CHAPTER3 — THE ASHES
Chapter 03 - CHAPTER3 — THE ASHES
Jodi did not remember the drive.
She remembered rain against the windows. She remembered Hector sitting beside her without saying much. She remembered calling her landlord and hearing a trembling voice say that firefighters had already arrived.
She remembered one thing clearly.
Her apartment had been empty when the fire started.
Which meant someone had been inside.
The building was still smoking when they arrived.
Jodi stood across the street in Hector's black coat, watching water run down the sidewalk. Firefighters moved through the entrance carrying equipment. A woman from the third floor stood barefoot beneath a blanket.
"My photographs," Jodi whispered.
Hector looked at her.
"What?"
"My father's photographs."
She started forward.
He caught her arm.
"No."
"They're inside."
"Jodi."
"I need them."
"You need to stay alive."
She turned on him.
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it."
"My father left me one photograph."
Her voice broke for the first time.
"One. I kept it in a box under my bed."
Hector released her.
"What's in it?"
"My father."
"And?"
"A woman."
Hector went still.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
That was not entirely true.
She knew the woman had been important.
She knew her father had written only one word on the back of the photograph.
Mara.
She had spent years trying to discover who Mara was.
Now the photograph was burning.
A firefighter approached.
"Miss Russo?"
Jodi nodded.
"We found something."
He handed her a metal box blackened by smoke.
Jodi's hands shook.
It was not the box from beneath her bed.
This one was smaller.
Hector noticed her expression.
"Open it."
Inside was a key.
A hotel key.
On the plastic sleeve was printed a name.
THE CROWN HOTEL — ROOM 417.
Jodi stared.
"That's where my father took me when I was seventeen."
Hector frowned.
"Why?"
"I don't remember."
"Why don't you remember?"
She looked at him.
"Because the last thing I remember from that night is waking up in a hospital."
Hector said nothing.
The firefighter cleared his throat.
"There was one more thing."
He gave Jodi a charred envelope.
Her name was written on it.
Not typed.
Written in handwriting she recognized instantly.
Her father's.
Jodi opened it with trembling fingers.
Inside was a single sentence.
IF HECTOR RICHIE FINDS YOU, TRUST HIM ONLY UNTIL HE ASKS ABOUT YOUR FATHER.
Jodi read it twice.
Then a third time.
Hector saw her face.
"What did he write?"
She folded the note.
"Nothing."
His eyes narrowed.
"You just lied to me."
"Yes."
For the first time that night, Hector smiled.
It wasn't a pleasant smile.
"Good."
Jodi stared at him.
"Good?"
"Now we're getting somewhere."
Before she could answer, a black SUV stopped across the street.
The rear door opened.
An elderly woman stepped out.
Jodi stopped breathing.
She knew that face.
She had seen it in the photograph.
Mara.
The woman looked directly at her.
May you like
And then she said the one thing that made Jodi's blood run cold.
"Your father is alive."
