Chapter 18
On the back, written in blue ink, were four words:
Ask your father about Lily.
I stared at the handwriting.
It was neat and deliberate.
Not threatening.
That made it worse.
“What did she tell you?” I asked.
Emily sat on the edge of the bed.
“She said Grandma Margaret told her Dad needed help.”
“Did she say how Grandma told her?”
“She said Grandma sent her.”
I crouched in front of her.
“Sweetheart, Grandma Margaret has been gone for a long time. She couldn’t send anyone.”
Emily’s face tightened.
“I know.”
“Did the woman say she was Grandma?”
“No. She said Grandma was her friend.”
I exchanged a look with Dr. Patel.
“What else?”
“She said Dad had forgotten something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. She said if I asked him, he would tell me.”
“Did she say she would come back?”
Emily nodded.
“She said she wanted to talk to Dad before his surgery.”
The room seemed to narrow.
I tucked the card into an envelope.
“Did she touch you?”
“No.”
“Did she come inside?”
“She stood in the doorway last night. This morning, she was in the kitchen.”
“Did you let her in?”
“She said Dad told her she could come.”
Emily’s voice trembled.
“I thought maybe he had.”
I pulled her close again.
“You did exactly the right thing by telling us.”
“But I opened the door.”
“That was not your fault.”
“I should have called you.”
“You were scared. You did what you could.”
Dr. Patel knelt beside us.
“Emily, do you remember what the woman looked like?”
Emily thought.
“She had brown hair, but some gray. She wore a green coat. And she had a little silver bird on her necklace.”
Dr. Patel’s expression changed.
“Do you know her?” I asked.
She nodded slowly.
“Nora Bell wears a silver bird pendant. Lily gave it to her.”
“Why would she involve Emily?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she have any reason to believe Marcus told me about Lily?”
Dr. Patel looked at the card.
“She may have assumed he hadn’t.”
The doorbell rang downstairs.
Emily startled.
I stood immediately.
Mrs. Alvarez moved toward the stairs.
“I’ll check.”
“No,” Dr. Patel said. “We’ll all stay together.”
The bell rang again.
Not insistently.
Once.
Then silence.
I looked at the security monitor in the hallway.
A woman stood on the porch wearing a green coat.
Brown hair touched with gray.