Chương 6
Evelyn bent until they were nearly eye level.
“You can come with me.”
Sophie searched her face.
“But you will stay with Martin and Officer Bell while Sergeant Ortiz and I open the locker.”
“No.”
“Sophie.”
“You said adults keep sending me out of rooms.”
Evelyn regretted every intelligent sentence she had ever spoken.
“That was before the room became a potentially dangerous train station.”
“Union Station isn’t dangerous.”
“Everything becomes dangerous when adults hide things in lockers.”
Martin handed Evelyn her coat.
“That is an unusually broad principle.”
“It has served me well for nearly seventy years.”
“You’re sixty-six.”
Evelyn turned on him.
“This is not the evening to become accurate.”
Sophie stared between them, then unexpectedly took Martin’s hand.
“Fine.”
Martin looked down at their joined hands and wisely made no comment.
They left through the garage to avoid the front gate.
Rain struck the roof of Bell’s patrol vehicle hard enough to make conversation difficult.
Sophie sat between Evelyn and Martin in the back, wrapped now in one of Evelyn’s wool coats because nobody had found anything child-sized.
At the end of the private drive, another police cruiser blocked Daniel’s SUV.
Evelyn saw him through the wet glass.
He was younger than she expected, perhaps forty, wearing a dark overcoat over an open-collared white shirt.
He did not look monstrous.
That irritated her more than it should have.
He looked like a man who returned expensive purchases and remembered the receipt.
As Bell turned onto the road, Daniel saw the back seat.
His face changed.
He ran toward them.
“Sophie!”
The girl folded herself against Evelyn.
Daniel slapped one palm against the rear window as the cruiser passed.
“Stop!”
Bell accelerated.
Sophie’s breathing became shallow.
Evelyn reached for the inhaler in her pocket.
“I’m okay.”
“You are very clearly not.”
“I don’t need it every time.”
Evelyn stopped with her hand inside her coat.
“All right.”
Sophie stared through the rear window until the gate disappeared.
After several blocks, she said, “He used to be nice.”
Nobody answered immediately.
“He made pancakes shaped like letters.”
Martin looked out his window.
Sophie picked at a loose thread on Evelyn’s sleeve.
“He made an S once, but it looked like a snake.”
“Most pancakes look unfortunate,” Evelyn said.
“He bought Mom flowers.”
Her voice grew smaller.
“Then he started checking her phone.”
Evelyn looked at the rain sliding sideways across the glass.
“Did she tell you that?”
“I saw him.”
“What was he looking for?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did they fight about it?”
“All the time.”
Sophie hesitated.
“He kept asking who she was talking to.”
Martin turned from the window.
“Who was she talking to?”
Sophie shrugged.
“She said nobody.”
Evelyn thought of four years without a call from Caroline.
Nobody could be a lie large enough to contain many people.
Union Station was crowded despite the hour.
Delayed trains had stranded travelers beneath departure boards that kept changing from yellow to red.
A toddler screamed near a vending machine while his exhausted father negotiated with him over crackers.
Someone had spilled coffee beside the escalator.
Ordinary life continued with insulting confidence.
Bell found a quieter corner where Martin and Sophie could wait within sight of two transit officers.
Sophie caught Evelyn’s sleeve before she could leave.
“If there’s something bad in it, don’t lie to me.”
Evelyn looked down at her.
“That depends on what you mean by bad.”
“You know what I mean.”
Unfortunately, she did.
“I won’t tell you something is fine when it isn’t.”
Sophie released her.
“That’s not the same promise.”
“No.”
The child considered this, then nodded.
Evelyn followed Ortiz toward the east lockers.
Locker 317 stood near the end of the bottom row.
The brass key resisted on the first turn.
Evelyn tried again.
The lock clicked.
Ortiz stopped her hand before she opened the door.
“Let me.”
“It was sent to me.”
“And if there’s something hazardous inside, Caroline will have succeeded in killing her mother through poor packaging.”
Evelyn stepped aside.
Ortiz pulled the metal door open.
Inside sat a gray document case, a cheap prepaid phone, and a photograph in a clear plastic sleeve.
Nothing exploded.
Evelyn found herself almost offended by the relief.
Ortiz photographed everything before touching it.
The photograph showed Caroline outside a courthouse, holding Sophie’s hand.
Beside them stood a man Evelyn had never seen.
On the back, Caroline had written a date from seven years earlier and five words.
Sophie with her father, Michael.
Evelyn read them twice.
Ortiz looked over her shoulder.
“That’s not Cross.”
“No.”
“Do you recognize him?”
“No.”
The prepaid phone began ringing inside the locker.
Evelyn and Ortiz stared at it.
The display showed no name.
Ortiz put on gloves and lifted it carefully.
“Don’t answer yet.”
“If that is Caroline—”
“It may not be.”
The ringing stopped.
A second later, a text appeared.
DID SOPHIE GET TO EVELYN?
Evelyn’s pulse jumped.
Another message followed.
IF YES, DO NOT TAKE THE PHONE HOME.
Ortiz photographed the screen.
A third message appeared.
DANIEL CAN TRACK HER THROUGH THE MEDICAL APP.
Evelyn was already turning.
“Sophie’s inhaler.”
Ortiz caught her arm.
“Wait.”
“My granddaughter is sitting upstairs carrying something that may tell that man exactly where she is.”
“We don’t know that the message is accurate.”
“We know he found my house.”
“He already knew Sophie was there.”
“Because Caroline supposedly told him.”
Ortiz’s eyes narrowed.
Evelyn saw the same contradiction reach her.
Caroline had begged Evelyn not to involve Daniel.
Why would she call him and reveal Sophie’s location?
Ortiz radioed Bell.
“Move the child away from the current location now.”
Static answered.
Then Bell’s voice came back, clipped and urgent.
“They’re gone.”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Ortiz gripped the radio.
“Define gone.”
“Martin took her to the restroom three minutes ago.”
“Find them.”
“I’m looking.”
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Evelyn was already running toward the escalator.
Her knee protested on the first step, a sharp reminder that terror did not make a sixty-six-year-old body younger.
