Chapter 6 - The Missing Doll|
Ricardo waited until he heard the elevator chime at the end of the hall before signaling Marcus to come out of the bathroom.
“Did you hear that?” Ricardo asked quietly.
“Loud and clear,” Marcus said, strapping his backpack over both shoulders. “This is way above my pay grade, Rick. You need a lawyer. A federal one. I’m sending you the decrypted file on a secure thumb drive, and then I’m erasing my logs. Good luck.”
Marcus slipped out the door, leaving Ricardo completely alone in the apartment. The walls suddenly felt paper-thin.
Ricardo looked at the bookshelf where Helena had been staring.
Rosie.
The doll hadn't been touched in years. Bia kept it out of sentimentality, but she had long outgrown it. Why was Helena fixated on a child’s toy?
Ricardo walked over to the shelf and picked the doll up. It was light. Too light.
He turned the doll over and unzipped the hidden compartment down its back—the exact compartment where the broken phone had been stored for years before they threw it away yesterday.
The compartment was empty, just as it should be.
But the inner lining was torn.
Ricardo frowned, slipping two fingers beneath the ripped fabric. There was something small and hard wedged deep inside the stuffing. He pinched it and pulled it out.
It was a micro-SD card. Black, unmarked, and no bigger than a fingernail.
Camila hadn't just hidden the phone in the doll. She had hidden a physical backup. And she never told anyone, not even Bia, because she knew Bia would eventually lead the adults to the phone as a decoy.
The front door handle rattled violently.
Ricardo froze. He hadn't thrown the deadbolt after Marcus left.
The door burst open.
Two men in dark clothing stepped into the apartment. One of them was wearing a heavy gray overcoat. The same man from the street corner last night.
“Give us the doll,” the man in the gray coat said, pulling a silenced pistol from his waistband.
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“Get out of my house,” Ricardo said, slipping the micro-SD card into his palm and squeezing his fist shut.
“Last chance. Hand over the toy.”
