Chapter 6 - The Locked Room
Adeline dropped to her knees.
Smoke thickened along the floor.
“Nico, window.”
He rolled toward it.
Locked.
Painted shut years ago.
Adeline grabbed a wooden rocking chair and swung it into the glass.
Once.
Crack.
Twice.
The pane shattered outward.
Cold lake air punched into the room.
Nico coughed.
“Boxes.”
“Leave them.”
“Evidence.”
“Leave them.”
She shoved photographs and the original medical reports into a pillowcase.
Nico fired once into the door lock.
The shot shook the room.
Wood splintered.
Adeline kicked.
The door opened three inches.
Someone had wedged a cabinet against it.
Together they forced it wider.
Flames climbed the corridor runner.
Not a house fire.
A line.
Accelerant.
Someone wanted the nursery.
Adeline pushed Nico toward the service lift.
Sprinklers finally erupted.
Water slammed the hall.
The fire alarm screamed.
Security men ran upstairs.
Victor appeared from the main corridor in shirtsleeves.
“What happened?”
Nico looked at him.
“Funny. We were about to ask you.”
Victor saw the pillowcase.
Something tightened in his face.
Then vanished.
“We need everyone outside.”
Nico rolled closer.
“Who locked us in?”
Victor glanced toward the smoking nursery.
“Could have been heat expansion.”
Adeline laughed.
Victor looked at her.
Wrong answer.
The fire department contained the blaze before it reached the main bedrooms.
By two in the morning, the nursery was blackened.
The boxes inside were gone.
But Adeline still had the pillowcase.
She hid it in Wes’s old overnight duffel.
At three, Nico called his attorney.
At four, he called a private security man who owed Victor nothing.
At five, Adeline searched the names of the three nurses before her.
Dana O’Reilly.
Accused of stealing jewelry.
License intact.
Left Illinois.
Megan Lowe.
Accused of stealing medication.
License intact.
Moved to Ohio.
Mara Collins.
Quit without notice.
No forwarding address.
No final paycheck.
No termination documents.
Adeline found an old cardboard box in the supply closet labeled M. COLLINS.
Inside were compression socks, a broken stethoscope clip, and twelve paper cranes.
Adeline stopped.
Nico saw her face.
“What?”
“My brother makes these.”
“So?”
“He learned from me.”
She picked up the smallest crane.
Inside one wing, numbers were written in pencil.
Coordinates.
Nico entered them into his phone.
A closed rehabilitation clinic near Rockford.
Forty miles away.
His face changed.
“I know that place.”
“You were there?”
“No. Victor wanted me transferred there after the hospital.”
“Why didn’t you go?”
“My father’s old doctor objected.”
Adeline turned the crane over.
One more line.
IF FOURTH FINDS THIS, GO ALONE.
Nico snorted.
“Mara didn’t know you very well.”
Adeline’s phone rang.
Wes.
Relief hit first.
She answered.
“Hey.”
A man said, “Adeline Marsh?”
Her stomach dropped.
“Who is this?”
“Your brother is with us.”
Nico’s head snapped toward her.
Adeline gripped the phone.
“Put him on.”
A scrape.
Then Wes’s voice.
“Addie?”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know. There’s a pharmacy.”
The man returned.
“Stop asking questions about Mr. Alfieri’s medication.”
Adeline stood frozen.
“Who are you?”
“You know.”
“No. I don’t.”
A soft laugh.
“Then you’re not as smart as they said.”
The line died.
Adeline immediately called Wes back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
She was already moving toward the door when Nico caught her wrist.
“You don’t go alone.”
“That was my brother.”
“I heard.”
“He’s seven.”
“I heard.”
“Then let go.”
Nico did.
But he rolled beside her.
At the front steps, Victor stood waiting.
A car idled behind him.
He looked at Adeline.
“Going somewhere?”
Her hands curled.
Nico answered for her.
“Yes.”
Victor smiled.
May you like
“To find her brother?”
Adeline stopped breathing.
