Chapter 2 - THE ENVELOPE IN HIS JACKET
Daniel Brooks removed a folded cream-colored envelope from his jacket.
Not a weapon.
Not a business card.
An envelope with my name written across the front.
EMILY CARTER.
I stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“That,” he said, placing it on the table, “is what I was hoping you could tell me.”
Across the dining room, Olivia was no longer laughing.
Neither were Vanessa and Claire.
Daniel noticed my expression.
“Do you recognize the handwriting?”
I leaned closer.
The letters were neat, almost painfully careful.
“No.”
He turned the envelope over.
There was no return address.
“Someone delivered this to my office yesterday. Inside was a request that I meet you here tonight.”
My stomach tightened.
“What kind of request?”
He opened the envelope and removed a single sheet of paper.
I read it.
Daniel Brooks, if you want to know what happened to the woman who disappeared from Harbor House twenty-two years ago, meet Emily Carter at the Grand Oak. She has something that belongs to you.
I looked up.
“I don't know what this means.”
Daniel studied me.
“I believe you.”
“Then why did you agree to meet me?”
“Because I recognized the name Harbor House.”
I glanced toward Olivia.
She was whispering urgently into her phone.
Daniel followed my gaze.
“Would you like me to ask them to come over?”
“No.”
He looked back at me.
“Are you sure?”
“I want to know why they did this before they have a chance to invent an explanation.”
Something like approval crossed his face.
“Fair enough.”
I reached for my phone.
A new message from Olivia appeared.
Emily, leave. Right now.
I stared.
Another message followed.
Please don't let him see your necklace.
My hand moved automatically to my throat.
Beneath my dress hung a small silver locket.
It had belonged to my mother.
She died when I was nine, and the locket was one of the few things I had left.
Daniel noticed my movement.
His gaze dropped.
Then his entire expression changed.
“Emily,” he said quietly, “may I see that?”
I hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because I think I know who gave it to you.”
I pulled the locket free.
The silver was scratched.
One hinge had been repaired with a tiny piece of brass.
Daniel stared at it.
For the first time since I entered the restaurant, he looked genuinely shaken.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother.”
“What was her name?”
“Margaret Carter.”
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them, something had changed.
“Your mother,” he said, “was the last person to see my sister alive.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“Your sister?”
Daniel nodded.
“Her name was Hannah.”
I looked down at the locket.
Inside was a faded photograph of my mother holding me as a baby.
Behind the photograph was a tiny folded scrap of paper.
I'd never removed it.
Daniel noticed.
“What's that?”
“I don't know.”
He didn't reach for it.
He waited.
I opened the locket and carefully pulled the paper free.
There were only five words.
THE GIRL KNOWS THE WAY HOME.
Daniel stared.
Then he stood.
Across the room, Olivia grabbed her handbag.
Daniel's voice turned cold.
“Emily, I need you to stay seated.”
“Why?”
“Because the woman who arranged this date just recognized that note.”
I turned.
Olivia was heading toward the exit.
And Daniel said something that made my blood run cold.
“She wasn't trying to embarrass you.”
He looked at the envelope.
May you like
“She was trying to find out what you know.”
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