CHAPTER 16 — THE WOMAN AT THE GATE
The woman standing outside the gate looked as though she had not slept in several days.
She wore a gray coat despite the warm evening. One hand gripped the handle of a small suitcase. The other rested protectively on the shoulder of a boy who appeared to be about nine.
A younger girl stood beside her.
Neither child spoke.
Evelyn opened the pedestrian gate but remained between the woman and the entrance.
“My name is Evelyn,” she said gently. “You’re safe here.”
The woman’s eyes moved past her toward the glowing mansion.
“My name is Mara Ellison.”
Evelyn recognized the name.
Mara had been listed in one of the Covenant files as the wife of a state prosecutor. Her husband, Charles Ellison, had resigned after evidence showed that he had helped Adrian suppress several confinement cases.
But Mara had never testified.
Investigators believed she had disappeared.
“We’ve been trying to find you,” Evelyn said.
“That’s why I stayed hidden.”
Mara looked toward the road before lowering her voice.
“They’re watching every shelter connected to the investigation.”
“Who is?”
“The people Adrian answered to.”
Evelyn felt the old tension return to her shoulders.
“Adrian didn’t answer to anyone.”
Mara gave a bitter smile.
“That’s what he wanted you to believe.”
The boy beside her tugged at her sleeve.
Mara looked down at him.
“It’s all right, Daniel.”
The child stared at Evelyn’s necklace.
The silver pendant shaped like an open door.
“Where did you get that?” he asked.
“It belonged to my mother.”
The boy’s expression changed.
He reached into his jacket and removed a small brass key.
The same open-door symbol had been engraved into its head.
Mara took the key from him and placed it in Evelyn’s palm.
“Your mother gave this to me seventeen years ago.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“My mother died eighteen years ago.”
“I know.”
“Why would she give you a key?”
Mara looked toward Victor, who had appeared in the doorway behind Evelyn.
Her face went pale.
“Because Katherine knew someone inside her own family would eventually betray her.”
Victor stopped walking.
Mara tightened her grip on the suitcase.
“She told me that if this mansion ever became a place of refuge, I was supposed to return the key.”
“What does it open?” Evelyn asked.
Mara’s eyes shifted toward the western side of the house.
“A room Adrian never found.”
Before Evelyn could respond, headlights appeared at the end of the road.
A black sedan slowed near the gates.
Mara pulled both children behind her.
“They found us.”
The sedan did not stop.
It passed slowly, its dark windows reflecting the mansion lights.
As it disappeared around the bend, Evelyn noticed something painted on the rear window.
A white circle divided by nine black lines.
Mara began trembling.
“What is that symbol?” Evelyn asked.
Mara stared after the car.
May you like
“The Ninth Covenant.”
Then every light in the mansion went out.
