Chapter 3 - The Photograph in Tommy’s Safe
Chloe showed Adrian the screen.
His face changed.
“Is that your house?”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
“I don't know.”
“You said Tommy didn't know where you lived.”
“He doesn't.”
“Someone does.”
Adrian immediately called someone named Daniel.
“Don't enter the house,” Adrian said. “Stay outside. Call me if anyone leaves.”
He ended the call.
Chloe stared at him.
“Who is Daniel?”
“My security manager.”
“You have a security manager?”
“I own commercial properties.”
“That doesn't explain everything about you.”
“No.”
“At least you're admitting it.”
Adrian pocketed his phone.
“We aren't going there.”
“Then where?”
“Office.”
“No.”
“Police station?”
Chloe hesitated.
She had tried that once after Tommy smashed her phone against a wall.
Tommy arrived before she finished giving a statement.
He had been charming.
Concerned.
Apologetic.
Chloe had gone home with him.
She still hated herself for that.
“Not yet,” she said.
Adrian didn't argue.
They returned to the car.
This time Chloe sat properly before he started driving.
The doors remained unlocked.
She noticed.
Adrian noticed her noticing.
Neither mentioned it.
His office occupied the upper floor of a renovated warehouse near the river.
A night receptionist recognized him.
No one questioned Chloe's wet clothes or bare feet.
Adrian found her a clean blanket and a pair of hotel slippers kept for guests.
Then he led her into a conference room.
“Tell me about the envelope,” he said.
“It was in Tommy's safe.”
“You opened his safe?”
“I knew the combination.”
“Why?”
“I was taking my passport.”
Adrian waited.
Chloe looked down.
“I knew I had one chance. Tommy was at dinner. I packed a bag. Took my passport. Cash. Birth certificate.”
“And the envelope?”
“It was underneath my passport.”
“You grabbed it accidentally?”
“I thought it contained more cash.”
She looked at the key.
“But Tommy came home early.”
“What happened?”
“He saw the envelope in my hand.”
Chloe swallowed.
“He didn't care about the money. He kept asking where the key was.”
“You told him?”
“I didn't know there was a key.”
Adrian paced toward the window.
“Elena hid it in Tommy's safe.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“You say that a lot.”
“Because I'd rather tell you the truth than invent an answer.”
Chloe studied him.
That, too, was unfamiliar.
Adrian opened a locked cabinet.
He removed a thick file.
Inside were photographs, bank statements, property records and copies of Elena's notes.
Chloe recognized addresses.
Her old building.
Tommy's office.
A warehouse.
Then one photograph stopped her.
It showed Chloe.
Three years younger.
Walking out of her apartment building.
“What the hell is this?”
Adrian looked.
“I've never seen that photograph.”
“It was in your file.”
“It wasn't there before.”
Chloe stepped away from him.
“Don't.”
“Chloe—”
“Don't come closer.”
Adrian stopped immediately.
She pointed toward the picture.
“Explain.”
“I can't.”
“Try.”
He examined the back.
A date.
Three days before Elena disappeared.
Underneath was handwriting.
C.M. DOESN'T KNOW.
Chloe recognized it.
“Elena?”
“Yes.”
“What didn't I know?”
Adrian turned another photograph over.
Nothing.
Then another.
On the fourth photograph, Elena had written:
T.V. CHOSE HER.
Chloe's stomach twisted.
“Tommy chose me?”
Adrian looked grim.
“For what?”
She remembered meeting Tommy.
The coffee shop.
The accidental bump.
His charming apology.
The flowers the next day.
How romantic she'd thought it was that he had found her workplace.
It hadn't been romantic.
He had already known who she was.
“Tommy didn't meet me accidentally.”
“No.”
“Why me?”
Adrian flipped through Elena's records.
Then Chloe saw her mother's name.
MARGARET MERCER.
She snatched the paper.
“My mother died when I was seventeen.”
Adrian read.
“Did she work for Vale Development?”
“No. She worked for a bank.”
“Which bank?”
