Chapter 6 - LOCKER 318
The photograph had been taken less than a minute earlier.
Emily knew because the station clock above the lockers was visible in the corner.
1:17 a.m.
Matthew looked at Elias.
“How far to Union Station?”
“Twenty-eight minutes if the roads are clear.”
“They won’t be.”
Sheriff Price was still outside the van, but the arrival of two state police cruisers had changed the temperature of the roadblock.
Nobody wanted to be the first man caught doing something illegal on a livestream with nine thousand witnesses.
Emily held Matthew’s phone.
The photo of the open locker seemed to pulse in her hand.
“They already have whatever was inside.”
Pike shook his head.
“Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your father never trusted one hiding place.”
“You keep saying things like you knew him.”
“I did.”
“How well?”
Pike looked away.
“Badly enough that he fired me twice.”
Emily blinked.
“And hired you back?”
“Three times.”
Despite everything, she almost smiled.
That sounded like her father.
Matthew’s phone vibrated again.
This time the message contained five words.
YOU MISSED YOUR FIRST CHANCE.
Emily showed Pike.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“That phrase.”
“You know it?”
Pike nodded slowly.
“Arthur used to say there were three chances to catch a thief.”
“What were they?”
“When he lies.”
Pike held up one finger.
“When he spends.”
A second.
“And when he believes he got away with it.”
Emily looked at the message.
“First chance.”
Matthew said, “So the empty locker may be intentional.”
Pike looked at him.
“Congratulations.”
Matthew ignored him.
A state trooper approached the van with both hands visible.
He was young enough to look uncomfortable with everyone involved.
“Ms. Hale?”
Emily slid the side door open a few inches.
“Yes.”
“I’m Sergeant Mills with state patrol.”
“Are you here to take me to Sheriff Price?”
“No, ma’am.”
She noticed his eyes move to her bruised face.
He looked angry for a second, then professional again.
“We saw your livestream.”
“Everyone did.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Please stop calling me ma’am. I’m twenty-four.”
He looked startled.
“Okay.”
That awkward little moment made her trust him more than a perfect speech would have.
Mills explained that state investigators were en route, but the emergency psychiatric order was technically valid until reviewed.
Emily laughed.
“So I’m free except for the part where I’m legally not.”
“That’s… not how I would phrase it.”
“How would you phrase it?”
He thought about it.
“I wouldn’t.”
Matthew covered a cough that might have been a laugh.
Emily glared at him.
The trooper continued.
“If you voluntarily agree to medical evaluation at St. Catherine’s in the next county, we can escort you there instead of placing you in Sheriff Price’s custody.”
Emily looked at Matthew.
He said, “Your choice.”
She appreciated that he did not tell her what to do.
She hated that she noticed.
“I’ll go.”
Pike leaned forward.
“What about the station?”
Emily looked at the key.
Then at him.
“You go.”
Pike laughed.
“In handcuffs?”
“You got yourself into those.”
“Actually, Marcus did.”
Marcus tightened them one notch.
Pike winced.
“Point taken.”
Emily gave the key to Matthew.
He did not take it immediately.
“You trust me with this?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“That was not a compliment.”
“I know.”
He took the key.
Emily pointed at him.
“You open nothing without recording it.”
“Understood.”
“And you send me everything.”
“Yes.”
“And if you lie to me—”
“You’ll stop trusting me.”
“I already don’t trust you.”
Matthew’s eyes held hers.
“Then I suppose I have less to lose.”
The answer was too smooth.
Emily looked away first.
At St. Catherine’s, she was examined by a physician who kept forgetting Diane was her stepmother and calling her “your mom.”
Emily corrected her the first two times.
On the third, she stopped.
She was too tired.
A social worker named Priya sat beside the bed while Emily gave her statement.
No one asked if she had caused the bruise herself.
No one asked whether she had been drinking.
No one used the word unstable.
At 3:04 a.m., the emergency hold was suspended pending review.
Emily should have felt safe.
She did not.
Priya brought her hospital pants, a sweatshirt, and donated sneakers half a size too big.
“They squeak,” Emily said.
“They’re free.”
“I love them.”
Priya smiled.
For a moment, Emily wanted to cry for no reason she could explain.
Then Matthew called.
She answered immediately.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing.”
Her stomach dropped.
“The locker was empty?”
“Completely.”
“And the person who opened it?”
“Gone before we arrived.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Pike’s voice came faintly through the phone.
“Ask her about the train board.”
Emily frowned.
“What train board?”
Matthew said, “There’s a departure board across from the lockers. Your father scratched something into the underside.”
“What?”
“Three numbers.”
Emily waited.
“4-11-27.”
She sat up.
“That’s not random.”
“You know it?”
“Yes.”
She was already pulling off the hospital blanket.
“It’s a date.”
“April eleventh, twenty-seven?”
“No.”
Emily’s fingers trembled.
“Four, eleven, twenty-seven were the page numbers in the bedtime book my father used to read me after my mother died.”
Silence.
Matthew said, “What book?”
Emily stared at the white hospital wall.
“The Secret Garden.”
“And where is it?”
Her pulse accelerated.
“In my bedroom at the mansion.”
A knock sounded at the hospital room door.
Priya went to open it.
Emily expected a nurse.
Instead, Diane Hale walked in carrying a pair of Emily’s shoes.
Her stepmother’s eyes were red from crying.
Her voice was gentle.
“Sweetheart.”
Emily could not move.
Diane placed the shoes on the floor.
Then she looked at the phone in Emily’s hand and smiled faintly.
“Tell Matthew he can stop looking for the book.”
May you like
She reached into her purse.
And pulled out a charred cover with the words THE SECRET GARDEN burned almost completely away.
