Chapter 3 - The Photograph on Her Phone
The address led to a row house Harper had never seen.
Adrian refused to let her go.
Harper refused to stay.
So forty minutes later, they stood together outside a boarded property in East Baltimore while Cole checked the alley.
“This is stupid,” Harper whispered.
“Yes.”
“You agreeing doesn't make me feel better.”
“It wasn't intended to.”
Inside, dust covered everything.
Harper used her phone flashlight.
Adrian noticed the kitchen first.
A faded height chart was penciled beside the doorway.
HARPER — AGE 5.
She stopped breathing.
“I lived here.”
Adrian turned.
“You remember?”
“No.”
She touched the pencil mark.
Then another.
HARPER — 6.
A third mark had been violently scratched away.
Adrian examined the floor.
One board was newer.
Cole pried it loose.
Beneath it sat a metal box.
Inside were photographs, bank records and a cassette tape.
Harper picked up the first photograph.
Her father stood beside Alexander Crowe.
They were shaking hands.
“My dad knew yours.”
Adrian took the picture.
On the back:
Daniel — if anything happens, protect the girl.
A.C.
Harper looked at him.
“Your father wrote that?”
“Yes.”
The cassette was labeled FOR HARPER.
They found an old player upstairs.
Harper pressed play.
Static.
Then a man's voice.
“Harper, if you're hearing this, I failed.”
Her knees weakened.
Adrian moved closer without touching her.
Daniel continued.
“I worked for Alexander Crowe. Not his company. His real business.”
Harper looked at Adrian.
Daniel described accounts.
Payoffs.
Shipments.
Then his voice changed.
“I discovered someone inside the organization was trafficking people through Crowe-controlled docks. Alexander didn't authorize it. When I told him, he ordered it stopped.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
His father had been many things.
But trafficking had been forbidden.
Daniel continued.
“We collected names. Alexander planned to destroy the network. Someone learned what we were doing.”
Static swallowed several seconds.
Then:
“If Alexander is dead, don't trust the man who replaces him.”
Adrian froze.
Harper slowly turned.
“You replaced him.”
“At seventeen.”
Daniel's voice continued.
“The evidence is in the ledger. I separated the final page. Without it, the names mean nothing.”
A sound came downstairs.
Cole raised his weapon.
Footsteps.
Adrian pulled Harper behind him.
The front door opened.
Nobody entered.
Instead, an envelope slid across the floor.
Cole rushed outside.
Empty street.
Adrian opened the envelope.
Inside was an employee badge.
MERIDIAN CREATIVE.
Harper recognized the photograph.
Her department director.
Graham Voss.
On the back someone had written:
HE KNOWS WHO KILLED DANIEL.
Harper stared.
“My boss?”
Adrian turned toward her.
Her phone rang.
Graham Voss.
She answered.
“Harper?” Graham whispered.
Then came a crash.
A gasp.
And Graham said, “Don't come to the office. They found the page.”
The line went silent.
Adrian took the phone.
“Voss?”
Nothing.
Then another voice came through.
Calm.
Male.
Familiar to Adrian.
“Bring me Harper Lane.”
Adrian's face changed.
Harper saw it.
“You know him.”
Adrian didn't answer.
May you like
The voice continued.
“Or I'll start telling her what you did the night her father died.”
