Chapter 8 - Eddie Knox arrived at midnight.He came alone.
Hammer watched him enter the garage.
For the first time in twenty-three years, Hammer couldn't decide whether to hug him or shoot him.
Eddie looked older.
His beard was white.
His shoulders were bent.
He carried the same scarred leather jacket he had worn the night Clara vanished.
Hammer pointed a gun at him.
“Don't move.”
Eddie stopped.
“I knew you'd do that.”
“Where's your son?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“That's not the point.”
“The point is that Clara says you betrayed her.”
Eddie closed his eyes.
“She would.”
Hammer's finger tightened on the trigger.
“You sold her.”
“Yes.”
Mara inhaled sharply.
Hammer's voice became dangerously calm.
“Why?”
Eddie looked at him.
“Because my son was already inside.”
Hammer frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“They had him.”
“When?”
“Before the warehouse.”
Eddie stepped closer.
“I was blackmailed.”
“You could have told me.”
“You would have died.”
“So did Clara.”
Eddie looked away.
“I know.”
Hammer shoved the gun against his chest.
“Tell me everything.”
Eddie swallowed.
“The organization wasn't just moving children.”
“What then?”
“They were changing identities.”
Hammer frowned.
“For what?”
“Money.”
Mara shook her head.
“Identity trafficking.”
Eddie nodded.
“Some children were stolen because powerful families wanted replacements. Some were moved because witnesses needed to disappear. Some were used as leverage.”
Hammer looked toward Ellie.
“And Lucy?”
Eddie looked at her.
“Lucy was different.”
“How?”
“She was evidence.”
Hammer frowned.
“What evidence?”
Eddie shook his head.
“I don't know exactly.”
“Lie again and I swear I'll pull the trigger.”
Eddie sighed.
“Clara discovered a ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The Red Ledger.”
Ellie spoke.
“The red book.”
Everyone turned.
“You know it?”
Ellie nodded.
“My mother said it has all the names.”
“Where is it?”
Ellie shook her head.
“Clara hid it.”
Hammer stared.
“Where?”
“She told me when I was six.”
“Tell me.”
Ellie hesitated.
“She said you had to open the door.”
Hammer understood.
“The door under the courthouse.”
Ellie nodded.
Mara whispered:
“Room 17.”
Eddie looked at Hammer.
“They're going to kill you before you reach it.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
Hammer laughed bitterly.
“That narrows it down.”
Eddie reached into his jacket.
Hammer raised his gun.
“Slowly.”
Eddie pulled out a key.
It was red.
He placed it on the table.
“This opens the door.”
Hammer stared at it.
“Why do you have it?”
“Because Clara gave it to me.”
“Why?”
“To make sure you never found it.”
Hammer looked at him.
“Then why bring it now?”
Eddie looked toward Ellie.
“Because she came back.”
Mara frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Eddie stared at Ellie.
“Lucy wasn't supposed to survive.”
Silence.
“She wasn't supposed to become Ellie.”
Hammer's face hardened.
“Explain.”
Eddie whispered:
“They didn't lose Lucy.”
“They changed her.”
Hammer froze.
“Changed how?”
“Memory conditioning.”
Mara shook her head.
“That sounds impossible.”
Eddie looked at Ellie.
“They erased parts of her childhood.”
Ellie stared at the floor.
Hammer knelt beside her.
“Do you remember?”
Ellie whispered:
“Sometimes.”
“What do you remember?”
“A red door.”
“What else?”
“A woman screaming.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
Hammer's jaw tightened.
“What did she scream?”
Ellie closed her eyes.
“She said, ‘Ray, don't let them make you forget.’”
Hammer's breathing stopped.
“What did they make you forget?”
Ellie opened her eyes.
“You weren't supposed to remember the scars.”
Hammer stared.
“What scars?”
She pointed at his face.
“You don't have three.”
Hammer instinctively touched them.
Ellie shook her head.
“You have four.”
The room went silent.
Hammer turned toward the mirror.
He studied his face.
Three visible scars.
Exactly as always.
Then Ellie walked behind him.
She placed her finger near his neck.
“There.”
Hammer felt beneath his beard.
A narrow scar.
One he had always assumed was from the warehouse fire.
Ellie whispered:
“That is where they removed the tracker.”
Hammer's face changed.
“I never had a tracker.”
“Yes.”
Ellie looked at him.
“They put one inside you.”
Hammer looked at Eddie.
Eddie wasn't surprised.
“You knew.”
Eddie nodded.
Hammer raised the gun again.
“Take me to the courthouse.”
Eddie sighed.
“Ray...”
“Now.”
A siren screamed outside.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Mara looked through the window.
Police vehicles were surrounding the building.
Eddie whispered:
“They found us.”
Hammer turned to Ellie.
“Stay behind me.”
Ellie shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
She looked toward the red key.
“Because I'm the only one who knows what happens when you open that door.”
Then the garage lights went out.
A voice came through the darkness.
“Good girl.”
Hammer froze.
The voice was Clara's.
But Clara was not there.
Someone had recorded her.
May you like
The recording continued.
“When the door opens, Ray, you will remember who you killed.”
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