Chapter 3 - What Was Hidden Beneath the Collar
Mave stared at the woman.
She was in her late fifties, silver threaded through dark hair, dressed in a plain black coat.
Declan moved in front of Mave.
"Who are you?"
The woman ignored him.
"Mave."
"How do you know my name?"
"Your mother told me."
That changed everything.
Mave stepped around Declan.
"You know my mother?"
"Yes."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Eleanor Voss."
Declan went rigid.
Mave noticed.
"You know her."
Declan's voice was cold.
"I know the name."
Eleanor looked at him.
"Then you know why we shouldn't talk here."
Declan stared at her.
"My father trusted a woman named Eleanor Voss."
"He shouldn't have."
"Why?"
"Because trusting people is what got him killed."
The room became silent.
Mave looked between them.
"Can someone start speaking in complete explanations?"
Eleanor almost smiled.
"You sound like your mother."
"Where is she?"
"Home."
"How do you know?"
"Because I spoke to her an hour ago."
Mave pulled out her phone.
Three missed calls.
All from her mother.
Her stomach tightened.
She called immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
"I'm going home."
Declan nodded.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"Mave—"
"Stop deciding things for me."
Eleanor spoke quietly.
"You should let him come."
Mave turned.
"Why?"
"Because the people who staged tonight know your mother too."
That ended the argument.
Twenty-five minutes later, Declan's SUV stopped outside Mave's apartment building.
Her mother's apartment was dark.
Mave ran upstairs.
"Mom?"
No answer.
She unlocked the door.
Empty.
The lamp beside the couch was still on.
A cup of tea sat on the table.
Warm.
Mave's fear sharpened.
"Mom!"
Brutus entered behind her.
He sniffed the room.
Then moved toward the bedroom.
Mave followed.
The bed was empty.
But an envelope rested on the pillow.
Her name was written across it.
MAVE.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Inside was a single sheet.
Honey,
If Eleanor came back, then something I prayed would stay buried has finally returned.
Do not be afraid of Declan Gallagher.
Be afraid of the person who made him believe the wrong story.
Mave stopped reading.
Declan stood behind her.
"What does it say?"
She handed him the note.
He read it.
His jaw tightened.
"Wrong story about what?"
Eleanor entered the bedroom.
"Your father."
Declan turned.
"You have about ten seconds before I stop being patient."
Eleanor nodded.
"Your father didn't die because of a business dispute."
Declan stared.
"He died because he discovered someone was using the Copper Anchor to steal from his company."
Mave frowned.
"What does my mother have to do with it?"
"She worked here."
Mave looked at Eleanor.
"My mother was a nurse."
"Before that."
Mave had never known.
Eleanor continued.
"Your mother was a bookkeeper at the Copper Anchor."
Declan's eyes narrowed.
"What was her name?"
"Anna Mercer."
Declan stepped back.
He knew it.
Mave could see that.
"My father mentioned her."
"He trusted her."
"What happened?"
"She found the missing accounts."
Mave sat slowly on the edge of the bed.
Her entire childhood had suddenly developed a hidden room.
Eleanor explained that twenty years earlier, Declan's father, Patrick Gallagher, had discovered money disappearing through companies tied to the restaurant.
Anna found the accounting trail.
Eleanor had worked security.
Patrick planned to expose the theft.
He never got the chance.
There was a car accident.
Patrick died.
Anna disappeared from the restaurant.
Eleanor left the city.
And the evidence vanished.
"Until now?" Mave asked.
Eleanor looked at Brutus.
"Until someone started looking for it again."
Declan frowned.
"The tracker?"
"Wasn't a tracker."
Eleanor crouched beside Brutus.
She examined the collar.
"May I?"
Declan nodded.
She removed the torn plastic fragment.
"This is part of a receiver."
"For what?"
"A short-range signal."
Mave remembered Brutus's reaction.
"You think someone triggered him?"
"Not exactly. But they may have been testing whether a particular frequency frightened him."
