Chapter 7 - A Secret Hidden Beneath Table Six
Sarah reached the freezer first.
She yanked the door open.
“Noah!”
Her son stood inside wrapped in her winter coat, eyes enormous.
“I’m okay.”
Sarah pulled him against her.
Behind them, the freezer that had been pushed over the storm-cellar hatch shuddered.
Someone beneath it was forcing the door upward.
Vince and three men leaned their weight against the appliance.
“It won’t hold,” he said.
Sarah looked around the kitchen.
“Move the prep table.”
“Where?”
“Against the pantry door.”
Eli grabbed one end.
Sarah helped with the other.
Leo appeared in the doorway.
She glared.
“What part of lie down is confusing?”
“The part where people are entering through your basement.”
“You’re still bleeding.”
“And you’re still arguing.”
“I can do both.”
Despite the terror, Elena laughed once.
Leo looked at her.
“Not helping.”
The metal hatch slammed again.
Sarah pulled Noah toward the dining room.
“Under the counter.”
“I want to help.”
“You are helping by staying alive.”
Noah swallowed.
“Okay.”
He crawled into the narrow space beneath the register.
Sarah turned.
“What now?”
Leo looked at Elena.
“How many in the tunnels?”
“I saw six enter near the feed store.”
“Mercer?”
“Outside.”
“Anthony?”
“Unknown.”
Matteo laughed from his chair.
“He’s here.”
Leo turned.
“How do you know?”
“Because he wouldn’t miss this.”
“Where?”
Matteo smiled.
“Ask your sister.”
Elena crossed the room and slapped him.
Not hard enough to injure him.
Hard enough to wipe away the smile.
“I spent three days keeping you alive because Leo wanted answers.”
Matteo’s expression changed.
“You’re welcome.”
Leo looked toward the front windows.
“Anthony won’t enter until Mercer has control.”
“Then Mercer needs control fast,” Vince said.
Sarah’s phone suddenly rang.
Everyone froze.
Unknown number.
She looked at Leo.
“Answer.”
Sarah did.
“Hello?”
Sheriff Mercer.
“Sarah.”
She stared through the window.
He stood beside his sedan, phone at his ear.
“What?”
“You have my word that if you bring me the drive Daniel left, you and Noah can walk away.”
Sarah’s blood went cold.
“How do you know about the drive?”
Mercer smiled through the glass.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does.”
“Daniel should have given it to me when I asked.”
Sarah stopped breathing.
The room disappeared.
“What?”
Mercer realized his mistake.
Too late.
Sarah’s voice became quiet.
“You spoke to Daniel before he died.”
Silence.
“How long before?”
“Sarah—”
“How long?”
Mercer sighed.
“Two days.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Daniel had come home late two days before his death.
He barely ate dinner.
That night he held Noah longer than usual.
Sarah thought he was tired.
Now she understood.
“What did you tell him?”
“I tried to protect him.”
“You threatened him.”
“No.”
“You threatened my husband.”
“I told him to forget what he had seen.”
“And when he didn’t?”
Mercer’s voice hardened.
“He made a choice.”
Sarah gripped the phone.
“What happened on that road?”
“Give me the drive.”
“What happened?”
Mercer said nothing.
“Did you kill him?”
A long pause.
Then:
“I wasn’t driving the other truck.”
Sarah nearly dropped the phone.
There had been another vehicle.
Everything the accident report denied.
She could barely speak.
“Who was?”
Mercer disconnected.
Sarah stood motionless.
Leo approached.
“What did he say?”
She looked at him.
“There was another truck.”
Noah crawled out from beneath the counter.
“Mom?”
Sarah wiped her face.
“Stay down, honey.”
“Was he talking about Dad?”
She did not want to answer.
Noah already knew.
His mouth trembled.
“Dad didn’t fall asleep?”
Sarah crossed the room and knelt.
“No.”
“Then why did you tell me he did?”
“Because I believed it.”
“Did somebody hurt him?”
Sarah pulled him into her arms.
“Yes.”
Noah cried silently.
No dramatic sobbing.
Just tears sliding down his face while he pressed his forehead into his mother’s shoulder.
Leo turned away.
So did several other men.
After a minute, Noah whispered, “Can we get Dad’s tablet now?”
Sarah looked at him.
“Not yet.”
“I know how to open it.”
“We’d have to go through the apartment.”
“I know.”
Leo crouched despite visible pain.
“Noah.”
The boy looked at him.
“Your dad hid information to protect your mom.”
Noah sniffed.
“And me?”
“And you.”
“Then shouldn’t we get it?”
Leo glanced at Sarah.
The eight-year-old had found the argument neither adult wanted to make.
Elena checked the side window.
“There’s a path from the kitchen to the apartment that isn’t visible from the front, right?”
Sarah nodded.
“Short hallway.”
“Any outside windows?”
“One small bathroom window.”
“Curtains?”
“Yes.”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
Sarah looked at him.
“We need that tablet.”
“We don’t know who’s around the back.”
“We also don’t know how long the cellar door will hold.”
As if summoned by her words, the freezer shifted another inch.
Vince shouted for two more men.
