Chapter 13 - The Daughter in the Red Jacket
Beth left so fast she forgot her pen. For twenty minutes I sat in the visitation room while the fluorescent light ticked above me and a guard stood by the door pretending not to listen.
When Beth finally called back, I held the phone with both hands.
"The girl's safe," she said. "She's at the county sheriff's office. Her aunt signed her out. Nora hadn't told my investigator her sister was authorized. We scared ourselves half to death."
My knees weakened. "And Nora?"
"She wants immunity before she talks."
"She lied under oath. I get why."
"You were the one she helped convict, Lena."
"I know. I still want her alive."
Later, Naomi asked why I'd reacted so strongly to Nora's daughter.
"They keep using families as handles," I said. "Pull the handle and the person moves."
Naomi laid a second set of papers before me. These were actual shipping manifests from HalePoint, with electronic signatures and matching bank transfers to a shell company called Granite Ridge Wellness. On its incorporation papers, the listed manager was Deputy Warden Marr's brother.
"The card in the blanket," Naomi said, "was registered in the evidence system for fourteen minutes, then marked destroyed as a contamination risk. We've located the destruction report. No disposal witness signed it."
"So Pike has it."
"Maybe. But we can't build a case on maybe."
She set down one more photograph, this one showing Jo Alvarez in the infirmary with a bruised cheek and an oxygen tube. My throat closed.
"Jo told us she knows who attacked her," Naomi said. "She also says she won't give a name until you come to see her."
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"Why?"
Naomi leaned forward. "Because Jo says it wasn't Lieutenant Pike. It was someone you trusted."
