Chapter 5 - The Girl Who Learned to Hide
Elena made a sound Andrew would hear in his dreams. “Sophie? Sweetheart, where are you?”
“In the closet, like you taught me. Grandma's not answering.”
Elena's mother was supposed to be watching the twelve-year-old. Daniel raised one hand for silence and asked Sophie to describe what she heard. Two men. Heavy shoes. Drawers opening. Someone asking about a box.
“Keep your phone dark,” Daniel said. “Don't move until a police officer identifies himself.”
Andrew called emergency services and gave the dispatcher the address, then turned the car toward Elena's neighborhood. Rain hammered the roof. Every traffic signal seemed designed to stop them.
“You shouldn't have involved her,” Elena whispered to Daniel.
“I didn't,” he answered. “They involved her the day they killed Marcus.”
The statement made her flinch, but she couldn't deny the truth. Nine years of threatening letters, mysteriously lost employment forms, and benefit denials had taught her how little a family could defend itself against powerful people.
When they reached the house, patrol cars blocked the street. Elena jumped out before Andrew had fully parked. An officer stopped her gently, then pointed toward an ambulance. Sophie sat on the tailgate wrapped in a foil blanket, clutching a stuffed rabbit.
Elena ran to her. Sophie's face crumpled, and the two held each other so tightly that the paramedic stepped back.
“Grandma?” Elena asked.
“She's okay,” Sophie said. “They shoved her. She hit her arm.”
Daniel scanned the dark windows. He knew the difference between a burglary and a targeted search. The intruders had ignored the television, jewelry, and cash; drawers holding papers lay open.
A detective approached. “Someone reported a suspicious vehicle ten minutes before the call. No plates. Our units arrived as two suspects fled through the backyard.”
Daniel showed him the photograph. “They were looking for military records.”
The detective's expression hardened. “Then you need the federal authorities.”
“We tried that nine years ago,” Elena said. “The report vanished.”
Andrew saw Sophie's rabbit fall, and he knelt to retrieve it. A thin envelope slipped from a tear in the toy's cloth lining. He held it up.
Sophie stared at him. “Dad told Mom never to throw Mr. Hops away.”
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Inside the envelope was a key to a storage locker and a note written in Marcus Bell's careful block letters.
If they come for us, ask Reed who really gave the order.
