Chapter 4 - THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE YELLOW RAINCOAT
“Penny, that little girl was standing in this house three days ago.”
Rosa's words followed me all the way to the ambulance.
I stopped beside Dominic's stretcher.
“Mr. Moretti, we have a problem.”
He looked up.
“Another one?”
“Caleb Mercer's granddaughter may be alive.”
Dominic's expression changed instantly.
“Lily?”
I nodded.
“Rosa saw her here three days ago.”
Dominic glanced toward the mansion.
“Lily died in the same fire as Anthony.”
“Then someone owes us an explanation.”
The paramedic adjusted Dominic's blood pressure cuff.
“Sir, we really need to leave.”
Dominic nodded, then looked at me.
“Ride with us.”
I hesitated.
“My truck's outside.”
“Have Rosa give the keys to the driver. I want you nearby.”
Normally, I would have told him that I wasn't one of his employees to command.
But I was still staring at the photograph.
At Lily's yellow raincoat.
At the red bracelet around her wrist.
Four years earlier, Lily had been an energetic eight-year-old with freckles, a crooked ponytail, and an alarming talent for asking questions.
She lived with her grandfather after her mother died.
Caleb occasionally brought her to a community center where my father volunteered to teach basic electrical safety.
I'd helped with the children's classes.
Lily loved my father's homemade flashlight kits.
She used to call him Mr. Sparks.
And when she asked why electricians carried so many tools, Dad would tell her, “Because you never know which one will save the day.”
I remembered making friendship bracelets with her during a rainy Saturday workshop.
Mine was blue.
Hers was red.
Then Lily disappeared.
The newspapers said she'd been visiting Caleb at a warehouse when a fire killed her and several workers.
I had been so consumed by my father's death that I never connected the two stories.
Now I couldn't stop seeing her face.
Inside the ambulance, Dominic sat silently while a paramedic monitored him.
Finally, he asked, “How did you know Lily?”
I told him.
He listened without interrupting.
When I finished, his face looked older.
“Caleb loved that girl more than anything.”
“Then why would he pretend she's dead?”
Dominic looked toward the passing streetlights.
“I don't know.”
But he didn't sound convinced.
At the hospital, Dr. Bennett arranged urgent neurological evaluation.
The emergency physician ordered tests and asked detailed questions about Dominic's episodes.
For the first time, Dominic answered without looking toward a security guard.
He admitted he'd been taking medication prepared in weekly organizers by Mercer's staff.
He described headaches, confusion, memory gaps, and seizures that seemed more frequent when he slept at home.
The physician requested a review of his medications and medical records.
When she asked whether Dominic had experienced visual disturbances before the episodes, he nodded.
“Bright flashes,” he said.
I looked at him.
“From the courtyard?”
“I thought they were inside my head.”
The physician explained that photosensitive seizures were possible, but not every seizure had the same cause.
A flashing light could be a trigger without explaining the entire condition.
That distinction mattered.
Because somebody had been flashing that light deliberately.
After the examination, Dominic asked me to wait in a small family room.
Rosa arrived twenty minutes later carrying my truck keys and a paper bag.
“Your tools,” she said. “I didn't want Caleb near them.”
I thanked her.
Then she looked at Dominic.
“I found something else.”
From the bag, she removed an old photograph album.
Dominic frowned.
“Where did you get that?”
“Your mother's sewing room.”
“My mother died six years ago.”
“I know.”
Rosa placed the album on the table.
“Anthony gave it to her before the warehouse fire. She told me to keep it safe.”
Dominic opened it.
There were childhood photographs.
Birthday cakes.
Baseball games.
Two brothers sitting on a dock beside Lake Michigan.
Anthony was younger, thinner, always smiling.
Dominic's fingers stopped on one picture.
Anthony stood beside Caleb Mercer, both wearing dark suits.
Between them was Lily.
She held an enormous birthday cake.
On its icing were the words:
HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY, LILY.
Dominic stared.
“I remember this.”
Rosa nodded.
“Anthony arranged her party.”
“He told me Caleb couldn't afford a proper celebration after Lily's mother died.”
“He loved that child,” Rosa said.
I turned another page.
There was a photograph of my father standing beside Anthony.
They were examining electrical drawings.
The plans showed a row of industrial buildings.
My father had written something along the edge.
Emergency circuit must remain independent.
I touched the words.
“That was something Dad always insisted on.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“What does it mean?”
“Emergency lighting and life-safety systems can't depend on the same vulnerable controls as ordinary equipment. If one system fails, the other needs to work.”
I studied the drawing.
Someone had added a second set of lines in red ink.
They led toward a control panel marked NORTH ANNEX.
My father had circled it.
Three times.
“Penny?”
I looked up.
“Whoever made these changes connected equipment that should have remained separate.”
Dominic's expression tightened.
“Could that start a fire?”
“Bad wiring can. But I can't tell from a photograph whether that's what happened.”
Rosa pointed toward the corner of the page.
“There's another note.”
I read it aloud.
“Ask Anthony why Caleb wants manual override.”
Dominic slowly closed the album.
“Caleb supervised construction at that warehouse.”
A terrible possibility formed in my mind.
“Did your brother oppose the modifications?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Anthony believed the building was being used for something I hadn't approved.”
Dominic hesitated.
“He thought someone was moving money and people through my company's properties.”
I stared at him.
“People?”
He nodded.
“Witnesses. Families. Employees who wanted to disappear from dangerous situations. Anthony said he was arranging safe housing.”
“Was he?”
“I accused him of using our money to build his own operation.”
His voice cracked slightly.
“I didn't listen.”
Rosa placed a hand over his.
“You were angry. But Anthony never stopped loving you.”
Dominic looked away.
Before anyone could speak again, my phone vibrated.
The screen displayed a notification from the security application I used for work.
My truck's portable circuit monitor had connected to an unfamiliar wireless controller.
I frowned.
I had installed the monitor earlier that evening to diagnose the mansion's electrical problems.
It shouldn't have been communicating with anything outside the house.
I opened the connection record.
A device identifier appeared.
NORTH ANNEX CONTROL 4.
I felt cold.
“That's impossible.”
Dominic turned.
“What?”
“The controller from your warehouse plans is transmitting.”
“From the burned building?”
“No.”
I checked the signal location.
The controller was inside the Moretti mansion.
And it had just activated.
I called Rosa's mobile phone.
She answered after two rings.
“I'm here, dear.”
“Rosa, is anyone still at the house?”
“The night staff. Why?”
“Where's Caleb?”
“He left through the service entrance.”
“Is Lily with him?”
Rosa went silent.
Then she whispered, “Penny, I don't know where Lily is.”
Another notification appeared.
A live camera feed had been connected to the controller.
I didn't recognize the room at first.
Then I saw my father's blue toolbox sitting beneath a narrow window.
Someone had kept it all these years.
A teenage girl sat beside it.
Her dark hair was tied back.
A red bracelet circled her wrist.
A man stood behind her, his face outside the camera's frame.
Then the girl looked directly into the lens.
Her lips moved.
There was no sound.
But I knew exactly what she was saying.
“Mr. Sparks said you'd come.”
The image flickered.
May you like
And a digital countdown appeared beneath her chair.
00:09:59.
