Chapter 5 - THE ENVELOPE UNDER THE FLOOR
Sadie returned to her apartment three days later.
Not alone.
Two police officers accompanied her under an arranged civil standby, with Hannah waiting nearby.
Carl had been ordered to stay away pending further proceedings.
Sadie still felt terrified.
The apartment smelled exactly as she remembered.
Cheap gin.
Stale cigarettes.
Old grease.
She stood in the doorway.
For a moment, she couldn't move.
Hannah touched her shoulder.
“You can stop whenever you need to.”
Sadie nodded.
Then stepped inside.
The kitchen floor had been cleaned.
That disturbed her more than the bloodstains would have.
Carl had erased the evidence of what happened.
As though cleaning the floor could erase the memory.
Sadie walked to the bedroom.
Her clothes remained in the closet.
Her shoes were scattered near the door.
The photograph of her mother had been turned facedown.
She knelt beside the loose floorboard.
Her hands trembled.
She lifted it.
The envelope was gone.
Sadie stared.
“No.”
She reached deeper.
Nothing.
Her breath shortened.
“No, no, no.”
Hannah appeared in the doorway.
“Sadie?”
She looked up.
“He found it.”
“What?”
“My money.”
Her voice broke.
“All of it.”
***
The police documented the missing money.
Sadie gathered her identification, medication, and essential belongings.
She also found something unexpected.
A black notebook hidden beneath Carl's side of the mattress.
Inside were names.
Dates.
Amounts.
And addresses.
At first, Sadie thought it was a gambling ledger.
Then she recognized one of the names.
Vincent Rourke.
Another name appeared repeatedly.
Thomas Keller.
Sadie frowned.
She knew that name.
Thomas Keller was a shipping contractor who frequently visited the Continental.
He had once argued with Ronan in the lobby.
Sadie turned the page.
A list of payments appeared.
One entry caught her attention.
S.B. — OBSIDIAN — CONFIRM CONTACT
Her initials.
The room where Ronan had seen her bruises.
The date of her shift.
Sadie's stomach dropped.
She showed the notebook to the officer.
“I think this is important.”
***
That evening, investigators contacted Ronan's attorney.
Rebecca reviewed the information.
The notebook appeared to connect Carl Jenkins to Rourke's waterfront operations.
More troubling, it suggested Sadie had been deliberately assigned to the Obsidian Room.
Ronan stared at the copied page.
“Confirm contact.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Someone wanted you to notice her.”
“Why?”
“Possibly to provoke a reaction.”
Ronan looked toward the window.
Rourke had known Sadie was being abused.
He had used her injuries as bait.
The realization made Ronan sick.
***
Sadie learned the truth from Hannah.
She sat quietly while the advocate explained what investigators suspected.
When Hannah finished, Sadie whispered:
“Carl hurt me because of Ronan?”
“We don't know whether the assaults began for that reason. But someone may have exploited what was already happening.”
Sadie closed her eyes.
For two years, she had believed Carl's violence was random.
Now she understood that other men might have used it for their own purposes.
Her stomach turned.
“I feel like a thing.”
Hannah leaned forward.
“You're not.”
Sadie looked up.
“A thing they move around.”
Hannah waited.
Then Sadie straightened.
“No.”
She wiped her face.
“I'm done being moved.”
***
The following morning, Sadie called Ronan.
He answered immediately.
“Sadie?”
“I found something.”
“I heard.”
She swallowed.
“Did you know Carl worked for Rourke?”
“No.”
“Did you know they wanted you to notice me?”
“No.”
She closed her eyes.
“Then we were both being used.”
Ronan said nothing.
Sadie continued.
“But I'm not going to disappear again.”
He looked toward the city.
“What do you want to do?”
She took a breath.
“I want to know what they were planning.”
Ronan's expression hardened.
“Then let's make sure you have the information and legal support to decide how far you want to go.”
Sadie smiled faintly.
“You're learning.”
“Apparently.”
For the first time, she laughed while speaking to him.
May you like
And Ronan realized he wanted to hear that sound again.
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