Leo closed his eyes.
Then looked at Noah.
“Where exactly is it?”
“Under my bed.”
“Which room?”
“End of hallway.”
Leo turned to Eli.
“You’re small.”
Eli looked offended.
“I’m five-ten.”
“Compared with Vince, you’re small.”
Vince almost smiled.
Leo continued.
“You go with Sarah.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No guns.”
Eli slowly removed his pistol and handed it to Vince.
“Happy?”
“No.”
“Closest we’re getting.”
Sarah took Noah’s hand.
The three of them entered the hallway.
The apartment smelled like laundry detergent and the cinnamon candle Sarah had burned earlier.
It felt impossibly normal.
Family photographs lined the wall.
Daniel holding newborn Noah.
Daniel and Sarah on their wedding day.
Daniel standing in front of Cole’s the first week they bought it.
Eli slowed.
“That him?”
“Yes.”
“He looks nice.”
“He was.”
Sarah hated the past tense.
They reached Noah’s bedroom.
Noah crawled under the bed.
“Here.”
He pulled out the old tablet.
Sarah took it.
Dust coated the case.
A vehicle engine revved behind the apartment.
Eli moved to the bathroom window.
“Someone’s out there.”
Sarah whispered, “Can they see us?”
“No.”
Footsteps crossed gravel.
Noah pressed his finger against the tablet sensor.
The screen unlocked.
A plain home screen appeared.
Games.
Photos.
Calculator.
Nothing unusual.
Sarah searched.
No obvious hidden files.
No special folders.
Noah pointed.
“That’s Dad’s app.”
“Which?”
A boring icon labeled SERVICE MANUALS.
Sarah opened it.
Password prompt.
Noah tried his fingerprint.
The screen changed.
A single video appeared.
No title.
Sarah pressed play.
Daniel’s face filled the screen again.
This time he was sitting inside his truck.
“If Noah opened this,” he said, “then Sarah, you’re probably with him.”
Sarah covered her mouth.
Noah leaned against her.
Daniel smiled sadly.
“Buddy, if you’re old enough to understand this, I’m sorry.”
Noah whispered, “Dad.”
Daniel continued.
“There are things in this world adults hide because they think children can’t handle the truth. Sometimes they’re right.”
He paused.
“But I hid this with you because you were the one person nobody would suspect.”
Sarah’s tears fell.
“I’m sorry I did that to you.”
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
“The files aren’t stored on this tablet. The tablet is a key.”
Eli frowned.
“A key to what?”
Daniel answered as though he had heard him.
“Table six.”
Sarah stared.
“We already found the USB.”
Daniel continued.
“Not under it.”
Sarah’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Inside it.”
The video ended.
Eli looked at Sarah.
“There’s more inside the table?”
They ran back.
In the dining room, the situation had worsened.
The freezer had moved nearly a foot.
Metal groaned beneath it.
Vince’s men were losing ground.
Sarah handed Leo the tablet.
“Inside table six.”
He looked toward the booth.
Sarah dropped to her knees.
Daniel had rebuilt that table himself after one leg cracked.
She remembered him working late after closing.
She thought he was repairing it.
Her fingers searched the underside.
Nothing.
Noah crawled beside her.
“Dad always tapped here.”
He knocked twice against the table edge.
Hollow.
Sarah found a small screw.
Different from the others.
She twisted it.
A wooden panel loosened.
Inside was a narrow metal case.
Leo stared.
“Daniel was good.”
“He fixed machines for twenty years.”
Sarah pulled the case free.
Combination lock.
Four digits.
“What numbers would Daniel use?” Elena asked.
Sarah tried Noah’s birthday.
Nothing.
Wedding anniversary.
Nothing.
Daniel’s birthday.
Nothing.
Noah stared at the lock.
“Try eight-one-seven.”
“That’s three numbers.”
“Zero-eight-one-seven.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Why?”
“Dad said it was the day everything good happened.”
Sarah’s eyes filled again.
August seventeenth.
The day Sarah first agreed to go out with Daniel.
She entered 0817.
Click.
The box opened.
Inside lay a second USB drive.
A small notebook.
And an envelope.
SARAH.
Her name in Daniel’s handwriting.
She opened it.
One page.
Sarah,
If this ever reaches you, I failed to solve this before it reached our family.
I need you to know one thing first.
I love you.
I love Noah.
I am sorry.
Do not trust Dean Mercer.
Do not trust Russell Vale.
Do not trust Anthony Caruso.
If Leo Caruso is with you, make him watch the file marked MICHAEL.
He may hate me for it.
But he deserves to know.
Sarah looked at Leo.
“Who’s Michael?”
All color left his face.
“My father.”
And at that exact moment, the pantry floor exploded upward.
The storm-cellar hatch broke free.
The freezer tipped.
Vince shouted.
Men rushed into the kitchen.
Leo grabbed Sarah and pulled her behind the booth as movement erupted near the pantry.
Sarah clutched Daniel’s box against her chest.
One thought cut through everything.
Her husband had died protecting a secret tied to Leo Caruso’s father.
May you like
And whatever was in that file had been worth killing for twice.
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