Chapter 2 - THE EMPTY BEDROOM
“Sadi!”
Diane was out of Ravi's car before it stopped moving.
Marcus barely caught the rear door before she slammed it into a parked sedan.
“Diane, wait.”
She ignored him.
The apartment building's front door stood open.
That frightened her more than if it had been broken.
Someone had entered with a key.
Diane ran upstairs.
Ravi followed with Marcus and two other men.
Her apartment door was ajar.
“Sadi!”
Diane rushed inside.
The living room looked untouched.
The cheap lamp still glowed beside the couch.
Sadi's purple sneakers sat beneath the radiator.
Her math workbook lay open on the table beside a half-finished glass of milk.
“Sadi!”
Diane ran toward the bedroom.
Empty.
The blanket had been pulled from the bed.
For one terrible second, Diane couldn't understand what she was seeing.
Then she noticed Sadi's backpack.
It was gone.
“So is her coat,” Ravi said behind her.
Diane spun.
“Don't stand there analyzing my apartment. Find her.”
“We are.”
“You said someone came inside!”
“One person did.”
“And you let them take her?”
Ravi's face hardened.
“My people were watching the building from the moment we learned your name.”
Diane stared.
“You were watching my home?”
“After I saw the photograph, yes.”
“You had no right.”
“No. But right now you're going to be glad I did.”
Marcus appeared in the doorway.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The person who entered was a woman. Mid-sixties, maybe older. Gray coat. She stayed four minutes.”
Diane's anger stopped.
“Gray coat?”
Marcus nodded.
“She left alone.”
Diane looked toward the kitchen.
“No.”
She hurried past them.
A yellow ceramic bowl sat beside the refrigerator.
Diane lifted it.
The spare key was gone.
Only three people knew it was there.
Diane.
Sadi.
And—
“Oh, God.”
Ravi watched her.
“Who?”
“Mrs. Alvarez.”
“Who is that?”
“Our neighbor downstairs. She watches Sadi when my shifts run late.”
Diane ran back into the hall and down one flight.
Mrs. Alvarez's door was unlocked.
Diane pushed inside.
“Mrs. Alvarez?”
The apartment was empty.
A pot of soup was still warm on the stove.
A television murmured in Spanish.
On the table sat an envelope.
DIANE was written across the front.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Sweetheart,
Sadi is safe with me. I saw the men outside your building and recognized one of them. I couldn't risk waiting.
Do not trust anyone wearing the black watch.
Diane stopped reading.
Slowly, she looked at Ravi.
His black watch was visible beneath his cuff.
Marcus's hand moved toward his jacket.
Ravi raised one finger.
“Don't.”
Diane backed away.
“You stay there.”
“Diane—”
“She knew about you.”
“Apparently.”
“She recognized your men.”
“That doesn't mean she recognized me.”
Diane unfolded the rest.
There was only one more sentence.
Ask Ravi what happened at St. Agnes ten years ago.
Diane's eyes lifted.
“What happened at St. Agnes?”
For the first time since leaving the gala, Ravi looked genuinely unsettled.
Marcus looked away.
Diane noticed.
“You know too.”
Marcus said nothing.
“Tell me.”
Ravi walked to the table.
“St. Agnes was a children's hospital.”
“Was?”
“It closed eight years ago.”
“What happened there?”
Ravi glanced toward Marcus.
“Ten years ago, my older brother was shot.”
Diane waited.
“His name was Adrian. He was taken to St. Agnes.”
“And?”
“He died.”
The words were controlled.
The pain underneath them wasn't.
Diane looked again at the note.
“What does your dead brother have to do with Sadi?”
“I don't know.”
“Stop saying that!”
Ravi's jaw tightened.
“I know the photograph was taken outside St. Agnes. I know Adrian had it. I found it among his belongings after he died.”
Diane's breath caught.
“Your brother had a picture of my sister?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I spent ten years trying to answer that.”
Diane sank into a chair.
Sadi had been an infant ten years ago.
She couldn't remember St. Agnes.
Neither could Diane remember her parents ever mentioning it.
Marcus stepped into the hall, then returned carrying something.
“We found this under the stairwell.”
Sadi's backpack.
Diane grabbed it.
Inside were schoolbooks, a pencil case, a crushed granola bar—
and Sadi's sketchbook.
Diane opened it.
Sadi drew constantly.
Cats.
Houses.
People with enormous heads.
But the newest drawing wasn't childish.
It showed the apartment building.
A black car outside.
A man standing beside it.
On his wrist, Sadi had drawn a black square.
A watch.
Underneath, in her uneven handwriting, she'd written:
HE WAS HERE YESTERDAY TOO.
Ravi took the drawing.
“That isn't one of mine.”
Diane stared at him.
“How would I know?”
“Because my watch isn't the only black watch in this city.”
“That isn't reassuring.”
Marcus suddenly crouched beside the backpack.
“What is that?”
A corner of paper protruded from the torn lining.
Diane pulled it free.
It wasn't paper.
It was an old photograph.
A younger version of Diane's mother stood outside St. Agnes.
Beside her was Mrs. Alvarez.
And between them stood a handsome young man Diane had never seen.
Ravi had.
His face went completely still.
“Adrian.”
Diane looked at him.
“Your brother?”
Ravi nodded.
In Adrian's arms was a baby wrapped in a pink blanket.
On the baby's wrist was a tiny silver bracelet.
Diane knew that bracelet.
Sadi still had it.
Their mother had kept it in a jewelry box and told Diane it was the only thing Sadi had worn home from the hospital.
Diane turned the photograph over.
There was handwriting on the back.
Three words.
Ravi read them over her shoulder.
His voice barely carried.
“Keep her hidden.”
Diane looked at him.
“Hidden from whom?”
A sound came from the bedroom.
Everyone turned.
Ravi moved first.
He crossed the apartment, opened the closet, and pulled aside Diane's winter coats.
Nobody was there.
But taped to the wall was a small electronic transmitter.
Marcus swore.
“Someone bugged the apartment.”
Diane felt sick.
“For how long?”
Marcus examined it.
“Could be months.”
Ravi's face changed.
“Get everyone out.”
Then Diane's phone rang.
She froze.
The screen showed SADI.
Diane answered immediately.
“Sadi?”
Her sister whispered.
“Di?”
Diane nearly collapsed with relief.
“Baby, where are you?”
“I don't know. Mrs. Alvarez said we had to go.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Put her on.”
A pause.
Then Sadi whispered something that made Diane's relief disappear.
“She isn't here anymore.”
“What?”
“She told me to hide in the ladies' bathroom at the bus station.”
Diane stood.
“What bus station?”
“The old one by the river.”
Ravi was already moving.
“Sadi, stay exactly where you are.”
“I did.”
“Good girl. We're coming.”
“Di?”
“Yes?”
“A man came in.”
Diane's heart stopped.
“What man?”
“He knows my name.”
Ravi reached for the phone.
Diane pulled it away.
“Sadi, lock the stall.”
“I already did.”
“Don't open it for anybody.”
Silence.
Then Sadi spoke again.
“He said he knew Mom.”
Diane closed her eyes.
“Don't believe him.”
“I don't.”
A man's voice suddenly came through the phone.
Calm.
Close.
“Sadi?”
Diane stopped breathing.
The man knocked lightly on the bathroom stall.
Then he said something clearly enough for Diane and Ravi to hear.
“Your sister is with Ravi Greedy, sweetheart.”
Ravi's face turned cold.
May you like
The man continued.
“And if she wants you alive, she'll bring me Adrian's photograph.”
