Chapter 3 - THE MAN AT THE BUS STATION
“Keep him talking,” Ravi said.
Diane pressed the phone tighter against her ear.
“Sadi, don't answer him.”
The man's voice came again.
“I don't want to hurt her, Diane.”
“You know my name.”
“I know considerably more than your name.”
Ravi signaled Marcus toward the door.
Cars were already being called.
“Who are you?” Diane demanded.
“A man trying to correct an old mistake.”
“What mistake?”
But the line went silent.
“Sadi?”
Nothing.
“Sadi!”
Then her sister whispered, “I'm here.”
Diane could breathe again.
“Can you climb onto the toilet?”
“Why?”
“Can you reach the window?”
“I think so.”
“Don't yet. Just tell me if it opens.”
There was scraping.
Ravi leaned close enough to hear.
“It does,” Sadi whispered.
“Good. Stay quiet.”
The old river bus station was nine minutes away.
Ravi's drivers made it in five.
Diane spent every second imagining terrible things.
When they arrived, the terminal was nearly deserted.
Marcus entered first.
Ravi caught Diane's arm.
“You stay behind me.”
“She's my sister.”
“And whoever is inside wants you too.”
“I don't care.”
“I do.”
The answer startled her.
So did him.
Ravi released her.
They entered together.
The women's bathroom door stood open.
“Sadi?”
Diane ran inside.
The stalls were empty.
The last window was raised.
Diane's knees weakened.
Then something moved outside.
A small figure dropped from a dumpster and ran.
“Diane!”
Sadi hit her so hard Diane nearly fell.
She wrapped both arms around the child.
“Oh, baby.”
“I did what you said.”
“I know.”
“I didn't open the door.”
“I know.”
Sadi buried her face against Diane's coat.
Ravi stood several feet away.
His expression softened.
Then Sadi looked at him.
“Are you the bad man?”
Marcus coughed.
Diane almost laughed despite everything.
Ravi crouched.
“Some people think so.”
“Are you?”
“Sometimes.”
Sadi considered this.
“At least you don't lie.”
Diane closed her eyes.
“Sadi.”
“What? He said sometimes.”
Ravi almost smiled.
Then he noticed the silver bracelet on her wrist.
His expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
Sadi covered it instinctively.
“Mom gave it to me.”
Diane stared.
“You don't remember Mom giving you that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You were a baby when you got it.”
Sadi shook her head.
“No. Mom gave it to me last year.”
Diane went still.
“What?”
“She took it out of the box.”
“Why?”
“She said I was old enough.”
Diane looked at Ravi.
“When?”
Sadi shrugged.
“Before Christmas.”
“What did she say?”
“That if anything ever happened, I shouldn't let anyone take it.”
Ravi held out his hand.
“May I see it?”
Sadi looked at Diane first.
Diane nodded.
Ravi examined the bracelet.
Tiny flowers were engraved around the band.
He turned it over.
Inside were two initials.
A.G.
Ravi's thumb stopped.
“Adrian Greedy.”
Diane felt the room tilt.
“No.”
“It was his mother's.”
“Your mother?”
“Our mother.”
Ravi looked at Sadi.
“She gave it to Adrian before she died.”
Diane stared at her sister.
Sadi looked frightened now.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
Diane pulled her close.
“You didn't do anything.”
Marcus entered.
“The man is gone. Security camera caught him leaving through the east corridor.”
“Face?”
“Cap and glasses.”
“Vehicle?”
“Working on it.”
Sadi tugged Diane's sleeve.
“I saw his hand.”
Ravi turned.
“What about it?”
“He had a scar.”
“Where?”
She traced a line across her palm.
Marcus and Ravi exchanged a look.
Diane saw it.
“Who?”
Ravi didn't answer immediately.
“Ravi.”
“A man named Victor Dane.”
“Who is he?”
“He worked for my father.”
“Worked?”
“Until Adrian died.”
Marcus added quietly, “Victor disappeared the same night.”
Diane stared.
“So the man who just chased my sister may have been involved in your brother's death?”
“Yes.”
“And somehow my mother had your family bracelet.”