Declan's expression darkened.
"The accident."
Eleanor nodded.
"What accident?" Mave demanded.
Declan looked away.
"Six months ago, someone broke into my warehouse."
"Brutus was there?"
"Yes."
"There was an alarm?"
"A high-frequency security alarm."
Brutus had panicked badly.
Afterward, he had never reacted normally to sharp metallic noise.
Mave looked at the dog.
Someone had learned his weakness.
And tonight they had exploited it.
"But why?"
Declan answered.
"To make him attack someone."
"And then?"
"People see a dangerous dog. A powerful owner. Panic. Police. Lawsuits. Headlines."
Eleanor nodded.
"Chaos creates opportunities."
"For what?"
"Searches."
Mave understood.
"The restaurant."
Someone needed everyone distracted.
Someone had been looking for something inside the Copper Anchor.
The hidden recorder proved it.
"What?"
Eleanor looked toward Mave's mother's note.
"Evidence."
Mave stood.
"Where's my mother?"
Eleanor hesitated.
That was enough.
"Where is she?"
"She went to retrieve something."
"From where?"
"The Copper Anchor."
Mave stared.
"We just left there."
"She didn't enter through the front."
Declan grabbed his jacket.
"We're going back."
Mave followed.
Eleanor stopped her.
"There's one more thing."
She handed Mave a small key.
It was old brass.
A number was stamped into it.
"What does this open?"
"Your mother never told me."
"Then why do you have it?"
"Because she mailed it to me twenty years ago with instructions."
"What instructions?"
Eleanor looked at Declan.
"Give it to Mave if Patrick Gallagher's son ever returned to the Copper Anchor with a dog."
Nobody spoke.
Even Declan looked shaken.
"That makes no sense," Mave said.
"I know."
"Brutus wasn't even alive twenty years ago."
"No."
Eleanor looked at the old photograph.
"But another dog was."
They examined it again.
Young Declan.
Patrick Gallagher.
A large dark dog.
Mave studied the animal.
Same broad head.
Same white chest marking.
"Brutus looks like him."
Declan nodded.
"That was Caesar. Brutus comes from the same bloodline."
Mave turned the photograph over.
THE DOG REMEMBERED.
Not Brutus.
The dog.
A lineage.
A habit.
A hiding place.
Mave suddenly understood.
"Your father hid something where only the dog would find it."
Declan looked at her.
"Or where someone following the dog would find it."
They returned to the Copper Anchor after two in the morning.
The restaurant was empty.
Arthur waited inside.
Mave showed Brutus the old photograph.
Ridiculous, she knew.
Dogs didn't understand photographs like people.
But then she let him smell the brass key.
Brutus became interested immediately.
He walked.
Past the dining room.
Past the kitchen.
Down the basement stairs.
Declan followed.
Brutus stopped at an old wine-storage corridor.
Seventeen wooden lockers lined one wall.
Mave looked at her key.
She inserted it.
The lock opened.
Inside was nothing except a dusty leather dog collar.
Declan lifted it.
"Caesar's."
Mave examined the underside.
There was a thick section sewn into the leather.
Just like Brutus's collar.
Declan carefully opened it.
Something slid into his palm.
A tiny metal key.
Eleanor whispered, "Patrick."
Behind locker seventeen was another keyhole.
They turned it.
Part of the wall released.
A narrow hidden compartment opened.
Inside sat a weathered ledger.
Declan reached for it.
Mave stopped him.
"Wait."
A fresh footprint marked the dust.
Someone else had already been there.
Declan looked toward the dark corridor.
Then they heard a woman's voice.
"Mave?"
Her heart stopped.
"Mom?"
The voice came from behind the hidden wall.
Mave pushed it wider.
A staircase descended into darkness.
Her mother's voice came again.
This time weaker.
"Mave, don't come down."
Then another voice spoke behind Anna.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
"Too late."
Mave recognized it.
May you like
It belonged to the owner of the Copper Anchor.
Mr. Holloway.
