Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Signed
Elena refused to look at the copied file.
“Your father made enemies,” she said. “That does not make every paper a prophecy.”
“Vane has a plan to use you against me.”
“Vane has plans for everyone.”
“What did you sign?”
Her mother turned away.
Lena followed her into the back room of the laundromat. “What did you sign the night Harbor House burned?”
Elena gripped the edge of a folding table.
“A statement.”
“Saying Dad started the fire?”
“Saying I saw him carrying gasoline.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“You watched him go to prison.”
“Yes.”
“You let Nico and me believe he was guilty.”
Elena closed her eyes. “I let you live.”
Lena stepped back as if struck.
Elena told them the statement had been demanded by Chief Amos Pike, then a detective. Pike had brought photographs of Lena and Nico outside school. He had told Elena that if she refused, both children would disappear into the foster system.
“Why didn’t you tell us later?” Lena asked.
“Because your father wrote to me from prison and said the people behind the fire were still watching.”
“He blamed you?”
“He begged me to keep quiet.”
“And you did.”
“Every day.”
Lena’s anger fought with the image of her mother folding towels at dawn, raising two children alone. It was easier to hate a betrayer than a frightened woman who had made one impossible choice and kept making it.
“Who signed the original order?” Lena asked.
Elena opened a locked tin beneath the table. Inside was a red fountain pen and a photograph of three people outside City Hall: Halden Vane, Chief Pike, and Miriam Sloane.
Miriam wore a red scarf.
Lena stared at the photograph.
“Miriam?”
“She was the foundation’s attorney,” Elena said. “She created Bellwether Renewal. She also knew exactly where the money went.”
Lena’s phone rang.
It was Miriam.
“Come to my office,” Miriam said. “Alone.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother’s statement is not the only thing that can be used against you.”
Lena arrived to find Miriam waiting with the lights off.
“You should have trusted me,” Miriam said.
“I did.”
“That was your first mistake.”
Miriam opened a drawer and removed a court transcript. It showed Gabriel had confessed three days before the fire.
“He signed this,” Miriam said.
“Under what conditions?”
“He was a man who knew he had lost.”
“No. He was a man who knew you had betrayed him.”
Miriam’s face remained composed, but her fingers tightened around the transcript.
“Your father stole money from the foundation.”
“Did he?”
“Ask yourself why he hid the ledger.”
“I am.”
Miriam leaned closer. “Because it proves he was involved.”
The office door clicked shut behind Lena.
She turned.
The two men from the library stood in the hallway.
May you like
Miriam had not invited her to talk.
She had invited her to disappear.
