Chapter 10 - The Sister in the Red Coat
Nora Bell chose the bus station for the meeting because, she said, crowded places made murder inconvenient.
She was eighty-two, small and straight-backed, wearing a red coat that made her easy to identify and difficult to forget. She carried no luggage. When Rebecca approached with Caleb and Lena Shaw, Nora looked first at Rebecca's eyes, then at the shape of her hands.
"You look like Margaret," she said. "But you stand like Anna."
Rebecca's breath stopped. "You knew her?"
"I delivered both of you."
They moved to a secure interview room at the state police office. Nora refused coffee and asked that the recording begin immediately.
In 1958, she explained, Briar County Hospital participated in an illegal adoption network disguised as emergency charity. Unmarried mothers, poor families, and women under sedation were told their infants had died. The babies were transferred to politically connected families. Judge Abel Crowne legalized the adoptions with sealed orders. Dr. Wren's father handled medical records. Meridian used the network to reward loyalty and create family ties among its members.
Margaret was married, but Vernon had gambling debts and wanted entry into Meridian's business network. Their first child, Anna, was the price.
"He sold his own daughter?" Caleb asked.
Nora's face tightened. "He called it placement. Men like Vernon rename evil so they can eat breakfast afterward."
Margaret was heavily sedated. Nora believed the baby had died until she saw Vernon carrying the infant through a service corridor. She confronted him. He threatened her license and family. Nora remained silent for decades.
"Why come now?" Rebecca asked.
"Because Margaret found me. Because she asked me to help identify Anna. Because she died before I answered."
Nora opened a small envelope. Inside was a photograph of a six-year-old girl in a red winter coat. She stood beside Judge Crowne and a woman whose face had been cut from the image.
On the back was written: Abigail Crowne, 1964.
"Anna became Abigail?"
"I believe so."
Abigail Crowne grew into a federal prosecutor, then vanished after investigating defense contracting fraud in the late 1980s. Her car was found beside a river. No body was recovered.
Caleb searched archived articles. Abigail had been thirty-one when she disappeared. One photograph showed a brass wing pin on her lapel.
Lantern.
Anna had become the insider helping Malcolm Grant.
Rebecca stared at the image of the sister she had never met. "Is she alive?"
Nora hesitated. "Margaret believed so. She received letters for years, always unsigned, always containing a wing mark. The last letter told her where Thomas was held."
Before Nora could say more, the building alarm sounded.
Smoke poured beneath the interview room door.
Lena drew her weapon and moved them toward the rear exit. The hallway sprinklers failed. Emergency lights blinked out. Someone had cut the building systems with professional precision.
A gunshot cracked from the stairwell.
Caleb pulled Nora behind a concrete column. Rebecca grabbed a fallen fire extinguisher and struck the armed intruder as he rounded the corner. Lena fired once into his shoulder. A second attacker escaped through the garage.
The wounded man carried credentials identifying him as a federal marshal. They were authentic.
Meridian had not only survived. It still occupied government offices.
Nora was moved to a protected facility. Before leaving, she took Rebecca's hand.
"Anna had a birthmark under her left shoulder, shaped like a crescent. Margaret said you had the same mark."
Rebecca did.
Nora whispered an address in Washington, D.C. "Margaret sent one letter there. It belongs to a woman named Abigail Lane. She advises the Senate Armed Services Committee."
Lena searched the name.
Abigail Lane was seventy, respected, private, and currently leading a classified review of counterfeit military supply chains.
Her official biography said she had been adopted as an infant by Judge Abel Crowne.
Rebecca looked at the screen.
The woman in the photograph had her mother's eyes.
A call came through from the detention center. Vernon Vale had requested an immediate meeting with Rebecca. He claimed he could prove Abigail Lane was not her sister.
His price was immunity.
May you like
Rebecca declined.
Ten minutes later, Vernon was found unconscious in his cell with a winged brass token placed beneath his tongue.
