Chapter 12 - Annie Wells
Evelyn wanted to drive straight to Providence. Rachel insisted on a controlled operation. “If Nora is with Victor, charging into a building could put her at risk.”
“Then tell me what I can do.”
“Help us recognize her. Bring recent photographs and anything about her medical history.”
Nora had asthma triggered by cold weather and a small crescent-shaped scar on her left knee. She hated mushrooms, loved astronomy, and called all dogs “captains” regardless of their names. Evelyn told the detectives everything, even details that seemed embarrassingly small.
A judge authorized access to the clinic's records as part of the missing-child investigation. The Annie Wells file listed selective mutism after a traumatic event, frequent nightmares, and a guardian who refused to supply prior medical records.
The attached identification photograph showed Nora. Older, thinner, her hair cut just above her shoulders. Alive.
Evelyn pressed a hand over her mouth. She had spent eight months trying to remember Nora's voice without hearing it in her dreams. Now she could barely breathe.
“She's alive,” Helen said, holding her tightly. “We have her.”
“Not yet,” Rachel said softly. “We know she was seen.”
The clinic receptionist remembered Victor collecting Annie from an appointment on Thursday. Nora had whispered something to a nurse before leaving. Rachel interviewed the nurse and returned with a folded drawing.
Three blue birds filled the page. Beneath them, in carefully printed letters: GRANDMA KNOWS THE STARS.
“She was trying to send a message,” Evelyn said.
At home, she opened the old astronomy book she'd given Nora at Christmas. The pages on constellations were covered with childish doodles. On the inside back cover, a sticky note remained from their last visit: If I get lost, look for the North Star.
May you like
Marcus leaned closer to the drawing. Each blue bird had a tiny star beside it. The stars were not random. They formed the same pattern Nora had drawn on a map of the Rhode Island shoreline.
At the end of the line lay an island marked only with a blue X.
