Chapter 4 - The Little Girl Behind the Locked Door
Sadie reached Poppy’s room in less than thirty seconds.
The bed was empty.
The window was open.
For one horrifying moment, her mind stopped functioning.
Then she saw the pink backpack.
Poppy would never leave it behind voluntarily.
“POPPY!”
Ronan entered behind her.
His face changed when he saw the window.
“Lock the estate.”
“It’s already locked,” his security chief replied.
“Then nobody leaves.”
Sadie crossed the room.
A stuffed rabbit lay beside the bed.
Under it was a folded piece of paper.
Three words had been printed in block letters.
ASK YOUR MOTHER.
Ronan looked at Eleanor.
Sadie did too.
The elderly woman had been wheeled into the doorway.
Her face became gray.
Her hands started moving.
Fast.
Basement. Old chapel.
Ronan frowned.
“There is no chapel.”
Eleanor stared at him.
Then signed again.
Your father sealed it.
The entrance was hidden behind shelving in the wine cellar.
Ronan found the mechanism beneath an old brass raven.
The wall opened six inches.
Cold air escaped.
Sadie entered before anyone could stop her.
“Sadie.”
“My daughter is down there.”
Ronan followed.
A stone staircase descended beneath Raven Hill.
At the bottom was a narrow corridor illuminated by emergency lights.
They found Poppy sitting behind an iron gate.
Alive.
Unhurt.
And furious.
“Mommy! That mean man locked me in!”
Sadie almost collapsed.
She rushed to the bars.
“Who?”
Poppy pointed into the darkness.
“He smelled like Grandpa Soap.”
Ronan looked confused.
Sadie understood.
“Old-fashioned shaving soap.”
Victor Marsh used it.
Ronan’s expression hardened.
A key rested on a hook ten feet away.
Too easy.
Ronan stopped Sadie from reaching through.
“Trap.”
He examined the floor.
A thin wire ran beside the gate.
Security disarmed it.
The lock opened.
Sadie grabbed Poppy and buried her face against her daughter’s hair.
Then Poppy said something strange.
“The man wanted Grandma’s book.”
Sadie pulled back.
“What book?”
“The bird book.”
Eleanor had followed them downstairs.
She signed.
Bible.
The leather Bible from her bedroom.
The same one Sadie had seen that morning.
Ronan sent a guard upstairs.
Minutes later, the answer came.
The Bible was gone.
Victor Marsh was gone too.
But the mansion gates had never opened.
“He’s still here,” Ronan said.
Poppy tugged his sleeve.
“Uncle Ronan?”
It was the first time she had called him that directly.
He looked down.
“The man dropped this.”
She opened her tiny fist.
A silver cuff link.
Ronan recognized it.
Not Marsh’s.
June Callaway’s initials were engraved on the back.
J.C.
Sadie’s heart sank.
June had arranged the cruel joke that sent Sadie to Eleanor.
Had she deliberately brought Sadie into the East Wing?
Or had she been trying to get her fired before she reached Eleanor?
They found June in the pantry.
She was crying.
“I didn’t take the child.”
Ronan placed the cuff link on the counter.
June stared.
“That belonged to my husband.”
Nobody spoke.
“He worked security for your father,” she continued. “Marsh killed him thirteen years ago.”
Sadie frowned.
“Then why do you work here?”
“Because leaving would have told Marsh I knew.”
June wiped her face.
“I spent thirteen years waiting for someone to make Eleanor Cain communicate.”
Sadie suddenly understood.
“You sent me upstairs deliberately.”
June nodded.
“I saw sign language on your Beacon file.”
“You humiliated me.”
“I needed everyone to believe it was a joke.”
Sadie stared at her.
“The shoes? The laughter?”
June lowered her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Ronan remained cold.
“Where is Marsh?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I truly don’t.”
Then June looked at Eleanor.
“But I know what he wants.”
Eleanor’s missing Bible contained a hollow section inside the binding.
Declan Cain had hidden a brass key there before his death.
June’s husband had seen him do it.
The key opened a private deposit box at Ashport Federal.
“What’s inside?” Sadie asked.
“Names.”
June looked at Ronan.
“Judges. Police officers. Businessmen. People your father discovered were connected to Marsh’s network.”
Ronan’s phone rang.
Security.
They had found a hidden exit beneath the old chapel.
Marsh was gone.
So was the Bible.
But ten minutes later, Ronan received another call.
Ashport Federal had detected an attempted access to a dormant deposit box.
Marsh was moving quickly.
Ronan ordered cars.
Sadie caught his arm.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Elias died because of that ledger.”
“And I’m not letting his daughter lose her mother because of it.”
The words stopped her.
Ronan looked toward Poppy.
“I lost one brother. She’s not losing you.”
Sadie’s anger weakened.
For the first time, Ronan did not sound like a crime boss giving an order.
He sounded like an uncle.
Eleanor signed something.
Sadie read it.
Then looked at Ronan.
“What?”
“She says Marsh doesn’t have the real key.”
June looked confused.
Eleanor smiled.
A tiny, victorious smile.
Then she pointed at Sadie’s wrist.
At the falcon tattoo.
Sadie stared.
Eleanor signed:
Elias gave it to her.
Sadie touched the faded band around her wrist.
Suddenly she remembered the night Elias died.
He had fastened the cloth around her arm himself.
Never remove this, he had said.
She had assumed he meant the tattoo.
With trembling fingers, Sadie tore open the old fabric seam.
Something metallic dropped onto the table.
A tiny brass key.
Ronan stared at it.
Four years.
Sadie had carried the evidence every day without knowing it.
Then Ronan’s phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared.
Dr. Bell.
Awake.
A gun against his head.
Underneath was a message.
Bring the key to Pier 19 before midnight. Come alone, or the doctor dies.
Ronan looked at the clock.
11:14 p.m.
Sadie took the key.
“No.”
Ronan stepped in front of her.
She met his eyes.
“Your brother died giving this to me.”
“And I’m not letting you follow him.”
“Then we stop pretending either of us is going alone.”
For the first time, Ronan Cain smiled at her.
It was not warm.
May you like
It was the smile of a dangerous man who had finally found someone equally stubborn.
“Now,” he said, “you’re learning.”
