Chapter 5 - THE HOUSE WITH THE BLUE DOOR
The police wouldn’t let us go to the guesthouse.
I screamed anyway.
Not because I thought screaming would help.
Because everyone kept using calm voices while my mother was somewhere without her phone.
Rosa sat beside me on the carpet.
She didn’t tell me to stop.
She just waited until I could hear her.
“You gave them the address. You helped them find where to look.”
“What if they’re late?”
Her eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first honest answer anybody had given me.
Evelyn stood by the window while Officer Bennett called the number from the receipt.
Hugh didn’t answer.
Grace sat with both hands folded so tightly that her knuckles were white.
“Why would she write that?” Evelyn asked.
Grace stared at the floor.
“Because she remembered what he was capable of.”
Evelyn turned.
“What does that mean?”
Before Grace could answer, Bennett’s radio came alive.
A voice mentioned the guesthouse.
A blue front door.
A vehicle in the rear courtyard.
Then the officer moved into the hall.
I got up.
Rosa rose with me, but she didn’t hold me back.
Through the open doorway, I heard Bennett say, “Is she conscious?”
My knees went soft.
Evelyn reached me before I fell.
This time, I grabbed her sleeve.
“Ask them.”
Bennett returned.
“They found a woman who identifies herself as Sarah Whitmore.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
The word hit so hard I started crying.
Not pretty crying.
Not quiet crying.
The kind that makes your whole chest hurt.
“She wants to know where her daughter is,” Bennett said.
“I told them you’re safe.”
“Let me talk to her.”
A minute later, Bennett held out her phone.
“Nora?”
My mother’s voice.
Hoarse.
Shaking.
Mine.
“Mom?”
“Oh, baby.”
“I found her.”
There was silence on the line.
“I found your mother.”
“Nora, listen to me. Are you hurt?”
“Not much.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
A different voice spoke near my mother.
A paramedic.
Then Mom said, “I need you to stay with the police. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“And don’t let Hugh take you anywhere.”
“He left.”
My mother inhaled sharply.
Then she said something that made Evelyn grip the windowsill.
“He didn’t come there for me.”
May you like
Her voice broke.
“He came there for the necklace.”
