Chapter 2 - THE DOG MY FATHER HID
I woke beneath white hospital lights with Murphy’s head resting against my leg.
For several seconds, I believed the fire had been a nightmare.
Then I tried to breathe deeply.
Pain spread across my chest.
A nurse noticed my eyes opening and came to the bed.
“You inhaled a dangerous amount of smoke, but your oxygen levels are improving. You also have minor burns on both hands and your left arm.”
“Mave?”
“In the veterinary treatment room across the courtyard.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Can Murphy see her?”
The nurse glanced toward the black mastiff.
“He has already escaped this room twice trying to reach her.”
I placed one hand on Murphy’s neck.
His body remained tense.
“Who brought him here?”
“Mr. Callahan.”
The door opened.
Ronan entered without an escort.
He had changed into another black suit. A faint cut marked one side of his face, probably from debris at the mansion.
He stopped near the bed.
“How do you feel?”
“Like I swallowed a fireplace.”
“The doctor said you will recover.”
“You spoke to my doctor?”
“I paid the hospital to allow Murphy inside.”
“That was not my question.”
Something almost resembling respect moved through his eyes.
“No. I did not access your private medical information.”
He placed a clear evidence bag on the table.
Inside was Murphy’s broken collar.
The leather had torn when he ran from me near the road.
“What does my dog have to do with the fire?”
“The shelter record says you adopted him three years ago.”
“Two years and eleven months.”
“Where was he found?”
“Near the Charles River.”
“Was he chipped?”
“They said the chip was damaged.”
Ronan removed a printed image from the folder.
It showed a large black mastiff standing beside a younger gray dog outside the Ridgerest mansion.
Both possessed white crescent markings on their chests.
My fingers tightened around the blanket.
“That is Murphy.”
“The black dog was called Morcant.”
“No.”
Ronan’s gaze returned to the photograph.
“He belonged to Fion.”
Murphy lifted his head when Ronan said the name.
The movement was immediate.
Ronan noticed.
“My brother raised both dogs from the same litter. Mave remained with him. Morcant disappeared the night Fion’s vehicle went over the North Bridge.”
“The police report said your brother was alone.”
“It also said the car burned before rescuers reached it.”
“Was a dog found?”
“No.”
I looked down at Murphy.
He had entered my life thin, frightened, and terrified of engines. For months, he slept with his body against my apartment door. Whenever a black sedan stopped outside, he hid beneath the kitchen table.
I believed someone had mistreated him.
I never imagined he had survived a murder scene.
“What happened to Fion?”
“The official conclusion was excessive speed in heavy rain.”
“You do not believe that.”
“No.”
“Why did you accept it?”
Ronan’s expression became colder.
“Because the investigator was a man my family trusted, the vehicle was destroyed, and my mother begged me not to turn grief into war without evidence.”
There was regret beneath every word.
I picked up the evidence bag.
“My father did electrical maintenance at estates around Boston. He never told me he worked for your family.”
“He installed the secondary security network at Ridgerest.”
“Why was his code still active?”
“That is what I intend to learn.”
“You think he burned the house.”
“He was dead when someone used the code.”
“That did not answer me.”
Ronan paused.
“Last night, I considered the possibility that he created a permanent entry method before his death.”
“My father was not an arsonist.”
“I did not say he was.”
“You came into my hospital room carrying evidence.”
“I came because the evidence may prove he was trying to protect my brother.”
That silenced me.
Ronan pointed toward the inner lining of Murphy’s collar.
A narrow section of leather had been stitched with a different thread.
“We found this after the collar tore.”
Inside the seam was a tiny brass cylinder.
The hospital security officer had opened nothing.
Ronan placed the cylinder beside me.
“It may belong to you.”
I examined it.
My father’s initials were engraved at one end.
T V.
My fingers began trembling.
“What is inside?”
“We do not know.”
“You own security companies.”
“I also understand chain of custody.”
He did not touch the object again.
I unscrewed the cylinder.
A tightly rolled piece of paper rested inside.
The writing belonged to my father.
I recognized the sharp capital letters he used when leaving instructions beside our fuse box.
MARIN,
IF THIS REACHES YOU, I FAILED TO COME HOME.
THE BLACK DOG MUST NEVER RETURN ALONE.
THE SECOND DOG REMEMBERS THE TUNNEL.
TRUST BOON BEFORE ANY CALLAHAN.
I read the final sentence twice.
Ronan stood motionless.
My father had not told me to trust the man beside my bed.
He had named Ronan’s bodyguard.
“Why Boon?” I asked.
“I do not know.”
“Does he?”
“He claims he has never seen the note.”
Murphy stood and moved toward the door.
A low whine came from the hallway.
Mave appeared beyond the glass partition with a veterinary technician. A warm blanket covered her body. An intravenous line ran beneath one bandaged leg.
Murphy pulled free from me.
The technician opened the door carefully.
The two mastiffs met in the center of the room.
Mave pressed her head beneath Murphy’s chin.
He stood over her and began trembling.
Ronan turned away for one second.
When he looked back, his eyes were wet.
“They remember each other,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
Boon entered behind Mave’s technician.
He saw the open brass cylinder and stopped.
“I wondered where Thomas hid it.”
Ronan’s grief vanished beneath suspicion.
“You knew about the message.”
“I knew Thomas saved Morcant.”
“Why did you say nothing?”
“Because the person who killed Fion was receiving every report you received.”
The room became silent.
Boon closed the door.
Then he placed his phone inside a signal blocking pouch.
May you like
“Your brother’s crash was not the first operation they cleaned,” he said. “It was simply the first time they used a Callahan mother’s authorization to do it.”
Continue to the next part: Boon reveals that Ronan’s mother approved the cover story after Fion’s crash, but Thomas Vale discovered someone had kept Fion alive.
