Chapter 2 - The Woman at the Window
I was downstairs before my security team knew I had left the control room.
Calvin Pierce met me at the nursery corridor.
"Graham, what happened?"
"Lock the estate."
His hand went toward his radio.
"Who are we looking for?"
"Hilda."
That stopped him.
Hilda had run my home for four years. She knew my passwords, my children's schedules, the guards' rotations, the names of every contractor allowed through the gates.
"She's in the nursery wing," Calvin said.
"Exactly."
We reached the door.
It was locked from the inside.
"Hilda?" I called.
No answer.
Rosalyn started crying.
I heard Hilda's voice through the door.
"Mr. Mercer, please stay where you are. The girls are upset."
My blood turned cold.
They were my daughters, yet she spoke as if I were the threat.
Calvin pulled out a master key.
It didn't work.
"Override's been changed," he said.
I ran to the window outside.
The homeless woman was still there.
Up close, she looked older than I expected--maybe forty. Rain-dark hair. Hollow cheeks. A canvas coat stitched at the shoulder.
She backed away when she saw me.
"Wait."
"I shouldn't have come."
"You knew Elena."
Her eyes filled.
"I knew what she was afraid of."
"Who are you?"
"Mara Quinn."
The name struck something loose in my memory.
A nurse.
Elena had mentioned a Mara during her final pregnancy.
"You worked at Saint Catherine's."
"Until they said I stole medication."
"Did you?"
"No."
Behind us, glass shattered.
Calvin shouted from the corridor.
I ran back.
The nursery door stood open now.
Hilda was gone.
The girls were huddled behind the crib.
On the floor lay the silver tray.
The plates were empty.
Not eaten empty.
Scraped clean before they ever entered the room.
Beside them was a tiny medicine cup.
Rosalyn pointed at it and whispered something I barely heard.
"Miss Hush makes sleepy."
Mara had followed me to the doorway.
She stared at the cup.
May you like
Then at me.
"That's how Elena started getting sick," she said.
