Chapter 13 - The Boy Rosa Carried

Maya called the next morning. The prosecutor had asked to review the complete ballroom recording. It was not a dismissal, but Naomi felt the first crack in a wall.

Then June Bell arrived from Georgia with Aaron.

He was lanky now, all elbows and awkward silence. At the clinic, he placed Rosa's old scarf on the table. June had washed it once after the fire and never had the heart to throw it away.

"She wrapped it around my mouth," Aaron said. "I was crying. She said I could cry and walk at the same time."

Naomi laughed once through her tears. It sounded exactly like Rosa.

June showed Maya the carbon copy of her statement. She had seen Glenn Pike fasten a chain across the basement stairs while workers moved equipment upstairs. When she challenged him, he said the order came from Sterling management. She'd told investigators before Rosa's funeral. The final report never mentioned her.

"The chain was on the outside," June emphasized. "Your mother couldn't have opened that door from inside if she'd wanted to."

The group walked to Rosa's grave, where the grass was still damp from overnight rain. Aaron set down a bunch of sunflowers.

"I didn't get to tell her thank you," he said.

Naomi crouched beside him. "You just did."

Her phone rang before they reached the parking lot. Mr. Bello was breathless. A moving crew had arrived at their building. Workers were taking out neighbors' furniture, claiming the entire property had been cleared for emergency repairs.

"I'm here with the tenants' group," he said. "They won't show us a permit."

Maya called the legal clinic to seek an emergency housing order. Naomi and Isabel hurried back. In the street, a woman named Patrice stood holding her toddler and a plastic sack of diapers, staring at her belongings piled beneath a No Parking sign.

Naomi helped carry the bags inside a nearby church. Isabel began filming workers moving Mr. Bello's medicine cabinet without asking him. She filmed the property logo on their truck, too.

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Then she pointed across the street. "Naomi, isn't that the man from Mom's photograph?"

Glenn Pike stood beside the truck, directing the crew.