Chapter 5 - The Room With Her Name
The warehouse smelled of seawater, rust, and old concrete.
Anna stood beneath a flickering fluorescent light, looking at a narrow bed pushed against the wall.
A blanket lay folded at its foot.
Beside it sat a chipped porcelain cup.
A wooden shelf held several books, a hairbrush, and a faded blue cardigan.
The room was small.
Windowless.
And disturbingly clean.
Someone had lived there recently.
"How recently?" Anna asked.
Marco examined a plastic medication container.
"Hard to say. The expiration date is next year."
Elias stood near the doorway.
He had insisted that Anna remain outside until his security team confirmed the building was empty.
Now she wished she had listened.
On the wall above the bed hung photographs.
Not one.
Dozens.
Anna at eight, leaving school with a backpack.
Anna at thirteen, standing beside her father outside the bakery.
Anna graduating from high school.
Anna carrying groceries through the snow.
Anna behind the bakery counter last Christmas.
Her entire life.
Recorded by someone she had never met.
She stepped closer.
"These weren't taken by my father."
"No," Elias said.
Anna touched the edge of a photograph.
"Who would do this?"
Elias didn't answer.
Instead, he pointed toward a small wooden box beneath the bed.
"Marco found this."
Inside were letters.
Every envelope was addressed to Anna Harding.
None had been mailed.
Anna picked up the oldest.
The handwriting was elegant and careful.
My beautiful Anna,
Today you turned six. I wonder whether you still like strawberries. I wonder whether you remember the songs I used to sing.
I hope your father tells you every day how much you are loved.
Anna's vision blurred.
She turned the page.
I am trying to come home.
Please forgive me.
The letter was signed:
Mom.
Anna covered her mouth.
"No."
She opened another.
Then another.
Birthdays.
Christmases.
School milestones.
Twenty years of letters.
Some contained small drawings.
Others were stained by what looked like tears.
The final letter was dated eleven days earlier.
Anna, if you ever find these, please understand that staying away was the only way I knew to keep you alive.
I made terrible choices. Some were forced on me. Others were mine.
Your father knew part of the truth.
Beatrice knows the rest.
Anna lowered the paper.
The room tilted.
Elias reached for her elbow.
She pulled away.
"Don't."
He stopped immediately.
Anna looked around the room.
"She's alive."
"We don't know that."
"She wrote this eleven days ago."
"The date doesn't prove when it was written."
"Stop."
Her voice cracked.
"Please stop telling me why I shouldn't hope."
Elias said nothing.
Anna pressed the letter against her chest.
For twenty years, she had believed her mother was dead.
Now she was standing inside a room filled with evidence that someone had been watching her grow up.
It was horrifying.
It was heartbreaking.
And beneath both emotions was a small, dangerous spark of hope.
"Where is she?"
Elias looked toward Marco.
"Find the property manager. I want every access record and surveillance file preserved."
Marco nodded.
Anna noticed a small digital camera on the shelf.
She picked it up.
The battery was dead.
"Can we recover the pictures?"
"Probably," Elias said.
"Then do it."
A voice came from the doorway.
"Actually, I'd prefer you didn't."
Anna turned.
Detective Rachel Mercer stood in the entrance, accompanied by two uniformed officers.
Her badge hung from her belt.
"Nobody touches anything else."
Elias's jaw tightened.
"Detective."
"Mr. Romano."
Mercer surveyed the room.
"Interesting place for a late-night visit."
"We found evidence connected to a missing-person investigation," Elias said.
"Then you should have called the police."
"We did."
"After your men entered the property."
Anna stepped forward.
"My mother's letters are here."
Mercer looked at her.
"Your mother?"
"Caroline Harding."
Something changed in the detective's expression.
It was subtle.
But Anna saw it.
Recognition.
Mercer recovered quickly.
"Ms. Harding, I'd like you to come downtown and give a statement."
"Of course."
"Alone."
Elias spoke immediately.
"She'll have counsel."
Mercer smiled without warmth.
"That's her right."
Anna looked between them.
"Why are you two acting like you hate each other?"
Neither answered.
Then Mercer reached for one of the photographs.
Elias caught her wrist before she touched it.
"Gloves, Detective."
The room went silent.
Mercer's eyes narrowed.
"Remove your hand."
Elias released her.
"Evidence should be handled properly."
Mercer put on gloves.
Anna watched her examine the photograph.
The detective turned it over.
On the back was a handwritten date.
She stared at it for a fraction too long.
Then slipped it into an evidence sleeve.
Anna felt uneasy.
"Do you know my mother?"
Mercer looked up.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Ms. Harding, I've investigated a lot of people."
"That wasn't my question."
Mercer's expression hardened.
"I suggest you let me do my job."
An hour later, Anna was seated in a police interview room with an attorney named Olivia Bennett.
Olivia was forty-two, sharp-eyed, and unimpressed by everyone.
She had agreed to represent Anna after an independent consultation arranged through Elias's office.
"You don't answer questions about your finances, your father's business, or Mr. Romano without discussing them with me first," Olivia said.
"Why?"
"Because you're surrounded by people with competing interests."
Anna studied her.
"Do you trust Elias?"
"I trust evidence. And I trust him to have an agenda."
"What agenda?"
"That's what we're going to find out."
Before Anna could respond, the interview-room door opened.
Mercer entered carrying a folder.
She sat opposite Anna.
"I have some difficult news."
Anna's stomach tightened.
"What?"
Mercer placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a woman lying on a hospital bed.
Her face was partially obscured.
But Anna recognized the blue cardigan.
"Where is she?" Anna whispered.
Mercer folded her hands.
"This photograph was taken at a private medical facility outside Boston."
"When?"
"Yesterday morning."
Anna leaned forward.
"Then she's alive."
Mercer hesitated.
"She was."
The room seemed to freeze.
Anna stared at her.
"What do you mean?"
Mercer opened the folder.
"Caroline Harding was reported missing from the facility last night."
Anna struggled to breathe.
"Missing?"
Mercer nodded.
"Her room was empty. The security system had been disabled."
Anna looked at Olivia.
Then back at Mercer.
"Who took her?"
The detective's expression became unreadable.
"That's what we need to determine."
Anna stared at the photograph again.
Then she noticed something.
On the hospital bedside table was a familiar silver lighter.
The same one Elias had used beneath the umbrella.
Anna felt her blood turn cold.
Because beneath the lighter lay a handwritten note.
May you like
Three words.
Elias knows everything.
