Chapter 7 - The Witness in the Rain
The family member was Eleanor Price.
She arrived at Damon's office carrying a leather folder and the expression of someone who had waited too long to speak.
“I helped Anna leave town,” she admitted.
Damon stared at her.
“You knew where she was?”
“Not recently. I arranged a place for her after Amelia died, but she disappeared again when she believed she was being watched.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know whom to trust.”
“You could have trusted me.”
Eleanor's eyes filled with regret.
“I should have. But after Amelia died, someone accessed your family's private files. I found evidence that a person with authority inside the company had been asking about Anna and her child.”
“Who?”
“I never confirmed the identity.”
Damon paced toward the window.
“Then what do you know about the accident?”
Eleanor opened the folder.
Inside were copies of maintenance reports from the repair shop that had serviced Amelia's car. One report noted an unexplained change to a component shortly before the crash. Another recorded a request to remove a work order from the ordinary service file.
Neither document identified who had authorized the changes.
“I gave these to the original investigators,” Eleanor said. “They couldn't establish a connection between the irregularities and the crash.”
“Did Elisa know?”
“I believe she knew Amelia had discovered the financial fraud. I don't know whether she knew anything about the accident itself.”
Damon looked at the documents.
For six years, he had lived with the belief that his sister's death had been a terrible, ordinary tragedy.
Now the possibility of something darker stood before him, but it was still only a possibility.
He called Detective Mitchell and provided Eleanor's documents.
The investigation would have to establish what they meant.
Meanwhile, Lily had begun asking for Anna less frequently. Not because she had forgotten her mother, but because Rachel had helped her understand that adults were working to find her.
One afternoon, Lily approached Damon while he reviewed foundation reports.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Were you friends with Aunt Amelia?”
Damon smiled sadly.
“She was my little sister.”
“Did you love her?”
“Very much.”
“Then why couldn't you save her?”
The question was innocent, but it struck harder than any accusation.
Damon set aside the papers.
“I didn't know she was in danger. I wish I'd listened more carefully when she tried to tell me something was wrong.”
Lily sat beside him.
“My mommy said sometimes people don't listen until it's too late.”
“She was right about that.”
“Will you listen to me?”
“Always.”
Lily nodded as though she had made an important decision.
Then she reached into her rabbit's small fabric pocket and removed a folded piece of paper.
“I found this in Mommy's bag.”
It was a receipt from a roadside motel, dated the day after the gala. On the back was a handwritten address and the name of a church.
Detective Mitchell traced the address to a shelter outside the city. The staff remembered Anna, who had asked about legal protection and had left after receiving a warning that someone was looking for her.
An outreach worker remembered one more detail.
Anna had said she would return to the city if she knew Lily was safe.
Damon looked at Lily.
“We may have a way to reach your mother.”
For the first time since the gala, the child smiled without immediately looking over her shoulder.
But before the authorities could follow the lead, a message arrived on Damon's phone from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of Anna sitting inside a parked car.
Beneath it were the words:
STOP DIGGING, OR YOU'LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN.
Damon handed the phone to Detective Mitchell.
May you like
This time, he would not answer a threat with anger.
He would answer it with evidence.
