Chapter 7 - The Woman in the Yellow Coat
By noon, police had found a record of Nora's last known address in Oregon. By two, they had found something worse: Nora Ellis had been declared dead seven years earlier after her car plunged into a ravine. There had been no body.
"So she could be alive," Daniel said.
"Or somebody used her identity," Malik replied. "We're checking."
Daniel thought of the woman at the yard sale, her yellow raincoat bright against a gray sky. The owl in her palm. The way she'd asked whether his little boy slept through the night.
He showed Malik a sketch from memory. The detective looked at it a long time.
"You sure about the coat?"
"Sure enough to be sick about it."
Claire paced beside the motel window. Eli pushed his blue truck over the bedsheet and made soft engine sounds. Watching him was unbearable. He hadn't invited any of this into their lives. He didn't know what a witness was, or why adults whispered instead of laughing.
The television announced a press conference. Mason Bell stood behind a microphone outside his headquarters, expressing concern for "the family's recent troubles." He promised full cooperation and said the old building collapse had been investigated thoroughly.
"He's getting ahead of us," Claire said.
"That's what money buys," Daniel replied.
The phone in the safe house rang. Malik answered on speaker. A woman's voice, thin and wary, said, "Tell Claire I still have the blue bracelet. She'll know."
Claire dropped into a chair. At sixteen, she and Nora had made friendship bracelets out of embroidery thread: blue for Nora, green for Claire.
"Nora?" she whispered.
"Don't say my name. The line isn't safe." A pause. "Your dad didn't die because of the documents. He died because he tried to save someone."
"Who?"
May you like
The woman took a shaky breath. "Your brother." Then, in a louder voice, "And if Owen finds the child before I do, everything starts again."
The line went dead.
