Chapter 7 - The Babysitter

Maya looked younger than twenty-four until she began talking. Then Evelyn heard the exhausted voice of someone who had spent months sleeping with one eye open.

“Two nights before Nora disappeared, she told me she'd heard Daniel arguing with a man under the dock,” Maya said. “She thought they were hiding birthday presents.”

“What did she hear?”

“Something about signatures, a transfer, and not letting you find out.”

Maya had tried to ask Daniel. He fired her on the spot, sent security to collect her apartment key, and told her a fabricated theft complaint would ruin her career if she contacted the family.

“I went to the police,” she said. “They told me it was a family employment dispute.”

Rachel Kim, reached by phone, promised to review the original report rather than assume Maya's account was enough. Evelyn appreciated the distinction more than she would have twelve hours earlier.

“Why come now?” Evelyn asked.

“Because someone left Nora's sneaker outside my apartment yesterday with a note saying KEEP QUIET.”

Maya set the little shoe on the table. Evelyn remembered buying the pair at a mall after Nora declared every grown-up shoe “boring.”

“Did she ever tell you about three blue birds?” Helen asked.

Maya nodded. “She said the smallest was her mom.”

Evelyn swallowed. Nora's mother, Grace, had died in a car accident when Nora was six. Daniel never spoke about her. Nora, however, still left a seat open at the breakfast table on her mother's birthday.

Marcus called with another finding. The speedboat was registered to a shell company connected to Harborstone. Its manager was a man named Victor Hale, a former marine mechanic with three black stripe tattoos.

Maya gripped the table. “Victor. That's him.”

“Did he hurt Nora?” Evelyn asked.

“I don't know. But she trusted him. He used to bring her lemon cookies.”

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Her phone buzzed. Unknown sender. She read the message, stood so fast her chair scraped the floor, and turned the screen toward Evelyn.

A live photograph showed Evelyn's front porch, taken from across the street.