Chapter 5 - Someone Had Been Inside My Apartment
The next morning, I found my apartment door unlocked.
I knew I'd locked it.
I always locked it twice.
For several seconds, I stood in the hallway listening.
No footsteps.
No voices.
No television.
Just the faint hum of the refrigerator inside.
I pushed the door open with my shoulder.
My living room looked almost normal. The sofa cushions were in place. The curtains were drawn. My coffee mug sat in the sink.
Then I noticed the bookshelf.
Every book had been pulled forward by exactly the same amount, except one.
My mother's old medical textbook lay open on the floor.
I approached it slowly.
Inside the pages, someone had cut a small square into the paper.
The photograph I'd taken of Thomas Bell's note was gone.
So was the original.
I backed away and called the police.
A patrol officer arrived forty minutes later. He inspected the door, asked whether anything valuable was missing, and suggested that I change the lock.
"You don't think this is connected to the hospital?"
"Probably just a burglary."
"But nothing was stolen except a piece of paper."
He shrugged.
"Maybe it looked valuable."
I wanted to scream.
After he left, I called Adrian.
He answered on the second ring.
"Emma."
"Someone broke into my apartment."
The silence on the other end lasted one second.
Then his voice changed.
"Are you inside?"
"Yes."
"Leave immediately."
"Why?"
"Because whoever entered your apartment may still be watching it."
A car door slammed outside.
I looked through the window.
A black SUV sat across the street.
Two men inside.
Neither was looking at a phone.
Both were watching my building.
I grabbed my coat and ran downstairs.
By the time I reached the sidewalk, the SUV was moving.
A silver sedan pulled up beside me.
Adrian stepped out.
He was wearing a dark overcoat, and his expression was colder than I had ever seen it.
"Did you touch anything?"
"No."
"Good."
He took off his coat and placed it around my shoulders.
I almost protested.
Then I realized I was shaking.
His driver opened the rear door.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Somewhere secure."
"No."
He stopped.
"Emma."
"I am not moving into a criminal's fortress."
A shadow crossed his face.
"Then tell me where you'd prefer to go."
I hadn't expected that question.
"My coworker Maya's apartment."
"Fine."
He gave his driver the address.
No argument. No threats.
As we drove, I watched the city pass beyond the tinted windows.
"Why are you helping me?"
Adrian looked at the road ahead.
"Because I know what happens when people discover the wrong secret."
"That's not an answer."
"No," he agreed. "It isn't."
We reached Maya's building shortly before noon.
Before I stepped out, Adrian handed me a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph of a young woman standing beside him beneath a tree.
She had his dark hair and the same serious eyes.
Grace.
On the back, somebody had written a date.
The date of her death.
Beneath it was a line in Adrian's handwriting.
She trusted the hospital. I should have trusted her.
I looked up.
For the first time, the feared crime boss seemed less like a dangerous stranger and more like a man carrying a wound that had never healed.
"Did you kill the people who hurt her?" I asked.
His eyes met mine.
"Some of them."
I stepped back.
He didn't attempt to stop me.
"But not the ones who mattered," he added quietly.
As I entered Maya's building, I received an unknown message.
Your friend is next.
I turned toward the street.
Adrian was already reading something on his own phone.
Whatever he'd seen made him look as if he were preparing for a war.
May you like
And for the first time, I realized that the danger following me wasn't interested in stealing a piece of paper.
It wanted to erase everyone who knew Grace's name.
