Chapter 7 - The Page Lena Saved
Mom told us over breakfast.
Lena Ortiz had been more than her coworker. When I was little, Lena came to our apartment every Sunday with bad jokes and warm cinnamon bread. I knew her as Aunt Lena. I remembered her bracelets ringing against the kitchen table.
The week before the fire, Lena had noticed that an emergency exit was chained at night. She took photographs. Mom found payment records showing the property company had ordered the work, then disguised it as a routine maintenance charge. Lena printed two pages of a contractor ledger. In panic, she burned one, afraid someone would find it in her purse.
"The other page had names," Mom told us. "Not just the managers. It showed who approved the money to keep those doors locked. Lena hid it before she died. I never found it."
Nolan asked where Lena might have hidden anything.
"If I knew, I would have told you four years ago."
"Maybe Ryan's buyer thinks you know," he said. "That would explain why they're pushing so hard."
I looked up. "Dad said 'where you kept something.' He didn't say a page."
Mom reached for my hand. "You don't need to solve this, honey."
"I'm not trying to. I just remember what he said."
Nolan nodded, then asked whether I felt able to talk to a child interviewer later in the week. He explained that I could stop at any time. That mattered. Dad had never liked it when I stopped talking before he was done asking.
After Nolan left, Mom opened the window a crack. Cool air touched our faces. "I'm sorry I stayed after he first scared you," she said.
I leaned against her. "I thought if I got better grades, he'd be nicer."
"No," she whispered. "His choices were never a report card you could improve."
That afternoon, a federal agent called Nolan with news from Baltimore. An old maintenance supervisor had come forward after seeing Ryan's name in the investigation.
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The supervisor said Lena had handed him a sealed envelope hours before the fire.
And he still had it.
