Chapter 4 - Someone Had Been Following Danny
Salvatore crossed the room and tested the handle.
Locked.
Smoke had begun slipping beneath the door.
Tessa grabbed her phone.
No signal.
The private room walls were reinforced.
Designed for privacy.
Now they were a trap.
Salvatore pointed toward the service vent.
Too narrow.
Tessa scanned the room.
The wine cabinet.
Behind it was the old dumbwaiter shaft used before Bellamy’s renovation.
Together they dragged the cabinet aside.
The shaft was dark but open.
Tessa climbed first.
Salvatore followed.
They emerged in a storage corridor two floors below.
Firefighters found them minutes later.
Outside, Elena was waiting.
When Salvatore showed her Rachel’s message, she stopped speaking.
He signed.
Tell me.
Elena finally did.
The accident eighteen years earlier had not been an accident.
Patrick Callahan had discovered Rachel gathering evidence.
Salvatore, then fifteen, had followed his father to Bellamy’s that night and overheard an argument.
Patrick panicked.
He caused the crash intended to kill Rachel.
Salvatore survived.
A head injury destroyed most of his hearing.
Rachel vanished afterward.
“Why?”
Tessa demanded.
“To protect you and Danny.”
“From Patrick?”
Elena nodded.
Tessa looked toward the burning restaurant.
“Then why is he coming after us now?”
“Because Rachel left evidence somewhere.”
“The compartment was nearly empty.”
“Then someone got there first.”
Tessa thought about Brett.
He had disappeared minutes before the threats began.
Her phone finally regained signal.
Twenty-seven notifications appeared.
One was from Danny.
Tessa opened it.
Tess, I found something.
Another followed.
Mom left it in my old hearing-aid case.
Tessa called immediately.
No answer.
Salvatore saw her expression.
They drove back toward the apartment.
Halfway there, Danny finally called.
His camera came on.
He was walking quickly.
Too quickly.
Tessa signed.
Where are you?
Danny turned the camera.
Trade school parking garage.
Why?
Someone followed me from the apartment.
Tessa’s heart slammed.
Leave.
Danny nodded.
Then stopped.
A vehicle rolled slowly behind him.
Black sedan.
Danny moved faster.
The sedan followed.
Salvatore took Tessa’s phone.
He signed directly to Danny.
Stairwell. Now.
Danny ran.
He pushed through a metal door.
Tessa heard his breathing.
Then the screen shook.
A hand grabbed Danny from behind.
The phone fell.
“Tessa!” Danny shouted.
The camera showed concrete.
Shoes.
A struggle.
Then another pair of shoes appeared.
Someone punched Danny’s attacker.
The attacker fell.
A man picked up the phone.
Tessa stared at the screen.
It was Brett.
His face was bruised.
Blood ran from his eyebrow.
“Tessa,” he gasped. “Listen to me.”
“You threatened us.”
“No.”
“You disappeared.”
“Because my father found out what I did.”
“What did you do?”
Brett looked behind him.
“I put the key in your mother’s photograph.”
Tessa froze.
“You?”
“I’ve been trying to get it to you for six months.”
“Why?”
“Because my father killed mine.”
The sentence silenced everyone in the car.
Brett swallowed.
“And your mother knew.”
Tessa gripped the phone.
“Where’s Danny?”
“Safe for about thirty seconds.”
Footsteps echoed in the garage.
Brett turned.
His expression changed.
“Go!” he shouted.
Danny grabbed the phone and ran.
The picture jerked wildly.
Tessa could barely see.
Then Danny reached a stairwell door.
He pulled it open.
Stopped.
Someone was standing on the other side.
Danny slowly raised the phone.
Tessa saw the person’s face.
It was the woman from the photograph.
May you like
Her mother.
Rachel Whitlock was alive.
