Chapter 5 - THE DOCTOR WHO ARRIVED TOO EARLY Dr. Mercer denied entering the archive.
He claimed the reflection resulted from distorted light and accused León of manipulating the video. But the estate’s gate records showed Mercer’s vehicle arriving at 1:47 a.m.
The medical emergency began almost nine hours later.
“Why were you here before dawn?” Arturo demanded.
Mercer removed his glasses.
“Julián’s night nurse called about an irregular heartbeat.”
The nurse denied making the call.
Her phone showed no outgoing message.
Mercer produced a text requesting a private examination. It came from Florence’s number.
Florence had been asleep.
Again, someone had copied another person’s identity.
Mercer said he entered through the service corridor to avoid waking guests. He examined Julián, found nothing alarming, and left.
“Why did you enter the archive?” León asked.
“I didn’t.”
The motion camera showed the hooded person entering at 2:13. Mercer’s private hospital pager connected to the estate network at 2:11.
He had been within range.
Dr. Shaw requested that Mercer be removed from Julián’s care pending investigation.
Mercer became furious.
“You are allowing a child’s theory to disrupt emergency medicine.”
“The child recognized the poison while you dismissed it.”
Mercer looked toward Arturo.
“You called me because I have treated your family for twenty years.”
Arturo’s expression hardened.
“And that gave you access no one questioned.”
Mercer finally admitted that Graham Voss had asked him to inspect documents inside the archive.
Graham stared at him.
“I did no such thing.”
Mercer showed an encrypted message carrying Graham’s private signature code. It instructed him to retrieve Sofia’s medical file and deliver it to the nursery before sunrise.
“Why would an attorney ask a doctor to steal a dead woman’s file?” Arturo asked.
“The message claimed the file proved a hereditary heart disorder that might affect Julián.”
Mercer entered the archive but found the cabinet empty. He denied taking the wax kit or knife.
The music box belonged to him.
Sofia had given it to him years earlier.
León stepped forward.
“My mother hated you.”
Mercer’s face tightened.
“She trusted me once.”
Before Sofia’s death, Mercer treated her for recurring dizziness and heart palpitations. He diagnosed anxiety. Months later, she discovered someone had been adding a cardiac medication to her supplements.
She accused Mercer of ignoring the evidence.
He called her paranoid.
Then the greenhouse burned.
León had never known the full medical history.
Arturo turned toward Mercer.
“My sister was poisoned?”
“There was no proof.”
“Did you tell me?”
“She forbade me.”
The same toxin family found in Julián’s bottle could cause the symptoms Sofia suffered.
Dr. Shaw ordered Sofia’s preserved medical samples retested.
The laboratory found traces of a foxglove-derived compound in hair collected during her autopsy.
The greenhouse fire had killed her.
But someone had been poisoning her for months beforehand.
Julián was not the first Santillán targeted with the plant.
Mercer sat down heavily.
“I thought she was self-medicating.”
“Why?” León demanded.
“Because someone sent me records showing she purchased the extract.”
“Who sent them?”
Mercer looked toward Graham.
“His office.”
Graham shook his head.
“My office never handled medical evidence.”
Mercer opened an old email archive.
The documents came from a junior attorney working under Graham at the time.
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Victoria Ames.
👉 The woman refusing DNA testing had helped create the medical story that made Sofia’s poisoning look self-inflicted.
