Chapter 4 - THE BLUE HOUSE
The police asked Rachel to take Lily home with an officer nearby. Lily objected until I promised to call her as soon as I could. I hated sending her away, but Ben had been watching us. I needed both children safe.
Noah could not come home with me yet. Lewis said a social worker would stay with him while they confirmed who he was and checked whether someone else might claim custody.
“He’s my son,” I said.
“I believe you,” she replied. “I need the records to catch up.”
Noah heard enough to panic. His chair scraped the floor.
“Ben said they’d put me somewhere if you found me.”
I sat beside him. “I’m here. I’m staying right here while we sort this out.”
The social worker, June Patel, pulled up a chair across from us. She spoke to Noah about the places he’d lived. She let him draw instead of answering when words got hard.
He drew a blue house with three windows and a tall fence. In one upstairs window, he drew a small square.
“What’s that?” June asked.
“A window that wouldn’t open.”
“Did you live there?”
Noah nodded. “At the end.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know. There was a water tower with a painted peach on it. I could see it when Ben let me out.”
Lewis overheard and made another call.
While we waited, Noah grew restless. He asked for the bathroom. An officer checked the hallway, and June went with him. I stayed outside the door.
A folded slip of paper had been tucked into Noah’s jacket lining. It fell when he pulled out a tissue. I picked it up.
It was a grocery receipt from three days earlier. On the back, in block letters, someone had written:
IF YOU FIND HER, ASK ABOUT THE BRIDGE.
I showed it to Lewis.
“Who gave you this?” she asked Noah when he came back.
Noah saw the paper and closed his eyes. “Dad.”
“But you said you haven’t seen him for years.”
“I haven’t.”
“Then when did he give it to you?”
Noah’s fingers twisted together. “Before Ben took him away. Dad put it inside the jacket. I found it last week when the lining tore.”
“Why did you go to the bakery?” I asked.
“I saw you there yesterday. Ben had your picture in the van. I thought maybe I could ask you.”
“You found me?”
He nodded. “But I got scared. Today your girl saw me first.”
Lewis studied the note. “What bridge, Noah?”
“Dad kept talking about a bridge the night he got sick. He said Ben couldn’t make him do it.”
“Do what?”
Noah’s eyes filled. “I don’t know. Ben came in, and Dad stopped talking.”
Lewis’s phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen.
“There’s a water tower with a peach on it outside Bell Creek,” she said. “We found a blue house nearby.”
May you like
She looked at me, then at Noah.
“There’s another car parked behind it.”
