Chapter 5 - WHAT CASSANDRA’S FATHER BURIED
Dominic stared at Cassandra.
“Explain.”
She looked exhausted.
“My father kept a locked box in his office.”
“No secret box,” Dominic said. “Tell me what you actually know.”
Cassandra flinched.
Then nodded.
Fair.
“After he died, I found photographs mixed into his personal albums. Samuel. Your father. Margaret. Claire.”
“You never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought they were business.”
“And four months ago?”
“Samuel showed me this.”
She pointed at the photograph from St. Agnes.
“He had another copy.”
“What did he say?”
“That my father owed him his life.”
Dominic’s voice stayed level.
“Why?”
“Because Henry Vale arranged a new identity for Samuel after the car accident.”
“So the accident was staged.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Cassandra hesitated.
“Samuel said Carlo wanted him dead.”
“Did you believe that?”
“At first.”
“And now?”
“I believe Samuel tells the truth when it helps him.”
That was the smartest thing I had heard Cassandra say.
Dominic looked at the picture again.
“If Henry helped Samuel disappear, why was he at St. Agnes?”
Cassandra answered softly.
“Because Samuel was blackmailing him.”
“With what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Cassandra.”
“I don’t.”
She met Dominic’s eyes.
“My father was not a good man just because hospitals put his name on buildings.”
That cost her something to say.
I could see it.
“He loved us,” she continued. “He paid for my mother’s treatment. He put my sister through college. He also spent half his life fixing problems for powerful men and pretending that made him indispensable instead of dishonest.”
Dominic looked away.
Perhaps because the description could have applied to more than one father.
We returned to the mansion before noon.
Lily was in the sunroom with Ben, drawing.
When Dominic entered, she held up a picture.
It showed five people.
Dominic.
Lily.
Me.
Ben.
And a large black dog none of us owned.
“What’s that?” Dominic asked.
“Our security dog.”
“We don’t have one.”
“We should.”
Ben nodded solemnly.
“She has a point.”
Dominic looked at his security chief.
“Apparently I’m being outvoted.”
For a moment, the house almost felt normal.
Then Lily picked up another drawing.
This one was older.
Creased.
A gray-haired man stood beside a wine rack.
There was a scar beside his mouth.
My body went cold.
“Lily.”
She looked at me.
“Who is that?”
“The man who knew Grandma.”
Dominic sat beside her.
“When did you see him?”
“At school.”
Every adult in the room went still.
“When?”
“Before my birthday.”
Lily’s birthday had been five weeks earlier.
“What did he say?”
“He said Grandma Margaret liked purple flowers.”
Dominic swallowed.
“She did.”
“He knew your secret name too.”
Dominic frowned.
“What secret name?”
Lily smiled a little.
“Dommy.”
His face changed.
“That was what my mother called me.”
Samuel had not simply researched them.
He had memories.
Personal ones.
“He gave me something,” Lily said.
Dominic’s voice became careful.
“What?”
“A necklace.”
“Where is it?”
“I hid it.”
“Why?”
“Cassandra said strangers don’t give children presents.”
Cassandra looked away.
Lily climbed from her chair and retrieved a small velvet pouch from behind a row of books.
Inside was a delicate gold chain.
A tiny oval pendant hung from it.
Dominic opened the pendant.
One side held a photograph of Margaret.
The other held a photograph of Dominic at fifteen.
“He told me it belonged to Grandma,” Lily said.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Did he ask you to do anything?”
“He said if I ever got scared, I should go downstairs where the walls are thick.”
The cellar.
I felt sick.
“Did he tell you to go there the night of the party?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Lily looked at Cassandra.
Cassandra’s face collapsed.
“I did.”
Dominic stood.
Lily immediately looked worried.
Cassandra moved forward, then stopped herself.
“I didn’t know the door would lock.”
“What did Samuel tell you?” Dominic asked.
“He said Lily would find something in the cellar that belonged to Margaret.”
“So you sent my seven-year-old daughter into an underground room alone?”
“I told Owen to go with her.”
“Owen Price?”
One of the newer estate guards.
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
The security chief answered.
“Missing since last night.”
Dominic’s anger became very still.
Cassandra’s eyes filled.
“I thought Samuel was forcing me to prove Hannah had been stealing family items.”
“You thought humiliating Hannah would protect you.”
“I thought if I gave Samuel one thing he wanted, he would disappear.”
“He had been dead eleven years,” I said. “People like that don’t come back because they want one favor.”
Cassandra looked at me.
“I know that now.”
Dominic examined Lily’s pendant.
Inside the hinge, something had been scratched.
A date.
OCTOBER 14
Three weeks away.
“What is October fourteenth?” I asked.
Dominic stared.
“My wedding day.”
Cassandra closed her eyes.
Nobody spoke.
Then the security chief entered quickly.
“We found Owen.”
“Where?”
“Not far. He abandoned his car near Waukegan.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Cassandra exhaled.
“He’s coming in.”
“Did he admit putting Lily downstairs?”
“No.”
Dominic looked at his daughter.
“But he did.”
The chief hesitated.
“We found his jacket in the vehicle.”
He placed it on the table.
Black.
Silver wolf buttons.
One was missing.
The same button Lily had carried upstairs.
Answer one.
But the chief was not finished.
“There’s something else.”
He turned the jacket over.
A train ticket fell from the inside pocket.
Chicago Union Station.
Stamped the previous afternoon.
Across it, handwritten in black ink:
LOCKER 204.
The same number from my mother’s coat.
Dominic looked at me.
Samuel had not left us two separate clues.
He had been steering everyone toward the same place.
And suddenly I understood the worst part.
“He wanted Lily to find the button.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“He wanted me to find Room 317.”
“He wanted us to find the coat.”
“And now he wants us at Union Station.”
Cassandra whispered, “Why?”
Dominic picked up Margaret’s watch.
May you like
“Because whatever is in locker 204 is the one thing he cannot retrieve himself.”
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