Ben hesitated.
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
“And don’t tell Daniel everything over the phone.”
“Why?”
“Because Rosie believed someone in the sheriff’s department had helped your father after your mother died.”
My hand dropped.
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
Ben glanced toward the room where Rosie lay unconscious.
“Claire, trust no one who tells you Rosie was confused.”
Then he walked away.
Daniel Mercer arrived at my house forty minutes later in an unmarked black sedan.
He looked like an older, heavier version of Ben, with the same dark eyes and habit of scanning every doorway before entering a room.
I stood on my porch beneath a sky bruised purple with approaching rain.
“You came alone?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“No.”
“Show me your badge.”
His eyebrows rose.
“You’ve known me since you were ten.”
“Show me.”
He did.
I stepped aside.
My house had never felt dangerous before. It was a narrow craftsman on Willow Street, with pale green siding, uneven floors, and a kitchen Rosie loved because the cabinets were painted yellow.
She had helped me choose that color.
Sunshine belongs inside too, she had said.
Now every shadow seemed occupied.
Daniel locked the door behind us.
“What exactly did Rosie hide?”
“A drive.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
He studied me.
“You brought me here without knowing where the evidence is?”
“She left a letter.”
I gave him the four pages.
He read them standing in my living room. His expression changed at the first line but remained controlled through the rest.
On the final page, Rosie had written:
The key is where Claire keeps the promise she broke.
Daniel looked up.
“What promise?”
“I don’t know.”
“You and Rosie have any childhood hiding places?”
“Dozens.”
“Think.”
I walked through the house while rain began tapping against the windows.
Where did I keep a broken promise?
My bedroom?
The attic?
The cedar box containing our mother’s jewelry?
Then I saw the framed photograph above the fireplace.
Rosie and me beside a lake, ages twelve and eleven. We wore matching red life jackets. I had one arm around her shoulders.
