The narrow bed was made, though nobody had slept in it since Hannah occasionally stayed late during art weekends.
Lucy opened the cedar chest.
“Mom made this.”
She pulled out a blue quilt.
Audrey helped her spread it across the bed.
A photograph sat on the shelf.
Hannah beside Oliver on the cafe’s opening day.
Both younger.
Both exhausted.
Both smiling.
Audrey looked at it.
“She was beautiful.”
“Yes.”
“She looks happy.”
Oliver’s answer took longer.
“She was.”
He checked the heater.
Tested the smoke alarm.
Then the carbon-monoxide detector tied into the building’s linked alarm system.
He opened the exterior door.
Snow blew onto the small landing.
“If any alarm sounds, use these stairs. Do not go through the fire door into the cafe.”
Audrey watched him.
“You’ve thought about this.”
“Old building.”
He placed a spare key on the table.
“We’ll figure out tomorrow in the morning.”
“Oliver.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
He nodded.
“Get some sleep.”
After Oliver and Lucy left, Audrey locked the door.
Then she stood in the middle of Hannah Grant’s studio and looked at the blue quilt.
The entire evening felt impossible.
She took out the emergency phone.
Marcus answered immediately.
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Above a cafe on Church Street.”
Silence.
“Audrey.”
“I know.”
“The observation ended two hours ago.”
“I know that too.”
“The safe apartment was accessed with a credential linked to Preston’s administrative office.”
Audrey sat slowly on the bed.
“Confirmed?”
“We’re preserving access logs and cameras.”
“Does Preston know where I am?”
“Not yet.”
“Can you secure another location?”
“Forty-eight hours. Possibly sooner.”
“The roads?”
“Getting worse.”
“Then stay with the evidence.”
Marcus’s voice hardened.
“I can drive to you.”
“No.”
“You accepted a room from someone you met on the street.”
“Someone I knew before Cedar Bridge existed.”
That changed the silence.
“Who?”
“Oliver Grant.”
Marcus typed something.
“Bluebird Corner Cafe?”
Audrey looked toward the floor.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
Then Marcus said, “That building is part of Harbor Row.”
Audrey’s face changed.
“What?”
“Cedar Bridge purchased the property eight months ago.”
She closed her eyes.
Harbor Row.
Of course.
The acquisition appeared in internal documents she had reviewed, but there were hundreds of parcels across the company’s development pipeline. She had never memorized each tenant.
“What is his lease status?”
“Holdover term under redevelopment review.”
“How many residential units?”
“Eighteen families across the connected buildings.”
Audrey looked at Hannah’s photograph.
The woman sleeping above Oliver Grant’s cafe owned most of the company trying to remove him.
And Oliver had no idea.