Chapter 13 - The Woman at the Garden Gate
Simone Greer lived in a tidy bungalow across from Saint Agnes Church. By noon, her mailbox had been pulled out of the ground and her windows were boarded from inside.
Elena wanted to knock anyway.
Mara, who had come off a brutal night shift, stopped her on the sidewalk.
“I'm here as a detective, not as Roman's friend,” she warned.
“I never asked you to be his friend.”
“Good. Because I plan to follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
They found the back door unlocked. Simone sat at her kitchen table, a packed suitcase beside her, a cup of tea untouched.
“I knew someone would come,” she said. “I just didn't know which side would get here first.”
Elena stood across from her. “You told my daughter I abandoned her.”
Simone pressed a hand to her mouth. “I was told they'd hurt her if I said anything else.”
“You watched me get locked below the floor.”
“I heard you screaming. I heard you the first night.”
Elena stepped back as if Simone had slapped her.
“Why didn't you open it?”
“Victor had my son's address. He sent me a photograph of my grandson outside his kindergarten.”
Mara sat opposite Simone. “Then tell us what you know. We'll arrange protection.”
Simone's hands trembled. “Thirty years ago, Roman's brother saw Victor opening an unauthorized river gate. They were moving stolen equipment through the shelter. The boy followed them. When the machinery started, he got caught on the lower walkway.”
Elena covered her lips. “Danny drowned.”
“Victor ordered everyone to keep quiet. Roman's father covered up the illegal shipments to protect the family company. But he tried to get Danny out. He couldn't.”
“Is there proof?” Mara asked.
Simone opened her suitcase. Beneath folded clothes lay an old metal film canister.
“Security recorded on tape back then. Victor thought the camera was broken. Roman's father kept the original.”
“Why do you have it?”
“Because the day he died, he gave it to me and said, 'If my son ever asks why his brother never came home, tell him I was a coward.'”
Mara bagged the canister and called evidence technicians.
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Outside, an engine roared. A gray van shot around the corner, its side door sliding open.
A masked man lunged toward Elena.
