Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Nursing Home
The next morning, Harper returned to Meadowbrook with the photograph.
Eleanor was awake.
Harper sat beside her.
No jokes this time.
She placed the photograph on the table.
Her mother closed her eyes.
“Where did you get that?”
“Vincent.”
Eleanor looked suddenly tired.
“Mom, please.”
Silence.
“I spent twenty-five years believing Dad died in an accident.”
“He did die.”
“Then explain the date.”
Eleanor looked toward the window.
“Your father loved you.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“He loved you more than anything.”
“Mom.”
Tears appeared in Eleanor's eyes.
“David made mistakes.”
“What mistakes?”
“He worked for people he shouldn't have.”
“The Rossis.”
Eleanor nodded.
“He was good with numbers. Too good. He noticed things.”
“What things?”
“Money disappearing. Businesses being used without Vincent's father's knowledge. Someone inside the organization was building something of his own.”
Harper leaned forward.
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
“Dad did.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“One night he came home terrified.”
Eleanor's voice shook.
“He said we had to leave.”
“Did we?”
“We tried.”
Harper remembered almost nothing.
She had been seven.
A suitcase.
Rain.
Her mother crying.
That was all.
Eleanor continued.
“David told me that if anything happened, I should take you and never contact anyone from those years.”
“What about Vincent?”
“He was young. David trusted him.”
“Then why tell you he was dead?”
“I received a letter.”
“From who?”
“I thought it was from David.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“It said Vincent had been killed and that anyone connected to him was being watched.”
Harper's heart raced.
“Do you still have it?”
Eleanor stared at her.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Your father's things.”
“What things?”
“In storage.”
Harper had never known there was storage.
Eleanor gave her an address and key.
That evening, Harper and Vincent stood outside a storage facility on the industrial edge of the city.
“I didn't invite you,” Harper said.
“You called me.”
“I asked whether you knew the address.”
“And now I'm here.”
“You're irritating.”
“I've been told.”
The storage unit smelled of dust and old cardboard.
Harper found boxes labeled in her mother's handwriting.
Christmas decorations.
Tax records.
Photographs.
Then she found one marked DAVID.
Inside were clothes, notebooks, an old watch, and letters.
At the bottom sat a sealed envelope.
Eleanor had written:
THE LAST LETTER
Harper opened it.
The paper was yellow.
The message was short.
Eleanor—
Vincent is dead. They know David talked. Take Harper and disappear. Trust nobody from the Brass Rail.
There was no signature.
Vincent read it.
“This isn't your father's handwriting.”
“I know.”
Harper had birthday cards from him.
She would have recognized his handwriting anywhere.
Vincent examined the envelope.
Then he noticed something.
A faded stamp on the back.
BRASS RAIL OFFICE.
Harper felt cold.
“Someone mailed this from the restaurant.”
Vincent nodded.
They searched the rest of the box.
Nothing.
Then Harper noticed the bottom panel was unusually thick.
She pressed it.
A false cardboard layer lifted.
Underneath lay a small brass key.
Attached to it was a paper tag.
4
Vincent stared.
“Table four?”
Harper whispered.
They drove immediately to the restaurant.
It was after midnight.
Simon had gone home.
Harper let them inside using her employee key.
They approached table four.
Vincent crouched.
Underneath the booth was an old wooden panel.
Harper ran her fingers along it.
A tiny keyhole.
She inserted the brass key.
Click.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a small metal box.
Harper lifted it onto the table.
Vincent stood opposite her.
“Ready?”
“No.”
She opened it anyway.
Inside were financial ledgers.
Photographs.
Old cassette tapes.
And one sealed envelope.
Across the front, written in handwriting Harper recognized immediately, were four words:
FOR MY DAUGHTER, HARPER.
Her knees nearly gave out.
Vincent pulled out a chair.
Harper sat.
She touched the envelope.
Twenty-five years.
Her father's voice had been gone for twenty-five years.
Now something he had written was sitting beneath her fingertips.
She started to open it.
Then the restaurant lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the Brass Rail.
Harper froze.
Vincent's hand closed around her wrist.
“Don't move.”
A sound came from the kitchen.
Footsteps.
Someone else was inside.
May you like
And whoever had entered knew exactly what they had found.
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