Chapter 7: The Woman in the Photograph
Chapter 7: The Woman in the Photograph
Harper was placed with a temporary emergency foster family because I had no legal custody.
It was the correct procedure.
It still felt like betrayal.
Before leaving, Harper pressed the photograph into my hand.
“Find Lena,” she whispered.
“I will.”
Clara was ordered to stay away from Harper pending investigation. She was not arrested. The bruises supported abuse, but there was still no evidence linking her to the fire or Daniel’s death.
Frank Wallace met me at a roadside diner outside Boulder.
He was seventy, broad-shouldered, and carried a folder thick with old reports.
He placed a photograph on the table.
It showed the woman from the ambulance at the fire scene.
“That isn’t Clara,” I said.
“No.”
“Who is she?”
“Rebecca Shaw. A neighbor.”
“Why was she taken away?”
“Smoke inhalation. She went into the house trying to find Lena.”
“Did she find her?”
Wallace leaned back.
“She claimed she saw Lena climbing out a basement window.”
My pulse jumped.
“Then Lena survived.”
“Maybe.”
“What did Lena say?”
“She disappeared.”
“Why would she disappear?”
“Because someone had been telling everyone she was unstable for years.”
Clara.
Wallace opened the folder.
Inside were copies of child-services reports, school complaints, and medical records.
Every concern had been dismissed because Clara presented herself as a patient, overwhelmed stepmother dealing with a troubled teenager.
Then Wallace showed me a final document.
A bus-station security image taken the morning after the fire.
A teenage girl in an oversized jacket stood beside Rebecca Shaw.
The girl’s face was partly hidden.
But around her neck was a silver raven pendant.
The same raven symbol displayed throughout Clara’s house.
“Rebecca helped her escape,” I said.
“That was my theory.”
“Where is Rebecca now?”
“She changed her name.”
“To what?”
Wallace slid a printed page toward me.
Rachel Shaw. Licensed family therapist. Portland, Oregon.
I called the number on the page.
A woman answered.
I said Lena’s name.
She stopped breathing.
Then she asked, “Is Harper still alive?”
The question hit me like a blow.
“Yes.”
“Is she still with Clara?”
“Not tonight.”
Rachel began crying.
“You need to find Lena before Clara does.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“You helped her escape.”
“I did.”
May you like
“Why?”
“Because Lena told me Clara planned to kill her father next.”
