Chapter 13 - THE HOUSE WITH THE RED DOOR
Leo did not let Celeste leave Naomi's office until she explained every detail.
Mia slept in the next room, unaware that one sleepy sentence had changed the entire case again.
Celeste sat with both hands around a paper cup she had not touched.
“I should have told you,” she said.
Leo remained standing.
“That sentence is becoming a family tradition.”
Celeste accepted the blow.
“Six weeks ago, after I received the photograph, I got a second envelope.”
“What was inside?”
“A key and an address.”
“The red-door house?”
“Yes.”
“You said you didn't have another house.”
“I don't.”
“The cottage belongs to a charitable trust Elena helped establish before Mia was born.”
Leo stared at her.
“Why did you take Mia there?”
Celeste's eyes filled with shame.
“Because the letter told me to bring her.”
Leo laughed once in disbelief.
“You took my five-year-old daughter to an unknown house because an anonymous letter told you to?”
“I had the property checked first.”
“That is not the point.”
“I know.”
“Then explain the woman.”
Celeste looked toward the wall.
“When we arrived, a woman was waiting in the back room.”
“Did you see her?”
“Not clearly at first.”
“She wore a scarf over part of her face.”
“She had scars along her jaw and temple.”
Leo's stomach twisted.
“Was it Elena?”
“I don't know.”
“You took Mia close enough to talk to her and you don't know?”
“The woman looked like Elena after an accident could have changed her.”
“She sounded like Elena sometimes.”
“Other times her voice was wrong.”
“She knew things only Elena should know.”
“Such as?”
“The first apartment you two rented.”
“The name you almost gave Mia.”
“The fact that you kept Elena's broken watch in the back of your closet after pretending you threw it away.”
Leo felt exposed by details he had forgotten other people could know.
“What did Mia do?”
“She stared at the woman for several minutes.”
“Then the woman drew the crossed pink heart on a piece of paper.”
“Mia ran to her.”
Leo closed his eyes.
He could picture it too easily.
“What happened after that?”
“The woman hugged her.”
“She cried without making a sound.”
“She told Mia not to call her Mommy yet because she had to keep a promise.”
Leo opened his eyes.
“And you still didn't tell me.”
“I wanted proof.”
“What proof?”
“I took a strand of hair from the woman's scarf.”
Leo stared at her.
“DNA?”
Celeste nodded.
“I sent it to a private laboratory under false names.”
“When do you get the result?”
“I should have had it yesterday.”
“But the lab stopped answering.”
Leo's anger sharpened into focus.
“Grant found out.”
“I think so.”
“Who else knew about the visit?”
“No one.”
“Not Rosa?”
“No.”
“Not Daniel?”
“No.”
“Dr. Kent?”
Celeste hesitated.
“The instructions used a phrase Sarah once used with Elena.”
“What phrase?”
“Keep the promise.”
Leo thought of the message on the stolen photograph.
Tell Mia her mother kept the promise.
Celeste stood.
“There is one more thing.”
Leo waited.
“The woman gave Mia the pink marker.”
Leo went completely still.
The marker that ruined his shirt had not come from a craft drawer.
It had come from the woman in the red-door cottage.
The opening scene replayed in his mind.
Hold still, Daddy.
It needs a heart.
Make it a big one.
Mia had not randomly selected a color.
She had carried a message into the study without knowing it was a message.
Leo looked through the glass at his sleeping daughter.
“Where is the cottage?”
Celeste gave him the address.
It was twenty-eight miles north of Willow Crest.
Naomi insisted they contact the detectives before going.
Leo agreed this time.
At dawn, two detectives met them outside the property.
The cottage was small, painted white, with a dark red front door exactly as Mia described.
The lock showed no damage.
Celeste's key still worked.
Inside, the rooms were nearly empty.
No woman waited in the back room.
No clothes hung in the wardrobe.
No food remained in the kitchen.
Someone had cleaned everything.
Too well.
Marcus used a forensic light along the baseboards.
“Recent cleaning.”
Leo walked into the room where Celeste said Mia met the woman.
A wooden chair sat beside a window.
On the sill was a faint smear of pink ink.
Leo touched it.
Dry.
A detective found ash in the fireplace.
Most papers had burned completely.
One corner survived.
The fragment contained part of a typed address.
ST. MATTHEW'S PARK.
Dr. Kent's chosen meeting place.
Leo's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman spoke before he could say anything.
“Mr. Mercer, do not trust the DNA result.”
Leo recognized Dr. Sarah Kent's voice.
“Where are you?”
“Not safe.”
“Was Elena in this cottage?”
A pause.
Then Dr. Kent said, “The woman your aunt met was not supposed to contact Mia yet.”
Leo's pulse jumped.
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
“It is a warning.”
“About who?”
“Someone inside your circle is still reporting to Grant.”
“Grant is under investigation.”
“That has never stopped him.”
Leo looked toward Celeste, Marcus, Naomi, and the detectives.
“Who is reporting?”
Dr. Kent whispered, “The person who always knows where Mia is.”
The line went dead.
Leo's first thought was Rosa.
May you like
He hated himself for having it.
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