Chapter 10 - Thirteen

Lena got Paula through the rear stairwell while Adrian distracted the man at the front entrance by setting off a nearby car alarm. It was clumsy, loud, and effective. By the time the stranger realized what had happened, the three of them were gone.

At Lena's office, Nora unfolded the crane again. The numbers were arranged in pairs: 12-1, 4-3, 7-2. She remembered an old grandmother clock in the Ashcroft service hall, one her mother used to polish with lemon oil.

"The clock had drawers in the base," Nora said. "Three tiny compartments. Mom let me hide candy in them."

"We go back?" Adrian asked.

"Not without a plan. Every visit to that estate ends with somebody trying to hurt us."

Lena smiled grimly. "Finally, a sensible idea."

They sent a preservation request to the county and arranged for a neutral trustee, Judge Miriam Bell, to meet them at Ashcroft House. Bell had served on Eleanor's original board and had resigned after the fire.

She arrived carrying a cane and the irritation of a woman who hated being summoned before breakfast.

"Eleanor trusted your mother," she told Nora. "I failed them both by leaving. Show me what you've got."

Under Bell's supervision, they opened the clock's three compartments in the order on the crane. Two held nothing. In the third, beneath a warped piece of felt, was a miniature audio recorder and a sealed note.

Nora pressed play.

Evelyn's voice filled the room, softer than Nora remembered and painfully familiar. "If you're hearing this, Grant has forced me to disappear. I signed what he wanted because he threatened Nora. The confession was made under duress."

A chair creaked in the recording. Then came another voice, male and unmistakably smooth.

"Tell them the fire was Daniel's fault," Grant said.

"It wasn't," Evelyn answered. "I saw you put the solvent by the archive door."

Silence. Then the sound of a slap.

Judge Bell's hand tightened on her cane. Adrian reached for the recorder, but Nora held it close.

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The final seconds contained Evelyn's broken whisper: "If I survive, find the girl in the red coat. She knows where they sent me."

Bell's face changed. "The girl in the red coat," she repeated. "That wasn't a child. It was my daughter."