Chapter 4 - THE PERSON IN AMELIA’S ROOM
Ethan reached the library seconds before the emergency lights activated.
Sophie stood behind Nora.
The police officer assigned to them was unconscious near the door.
A glass of water lay broken beside him.
Detective Ortiz checked his pulse.
“He is breathing.”
She smelled the liquid on the carpet.
“Someone added something to his drink.”
Nora pointed toward the rear doorway.
“A man came through there.”
“He wore a security uniform.”
The mansion employed twelve security officers.
Richard had approved every one of them.
Ethan no longer knew which employees could be trusted.
Detective Ortiz called for additional units.
Ethan searched the library.
The false passports were gone.
The forged medical documents had disappeared with them.
The luggage case remained because it was too large to remove unnoticed.
The flash drive and notebook were still inside Ethan’s jacket.
The brass key was missing.
The intruder had known exactly what to take.
Sophie clutched her mother’s photograph.
“He tried to get this.”
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Nora pushed him.”
Nora’s sleeve was torn, but she appeared unharmed.
Ethan looked at the connecting hallway.
The intruder could have escaped through the staff corridor.
He also could have gone upstairs.
A sound came from Amelia’s bedroom.
A drawer closed.
Detective Ortiz drew her service weapon and moved ahead of Ethan.
The bedroom door stood slightly open.
The bed had been stripped.
Amelia’s dresses had been pulled from the closet and thrown across the floor.
Drawers had been emptied.
Someone had torn apart the lining of her old travel bags.
The bathroom window was open.
A rope hung down the exterior wall.
The intruder had escaped.
Ethan crossed the room.
A portrait of Amelia and Sophie had been removed from the dresser.
Behind it, someone had written numbers directly on the wallpaper.
4.
5.
6.
Sophie entered behind Nora.
“Mom wrote those.”
Ethan turned.
“How do you know?”
“She showed me before she went to the hospital.”
“She said they were part of our song.”
Amelia used to sing Sophie a lullaby about four stars, eleven clouds, and twenty-seven blue birds.
Ethan had assumed the strange numbers were childish nonsense.
Now he understood they formed a code.
Detective Ortiz studied the photograph Sophie held.
“Celeste said the picture is a key.”
Ethan examined the front and back.
The image showed Amelia holding baby Sophie beside the fountain at Blackstone Gardens.
In the background stood a row of numbered storage buildings.
One small brass plaque was visible near the edge.
Building Four.
Locker Eleven.
The final number could represent a compartment.
“Four, eleven, twenty-seven,” Ethan said.
Detective Ortiz nodded.
“The storage box Amelia mentioned.”
Blackstone Gardens was not a public park.
It belonged to Blackstone Legacy Services, the company Amelia had accused Richard of using to move money.
Ethan opened Amelia’s notebook.
Several pages had been removed.
The remaining entries documented payments from Whitmore accounts into companies based in Portugal, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands.
One company appeared repeatedly.
Blue Harbor Holdings.
The same name was printed on the private flight reservation.
A note in Amelia’s handwriting appeared beside it.
Sophie must remain alive until biometric verification.
Ethan felt his stomach turn.
The criminals did not plan to harm Sophie physically.
They needed her alive to gain access to her inheritance.
Then, once the money was transferred, they could hide her under a false identity.
Detective Ortiz received a call.
Her expression hardened.
“Graham Pike’s office is empty.”
“His staff says he left the country yesterday.”
“To Lisbon?”
“No.”
“He filed a flight plan for Lisbon.”
“But the aircraft changed direction after takeoff.”
“Where did it go?”
“Montreal.”
Ethan looked at the missing brass key.
Celeste and Richard had created multiple false destinations.
The Lisbon tickets might have been a decoy.
Sophie touched her father’s hand.
“Daddy, Celeste said we weren’t going to Portugal.”
“Where did she say you were going?”
May you like
Sophie looked toward her mother’s empty bedroom.
“She said we were going to the place where Mommy’s name had been buried.”
