Chapter 13 - The Woman in the PhotographThe younger woman in the security still was named Rosa Medina, a former Saint Agnes employee who had filed an internal complaint before vanishing from public records. Nadia traced a phone call from an old prepaid handset to a shelter two counties away.
Daniel and Emma waited outside while Nadia met Rosa. She came back with devastating news. “Rosa says Claire escaped with her. They split up to make it harder to track them. Rosa hasn't heard from her since.”
“Where did Claire go?”
“She said she was headed to the only person she'd trust with Leo.”
Emma went still. “Me.”
Back at Emma's apartment, her door was slightly open. The place had been searched. Books lay across the floor and every picture frame had been turned facedown.
“Don't touch anything,” Nadia said, drawing them back into the hallway.
Nadia checked every name twice, aware that each line on a document represented a person whose life could be turned upside down. Daniel had wanted immediate answers. Watching the detective work taught him why careful answers mattered more, especially to people who had spent years being disbelieved.
Emma pointed at the kitchen clock. It had stopped at 3:17. “I changed the battery yesterday.”
Nadia photographed it. Behind the clock was a folded note in Claire's handwriting: EMMY—BLUE DOESN'T MEAN DOOR. THREE SEVENTEEN.
Emma sank onto the stairs. “Blue was our code when we were kids. If something was wrong, we'd say 'meet at the blue door.' It meant the back entrance of the public library.”
“The old one?” Daniel asked.
Emma nodded. “It has a mural. The entrance was painted blue.”
They drove there with officers, but the entrance had been sealed for renovations. A contractor's sign announced a grand reopening in three weeks.
Beneath the taped notice was an envelope tucked into the doorframe. Inside lay a key and a note: LOCKER 317. BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
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Daniel glanced at the clock on his phone. It was 11:42 p.m.
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