxton had helped them before.
Evelyn understood authority.
Reeves understood leverage.
Arthur understood systems.
Paxton, for all his secrecy, understood loyalty earned in small moments.
Nicole realized that might become their greatest advantage.
She also realized why Evelyn's plan needed Paxton silent.
A conscious Paxton could call directors.
He could call employees.
He could ask questions people would answer because they trusted him.
An unconscious Paxton became only paperwork.
A missing vote.
A medical status.
A legal problem.
Nicole looked at him from across the room.
"You are much more inconvenient awake,"
she whispered.
His eyes remained closed for the camera.
But the corner of his mouth moved.
Nicole took that as agreement.
The estate changed after sunset.
During the day, the house looked like a magazine spread built from limestone, glass, and old money.
At night, every corridor felt watched.
Security guards moved through the first floor in pairs.
The front gates remained closed.
The internal camera system displayed small red status lights Nicole had never noticed before.
Evelyn had ordered dinner served in her private sitting room.
Arthur had disappeared.
Dr. Reeves had left the estate but promised to return before the board meeting.
Paxton remained in bed, officially unresponsive.
Nicole sat beside him until 8:15 p.m.
Then she stood and stretched as if exhaustion had finally defeated her.
The ceiling camera turned toward the windows.
Nicole walked to the adjoining bathroom.
She closed the door.
Inside, she removed the flash drive from her sleeve and taped it inside the waistband of her trousers.
Charles's letter rested beneath her blouse.
The copied medication record from Dana was folded inside her shoe.
She looked at herself in the mirror.
Her hair was disordered.
Her face was pale.
She looked exactly like a woman who had spent three days beside a hospital bed.
That helped.
People underestimated exhausted women.
Nicole flushed the toilet, ran the sink, and returned to Paxton.
She adjusted his blanket.
"Ten minutes,"
she whispered.
Paxton did not open his eyes.
"If I'm not back in two hours?"
"I wake up."
"Publicly."
"Loudly."
Nicole touched his hand.
"No matter what anyone says, you do not take anything from that bottle."
"Planning not to."
"No jokes."
"I'm scared too."
The quiet admission stopped her.
Paxton's eyes opened.
"Nicole."
"What?"
"If something happens, the trust matters less than you."
"Nothing is happening."
"Listen."
She shook her head.
"No speeches."
"You always hate my speeches."
"Because you sound like a man leaving a voicemail before doing something stupid."
A faint smile touched his mouth.
"Then don't give me time to finish."
Nicole squeezed his fingers once and walked toward the terrace.
She opened the French doors two inches.
No alarm sounded.
Paxton had been right.
The old terrace circuit had been disconnected during renovations and never integrated into the new security system.
Nicole slipped outside.
Warm summer air hit her face.
The garden lights illuminated clipped hedges and white roses.
She walked normally for the first twenty yards.
Then she moved behind a row of cypress trees.
The service road began beyond the greenhouse.
Paxton had told her there was a gate used by grounds crews.
It had a mechanical latch rather than an electronic lock.
Nicole reached it in less than five minutes.
She opened the gate.
A dark SUV waited on the other side.
Nicole stopped.
The headlights were off.
The driver's window lowered.
Dana leaned across the passenger seat.
"Get in."
Nicole ran to the vehicle.
She climbed inside and shut the door.
"How did you know?"
Dana put the SUV in gear.
"Paxton's father used this road too."
They drove without headlights for two hundred yards before Dana turned onto a narrow county road.
Only then did she switch them on.
Nicole looked back toward the mansion.
The estate disappeared behind trees.
"Do you know Samuel Price?"
Dana shook her head.
"Only the name from Charles's files."
"Paxton says his contact information may be in his office."
"Downtown?"
"Yes."
Dana glanced at the dashboard clock.
"Security at headquarters is controlled by Evelyn."
"I have Paxton's access card."
"They can deactivate it."
"Then we find another way."
Dana drove faster.
"You sound different."
Nicole looked out the window.
"Three days ago I thought my biggest problem was whether my husband would wake up."
"And now?"
"Now he woke up and somehow everything got worse."
Dana gave a humorless laugh.
"That sounds like the Mercers."
They reached downtown at 9:04 p.m.
Mercer Holdings occupied the top twenty floors of a glass tower overlooking the river.
At night, the illuminated logo seemed to float above the city.
Nicole had attended charity dinners, holiday receptions, and shareholder events there.
She had never entered through the loading dock.
Dana parked in a public garage two blocks away.
"If the main card fails, we use the employee entrance."
Nicole looked at her.
"How?"
Dana held up an old badge.
CHARLES MERCER - PRIVATE MEDICAL STAFF.
"You kept that for six years?"
"I keep receipts too."
They crossed the street separately.
Nicole entered the lobby first.
The night guard recognized her.
His expression changed from boredom to concern.
"Mrs. Mercer."
"Hi, Leon."
"I thought you were at the estate."
Nicole smiled tiredly.
"I need something from Paxton's office."
Leon looked toward the security desk.
"I was told no one from the family was coming in tonight."
"Plans changed."
He hesitated.
"I need to call upstairs."
Nicole placed both hands on the desk.
"Leon, my husband is in a hospital bed."
"I know."
"I need his contact book."
"I understand."
"Then please don't make me explain this to six people."
Leon looked sympathetic.
For one second, Nicole thought it might work.
Then another guard stepped out of the back office.
"Mrs. Mercer isn't authorized."
Nicole recognized him.
Graham Cole.
Head of corporate security.
He had attended Evelyn's Christmas parties for years.
"Since when?"
Graham approached.
