Chapter 2 - Hammer waited until the courtroom emptied.He refused every reporter.
He refused every question.
He refused even his own attorney when she asked what Ellie had whispered.
“Not here.”
His attorney, Mara Voss, looked irritated.
“Ray, this is becoming a disaster.”
“It already was.”
“What did the girl give you?”
Hammer looked at her.
“You saw that?”
“I saw everything.”
Hammer's hand closed over the object beneath his vest.
Mara noticed.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Ray.”
“No.”
Mara lowered her voice.
“You are on trial for kidnapping.”
“I know.”
“The prosecution just implied you may have helped abduct that child.”
“I know.”
“Then stop keeping secrets from the only lawyer trying to keep you out of prison.”
Hammer stared toward the courtroom doors.
“Some secrets don't belong in court.”
Mara's expression changed.
“That's exactly the kind of sentence that gets a man convicted.”
Hammer walked away.
He entered the courthouse restroom.
Locked the door.
Pulled the red object from inside his vest.
It was smaller than a matchbox.
Wrapped in wax paper.
A faded red thread tied around it.
Hammer's hands started shaking.
He knew that thread.
Nine years earlier, a woman named Clara Bell had tied red thread around everything that mattered to her.
Letters.
Keys.
Photographs.
Little packages.
Clara believed red meant memory.
Hammer had laughed at her once.
She had told him:
“If someone finds the red thread, they find me.”
Three days later, Clara disappeared.
The official story said she had fled the city after testifying in a federal investigation.
Hammer knew she hadn't.
He had been with her the night she died.
Or thought he had.
He had watched fire consume the warehouse where she was trapped.
He had walked away carrying the scars on his face.
For nine years, he had believed there was nothing left.
Now Ellie had placed this inside his vest.
Hammer tore the wax paper open.
A tiny red plastic heart fell into his palm.
On its surface was a number.
Hammer stopped breathing.
He remembered the red heart.
It had belonged to Clara.
A cheap plastic charm from a vending machine.
She wore it around her neck.
Always.
Hammer turned it over.
There was writing scratched into the back.
Three letters.
E-L-L.
He stared at them.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Hammer answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“You should have let the girl forget.”
Hammer's expression turned cold.
“Who is this?”
“You were warned.”
“Where are you?”
“Too late.”
The line went dead.
Hammer immediately called a number he had not used in years.
A retired detective named Walter Kane answered after four rings.
“Hammer?”
“I found the heart.”
Silence.
Then Kane whispered:
“Where?”
“With me.”
Another silence.
“Then burn it.”
Hammer stared at the tiny object.
“No.”
“Ray, listen to me.”
“No.”
“That thing got people killed.”
“It got Clara killed.”
Kane's breathing changed.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand more than I did yesterday.”
Hammer lowered his voice.
“Why does it have the number 17?”
Kane did not answer.
“Kane.”
“Because that wasn't a number.”
“What was it?”
“It was a room.”
Hammer froze.
“Where?”
“Saint Mercy.”
Hammer knew the hospital.
Abandoned seventeen years ago.
The building had been closed after a fire in the pediatric wing.
“What's in Room 17?”
Kane breathed shakily.
“Nothing.”
“Don't lie to me.”
“I saw what they put there.”
Hammer's jaw tightened.
“What?”
“A girl.”
Hammer's heart stopped.
“What girl?”
Kane hung up.
Hammer immediately called back.
No answer.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Then he heard a noise behind him.
A quiet scrape.
He turned.
Nobody.
The restroom was empty.
But the red heart in his palm was gone.
Hammer looked down.
His hand was empty.
The object had vanished.
His eyes moved to the mirror.
Written across the glass in red lipstick were four words.
YOU NEVER SAVED HER.
Hammer stepped closer.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Clara's.
His blood ran cold.
Behind him, the restroom door slowly opened.
A little girl stood in the hallway.
Ellie.
She looked directly at him.
May you like
Then whispered:
“She isn't dead.”
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