Chapter 6 - The Little Girl Who Remembered Everything
The next morning, Ellie disappeared.
For fourteen terrifying minutes, Sadi believed someone had taken her.
She woke to find the guesthouse empty.
Ellie's shoes were gone.
Her stuffed rabbit lay on the bed.
Sadi ran outside.
"ELLIE!"
Rafael appeared near the driveway.
"What happened?"
"She's gone!"
He immediately called the estate's security coordinator.
Celia came running from the main house.
They checked the cameras.
A small figure had left the guesthouse at 6:12 a.m.
She was carrying a blanket.
She walked directly toward the greenhouse.
Sadi sprinted across the lawn.
She pushed open the door.
And stopped.
Ellie was sitting beside Gideon.
Both were eating toast.
A blanket covered their knees.
Gideon was holding a little wooden airplane.
Ellie looked up.
"Morning!"
Sadi pressed a hand against her chest.
"Oh, my God."
Ellie blinked.
"What?"
"You scared me half to death!"
The little girl looked ashamed.
"I'm sorry."
Sadi knelt and hugged her.
"Never leave without telling me."
"Okay."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Gideon watched quietly.
Then handed Sadi a note.
She came to find me.
Sadi looked at Ellie.
"Why?"
The little girl shrugged.
"Grandpa was sad yesterday."
Sadi's throat tightened.
"So?"
"I thought he needed breakfast."
She pointed toward the toast.
"I brought him some."
Gideon smiled faintly.
Sadi sat down.
She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Ellie picked up the wooden airplane.
"Grandpa said my mommy worked on helicopters."
Sadi looked sharply at Gideon.
He had his notebook open.
Hannah helped people get home.
Ellie nodded.
"Mommy said the same thing."
She looked at Sadi.
"Remember?"
Sadi smiled sadly.
"Yeah, peanut."
Ellie turned the airplane over.
"Mommy had one like this."
Gideon looked up.
Ellie continued.
"Blue. With a broken wing."
Sadi frowned.
"She did?"
The little girl nodded.
"She kept it in her work bag."
Gideon's expression changed.
He reached for his notebook.
Where is it?
Ellie shrugged.
"At home."
Sadi thought carefully.
After the funeral, Hannah's belongings had been returned in two boxes.
Most were clothes.
Her phone had been damaged in the crash.
Her work bag had been recovered separately.
Sadi remembered placing the bag in the hall closet because Ellie cried whenever she saw it.
"I think I know," she whispered.
They returned to Sadi's house later that morning with investigators' knowledge and appropriate precautions.
The old work bag was still in the closet.
Dark blue.
Worn at the corners.
A small embroidered airplane on the front.
Ellie recognized it immediately.
"Mommy's!"
Sadi carried it to the kitchen table.
Inside were pens, a half-empty packet of tissues, and an old photograph of Hannah holding Ellie as a newborn.
At the bottom was a small wooden airplane.
One wing was broken.
Ellie smiled.
"See?"
Sadi picked it up.
Something rattled inside.
Rafael leaned closer.
"Did you hear that?"
She nodded.
The aircraft had a removable wooden base.
Inside was a small electronic storage device.
Sadi stared.
"She hid something in Ellie's toy?"
Rafael contacted the investigators.
The device was documented and preserved.
Later, a forensic technician recovered a short audio file.
Hannah's voice filled the room.
"Okay. If this works, somebody will hear me."
Sadi covered her mouth.
Ellie sat beside her.
"Mommy?"
Hannah continued.
"Mateo says the blue ledger contains the real procurement records. Adrian ordered the discrepancy reports removed."
A pause.
"I'm going to tell Mr. Wren again."
Sadi closed her eyes.
Her sister's voice was so familiar.
So alive.
"If anything happens, the original ledger is with the person who taught me never to sign a lie."
The recording ended.
Sadi stared.
"Who taught her that?"
Gideon sat nearby.
His eyes were wet.
He wrote one word.
Mateo?
Sadi shook her head.
"No."
She thought of Hannah's first job.
A small accounting office.
Their mother had been a bookkeeper.
She died when Sadi was seventeen.
Hannah had worked for her during summers.
But their mother had always said one thing.
Never sign something you haven't read.
Sadi looked up.
"Our mother."
Rafael frowned.
"Your mother passed away years ago."
"Yes."
Sadi stood.
"But she left us something."
She hurried to the bedroom.
In the back of her closet was a battered green suitcase.
Inside were old family photographs and their mother's belongings.
At the bottom was a small metal cash box.
Sadi carried it into the kitchen.
Her mother's initials were engraved on the lid.
E.M.
Ellie leaned forward.
"Treasure?"
Sadi smiled through tears.
"Maybe."
She opened the box.
Inside were old tax documents, a wedding ring, and a blue ledger.
Her breath caught.
She lifted it carefully.
The first page contained entries dated just weeks before the crash.
Hannah had apparently used the old book to preserve copies of company financial information.
Rafael leaned closer.
"That's it."
Sadi turned the pages.
Hundreds of entries.
Payments.
Invoice numbers.
Supplier names.
And repeated transfers to a company called Pike Development Holdings.
Her stomach dropped.
"Mason Pike."
Rafael nodded.
"The man trying to buy the diner."
Sadi stared at the records.
Pike wasn't simply collecting Frank's debt.
He had financial connections to Adrian's procurement scheme.
Then she noticed one final entry.
A payment dated the day before Hannah died.
The amount was enormous.
The recipient was listed as a maintenance contractor.
But the signature authorizing the payment was different.
Not Adrian.
Not Gideon.
Celia Wren.
Sadi looked up.
Her voice went cold.
"Rafael."
He turned.
May you like
"What?"
"Why is Celia's signature on this?"
