Chapter 4 - The Red Door
Dominic wanted Hannah at his townhouse.
Hannah wanted the police.
They argued for six straight minutes.
“You were shot at,” Dominic said.
“Exactly why normal people call law enforcement.”
“Normal people aren’t being hunted by my brother.”
“You don’t know Julian ordered it.”
“No.”
Dominic looked at the broken-watched photograph.
“But somebody knew we found that letter within thirty minutes.”
Hannah’s anger cooled.
“Who knew we were going to my apartment?”
“Six people.”
“Your people?”
“Yes.”
“Great.”
She leaned back.
“So one of your trusted employees may be a murderer.”
“That’s the optimistic version.”
“What’s the pessimistic one?”
“My house is compromised too.”
Hannah stared at him.
“You really know how to calm a person down.”
Dominic almost smiled.
They went somewhere else.
An old brownstone in Brooklyn owned under a company name.
No staff.
No cameras visible from the street.
Dominic brought the girls.
He would not leave them anywhere he couldn’t personally control.
Hannah sat on the floor with them.
Lily pushed a wooden block into her hand.
Hannah stacked it.
Grace added another.
Emma knocked both over.
For the first time that day, Hannah laughed.
Dominic stood in the doorway.
Watching.
Hannah glanced up.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re staring.”
“They don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Play with strangers.”
Hannah looked at the girls.
“I’m apparently not a stranger.”
The words hurt.
Dominic sat across from her.
“You have her expressions.”
“My sister?”
“Yes.”
“How long were you married?”
“Five years.”
“Did you love her?”
His eyes sharpened.
“What kind of question is that?”
“A real one.”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
Hannah nodded.
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because if she’s alive, she deserves someone who hasn’t given up.”
Dominic looked away.
“I buried an empty coffin.”
Silence.
“I told my daughters their mother was in heaven.”
Hannah’s voice softened.
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
Emma crawled into Dominic’s lap.
He kissed the top of her head.
Hannah understood something then.
The terrifying man at Bellafonte was real.
So was this one.
That somehow made him more dangerous.
And more human.
The red-tag key was their only lead.
Hannah searched her father’s old emails.
Dominic used people she didn’t ask questions about.
By midnight they had a list of properties connected to Daniel Mercer.
One stood out.
A storage garage in Yonkers.
Unit 17.
Its access door was painted red.
Hannah looked at Dominic.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You’re staying here.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Hannah.”
“My father left me the key.”
“Someone just tried to kill you.”
“Then stand in front of me.”
Dominic stared at her.
“That was almost a joke.”
“It wasn’t.”
Forty minutes later they reached the garage.
Dominic brought only Luca, his oldest bodyguard.
“No bigger team?” Hannah asked.
“Trust is expensive tonight.”
The red door waited beneath a dead security light.
Hannah inserted the key.
It turned.
Inside was an old sedan covered by a tarp.
Three filing cabinets.
And a blue-painted wall.
“The blue room,” Hannah whispered.
Dominic pulled the tarp away.
The car beneath it belonged to Evelyn.
Not the burned car from the official accident.
Her real car.
Dominic went completely still.
“That’s impossible.”
Hannah opened the passenger door.
A purse sat inside.
Dominic recognized it.
“She had this the night she disappeared.”
Hannah searched it.
Wallet.
Lipstick.
Receipts.
A cracked phone.
Then Luca called from the back.
“You need to see this.”
Behind the filing cabinets was a small office.
The walls were covered in photographs.
Dominic.
The triplets.
Evelyn.
Julian.
Shipping manifests.
Bank accounts.
Names.
Dates.
Hannah felt sick.
Someone had been building a case.
Evelyn.
On the desk sat an old digital recorder.
Hannah pressed play.
Static.
Then her sister’s voice filled the room.
“If Dominic hears this, I failed.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“If Hannah hears this…”
The recording paused.
“…then Dad finally told her.”
Hannah covered her mouth.
Evelyn continued.
“Julian is stealing from Dominic. Millions. Maybe more. But that isn’t what scares me.”
A door slammed somewhere on the recording.
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“He knows about the girls.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“What about them?”
The recording continued.
“He said Dominic will give up everything if the children are threatened.”
A man’s voice sounded faintly in the background.
Evelyn whispered quickly.
“If I disappear, don’t believe the fire. Don’t believe the body. Find Saint Catherine.”
The recording ended.
Hannah looked at Dominic.
“Saint Catherine?”
Before he could answer, a phone began ringing inside Evelyn’s purse.
All three adults froze.
Dominic stared at it.
The phone had supposedly been dead for eleven months.
It rang again.
Hannah answered.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
Calm.
Amused.
“Hello, Hannah.”
May you like
Her blood turned cold.
“You sound exactly like your sister.”
