Chapter 3 - The Blue Bicycle on the Porch
Dominic's estate stood twenty minutes outside Cedar Ridge.
They reached it in eleven.
The gates were open.
That was wrong.
Dominic's security chief lay unconscious inside the guardhouse.
Alive.
Drugged.
“Where's Toby?” Kaye demanded.
No one knew.
They entered.
Dominic led her beneath the main staircase.
He pressed his thumb against a hidden reader.
A wall opened.
Kaye stared.
“You have secret rooms?”
“One.”
“Apparently somebody disagrees.”
They descended.
At the bottom was an archive.
Photographs.
Ledgers.
Old passports.
Kaye spotted one face immediately.
Her former husband.
Evan Mercer.
She tore the photograph from the wall.
“Why is he here?”
Dominic went silent.
The picture showed Evan beside Dominic's father and another young man.
Michael Vale.
Dominic's brother.
On the back was a date from eight years earlier.
“Tell me.”
Dominic exhaled.
“Evan worked for my family.”
“No.”
“He handled financial records.”
“No.”
“He disappeared after my brother was killed.”
Kaye stepped backward.
“You knew.”
“Not when I met you.”
“But afterward?”
“Yes.”
Kaye slapped him.
Nobody moved.
Dominic accepted it.
“You sat in my diner.”
“Yes.”
“You spoke to Toby.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew his father?”
“After that night, I investigated you.”
“You investigated me?”
“To make sure helping us hadn't put you in danger.”
“You discovered Evan.”
“Yes.”
“And said nothing.”
Dominic's voice softened.
“I believed he abandoned you to protect you.”
“From what?”
Before he could answer, Mateo found fresh footprints.
Small ones.
Toby had been there.
Kaye followed them through the archive.
They stopped before a steel door.
Locked.
Dominic frowned.
“That door hasn't opened in eleven years.”
“What is it?”
“My father's private records.”
Kaye noticed scratches near the handle.
Fresh scratches.
She reached for it.
Dominic caught her arm.
“Kaye.”
She looked at him.
“If my son is behind there, nothing you say will stop me.”
He released her.
Mateo brought tools.
The lock broke.
Dominic opened the door.
A light was already burning inside.
A chair stood in the center.
Empty.
Toby wasn't there.
But his dinosaur jacket was draped over it.
Kaye grabbed it.
Still warm.
On the wall behind the chair was a photograph.
Evan Mercer.
Alive.
Taken yesterday.
Kaye stared at the date printed beneath it.
Dominic stepped closer.
Then they heard movement behind the opposite wall.
A hidden latch clicked.
Someone was opening another door.
Kaye clutched Toby's jacket.
A man's voice came from the darkness.
“Kaye?”
She stopped breathing.
May you like
Nobody had spoken her name like that in six years.
Then her missing husband stepped through...
