Chapter 5 - The Woman Under the Umbrella
We made it onto the fire escape with the careful, humiliating speed of people who knew one wrong step would end everything.
Adrian went first, testing each rusty stair. I followed with Sophie wrapped against my chest. Below us, a delivery driver was smoking beside a refrigerated truck.
“Hey!” Adrian shouted. “Call the police!”
The driver looked up. Then he threw away his cigarette and ran.
“Not encouraging,” I muttered.
At the second landing, a door opened behind us. Kessler leaned out, breathing hard.
“Adrian, listen. If you walk out with that binder, it’s going to hurt more people than you know.”
“Then start talking.”
“I can’t.”
Adrian descended another step. “You can. You just won’t.”
Kessler whispered, “Your wife isn't the only person who signed those papers.”
A car horn blared in the alley. The delivery truck rolled forward, blocking the gate. I saw two men in hotel uniforms step from behind it.
Adrian reached the bottom first and pulled open the fence. One of the men grabbed for Sophie’s coat. Adrian shoved his arm aside and put himself between us.
“Don’t touch my kid.”
His voice was almost quiet. It scared the man more than a shout.
We raced through the loading yard and into the neighboring parking garage. A woman in a knit cap waited by a dented green hatchback. Her umbrella was bright yellow.
Sophie inhaled sharply. “Aunt June!”
The woman’s face changed when she saw the child. “Oh, sweetheart.”
Adrian held up one palm. “Nobody comes near her until I get answers.”
“Fair.” The stranger kept both hands visible. “I'm June Bell. I was Laurel’s nurse.”
“Was?”
June’s eyes glistened. “I thought she was gone. I thought they moved her.”
She held out a thick envelope. Across the front someone had written ADRIAN, IF SOPHIE FINDS YOU.
He didn’t reach for it.
June glanced toward the garage entrance. “There isn’t time for the whole story. Your wife figured out a way to steal something from the company, but money wasn't the point. The money was the cover.”
“What was the point?” I asked.
June looked at Sophie.
May you like
“The child,” she said.
Adrian’s phone caught a single bar of service and buzzed with a text from an unknown number: YOUR DAUGHTER HAS BEEN REPORTED KIDNAPPED. THE POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR THE MAID.
