Chapter 2 - LOCKER 217
King Street Station was nearly empty.
Sadi found Locker 217 near the old baggage corridor.
The key was taped beneath the note Austin left.
Inside:
a laptop,
three sealed files,
a photograph,
and a charger.
The photograph showed her father.
Nathan Boyd.
Eight years younger.
Standing beside William Pembrook, Austin’s father.
Sadi stared.
“What the hell?”
A woman stepped from the shadows wearing a red coat.
“Sadi Boyd?”
Sadi spun.
“Who are you?”
“Mara Chen. Attorney.”
“For who?”
“Your father.”
“My father is dead.”
Mara looked at the locket.
“Open it.”
Sadi backed away.
“No.”
“If I wanted to take it, I would not be standing ten feet away asking.”
Fair.
Sadi opened the locket.
Inside was the tiny photograph she had seen a thousand times.
Her father holding her at age five.
Mara said:
“Lift the backing.”
Sadi dug beneath the photograph.
A memory card fell into her palm.
Her hands shook.
Mara inserted it into the laptop.
A video opened.
Nathan appeared.
Older than Sadi remembered.
Tired.
“Sadi…”
Her eyes filled instantly.
“If you are seeing this, then either I failed to come home or someone finally found the path I left.”
Sadi covered her mouth.
Nathan continued:
“Austin Pembrook is not the man you should fear.”
Footsteps sounded outside the corridor.
Sadi looked over her shoulder.
On the screen, Nathan glanced away from the camera as if someone had entered the room when he recorded it.
Then he said:
“The man who killed me…”
The station doors slammed open.
“…is still running the company.”
Sadi froze.
Mara closed the laptop.
“Move.”
“Who?”
“Now.”
They grabbed the files.
At the far end of the corridor, the scarred man appeared.
Sadi saw him.
Then another man behind him.
Older.
Expensive coat.
She recognized him from Pembrook Consolidated’s website.
Grant Mercer.
Chief Operating Officer.
May you like
Grant looked directly at her.
And smiled.