"Since this afternoon."
"By whose authority?"
"The acting chair."
"Paxton is chair."
"Mr. Mercer is incapacitated."
Nicole stared at him.
"And who declared that?"
"I'm not authorized to discuss legal matters."
"Apparently you're authorized to enforce them."
Graham's face remained neutral.
"I'm sorry."
Nicole looked toward the elevator bank.
"My belongings are in his office."
"They can be delivered."
"Tonight?"
"Tomorrow."
"After the board vote?"
His eyes shifted slightly.
Nicole saw it.
He knew about the meeting.
She stepped back from the desk.
"Fine."
Graham relaxed by a fraction.
Nicole turned toward the doors.
Then she stopped.
"One question."
"Yes?"
"Who is acting chair?"
Graham said nothing.
Nicole smiled faintly.
"That's what I thought."
She walked outside.
Dana waited across the street.
They met in the garage stairwell.
"Blocked?"
"Completely."
Dana held up her old badge.
"My turn."
The employee entrance sat on the south side of the building near the loading area.
Dana swiped the six-year-old badge.
The light flashed green.
Nicole stared.
"You're kidding."
Dana smiled.
"Old companies hate deleting anything."
They entered a service hallway.
The badge opened the staff elevator but only allowed access to the eighteenth floor.
Paxton's executive office was on twenty-nine.
They rode up.
At eighteen, they stepped into a dark administrative floor.
Rows of empty desks stretched beyond glass partitions.
Nicole knew the building layout from past visits.
An internal staircase connected several executive floors.
But the door to nineteen required another credential.
Dana's badge failed.
Nicole tried Paxton's card.
Red light.
"Deactivated."
Dana looked at the ceiling camera.
"We don't have long."
Nicole glanced through the office glass.
A cleaning cart stood beside a conference room.
A woman in a blue uniform emerged carrying a trash bag.
Nicole recognized her.
"Maria?"
The woman stopped.
"Mrs. Mercer?"
Nicole approached quickly.
"I need your help."
Maria looked nervous.
"Security said nobody should go upstairs."
"I know."
"They changed the elevator permissions."
"I know that too."
Maria lowered her voice.
"Mr. Mercer okay?"
Nicole hesitated.
"He's fighting."
Maria looked at her for a moment.
Then she removed a master maintenance card from her belt.
"Five minutes."
Nicole stared at the card.
"Maria, if this gets you in trouble—"
"Mr. Mercer kept my job when they outsourced housekeeping last year."
She pushed the card into Nicole's hand.
"Five minutes."
Nicole and Dana reached the twenty-ninth floor at 9:19 p.m.
The executive level was dark except for emergency lighting.
Paxton's office door stood closed at the end of the hall.
Nicole swiped Maria's card.
Green.
They entered.
The room smelled like Paxton.
Cedar cologne.
Coffee.
Paper.
For one dangerous moment, Nicole wanted to collapse into his chair and cry.
Instead she crossed to the credenza.
"Contact book."
Dana searched the desk drawers.
Nicole opened cabinets.
No book.
Then she remembered Paxton hated storing contacts digitally because Charles had taught him that anything connected could be changed remotely.
He kept a small leather address book somewhere in the office.
Nicole checked the bottom desk drawer.
Locked.
Dana pointed to a framed photograph on the shelf.
Nicole and Paxton at their courthouse wedding.
The frame sat slightly forward from the others.
Nicole lifted it.
A small key was taped to the back.
"Your husband has a pattern."
Dana sounded almost impressed.
Nicole opened the drawer.
Inside was the leather book.
She flipped to P.
PRICE, SAMUEL.
A Manhattan phone number.
A home address in Connecticut.
And one handwritten note.
CALL ONLY FROM CHARLES'S RED PHONE.
Nicole frowned.
"What red phone?"
Dana looked around the office.
"Maybe a secure line."
They searched.
No red phone.
Nicole copied the number anyway.
Then footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Dana switched off the desk lamp.
The office went dark.
Two men approached.
Nicole recognized Graham Cole's voice.
"She came here."
Another man answered.
Arthur Vale.
"Of course she did."
Nicole and Dana exchanged a look.
There was no second exit.
They crouched behind the large conference table as the office door opened.
Graham turned on the lights.
Nicole held her breath.
Arthur entered.
He walked directly toward Paxton's desk.
"Check the drawer."
Graham opened it.
The leather book was missing.
Arthur exhaled sharply.
"She has it."
Graham looked around the room.
"How?"
"Someone helped her."
Arthur's shoes stopped only a few feet from Nicole.
She could see the polished black leather beneath the table.
Graham's radio crackled.
"Sir, maintenance card used on twenty-nine."
Arthur looked toward the door.
"Which employee?"
"Maria Santos."
Nicole's stomach dropped.
Arthur's voice hardened.
"Suspend her access."
Nicole clenched her jaw.
Arthur continued.
"And send someone to the Mercer estate."
Graham frowned.
"Why?"
"Because if Nicole is here, Paxton is alone."
Nicole went cold.
Arthur turned toward the hallway.
"Evelyn needs to know immediately."
The men left.
The door closed.
Nicole rose before Dana could stop her.
"We have to go."
They ran for the stairwell.
Nicole called the mansion from Dana's phone as they descended.
No answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
Then a text appeared on Dana's screen from an unknown number.
ONE HOUR.
NO POLICE.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT HIM SAFE.
Nicole stopped on the landing.
Dana read over her shoulder.
"Who sent that?"
Nicole stared at the message.
May you like
A second text arrived.
It contained a photograph of Paxton's empty hospital bed.
