Chapter 3 - THE BOX BENEATH THE FLOORBOARDS
That evening, Tessa searched her father's belongings.
Most of his possessions fit into three cardboard boxes.
Work boots.
Old photographs.
A collection of fishing lures he'd never had time to use.
She found the torn envelope again.
PIER NINE. MERCER MUST NEVER KNOW.
Eli appeared in the doorway.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for something Dad left.”
“What?”
“I don't know yet.”
He crouched beside her.
Together they examined every folder.
Near midnight, Eli found an old brass key taped beneath a framed photograph of their father.
A number had been scratched into the metal.
317\.
Tessa recognized it.
“Dad's storage unit.”
Eli frowned.
“He canceled that years ago.”
“Maybe not.”
The next morning, they drove to a storage facility near the South Branch of the Chicago River.
Unit 317 was still rented.
Paid automatically through an account Tessa hadn't known existed.
Inside were two plastic bins, a broken bicycle, and a locked metal toolbox.
The brass key opened it.
Inside lay a flash drive, a paper ledger, and a photograph.
Tessa lifted the photograph.
It showed her father standing beside three men outside a warehouse.
One was Roman Mercer.
Another was Grant Holloway, the bald man who had reached inside his jacket at Hawthorne House.
The third was unfamiliar.
A thin man with silver hair and a narrow smile.
On the back, her father had written:
Ask why the containers were empty.
Eli leaned closer.
“Who's that?”
“I don't know.”
Tessa photographed everything.
Then she called Naomi Price.
Naomi met them at her office that afternoon.
She was a composed woman in her fifties who listened without interrupting.
After reviewing the ledger, she frowned.
“These numbers correspond to freight container identifiers.”
Tessa pointed to a series of entries marked with red ink.
“What does that mean?”
Naomi studied them.
“Your father was comparing official cargo manifests against actual warehouse inventories.”
“Was someone stealing?”
“Possibly. Or using the containers to conceal transactions.”
Eli shifted beside her.
“Can we leave now?”
Tessa looked at him.
His face was pale.
“Are you okay?”
“Just tired.”
Naomi noticed.
“There's a place to sit in the next room.”
Eli shook his head.
“I'm fine.”
Then his phone buzzed.
He glanced down.
His expression changed.
“Tess.”
“What?”
He handed her the screen.
An unknown number had sent a photograph.
Their apartment building.
Taken that morning.
Beneath it was a message.
RETURN WHAT THOMAS STOLE.
Tessa's hands went cold.
Naomi immediately photographed the message and contacted the police.
Then she called Roman.
When he answered, she said only four words.
“Someone found the children.”
Tessa looked up sharply.
“Children?”
Naomi met her eyes.
“That's what your father called you and Eli.”
She swallowed.
May you like
Naomi continued.
“He came to me before he died.”
