Chapter 5 - THE DOLL'S HIDDEN POCKET
Nobody moved.
Lily stared at the little cloth doll.
Hannah immediately knelt beside her.
“What do you mean?”
Lily's fingers trembled.
“Grandma Evelyn said nobody would hurt us.”
Evelyn crouched in front of her.
“No one will.”
“Even if I show you?”
“Yes.”
Lily carefully turned the doll around.
One seam had been stitched with dark blue thread.
Hannah frowned.
“That wasn't there before.”
“I didn't sew that,” Lily whispered.
Daniel's expression hardened.
“Where did you get the doll?”
“My mama made it.”
Hannah looked confused.
“I made it years ago.”
“Then someone opened it.”
Daniel reached for the doll.
Lily pulled it away.
“Don't.”
He immediately stopped.
Mason noticed.
“Let her.”
Lily looked at Mason.
“You won't be mad?”
“No.”
She slowly opened the seam.
Inside was a tiny brass key wrapped in faded cloth.
Evelyn recognized it immediately.
Her hand went to her mouth.
“That key.”
Mason looked at her.
“What?”
“It belonged to your father.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Where did you find it?”
Lily looked at Hannah.
“In the old sewing box.”
Hannah's eyes widened.
“That box came from my mother's house.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“What was her name?”
“Margaret Reed.”
Evelyn went pale.
Mason saw it.
“Mom?”
Evelyn whispered,
“I knew her.”
Hannah looked stunned.
“My mother never mentioned you.”
“She couldn't.”
“Why?”
“Because she was working for your father.”
Hannah stared.
“My mother worked for the Vale family?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Daniel slowly sat down.
Everything was beginning to connect.
The kitchen.
The photograph.
The missing watch.
The key.
The doll.
Mason looked at Hannah.
“What did your mother do?”
“She was a seamstress.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“She was more than that.”
Hannah's eyes filled with confusion.
“What are you saying?”
“Your mother was the last person your father trusted.”
Mason looked at the key.
“What does it open?”
Evelyn answered.
“His private ledger.”
Daniel looked sharply at her.
“You said it was destroyed.”
“I lied.”
Mason stared.
“You lied?”
“I burned the copies.”
“Not the original?”
“No.”
“Where is it?”
Evelyn looked toward the hospital window.
“In the old freight office.”
Mason's jaw tightened.
“The building that closed after the fire?”
“Yes.”
Daniel stood.
“We need to go.”
Mason shook his head.
“I'm not leaving this hospital.”
“You're a target here.”
“So are they.”
He looked at Lily.
“We move together.”
Hannah protested.
“She doesn't belong in this.”
Mason looked at her.
“She already belongs in it.”
The words surprised everyone.
Especially him.
An hour later, they reached the abandoned freight office under heavy security.
The building smelled of dust and old paper.
Mason moved slowly.
His body still hurt.
But he refused help.
At the back of the building was a steel cabinet.
Evelyn inserted the brass key.
Nothing happened.
She frowned.
Daniel looked closer.
“There are two locks.”
Mason remembered the photograph.
“Watch.”
He removed his father's old watch from his pocket.
It had been recovered from the parking garage.
A tiny groove was hidden beneath the back plate.
Mason pressed it against the second lock.
The cabinet clicked.
Inside was a leather ledger.
And a red wool coat.
Hannah stared.
“That belonged to my mother.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Your mother wore it the night she disappeared.”
Hannah touched the fabric.
“She didn't disappear.”
Everyone looked at her.
“My mother died when I was nine.”
Evelyn's expression softened.
“I know.”
“Then why did you say disappeared?”
“Because we never found out how she died.”
Hannah froze.
Daniel opened the ledger.
Most pages were filled with numbers.
Shipping routes.
Names.
Payments.
Then he reached a page marked with the date twenty years earlier.
Mason leaned over.
Three names were written.
Victor Vale.
Richard Whitmore.
Margaret Reed.
Hannah covered her mouth.
“My mother.”
Daniel turned the page.
There was a sentence beneath the names.
If anything happens to me, Margaret knows where the money went.
Mason stared.
“What money?”
Daniel continued reading.
“Money stolen from the Vale family was never stolen by Daniel Cross's father.”
He looked up.
“My father was framed.”
Mason closed his eyes.
The truth was beginning to take shape.
Then another page fell from the ledger.
It contained a list of payments.
Every payment went to the same destination.
Whitmore Holdings.
Claire stepped backward.
“No.”
Mason looked at her.
Claire shook her head.
“My father.”
Evelyn picked up the page.
“Richard wasn't working alone.”
Daniel looked at the final entry.
There was a signature.
He knew it immediately.
“Who signed this?”
Mason asked.
Daniel swallowed.
“Your father.”
Mason stared.
His father had apparently authorized the payments himself.
But beneath the signature was a handwritten note.
I am paying them to protect my son.
Mason looked at Evelyn.
“Protect me from what?”
Before she could answer, the lights inside the freight office went out.
A metallic crash came from the entrance.
Daniel drew his weapon.
Hannah pulled Lily behind her.
Then a man's voice echoed through the darkness.
“You should have left the ledger where it was.”
Mason froze.
He knew that voice.
Not from memory.
From the photograph.
A light flickered on.
An elderly man stood in the doorway.
White hair.
Slight limp.
Silver watch.
And the same red mark on his wrist.
May you like
He looked directly at Mason.
“Hello, nephew.”
