Chapter 5 - THE GIRL WHO REMEMBERED THE SHOES
Sophia found me in the library on Friday afternoon.
She carried a coloring book.
"Boss?"
I looked up.
"Hello, sweetheart."
She approached my desk.
"Can I ask something?"
"Of course."
She climbed into the chair opposite me.
"Are you mad at Mommy?"
I frowned.
"No."
"She cries when she thinks I sleep."
My chest tightened.
"Why would she think I'm mad?"
Sophia shrugged.
"Because grown-ups get mad when people tell secrets."
I sat back.
"Sometimes."
She looked worried.
"Was I bad?"
I leaned forward.
"No, Sophia. You were brave."
She smiled faintly.
Then opened her coloring book.
Inside was a drawing.
A large black house.
A blue car.
Three stick figures.
One had a silver circle on its hand.
I stared.
"Who's this?"
"Mr. Marcus."
"And this?"
"The other man."
I leaned closer.
"What other man?"
Sophia pointed at the figure beside the car.
"He came with the medicine."
My pulse quickened.
"Did you see his face?"
She shook her head.
"He had a hat."
"What else?"
She thought carefully.
"Funny shoes."
I smiled gently.
"What made them funny?"
"One was shiny. One was dirty."
I stared.
Sophia continued.
"He stepped in Mommy's flower mud."
I asked Rachel to review the exterior camera footage.
The delivery driver had worn a cap.
His face was partially obscured.
But the footage showed him stepping into a muddy flowerbed near the side entrance.
One shoe became covered in dark soil.
Rachel paused the video.
"That's consistent with what Sophia described."
I looked at her.
"Can you identify him?"
"Not from this alone."
She continued reviewing.
Then stopped.
"Wait."
The driver had a distinctive limp.
Rachel compared the footage with other available recordings.
Eventually, she found a match.
A man entering Blackstone Medical Logistics.
His name was Peter Walsh.
Former private security contractor.
And a known associate of Adrian Cross.
That evening, Rachel called.
"Damian, Peter Walsh has disappeared."
I closed my eyes.
"When?"
"Yesterday."
"Do we know where he went?"
"No."
I looked toward the window.
The garden lights glowed.
Somewhere downstairs, Sophia was laughing with her mother.
I felt a cold certainty settle over me.
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Whoever had arranged the medication substitution knew the investigation was closing in.
And they weren't finished.
