Locker Seventeen
Chapter 05 - Locker Seventeen
State police released Jack after laboratory records proved the pills came from Vale’s evidence room.
Vale called it a clerical error.
Jack drove directly to the Cedar Ridge railway station with Lena, Rosa, and Amos.
Locker Seventeen stood in an abandoned baggage hall.
Ellie’s brass key opened it.
Inside was a child’s backpack, a red scarf, and a metal document case.
The case required two circular keys.
Jack inserted the Rourke medal into one side.
The other slot matched Vale’s medal.
Mara had designed the lock so the evidence could be opened only when the two families faced the same truth.
Jack searched the backpack.
A drawing showed Mara, Ellie, and a tall man standing beside a red motorcycle. The man’s face was crossed out in black crayon.
On the back, Ellie had written:
DAD BEFORE THE BRIDGE.
Ellie’s father, Cole Brennan, had been an Iron Wolves mechanic and Jack’s closest friend. He died eight years earlier when his truck exploded on Grayhaven Bridge.
At least that was the official report.
Vale investigated that death too.
Rosa found a train ticket dated three nights earlier. It listed a destination called Haven Medical Station, a private clinic operated by Vale Development.
The clinic had closed six months ago.
Lena called for a warrant.
Before it arrived, smoke appeared beyond the railway window.
The abandoned clinic was on fire.
Jack and Rosa reached the property before firefighters.
Inside a rear room, they found a hospital bed, restraints, and a wall covered with children’s drawings.
One drawing showed Ellie’s crossed-out father again.
This time, beneath the image, Mara had written:
COLE REMEMBERS THE BRIDGE.
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Cole Brennan was alive.
And Vale had kept both of Ellie’s parents hidden at different times.
