Chapter 6 - The Red BookNina didn't show Ellie the threat. She alerted hospital security and requested an officer outside the neonatal unit. Then she drove to Briar Hollow with Ben, a search team, and a warrant signed just before midnight.

The house looked even smaller under floodlights. Its kitchen held three bottles, half a loaf of bread, and a child's careful drawing taped to the refrigerator: four stick figures and two tiny pink circles, all beneath a sun.

Ben stopped at a scratched measuring mark on the doorway. ELLIE 6 was written beside it.

“Somebody loved the kids here,” he murmured.

Nina examined the blocked vent. Inside, technicians found an intact metal plate screwed directly across the exhaust path. The retaining screws were new. A maintenance sticker had been scraped away, but enough remained to read a date from two days before Mara collapsed.

Behind the washing machine was a narrow basement door painted red. The brass key opened it with one rough twist.

The cellar smelled of dust and wet concrete. On the back shelf stood a metal toolbox, a stack of bills, and a red notebook wrapped in plastic. Nina unfolded the cover.

Names. Dates. Repair requests. Copies of inspection numbers.

The entries covered fourteen units, not one. At the bottom of a page Mara had written, in capitals: NEVER TRUST THE CITY REPORT WITHOUT THE PHOTOS.

Ben photographed everything as Nina opened a folder containing an old fire department helmet photograph. A smiling firefighter stood beside a woman holding a toddler: Aaron Parker, Mara, and little Ellie.

Nina recognized the name. “Aaron Parker died at the Riverside Mill fire three years ago.”

Ben's shoulders tightened. “The building where the emergency exits were chained?”

“Vale Development owned it through a holding company,” Nina said.

They searched another hour, but the black square in Ellie's drawing wasn't there. Only a shallow rectangular patch showed where dust had been disturbed.

On the toolbox lay a note folded into fourths. Mara's handwriting was sharp and hurried.

If this is gone, Glenn has it. Check the community shelter camera. Aaron was right.

Outside, an officer shouted from the porch. Somebody had parked a sedan at the road's end and driven away when the patrol car moved toward it. On the front step sat a sealed envelope addressed to Detective Nina Reed.

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Inside was a photograph of Nina's own daughter leaving school.