Chapter 5 - Pier Nineteen
At 11:57 p.m., Sadie walked alone into Pier Nineteen.
At least, that was what Victor Marsh was supposed to believe.
Rain hammered the corrugated roof.
Dr. Bell sat tied to a chair beneath a hanging industrial light.
Marsh stood behind him.
“You look remarkably like the woman Elias described.”
Sadie stopped.
“You knew about me.”
“Not enough.”
Marsh smiled.
“That irritated me for years.”
“Let Bell go.”
“The key.”
Sadie held it up.
Marsh’s eyes sharpened.
Across the harbor, Ronan watched through a scope.
Sadie knew he was there.
She also knew Marsh would kill Bell if he saw Ronan too soon.
Marsh extended his hand.
Sadie approached.
Ten feet.
Eight.
Six.
Then Bell shouted.
“Sadie, DON’T!”
Marsh struck him.
Sadie stopped.
Bell looked at her desperately.
“The ledger isn’t in the bank!”
Marsh’s expression changed.
A gunshot shattered the light.
Darkness.
Ronan’s men moved.
Sadie dropped.
Gunfire erupted.
Marsh disappeared through a side door.
Ronan reached Sadie.
“You hit?”
“No.”
He checked anyway.
His hands stopped at her shoulders.
For one second they simply looked at each other.
Then Bell groaned.
They freed him.
“What did you mean?” Ronan demanded.
Bell coughed.
“Elias moved the ledger before he died.”
“Where?”
Bell looked at Sadie.
“He never told me. He said the safest hiding place was somewhere Marsh would see every day and never recognize.”
Sadie remembered Elias’s final hours.
His fever.
His broken sentences.
One phrase returned.
Home isn’t a house, Sade. Sometimes home is a person.
She had thought he was talking about Poppy.
Maybe he had been.
Back at Raven Hill, Sadie entered Poppy’s room.
Her daughter was asleep.
Around her neck hung a cheap silver locket.
Elias had given it to Sadie before Poppy was born.
Sadie opened it.
A photograph rested inside.
She removed it.
Behind the picture was a tiny strip of microfilm.
Ronan stared.
“The ledger.”
“No.”
Sadie held it toward the light.
“Something better.”
It contained account numbers, shipping manifests and names.
Enough evidence to dismantle the network.
But one name appeared repeatedly.
June Callaway.
Sadie’s stomach dropped.
Ronan read it.
June entered behind them.
Nobody had heard her.
She saw the microfilm.
Then the gun in Ronan’s hand.
Her face fell.
“I can explain.”
Ronan’s voice became ice.
“You have ten seconds.”
June slowly raised her hands.
“My husband wasn’t murdered because he discovered Marsh.”
“Then why?”
“Because we worked for him.”
Sadie stared.
June began crying.
“We thought it was smuggling. Cigarettes, watches, things like that. Then I saw children.”
Her voice broke.
“I tried to leave. My husband tried to expose Marsh. He was killed.”
“Why is your name still on shipments?”
“Because Marsh kept using my credentials.”
Ronan did not lower the gun.
Sadie looked closer at the records.
Dates.
One was only two weeks old.
June had been working at Raven Hill that day.
Sadie pointed to the authorization code.
“Could Marsh access this remotely?”
June stared.
Then nodded.
“Yes.”
Ronan lowered the gun slightly.
A new realization settled over them.
Marsh had not merely infiltrated the Cain organization.
He had built an entire shadow organization inside it.
And now they possessed the map.
Over the next three days, Ronan quietly turned evidence over to a federal task force outside Ashport.
Raids began before dawn.
Warehouses closed.
Accounts froze.
Officials were arrested.
Marsh disappeared.
And Raven Hill became strangely peaceful.
Sadie should have left.
Instead, she stayed.
Eleanor needed her.
Poppy adored Eleanor.
And Ronan—
Sadie tried not to think about Ronan.
He began eating breakfast with Poppy.
Badly.
The first morning, he attempted pancakes.
Poppy examined one.
“Is it supposed to be black?”
“Yes.”
Sadie laughed before she could stop herself.
Ronan looked at her.
The sound surprised them both.
Later, in the hallway, he caught her wrist gently.
“Sadie.”
She turned.
His thumb rested near the falcon tattoo.
“Why didn’t Elias bring you home?”
Her smile vanished.
“Because he knew someone inside this house wanted Poppy dead.”
Ronan released her.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do it.”
“No. But I spent years believing my brother abandoned us.”
Sadie looked toward Eleanor’s room.
“He didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
A pause.
Then Ronan asked quietly, “Did you love him?”
Sadie answered truthfully.
“Yes.”
Ronan nodded.
Pain crossed his face for a reason Sadie did not yet understand.
He started walking away.
“Ronan.”
He stopped.
“I loved him,” she said. “But I wasn’t in love with him.”
Ronan slowly turned.
Sadie’s heart began beating faster.
Before either could speak, Eleanor’s alarm sounded.
They ran.
Eleanor was conscious.
But written across her bedroom mirror in red lipstick were five words:
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED SILENT.
The window was open.
May you like
And on Eleanor’s pillow lay a black raven feather.
Marsh had been inside Raven Hill again.
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