Official records described it as an abandoned neurological rehabilitation facility.
In reality, part of the complex was still maintained under a private medical trust connected to Meridian shell companies.
Federal investigators entered the property forty-eight hours after Thomas’s arrest.
They found eleven residents.
Most had false names.
One of them was Daniel Mercer.
Alive.
Alexander refused to believe it until he saw him.
We stood in a hospital corridor while a nurse opened the door.
Daniel sat beside a window.
Older.
Thinner.
Silver hair.
Scar above his eyebrow.
Exactly like the recording.
Alexander stopped.
Daniel looked up.
Twenty years disappeared from both men’s faces.
“Alex.”
Alexander walked forward.
Then stopped again.
There are reunions too large for words.
This was one of them.
Daniel smiled weakly.
“You got old.”
Alexander laughed.
Then cried.
I had never seen Alexander Brooks cry.
He crossed the room and wrapped his arms around his brother.
