Chapter 4
I met Owen in a police station interview room.
Ellis had brought Delia’s sister, Sarah, and the boy there after someone entered her apartment while she was collecting him from school. The front lock had been picked. A patrol officer found no one inside.
Owen sat beside Sarah with a small canvas backpack across his knees. He had Ewan’s dark eyes and Delia’s serious mouth.
When I walked in, he watched me without smiling.
Sarah introduced me as his uncle.
Owen looked at my coat, then my face.
“Did you know my dad?” he asked.
I sat across from him.
“I did. He was my little brother.”
“Mom says he was funny.”
“He was,” I said. “Especially when I wanted him to be quiet.”
Owen considered that. He reached into his backpack and took out a small wooden boat. One side had been painted blue. The other remained bare.
“Dad made this before I was born.”
I remembered Ewan whittling at the kitchen table when we were boys. Our mother used to complain about the curls of wood he left on the floor.
“He made a lot of things,” I said.
Owen let me hold the boat.
Ellis asked Sarah to step into the hall with her. Once they were gone, Owen leaned toward me.
“Is somebody mad at Mom?”
“I think so.”
“Because she tells people to wash their hands?”
I nearly smiled.
“No. She was trying to help my mother.”
He lowered his eyes to the boat. I wanted to tell him I would fix everything by supper. I knew better now than to give a child a promise made for my own comfort.
“Detective Ellis is helping,” I said. “Sarah and I are helping too.”
He nodded and put the boat away.
Delia was discharged that afternoon with instructions to rest and return if her symptoms worsened. Ellis arranged for an officer to speak with her again at Sarah’s apartment. I offered them rooms at my house.
Delia refused while Celeste still had a key.
I had the locks changed. She still refused.
“Your mother would be safer with me there,” she said. “But Owen comes first.”
“She would agree.”
“I know.”
I had never asked my mother what she thought of Delia’s hours or pay. I had never asked where Delia went after a twelve-hour shift. Hearing her put Owen first made me see the life I had failed to notice.
Nina arrived with a copy of Ewan and Delia’s marriage certificate. Delia had given her permission to obtain it.
I stared at Ewan’s signature. The E was too large, as it had been since he was twelve.
“It’s real,” Nina said gently.
“I know.”
She had also reviewed the proposed pier agreement. The management page would give Victor access to freight logs, storage rooms, and security systems immediately. It did not explain why he wanted them so badly, but it explained the pressure to get my signature before the wedding.
Nina had something else.
“Your mother’s trust records show a request for her medical file,” she said. “It came from a lawyer Victor uses.”
“When?”
“Last month. Her doctor declined it.”
They had been looking for a way around my mother’s no.
I went upstairs with the marriage certificate. Mother lay awake, listening to the radio at low volume. I sat beside her and showed her the page.
“I should have known.”
She reached for my hand.
“Did Ewan tell you he was married?”
One blink for yes. She closed her eyes.
“Did he ask you not to tell me?”
No.
I waited while Tomas brought the letter board.
My mother spelled a word slowly.
AFRAID.
“Of Victor?”
No.
“Of me?”
She shut her eyes.
I looked down at our joined hands. I had imagined Ewan angry with me for years. I had never imagined him frightened of bringing me his happiness.
“I’m listening now,” I told her.
She made a strained sound and moved her hand toward the board again.
RECORDS, she spelled.
“The ones in the locker?”
Yes.
“Do you know who took them?”
She grew tired before she could finish. I stopped, despite her effort to continue, and promised we would try later.
Ellis called as I came downstairs. Her team had found the motel room leased to Leo Sutter. It was empty, but a receipt showed a car rented that morning under another name. The car’s tracking service, contacted through the rental company, placed it near Sarah’s street.
Ellis asked Sarah and Owen to stay at the station while she checked the route.
I drove there. Delia had arrived by then, pale and exhausted. Owen was asleep with his head against her side.
She looked at the marriage certificate in my hand.
“Did she tell you?”
“She knew. Ewan wanted to tell me.”
Delia said nothing.
“I’m sorry I made it hard for him.”
“That’s something you would have needed to say to Ewan.”
“I know.”
For the first time since the conservatory, she let her shoulders relax.
Then Ellis came through the door. Her expression had changed.
“The rental car stopped near the hospital last night,” she said. “We checked the cameras there. Sutter went in carrying a flat box.”
Delia stood too quickly and caught the back of a chair.
“Did he visit my room?”
May you like
“No,” Ellis said. “He went to your mother-in-law’s floor.”
I was already moving before she finished.
