Chapter 10 - The Woman at the Motel
Nora was sitting on the edge of the motel bed when I arrived with Ellis. The silver-haired woman who used to iron Daniel's shirts had a split lip and an old cardigan buttoned to the throat.
“I should've helped you sooner,” she said.
“You helped me when it counted.”
“No. I stood there for years.” She pressed a tissue to her mouth. “I told myself I'd lose my job. Then I watched Lily begin to go quiet whenever Evelyn entered a room.”
Ellis asked about Preston. Nora said Walter had sent him to frighten her, not hurt her. But Preston tried to take the memory card, and she got away when he stopped for gas. The blood in the car was hers from cutting her hand on a broken cup. The ribbon was something he'd taken from a trash bag of Lily's old clothes.
“I hid the blue ledger,” Nora said. “It lists every payment to people Walter wanted silent. The amounts are coded as flower purchases.”
“Where is it?”
“In Evelyn's greenhouse, under the empty planter labeled Winter Roses.”
I pictured the glass greenhouse behind the mansion. Evelyn tended it herself, though she told everybody she hated getting her hands dirty.
Nora swallowed. “There's something else. Daniel knew his mother was going to frighten you at dinner. He told me to keep Lily in the playroom. I refused. I thought if Lily was there, Evelyn would control herself.”
My eyes filled. “You didn't make Evelyn do it.”
“No,” Nora said. “But I'm sorry Lily saw it.”
Then she pulled a folded paper from her sleeve. “This was on my windshield when I reached the motel.”
Printed on the paper was a single sentence: THE BLUE LEDGER ISN'T THE ONLY BOOK.
On the back, a drawing showed three interlocking circles. Nora explained that Walter used the symbol on an old company safe in his study.
Ellis stood. “I can apply for a new warrant.”
Before she could make the call, her radio crackled. A dispatcher reported a fire alarm at the Harrington estate.
May you like
Nora covered her mouth. “The greenhouse,” she whispered. “He knows.”
