Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO HAD BEEN HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
Hannah returned home at four in the morning.
Cole Mercer insisted on driving her.
She protested.
He ignored her.
“Someone tried to turn that meeting into a shooting,” he said. “You're now a witness.”
Hannah stared out the window.
“I'm also a waitress.”
Cole glanced at her.
“Not anymore, I suspect.”
Her apartment in Rogers Park was small but neat.
Books filled every shelf.
Language dictionaries.
Historical texts.
Old photographs.
A framed picture of her parents sat beside the window.
Her father smiled from behind thick glasses.
Her mother stood beside him, holding Hannah when she was a little girl.
Hannah picked up the photograph.
“What were you doing, Dad?”
She had spent eleven years trying to forget that question.
Now it was all she could think about.
At eight that morning, the assisted-living facility called.
Her mother had suffered a frightening episode of confusion.
Hannah rushed there.
Elena Kovalenko sat beside the window in a wheelchair.
Her speech had been severely affected by the stroke.
Some days, she could say only a few words.
Hannah knelt beside her.
“Mama.”
Elena smiled faintly.
Hannah took her hand.
“Something happened last night.”
Her mother's fingers tightened.
“Papa,” Hannah whispered.
Elena's eyes widened.
Hannah showed her a photograph of the journal's symbol.
Three intersecting hooks.
Elena made a strangled sound.
Her hand began trembling.
“Mama?”
Elena reached toward the bedside drawer.
Hannah opened it.
Inside was a small wooden box.
She had never seen it before.
Elena pointed.
Hannah lifted the lid.
A brass key lay inside.
Beneath it was a folded photograph.
Her father stood beside Edward Hale.
And Raymond Pike.
On the back, written in her father's handwriting, were four words.
Trust the girl who remembers.
Hannah stared.
Her mother began crying.
Then whispered something she hadn't said clearly in years.
“He didn't die.”
Hannah froze.
“What?”
Elena gripped her wrist.
“Peter.”
May you like
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Alive.”
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