Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Emily called the number back eleven times.
No answer.
Detective Ruiz traced it to a prepaid phone near a bus station sixty miles away.
By noon, Emily was in Ruiz’s unmarked sedan.
Margaret sat beside her.
Samuel remained under police protection.
Thomas had vanished.
His attorney claimed he was “taking time away from an emotionally unstable domestic situation.”
Emily hated the phrase so much she almost admired it.
“Your husband has a gift,” she told Margaret.
“For lying?”
“For making everybody else sound insane.”
Margaret looked out the window.
“He’s had practice.”
They found Nora Bennett in a nursing home under the name Nora Bell.
Emily entered the room alone.
The woman in the bed looked twenty years older than she should have.
Cancer had hollowed her cheeks.
But her eyes were the same.
“Nora.”
Nora began to cry.
Emily didn’t.
Not yet.
“You let me bury you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I stood beside a grave.”
“I know.”
“There was a headstone.”
“I know.”
Emily’s voice cracked.
“Who was in the coffin?”
“No one.”
Emily turned away.
“All my life, you told me never to lie because lies rot your heart.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Emily spun back.
“Then start telling the truth.”
Nora nodded.
“Claire Ashford brought you to Saint Anne’s after midnight. Sister Catherine knew the paperwork was fake.”
“Samuel says he tried to take me back.”
“He did.”
Emily blinked.
“So why did you say not to trust him?”
“Because Samuel always tells ninety percent of the truth.”
“And the other ten?”
“Usually gets people killed.”
Margaret entered quietly.
Nora stared at her.
“Oh, Margaret.”
“You know me.”
“I watched you from across the street once. You were handing out flyers with your daughter’s picture.”
Margaret sat beside the bed.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Thomas had men watching you.”
Nora coughed.
“When Sister Catherine tried to contact you, she died in a hit-and-run.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
Nora continued.
“That’s when I took Emily and ran.”
Emily whispered, “You weren’t my foster mother.”
Nora looked at her.
“In every way that mattered, I was.”
Emily finally cried.
Nora reached for her hand.
“I loved you too much to risk losing you.”
Margaret lowered her gaze.
That pain was different.
Not jealousy.
Grief for years another woman had been allowed to have.
Nora looked at both of them.
“I kept evidence.”
Ruiz stepped closer.
“What kind?”
“A bank box. First Commonwealth. Box 317.”
She removed a key from a chain hidden beneath her gown.
“Claire gave me letters, payment records, and a cassette tape.”
Margaret’s face changed.
“A tape of what?”
“Thomas.”
Silence.
“What does he say?”
Nora looked at Emily.
“He says the fire was supposed to happen.”
Ruiz took the key.
“We’re going to the bank.”
A nurse entered.
“Ms. Bell needs rest.”
Emily leaned down and kissed Nora’s forehead.
“I’m coming back.”
Nora clutched her hand.
“No.”
“What?”
“You may not have time.”
“Nora—”
A loud crash came from the hallway.
Ruiz reached for her weapon.
The lights went out.
Someone screamed.
Emily heard running footsteps.
By the time emergency lights flickered on, two orderlies were unconscious.
Nora’s bed was empty.
The window stood open.
And on the pillow was a note.
BRING THE LOCKET.
COME ALONE.
May you like
OR SHE DIES.
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