Chapter 8 - The Maid Who Was Supposed to Disappear
Sadie read the sentence twice.
Roman did not ask to see it.
She handed it to him anyway.
He read.
DON’T TRUST ROMAN. ASK WHO DROVE THE CAR.
His face changed.
Sadie noticed.
“You know.”
Roman remained silent.
“Who drove Elena’s car?”
“My driver.”
“Name?”
Roman looked toward Tomas.
Tomas answered quietly.
“Daniel Miller.”
Sadie stopped breathing.
“No.”
Roman closed his eyes.
Sadie stepped backward.
“No.”
Her father had been Daniel Miller.
He died when Sadie was seventeen.
Alcohol poisoning, according to police.
He had spent the year after Margaret’s death falling apart.
Sadie remembered bottles.
Debt.
Anger.
Silence.
She remembered him waking at night shouting names.
One name.
Roman.
She had never understood why.
Now she did.
“My father drove the car?”
Roman nodded.
“When Elena died?”
“Yes.”
“You knew my father?”
“Yes.”
Sadie stared at him.
“And you never told me?”
“I didn’t know you were his daughter until now.”
“My last name is Miller.”
“There are thousands of Millers.”
“My file?”
“I don’t personally investigate maids.”
The words sounded cruel.
Roman regretted them instantly.
Sadie flinched.
He corrected.
“I should have recognized it.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
She turned away.
Roman did not touch her.
He had learned she hated being grabbed when frightened.
“What happened that night?”
Sadie asked.
Roman looked toward the photograph.
“Elena was coming home from the clinic.”
“Hartwell?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t know then.”
“And my father?”
“He was driving.”
“The crash?”
“Mountain road. Guardrail failure.”
“Were they alone?”
“Yes.”
“Did my father survive?”
Roman nodded.
“Broken leg. Concussion.”
“What did he say?”
“That another vehicle forced them off the road.”
Sadie turned.
“Police believed him?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
Roman took too long.
Sadie understood.
“You thought he killed her.”
“I thought he was drunk.”
“My father didn’t drink before my mother died.”
Roman stared.
Sadie continued.
“He started afterward.”
Roman felt another certainty fracture.
Police tests had supposedly shown alcohol in Daniel’s blood.
But Calvin controlled the investigation.
Roman whispered, “The report.”
“What?”
“Blood alcohol.”
Sadie understood.
“Fake.”
“Possibly.”
She laughed bitterly.
“There’s that word again.”
Roman accepted it.
“Likely fake.”
Sadie sank onto the bed.
Her mother accused.
Her father blamed.
Both dead.
Her brother kidnapped.
Her arm broken.
All of it connected to one man Roman had trusted.
Roman sat across from her.
“I am sorry.”
Sadie looked at him.
“For what?”
“For believing Calvin instead of your father.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I could have looked harder.”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised him.
Sadie did not absolve him.
Roman respected her more for it.
She added, “But guilt won’t get Ben back.”
Roman nodded.
“No.”
“So what will?”
Before Roman answered, Tomas entered.
“We found Mrs. Bell’s route.”
“Where?”
“Camera caught her entering St. Agnes cemetery.”
Roman frowned.
Elena was buried there.
Sadie stood.
“Why?”
Roman knew.
“She’s going to Elena.”
They drove immediately.
The cemetery was closed, but gates meant little to Roman.
They found Mrs. Bell kneeling beside Elena’s grave.
She did not run.
She looked seventy now, not sixty.
Grief aged people quickly when it finally escaped.
Sadie approached first.
“Who are you?”
Mrs. Bell stood.
“My name is Beatrice Shaw.”
Roman recognized it.
Elena’s former assistant.
She had disappeared after Elena’s death.
“You changed your name.”
“Yes.”
“And worked in my house fourteen years.”
“Yes.”
Roman’s voice hardened.
“Why?”
“To watch Calvin.”
Sadie interrupted.
“Did you know my mother?”
Beatrice looked at her.
Tears filled her eyes.
“You look like Margaret.”
Sadie swallowed.
“What happened to her?”
Beatrice took a breath.
“Elena and Margaret discovered Calvin was using the clinic’s transport program.”
“For trafficking?”
“Not then.”
Roman frowned.
“What then?”
“Smuggling girls out.”
Sadie looked confused.
Beatrice continued.
“Runaways. Abuse victims. Women hiding from violent men.”
Roman stared.
“Elena was using my routes?”
“Yes.”
“To help them escape?”
“Yes.”
Roman almost laughed from shock.
His wife had run a secret rescue network using mafia trucks.
Beatrice nodded.
“Calvin discovered it.”
Roman whispered, “And took it over.”
“Eventually.”
“He turned rescue routes into trafficking routes.”
“Yes.”
Sadie covered her mouth.
Her mother and Elena created the system Calvin corrupted.
Beatrice looked at Roman.
“Elena planned to expose him.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She was afraid you would kill him.”
Roman said nothing.
That was probably correct.
“And that would bring war,” Beatrice continued. “She wanted evidence.”
“The crash.”
“Calvin ordered it.”
Sadie whispered, “My father?”
“Innocent.”
Her knees almost buckled.
Roman caught her elbow.
The good arm.
This time she did not pull away.
Beatrice continued.
“Daniel saw the other vehicle. He survived. Calvin paid police to discredit him.”
“And my mother?”
“She continued the investigation.”
Roman understood.
“Then Calvin killed her too.”
Beatrice nodded.
Sadie started crying silently.
No sound.
Roman wanted to comfort her.
He did not know how.
So he simply stayed.
After a minute Sadie asked, “Why hire me?”
Beatrice looked ashamed.
“I didn’t.”
Sadie frowned.
“Mrs. Bell hired me.”
“No.”
Beatrice shook her head.
“Calvin put your application on my desk.”
Roman became very still.
Sadie whispered, “Why?”
“To watch you.”
“Why me?”
“Because Daniel hid something before he died.”
Sadie stared.
“What?”
“Evidence.”
Beatrice looked toward Elena’s grave.
“Calvin believes your father gave it to you.”
“I don’t have anything.”
“He thinks you do.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“Benjamin.”
Beatrice nodded.
“Calvin may believe Benjamin has it.”
Sadie turned.
“My father barely spoke to Ben. Ben was five.”
Beatrice thought.
“Did Daniel leave him anything?”
Sadie shook her head.
“Nothing valuable.”
“Anything at all.”
Sadie froze.
Roman saw it.
“What?”
She whispered:
“A music box.”
Roman leaned closer.
“Where is it?”
Sadie’s face drained.
“In Ben’s apartment.”
Roman immediately called Tomas.
No answer.
He called again.
Still nothing.
Roman looked toward the cemetery gate.
Tomas had been beside the car.
Now he was gone.
Then Roman’s phone buzzed.
A message from Tomas.
I FOUND THE MUSIC BOX.
May you like
A second message arrived.
CALVIN FOUND ME FIRST.
