Chapter 6 - MIA’S FIRST LIE
Dominic found Mia in Harper’s room.
Doctor Russo had bandaged her wrists and ordered her to remain in bed.
She ignored him.
She sat beside Harper beneath a heavy blanket.
The child had finally fallen asleep.
Dominic closed the door quietly.
“Mia.”
She looked at his face and immediately understood.
“Claire told you.”
“You worked for Detective Reyes.”
Mia lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Were you a police officer?”
“No.”
“I cleaned offices at the county building.”
“That is not the whole truth.”
Mia carefully moved Harper’s head onto a pillow.
Then she stood.
Pain crossed her face.
Dominic offered his arm.
She did not take it.
“I was an informant,” she said.
“My husband worked at the docks.”
“He discovered containers being moved without inspection.”
“He spoke to Detective Reyes.”
“Two weeks later, he disappeared.”
Harper had been six months old.
Mia received a photograph of her husband’s body from an unknown number.
No body was ever recovered.
The message beneath the photograph contained four words.
KEEP YOUR DAUGHTER QUIET.
Detective Reyes moved Mia into a protected apartment.
Mia began helping her identify port workers connected to the secret shipments.
Elena approached the detective with evidence against Nathan.
The night Elena died, she stopped at the protected apartment.
“She was terrified,” Mia said.
“She knew she was being followed.”
“She gave me the pendant.”
“She told me to keep it hidden until Detective Reyes contacted me.”
“Why didn’t you give it to her?”
“Detective Reyes disappeared the next morning.”
Dominic frowned.
“Sofia Reyes is alive.”
“She left the department after Elena died.”
“She moved west.”
“That is what Nathan wanted everyone to believe.”
Mia opened the drawer beside Harper’s bed.
She removed an old newspaper clipping.
Detective Sofia Reyes had been accused of stealing evidence from the department.
Charges were never filed.
She vanished before an internal hearing.
“I thought Nathan killed her,” Mia said.
“I took Harper and ran.”
“I changed our last name.”
“Three years ago, I saw a photograph of your estate manager.”
“Nathan was standing behind you.”
“I came here because I wanted to know if he had killed my husband and Elena.”
“You entered my house under a false name.”
“Yes.”
“You placed your daughter near men you believed were killers.”
Mia’s eyes filled with anger.
“I had no money.”
“No protection.”
“No family.”
“Nathan had people watching every shelter connected to Detective Reyes.”
“The safest place was the one place he would never expect me to enter willingly.”
Dominic could not argue with the logic.
He hated that it made sense.
“Did you know what was inside the pendant?”
“No.”
“Elena only told me the bird would sing when the right person heard it.”
“Do you know the password?”
Mia shook her head.
Then Harper spoke from the bed.
“Mommy sings the bird song.”
They both turned.
Harper’s eyes remained closed.
Mia touched her daughter’s hair.
“What bird song?”
“The one about the little bird coming home.”
Mia looked at Dominic.
“It is a lullaby.”
“Elena sang it while she waited for Detective Reyes.”
“She made me promise to remember the final line.”
“What is it?”
Mia whispered the words.
“The little bird returns where the river meets the stone.”
Dominic knew the place.
Beneath the chapel, an old drainage tunnel met the stone foundation beside the Hudson.
His grandfather had used it during Prohibition.
Nathan knew about the tunnel too.
A guard rushed into the room.
“Mr. Vale.”
“We found one of Nathan’s men inside the chapel.”
“He is dead.”
“Something was carved into his chest.”
Dominic looked at Mia.
“What?”
May you like
The guard swallowed.
“A silver bird.”
