A second message followed.
Do not speak to Josephine.
He already knew.
Josephine’s shoulders tightened.
“He called me before I came inside.
I didn’t answer.”
Katherine closed the folder.
“We should move you somewhere secure while investigators prepare the warrants.”
“Warrants?”
“For the Caldwell home, storage unit and Henry’s remaining police records.”
The word home struck me harder than warrant.
The blue house where I had celebrated birthdays and Christmas mornings was no longer waiting for me as a refuge.
It was evidence.
I spent that night in a hotel room registered under Katherine’s name.
Aunt Josephine stayed in the adjoining room.
Wyatt and Felix collected my passport and other documents for examination, leaving me with certified temporary identification.
Hazel Montgomery was printed beneath my photograph.
I set the card facedown on the nightstand.
At two in the morning, Beatrice called from an unfamiliar number.
I answered before fear could stop me.
“Evelyn?”
She sounded as though she had been crying.
“Is that my name?”
Silence.
Then she whispered, “Where are you?”
“Did Henry take me from that car?”
“Come home and we’ll explain.”
“Did he take me?”
“Your father saved you.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Beatrice began breathing faster.
“You were freezing.
You had glass in your blanket.
No one was looking after you.”
“My parents had just died.”
“I became your mother.”
“You signed a false birth statement.”
Her voice changed.
The crying stopped.
“Josephine had no right to interfere in our family.”
“Our family?” I said.
“You knew another family was searching for me.”
“We were your family.”
“You made sure I never had the choice.”
Henry’s voice sounded in the background.
“Give me the phone.”
Beatrice covered the receiver, but I heard them arguing.
Then Henry came on the line.
“Where are you?”
“With people who showed me the report you changed.”
“That report proves nothing.”
“It says you found me alive.”
“I was protecting you.”
“From whom?”
He hesitated.
That pause told me more than any confession could have.
