“Anna, there was also a photograph attached to the folder.”
“The one you remembered.”
“Yes.”
“Why would Harlow have her photograph?”
“Employee file, maybe. I don’t know.”
I folded my hands tightly.
“What happened when legal approached you?”
“They asked what I’d seen. I said almost nothing. They took the folder.”
“And your laptop disappeared.”
“Months later.”
“Do you genuinely believe Harlow stole it?”
“I don’t know.”
I appreciated that answer.
Not certainty.
Not conspiracy dressed up as fact.
Just uncertainty.
Stephen looked at Claire’s photograph again.
“Your father’s note said she didn’t disappear.”
I nodded.
“So what happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who in your family is still alive who might?”
I knew immediately.
Aunt Margaret.
My father’s younger sister.
She lived forty minutes away in the house my grandparents had once owned.
I called her.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Anna?”
“Hi, Aunt Margaret.”
“Goodness, you’re calling early. Everything okay?”
