Chapter 9 - The Man at the Door
Daniel kept the chain fastened while Rebecca, on speakerphone, told him to ask Pike to wait for police. Through the narrow opening Daniel saw an older man with blood on his shirt cuff and a terrified expression.
"I haven't got time for cops," Pike said. "They're looking for me."
"Who?"
"The people who told me the girl was dead."
Eleanor had started to open the door because Pike sounded like a wounded neighbor, not a threat. Daniel stopped her, remembering what Rebecca had said about panic making people reckless. He found himself speaking in the calm, clipped phrases he used when a heating system leaked gas: clear the area, keep everyone back, call the right people. That steadiness surprised him. It was possible, apparently, to be furious and still make careful choices. Mara's hand remained on Eleanor's shoulder while the cars moved outside. Later she said she had been frightened not just for herself but for the grandmother she had met hours earlier. Their bond had begun before either of them knew how to name it.
A car slowed near the curb. Pike ducked behind the porch column. Daniel called emergency services and moved Eleanor and Mara into the hall away from windows.
"Talk from there," he said.
Pike spoke fast. On the night of the mill fire, he had been ordered to drive a white van with a little girl inside. He'd believed she was being taken for treatment. Instead he was told to leave her at a rural office where false adoption papers were prepared.
"Who ordered you?" Mara asked from behind the door.
Pike looked ashamed. "Harold Vale. Celeste's father."
"And my mother?" Daniel demanded.
"She followed the money. She had copies in a safe-deposit box. Harold wanted a code she wouldn't give him."
He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a flash drive wrapped in plastic. "This has the work orders. I copied them before the company shut down."
Before Daniel could take it, headlights flooded the porch. A second car swung into the driveway. Pike threw the drive through the gap and ran toward the alley.
A shout erupted outside. Tires squealed. Daniel resisted the urge to follow. Mara held Eleanor so tightly her knuckles whitened.
When police arrived, Pike was gone. They found his cap under a hedge, and a smear of blood on the gate.
Rebecca arrived and insisted the flash drive be handled as potential evidence. On its outer sleeve someone had written a single number: 417.
May you like
Daniel remembered the little silver key from the wedding box.
Its teeth were stamped with the same number.
