Chapter 9 - The Greenhouse
By nine, rain struck the greenhouse glass so hard it sounded like applause. I stood outside the gate with a backpack containing an empty drive case. Mara and a state-police team watched from the tree line.
My earpiece crackled. “We can see you,” Mara said. “Don't step inside until we confirm your mother is there.”
I called Dad. No answer.
Then the greenhouse lights came on.
Inside, a chair stood beneath a hanging lamp. Rope lay in a heap around its legs. Mom was gone.
The earpiece hissed. Mara told me to move back, but I saw a familiar blue scarf caught on a broken planter. Mom had worn it to Elise's funeral.
A phone rang from the empty chair. I stepped close enough to see it without crossing the doorway.
Dad's voice came through the speaker.
“You should have listened to your mother. She found the back door.”
“Where is she?”
“Somewhere she can remember what happens when she lies to me.”
A thin strip of paper had been tied to the chair. I pulled it free with the end of a garden stake. In Mom's hurried handwriting were three words: Samuel had proof.
Before I could understand, a steel panel dropped across the greenhouse's main entrance. A second later, I smelled gasoline.
“Mara!” I screamed.
“Get away from the building!”
An engine roared behind the glass. A heater flared, then a curtain burst into flames.
The police dragged me past the gate as fire climbed the hanging vines. Somewhere beyond the greenhouse, a person ran through the dark.
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We found Mom's scarf in my fist and no sign of her. But Mara's radio came alive with news from the hospital.
An unidentified woman had entered Elise's room using my mother's name.
