Chapter 3 - The Girl in the Newspaper

I didn't touch her. I didn't yell. I sat on the edge of the bed because my knees had stopped cooperating.

"Start at the beginning," I said.

Claire swallowed. "I was fourteen when my mom died. Her boyfriend, Daniel Price, handled everything afterward. He told me we had to leave town. He changed my surname when he became my guardian."

"Why?"

"Because my mother was a bookkeeper for a private adoption agency. She found evidence they were selling babies."

The sentence was ugly enough to make no sense. "Selling?"

"Taking money from desperate couples. Lying to birth mothers. Falsifying records. My mom kept copies. Daniel said the agency's owners knew she was going to testify."

"And the fire?"

"The records building burned. A baby disappeared from a nearby maternity clinic the same week. The police linked the cases, but nothing stuck."

I picked up the clipping. Seventeen years ago. The black-and-white photograph showed a thin teenager with blonde hair and terrified eyes. Claire.

"You never told me your mother was involved."

"I spent years trying not to be involved." She wiped her face. "Daniel made me promise. He said the people behind it were dangerous."

"Is Daniel the man in the truck?"

"I don't know. He died six years ago." Her voice broke. "Or I thought he did."

We heard Ruby squeal downstairs. Both of us jumped.

I raced to the hallway. Ruby was safe, peering through the banister at Officer Vega, who had returned with a question. The squeal had come from our dog, Finn, jumping at the front door.

Vega's expression sharpened when she saw the clipping in my hand. I showed her the box. She asked Claire to come down and explain everything on the record.

Claire did, slowly, pausing whenever her breathing grew too shallow.

Vega listened without interrupting. "Did your mother leave any evidence with you?"

"No," Claire said. Then she pressed a palm against her forehead. "She gave me a charm necklace before she died. A tiny silver bird. I lost it years ago."

Ruby appeared beside us. "You didn't lose it, Mommy."

Claire blinked. "What?"

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Ruby held up her coloring book. On the back page, carefully taped beneath a drawing of our family, was a tiny silver bird.

"The man told me to find it," she said. "He said it's the key."