Chapter 6 - The Letter My Brother Hid Fifteen Years Ago Led Me to a Place Cedric Feared
I carried the note to the study without knocking.
Cedric looked up from a phone call.
He ended it immediately.
"Someone entered my room," I said.
He read the note. His expression changed at the final line.
"The first sentence is old," he said. "The second was written recently."
"Then he's alive."
"Maybe."
I hated that word.
Meera examined the photograph while Tomaso called the house's security chief, Daniel.
"Look at the background," she said.
A painted sign stood behind the van.
ST. AGNES COMMUNITY CLINIC.
The clinic had closed years ago. Its records had been moved to a private archive in South Philadelphia.
"We're going," I said.
Cedric reached for his coat.
"I can arrange a driver."
"I didn't invite you."
"I know."
He waited.
That quiet patience irritated me more than an order would have.
I finally nodded.
At the archive, a retired nurse named Evelyn Shaw recognized my mother's photograph.
She sat down so suddenly her chair scraped the floor.
"Elena," she whispered. "I wondered whether anyone would come."
She remembered my mother arriving injured, accompanied by a frightened little boy.
"A man collected the boy the next day," Evelyn said.
"Who?"
"He showed me court papers. Said he was family."
She opened an old ledger.
The signature belonged to Vittorio Spedaro.
I felt Cedric move beside me.
"Where did they take him?" I asked.
Evelyn shook her head.
"But the boy left something. He made me promise to keep it."
She handed me a brass key attached to a blue plastic tag.
Number 19.
On the back, scratched with a pin, were two words.
RIVER STORAGE.
Cedric looked at the key.
"I know that building," he said.
"Then drive me there."
"Anna, it's one of Vittorio's properties."
May you like
I slipped the key into my pocket.
"Then he won't be surprised to see us."
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