“Yes.”
“And Mrs. Alvarez knew enough to run.”
“Yes.”
Diane's anger rose.
“You're giving me answers one word at a time.”
“Because every answer is worse than the last.”
“Try me.”
Ravi stood.
“My brother wasn't shot randomly.”
The terminal seemed colder.
“He was meeting someone at St. Agnes.”
“My mother?”
“I believed so for years.”
Diane looked at the photograph.
“But?”
“But the hospital's visitor record listed a different name.”
“Whose?”
Ravi looked at Sadi.
Diane understood.
“Not in front of her.”
For once, Ravi obeyed.
Marcus took Sadi toward a vending machine.
Sadi called back, “I want pretzels.”
“Fine.”
“And chocolate.”
“Sadi.”
“I escaped a scary man.”
Marcus nodded solemnly.
“She has a compelling argument.”
Diane waited until they were out of earshot.
“Tell me.”
“The visitor Adrian met was listed as Evelyn Harper.”
Diane frowned.
“My mother was Laura.”
“I know.”
“Then who's Evelyn?”
Ravi reached into his coat.
He showed her another photograph from his phone.
An older woman stood beside Adrian.
Diane recognized her immediately.
Not her mother.
Mrs. Alvarez.
Diane stared.
“Her first name is Rosa.”
“Apparently not.”
The betrayal hurt strangely.
Mrs. Alvarez had attended Diane's graduation.
She had brought soup when Sadi had the flu.
She had sat beside Diane at her parents' funeral.
“Why would she use my last name?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I won't invent answers to make you feel better.”
Diane looked away.
She hated that she respected that.
Marcus returned carrying pretzels, chocolate, and a frightened ten-year-old.
“We found Victor's car.”
“Where?”
“Two blocks east.”
“Anything inside?”
Marcus hesitated.
“A gray coat.”
Diane's stomach tightened.
Mrs. Alvarez's coat.
They found more.
Her purse.
Her glasses.
And a rosary Diane had seen in her hands every Sunday for years.
Sadi began crying.
Diane crouched.
“Hey. Look at me.”
“Is Mrs. Alvarez dead?”
“We don't know.”
“That's what adults say when something bad happened.”
Diane couldn't lie.
“We're going to find her.”
Sadi wiped her nose.
Then reached into her pocket.
“She gave me this.”
A brass key.
Old.
Heavy.
A paper tag was tied around it.
ST. AGNES — 314.
Ravi stared.
“Room 314.”
“What?”
“That was Adrian's room.”
Diane looked at Sadi.
“When did she give you this?”
“In the car.”
“What did she say?”
Sadi thought carefully.
“She said if she didn't come back, give it to you.”
“Anything else?”
Sadi nodded.
“She said Mr. Ravi would know where it goes.”
Ravi's expression darkened.
“The hospital has been closed for eight years.”
“Then why give us a key?”
Marcus answered.
“Because something is still there.”
An hour later, they stood inside the abandoned St. Agnes building.
Room 314 was stripped bare.
No bed.
No equipment.
Nothing.
The brass key didn't fit the door.
Diane looked at Ravi.
“She sent us here for nothing.”
“No.”
Ravi studied the room.
Then he saw an old metal locker built into the wall.
Number 314.
The key turned.
Inside sat a folded child's coat.
Pink.
Small enough for a toddler.
Beneath it was a hospital identification bracelet.
SADI HARPER.
Diane picked it up.
The admission date was ten years earlier.
But beneath Sadi's name was another line.
GUARDIAN: ADRIAN GREEDY.
Diane's fingers went numb.
“That can't be right.”
Ravi stared at the bracelet.
Then Diane found the final object.
A sealed envelope.
Her mother's handwriting covered the front.
DIANE — IF YOU EVER FIND THIS, I FAILED TO KEEP THE PROMISE.
Diane tore it open.
Inside was no letter.
Only a photograph.
Her mother.
Adrian.
Baby Sadi.
And on Adrian's finger—
a wedding ring.
May you like
On the back, Laura Harper had written one sentence.
Tell Diane that Sadi was never supposed to be her sister.
