Chapter 10
But another memory surfaced.
My mother at the kitchen table when I was thirteen, burning a stack of old papers in a metal bowl.
When I asked what they were, she told me they were bills.
At the time, I had believed her.
Now I remembered the tremor in her hands.
“You think my mother changed my identity.”
“I think she was hiding you.”
“From whom?”
Victor looked at the locket.
“That is what I need to find out.”
The security door opened, and Marco entered carrying a plastic evidence bag.
“We checked the vehicle,” he said. “The driver was telling the truth about the brakes.”
Victor stood. “Mechanical failure?”
“Someone cut the line.”
My heart began to pound again.
Marco placed the evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a small white envelope.
“This was taped beneath the dashboard.”
Victor opened it.
There was no letter.
Only a photograph.
It showed me leaving Lily’s daycare earlier that evening.
My daughter was in my arms.
On the bottom edge, someone had written four words in black ink.
THE LOCKET HAS RETURNED.
I gripped the table.
Victor’s face became unreadable.
“You said no one breached the property,” he told Marco.
“They didn’t.”
“Then the crash was meant to distract us.”
“From what?”
A soft electronic chime sounded from across the room.
Marco checked his phone.
His expression changed.
“Sir, someone accessed the west service corridor during the alarm.”
Victor moved toward the security monitor.
May you like
The screen displayed a grainy black-and-white image of a hooded figure entering the mansion through a staff door. The person walked with a slight limp and kept their face turned away from the camera.
They did not move toward the lower level.
