Chapter 3 - The Night She Buried Her Past
Sadi had been eight years old when the fire destroyed her childhood.
At least, that was the story everyone believed.
Her parents died.
She survived.
A neighbor found her outside the burning house.
She was sent to live with an aunt.
The case was ruled accidental.
Faulty wiring.
Electrical fire.
Tragic.
Simple.
But Sadi remembered something nobody had ever believed.
A black car.
Parked across the street.
And a man standing beside it.
Watching the house burn.
She had never forgotten his face.
Leo listened without interrupting.
"Why didn't you tell the police?"
"I was eight."
"You were questioned."
"Once."
"What did you say?"
"That I saw a man."
"Did they ask what he looked like?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Leo leaned back.
"Maybe someone made sure they didn't."
Sadi stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
"It means your parents may not have died by accident."
She shook her head.
"No."
"Your father had business connections in the harbor."
"My father sold auto parts."
"Legally."
"What do you mean?"
Leo placed a folder on the table.
Her father's name appeared on the first page.
DAVID BENNETT.
Former logistics contractor.
Temporary port employee.
Questioned in connection with missing shipments.
Sadi stared.
"My father didn't steal."
"I didn't say he did."
"You think he knew you."
Leo nodded.
"He may have known people in my world."
Sadi's face tightened.
"Why would anyone care about me twenty years later?"
Leo pointed to the note.
"Because someone believes you remember something."
"But I don't."
"You might."
He looked at the photograph again.
"Who is the man you saw?"
"I don't know."
"Try."
Sadi closed her eyes.
A face came back.
Dark coat.
Scar near the cheek.
Silver watch.
She opened her eyes.
"Scar."
Leo's entire body went still.
"What kind?"
"Along his right cheek."
"Anything else?"
"Silver watch."
Leo called Donnie.
"Find photographs of Caldera's senior crew."
Ten minutes later, Donnie returned.
One photograph.
A man named Victor Hale.
Former Caldera lieutenant.
Scar on right cheek.
Silver watch.
Sadi looked at the image.
Her stomach dropped.
"That's him."
Leo stared at the photograph.
Victor Hale had been presumed dead fifteen years ago.
He wasn't.
And if he had been at the fire, then Sadi's parents had likely been murdered because they knew something.
But why keep Sadi alive?
Leo found the answer in an old port ledger.
David Bennett had worked on a shipment that disappeared the week before the fire.
The shipment had contained millions in cash and encrypted financial records.
David had not stolen them.
He had hidden them.
Before he could tell authorities, he was killed.
The records were never recovered.
Leo looked at Sadi.
"What did your father leave you?"
"Nothing."
"Think."
"I had a box."
"Where?"
"My aunt's basement."
They drove there that night.
The house was abandoned.
Dust coated everything.
Sadi found the box beneath a broken washing machine.
Inside were children's drawings.
Family photographs.
Her father's old watch.
And one envelope addressed to Sadi.
Her hands trembled.
She opened it.
The letter was short.
Sweetheart,
If you're reading this, something happened to me.
Never trust the man with the silver watch.
I hid the truth where only you would know to look.
Remember the song I sang to you.
It will tell you where.
Sadi stared.
"The song."
Leo frowned.
"What song?"
"My dad used to sing it when I couldn't sleep."
She began humming.
Four lines.
A little girl's lullaby.
Leo listened.
Then realized the words contained numbers.
Four.
Nine.
Two.
One.
"Coordinates," he said.
"What?"
"Those are coordinates."
They matched an abandoned storage unit near the southern docks.
They found it empty.
Except for a metal case.
Inside was a ledger.
Names.
Payments.
Dates.
Ports.
And one familiar name.
REY MERCER.
Sadi stepped back.
Leo looked at her.
"He's involved."
"With the fire?"
"No."
"Then what?"
Leo turned the page.
A payment had been made four days earlier.
To Rey.
The amount was enough to buy several houses.
The note beside it read:
KEEP HER QUIET UNTIL TRANSFER.
Sadi felt sick.
"They were planning to take me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Leo continued reading.
Then stopped.
His face hardened.
"They think you have something."
"I don't."
"Maybe you don't know you have it."
Before they could search the case further, gunfire erupted outside.
Glass shattered.
Leo grabbed Sadi and pulled her behind a concrete wall.
"Stay down."
She pressed herself against him.
Men moved outside.
One shouted.
"Take the girl!"
Leo's eyes turned ice-cold.
Sadi heard him speak into his phone.
"Lock the exits."
Then he stepped into the open.
The gunfire stopped almost immediately.
Leo was no longer the quiet man at Frankie's.
He was the man people whispered about at the docks.
Controlled.
Precise.
Terrifying.
Minutes later, the warehouse fell silent.
Leo returned.
He had blood on his knuckles.
Not his.
Sadi stared at him.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes."
He looked at the metal case.
"Someone knew we were coming."
Sadi whispered:
"How?"
Leo's gaze shifted.
There was one person who had access to his schedule.
May you like
One person who knew Sadi was staying at his house.
A traitor.
