Chapter 10 - The Night Josie Disappeared
Fay hated returning to Saint Bartholomew's.
Not because the monastery frightened her.
Because memory did.
The gray stone walls rose at the edge of the city like something that had survived too many storms to care about another. The iron gate creaked. Moss climbed the old brick. The windows glowed with yellow light from rooms now used by volunteers and exhausted families waiting for charity appointments.
Sister Agnes met them at the door.
Josie hid partly behind Fay's coat, clutching her blue boat.
Sister Agnes looked at the child and softened so completely that Fay almost believed in miracles.
"You must be Josephine."
Josie looked at Fay's hands.
Fay signed the greeting.
Sister Agnes answered in slow, careful sign.
Welcome.
Josie's mouth opened.
That was all it took.
One word in a language made for her.
The monastery became slightly less strange.
Rafferty did not stay in the room once Fay and Josie settled. He posted his men outside, checked every entrance himself, then disappeared to the old chapel with Silvano.
Fay watched him go.
Sister Agnes noticed.
"He was a difficult child."
"He is a difficult man."
"Children become what the world insists on teaching them."
Fay folded Josie's sweater.
"Do they unlearn it?"
Sister Agnes smiled sadly.
"Sometimes. If someone very stubborn teaches them something else."
At 11:30 that night, the electricity failed.
The monastery plunged into darkness.
Fay woke instantly.
Not because of the lights.
Because Josie's hand was no longer in hers.
For half a second, her body refused to understand.
Then she sat up.
"Josie?"
No answer.
She reached across the small bed.
Empty.
The door stood open.
Fay's scream tore through the corridor.
Within 30 seconds, Rafferty appeared with a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other.
Seeing the weapon should have terrified her.
Instead, all Fay saw was his face.
White.
Controlled.
Furious.
"Where was she?"
"Beside me."
"Window?"
"Locked."
Silvano appeared behind him.
"North corridor guard is down. Breathing. Drugged."
Fay's knees nearly failed.
Rafferty caught her by the shoulders, then released her the second she steadied.
"Fay. Look at me."
She did.
"I will find her."
"Do not promise me that if you can't."
"I am not promising to comfort you."
His voice was deadly calm.
"I am telling you what is going to happen."
Outside, rain began striking the old windows.
Men moved through the monastery with terrifying efficiency. Doors opened. Radios hissed. Silvano barked orders. Sister Agnes stood in the hall clutching a rosary with one hand and a flashlight with the other, looking like a saint prepared to punch someone.
At 11:47, Rafferty found the blue paper boat in the north stairwell.
Placed carefully on the third step.
Not dropped.
Placed.
The message was obvious.
Everett had not taken Josie to hide her.
He had taken her to prove he could.
Fay reached for the boat.
Rafferty held it out.
Their fingers brushed.
This time, she did not flinch.
"I want to come," she said.
"No."
"She is my daughter."
"And if I bring you into a warehouse full of armed men, she may watch her mother die."
The words were brutal because they were true.
Fay hated him for them.
Then she hated herself because the truth did not care what she hated.
Rafferty turned to Silvano.
"Where?"
"Old Vanderpool cold-storage building by the river. Camera caught a van leaving through the north service road. Plate belongs to a shell tied to Everett."
Rafferty's face changed.
Not anger now.
Decision.
Fay grabbed his sleeve.
"Bring her home."
Rafferty looked down at her hand.
Then at her face.
May you like
"I will."
For the first time in her life, Fay believed a dangerous man's promise.