Chloe told him.
Adrian immediately searched another folder.
He found a financial statement.
Same bank.
Same year.
“Elena was tracing transfers,” he said.
Chloe read the numbers.
“What does this mean?”
“Your mother authorized one of them.”
“No.”
“Her employee number is here.”
“My mother would never steal.”
“I didn't say she did.”
Adrian pointed lower.
“The transfer was reversed two days later.”
“By who?”
“Margaret Mercer.”
Chloe stared.
Then another document.
A complaint filed internally.
Her mother had reported suspicious accounts.
The complaint vanished from the bank's official records one week later.
Two months afterward, Margaret Mercer died in what police determined was a highway accident.
Chloe sat down.
“No.”
Adrian said nothing.
“My mother's death was an accident.”
“It may have been.”
“Don't do that.”
“Do what?”
“Take everything from my life and make it sinister.”
“I'm showing you documents.”
“She fell asleep driving.”
“That could still be true.”
Chloe pressed both palms against the table.
She wanted to scream.
Instead, she breathed.
Once.
Twice.
“Why did Tommy choose me?”
Adrian looked through Elena's notes.
“I think he believed your mother left something.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
“She didn't.”
“Maybe Tommy wasn't sure.”
Chloe remembered the first months of their relationship.
Tommy constantly asking about her childhood.
Her mother's belongings.
Storage boxes.
Old photographs.
At the time, she'd thought he cared.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“He helped me clear my storage unit.”
“When?”
“Two months after we started dating.”
“What did he take?”
“Nothing. I thought nothing.”
She closed her eyes.
“He insisted on going through my mother's boxes.”
Adrian became still.
“Where are those boxes now?”
“Tommy's basement.”
They looked at each other.
Going back was impossible.
Yet whatever Tommy wanted might still be there.
Adrian's phone rang.
Daniel.
Adrian answered.
“What happened?”
His expression changed.
“When?”
Chloe stood.
Adrian walked toward the window.
“Don't touch anything. I'm coming.”
He ended the call.
“What?”
“My house.”
“What happened?”
“Daniel entered.”
“You told him not to.”
“He heard someone inside.”
“And?”
Adrian looked at Chloe.
“No one was there.”
“Then what did he hear?”
“A recording.”
“Of what?”
“Elena.”
Chloe stared.
Adrian continued.
“It was playing from a speaker in my bedroom.”
The room seemed colder.
“What did it say?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Tell me.”
“She said, ‘If Chloe has the key, take her to 417.’”
Chloe looked at the silver key.
Apartment 417 had been empty for three years.
“Maybe Elena left something there.”
“Maybe.”
They drove to Chloe's old building before dawn.
The landlord had changed, but Adrian owned enough property in the neighborhood to know the current manager.
He obtained access legally.
They climbed four flights.
Chloe's old door stood on the left.
417 stood opposite.
She hadn't been here in years.
Her hands shook.
Adrian remained several feet behind her.
“You don't have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.”
Chloe inserted the key.
It turned.
The door opened.
The apartment was empty.
No furniture.
No curtains.
Dust covered the floor.
Chloe stepped inside.
“There's nothing.”
Adrian looked around.
Then Chloe noticed something.
The wall beside the kitchen had a small scratch.
Three parallel lines.
Bruno.
Elena's cat had scratched that wall constantly.
Chloe walked over.
“Help me move this panel.”
They found a removable section beneath the baseboard.
Behind it sat a flash drive.
And a photograph.
Chloe pulled out the photograph first.
Her mother stood beside Elena.
Impossible.
Elena would have been barely twenty.
Yet there they were.
On the back, Margaret had written:
ELENA—IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, FIND MY DAUGHTER.
Chloe's knees weakened.
Adrian caught her elbow, then immediately released it.
“My mother knew your sister.”
“Yes.”
Chloe picked up the flash drive.
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Adrian motioned for silence.
Someone stopped outside.
The doorknob slowly turned.
Chloe backed away.
May you like
The door opened.
And Tommy stepped inside.
