Chapter 4 - The Photograph Behind the Wall
I didn't sleep that night.
Vincent offered us a guest suite, but I refused to stay in a house where every hallway seemed to contain another lie.
He arranged for a car to take us home.
Before we left, he handed me his private number.
"If anything unusual happens, call me."
I almost laughed.
"Something unusual has been happening for six years."
He accepted that without argument.
At home, Lucy fell asleep within ten minutes.
I sat at the kitchen table staring at Rebecca's photograph.
My sister had been twenty-four when she disappeared.
She was the person who taught me how to ride a bicycle, helped me through high school, and held my hand at my wedding.
She had also been the last person to visit me before Daniel's funeral.
She told me he had loved me.
She told me I needed to move on.
Now I wondered whether she had been comforting me or protecting herself.
At 1:17 a.m., someone knocked on my apartment door.
Three short knocks.
Two long ones.
Daniel's old signal.
I stood so quickly my chair fell backward.
"Who's there?"
A woman's voice answered.
"Claire. Open the door."
I knew that voice.
My hand shook as I unlocked it.
Rebecca stood in the hallway.
Her hair was shorter.
There was a thin scar running along her jaw.
But she was unmistakably my sister.
I slapped her.
Hard.
She didn't stop me.
"Six years," I whispered. "Six years, Rebecca."
"I know."
"You let me bury an empty coffin."
Her eyes filled.
"I didn't have a choice."
"Everyone says that when they don't want to admit what they've done."
She glanced toward Lucy's bedroom.
"Is she here?"
"Don't you dare ask about my daughter."
"Claire, listen to me. Nolan knows she's alive."
My anger gave way to fear.
"Why?"
Rebecca stepped inside and locked the door.
"Because Daniel took something from him."
"What?"
"A ledger."
She reached into her coat and removed an old photograph.
It showed Daniel holding Lucy as a newborn.
On the back, he had written:
If anything happens to me, keep her away from the Hale brothers.
I stared at the words.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I thought Nolan would kill you both."
I sank onto the couch.
Rebecca sat opposite me.
She explained that Daniel had discovered Nolan was using Vincent's legitimate businesses to move money for a violent criminal network.
Daniel had copied financial records, recorded conversations, and hidden the evidence.
Before he could expose Nolan, the warehouse exploded.
Rebecca had been there because Daniel had asked her to retrieve the ledger.
"He was alive when I found him," she whispered.
My chest tightened.
"Where?"
"Under the loading platform. Burned. Barely conscious."
"Why didn't you bring him to me?"
"Because Nolan's men were already looking for him. Daniel made me swear to keep you safe."
"And where is he now?"
Rebecca lowered her eyes.
"I don't know."
A sound came from Lucy's bedroom.
A soft thump.
We both stood.
I opened the door.
Lucy was sitting upright in bed, holding something.
A small silver whistle.
I recognized it immediately.
Daniel had worn it around his neck.
I had thought it was buried with his belongings.
"Where did you get that?"
Lucy looked at Rebecca.
"She gave it to me."
Rebecca's face went pale.
"I didn't."
Lucy shook her head.
"The man in my dream gave it to me."
I took the whistle.
A tiny symbol was engraved on its side.
Three interlocking circles.
Rebecca stared at it.
Then she whispered, "Oh, God."
"What?"
"Daniel didn't hide the ledger in the warehouse."
May you like
She looked directly at me.
"He hid it where Grimm would find it."
