Chapter 28

The woman hesitated. "You're not Ms. Legare."

"I'm her sister, Savannah Webster."

"Mr.Lloyd needs to speak with you in his office. This way."

A man in a gray suit opened the far door and approached her with an extended hand. "Ms.Webster, please step into my office."

She perched on the wooden seat of the closest chair and fumbled in her bag. "I have a letter from my sister. She also should have contacted you personally to explain the change in plans." Her fingers closed around the envelope, and she yanked out Jess's letter authorizing her to take Simon. "Here you go. If you fetch my nephew, we'll get out of your way."

What was she going to do? Before Savannah could gather her thoughts, the door opened behind them, and she twisted in the chair to see a boy standing in the doorway. She drank in the first sight of her nephew. He could have been Ella's older brother. He wore a Pikachu backpack, and his blond hair fell across his forehead just like Ella's used to.

Mr.Lloyd brushed past them. "I'll leave you to explain everything to Simon." He shut the door behind him.

"Is Mum in London? Why didn't she come?"

"There's a lot going on back home, and your mom sent me in her place." Lame. How would she explain all this to a ten-year-old?

The even bigger question was what was she going to do with Simon?

***

"You'll never find what you're not looking for," one of Hez's early mentors liked to say. The forensic techs who processed Jess's house hadn't found any evidence that she had been framed, but they hadn't been looking for it. Hez wasn't a tech himself, of course, but he had seen enough of their work that he'd know what to look for. Or at least he hoped he would.

Ten feet in, a little patch of white caught his eye. A twig had been snapped off at shoulder height. The break was recent, though he couldn't tell how recent. A deer or wind gust might have done it, but it was a hint that he was on the right track. He snapped a picture of it and moved on.

He snapped a few more pictures, but he didn't bother with a more thorough investigation. This little piece of the crime scene had already been thoroughly documented by the police department's techs and investigators, and he had their reports.

Someone was in Jess's house. He caught a glimpse of movement. A figure in black appeared for an instant in one of the windows.

The burglar stopped. He pulled a phone from his pocket and held it to his ear for a moment. Then he jammed the phone back into his pocket and ran out of the room.