PART FOUR — THE SECOND KEY
I backed toward the front door.
Caleb stopped.
For the first time since I had known him, I saw something in his eyes I couldn’t recognize.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Confidence.
He knew I was trapped.
“Where is Noah?” I asked.
“Safe.”
“Where?”
“With my parents.”
I shook my head.
“No. Tell me the truth.”
He sighed.
“Elise, you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“My sister knows who you are.”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Fear.
Real fear.
Then Caleb looked at the phone in my hand.
“Mara told you.”
I didn’t answer.
He stepped closer.
“What exactly did she tell you?”
I whispered,
“Enough.”
Caleb placed the passport case on the table.
“You’ve been asking questions you shouldn’t ask.”
“I saw the passports.”
“I know.”
“They had our faces.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because those are the identities you were supposed to use.”
“Supposed to?”
He nodded.
“Three people were supposed to disappear.”
I stared at him.
“Who?”
He didn’t answer.
Then he reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a key.
A small brass key.
He placed it on the table.
“This is why you were never supposed to go into the attic.”
I looked at the key.
“What does it open?”
He smiled.
“You already saw it.”
I thought about the attic.
The old boxes.
The wooden floor.
The hidden vent.
Then I remembered something.
There had been a tiny lock underneath one of the floorboards.
I had never understood what it was for.
Caleb watched my face.
And I knew.
I ran.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t plan.
I simply ran toward the attic stairs.
Caleb shouted behind me.
“Elise!”
I climbed.
The stairs shook beneath my feet.
I reached the attic and dropped to my knees.
My fingers searched beneath the loose floorboard.
There.
A tiny metal lock.
I pulled at it.
It wouldn’t move.
Then I remembered the key.
I didn’t have it.
Caleb did.
Footsteps approached.
I looked around desperately.
Boxes.
Old blankets.
Christmas decorations.
Then I saw something.
A second key.
It was hanging from a rusty nail behind an old wooden chest.
I stared at it.
I couldn’t believe it.
Nobody noticed the second key.
Not even Caleb.
I grabbed it.
The footsteps reached the attic.
I shoved the key into the lock.
It turned.
The floorboard lifted.
Beneath it was a narrow wooden compartment.
Inside was a folder.
A photograph.
And a small recording device.
I grabbed the photograph first.
My breath stopped.
It showed Mara.
Standing beside Caleb.
But the date on the photograph was from before I had ever met either of them.
I opened the folder.
There were pages and pages of names.
Dates.
Locations.
Payments.
Then I saw my own name.
ELISE MORRISON.
Beside it was a date.
Tomorrow.
My hands went numb.
Tomorrow.
Whatever they were planning wasn’t something that had already happened.
It was still coming.
Then I noticed one final line.
NOAH — TRANSFER CONFIRMED.
PART FOUR CLIFFHANGER
I grabbed the recording device.
A voice played.
Caleb’s voice.
“Phase three begins tomorrow.”
Then another voice answered.
Mara’s.
“Are you certain she knows nothing?”
Caleb replied,
“She trusts me completely.”
I stopped the recording.
My entire body was shaking.
Mara.
My sister.
The person who had warned me.
She had been in on it.
Or at least…
She had been close enough to know.
Then the attic door slammed shut.
Caleb stood there.
But this time, he wasn’t alone.
The stranger in the black raincoat was beside him.
And he was holding a photograph of Noah.
“Elise,” Caleb said quietly.
“Now we need to talk about what happens to your son.”
