Chapter 5 - The Blue House)
The blue house still existed.
It stood at the end of a narrow residential street beneath two enormous maple trees.
The paint had faded almost gray.
One shutter hung crooked beside an upstairs window.
Emily remained in Margaret's car for nearly a minute after they arrived.
Michael had driven separately.
Daniel came too, despite Emily telling him he did not need to.
Margaret sat beside Emily in the back seat.
"This could be nothing," Emily said.
Margaret nodded.
"It could."
Neither believed it.
Michael walked toward the porch first.
A woman in her seventies answered after his second knock.
She introduced herself as Ruth Calder.
When Michael showed Evelyn's notebook and mentioned the name Elizabeth Ward, Ruth's expression changed.
"I haven't heard that name in twenty years."
Emily stepped forward.
"Do you remember her?"
Ruth stared at Emily's face.
Then her eyes dropped toward the birthmark on Emily's hand.
"Oh."
Margaret gripped the railing.
Ruth opened the door wider.
"You should come inside."
The living room smelled faintly of lavender and old wood.
Photographs covered one wall.
Children.
Dozens of them.
Ruth explained that she and her late husband had been emergency foster parents.
Infants sometimes stayed one night.
Sometimes several months.
In October twenty two years earlier, a woman arrived after midnight with a baby.
"She had documents," Ruth said. "But they looked wrong."
"What woman?" Michael asked.
"Helen Voss."
Emily's breath caught.
Ruth looked at her.
"The baby was called Elizabeth."
Margaret whispered, "How old?"
"About two weeks."
Margaret began crying.
Emily remained frozen.
Ruth continued.
"She had a purple mark on her hand."
No one spoke.
Ruth reached for a box on a bookshelf.
"I knew someone would come eventually."
From the box she removed a photograph.
A baby slept inside a yellow blanket.
Emily touched the picture.
She did not recognize herself.
How could she?
But the mark was there.
Margaret lowered herself into a chair.
"My daughter."
Ruth looked confused.
Then Michael explained.
Not everything.
Enough.
Ruth listened in horror.
When he finished, she shook her head.
"Helen told us the mother had died."
Margaret's face tightened.
"She told you I was dead?"
"Yes."
Ruth turned toward Emily.
"She said the father couldn't care for the child."
Emily glanced at Margaret.
Ruth continued.
"The placement was temporary. Then a social worker came."
"What social worker?" Michael asked.
Ruth frowned.
"I don't remember her name."
"Think."
"Something with an M."
Emily said, "Did she work for the state?"
Ruth hesitated.
"I assumed she did."
Michael asked, "Did she show identification?"
Ruth's silence answered.
Emily felt anger rise.
"You handed a baby to someone whose identity you didn't verify?"
Ruth's eyes filled with shame.
"Things were different then. The paperwork looked official. Helen had already brought children through legitimate emergency placements."
Margaret stood.
"Where did they take her?"
"I don't know."
Emily turned away.
Another dead end.
Then Ruth spoke.
"But I kept something."
Emily stopped.
Ruth opened the box again.
This time she removed a small cassette tape.
Michael stared.
"What is that?"
"The night before Elizabeth left, Helen came here."
Ruth swallowed.
"She and the social worker argued in my kitchen."
"You recorded them?" Daniel asked.
"My husband did."
Ruth looked embarrassed.
"He thought something was wrong."
"Can we hear it?"
Ruth nodded.
She found an old cassette player in a cabinet.
The tape crackled.
For several seconds there was only static.
Then a woman's voice.
Helen.
"You said no permanent placement."
Another voice answered.
"You've been paid."
"I agreed to transport the infant. I didn't agree to erase her."
"The father wants it finished."
Margaret covered her mouth.
Helen again.
"What happens when the mother starts asking questions?"
A second woman laughed softly.
"She already believes the child is dead."
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
"The Ashford girl will become somebody else's daughter before sunrise."
Margaret began shaking.
Emily felt Daniel place a hand near her shoulder but not touch her.
The tape continued.
Helen said, "And if Thomas changes his mind?"
"He won't. He understands what happens to the trust if the girl survives."
Michael stopped the tape.
Silence filled the room.
Margaret stared at the machine.
"Thomas knew everything."
Emily looked at Ruth.
"Who was the other woman?"
Ruth closed her eyes.
"I remember now."
Everyone waited.
"Marianne Vale."
Michael inhaled sharply.
Margaret turned.
"Who is she?"
Michael looked at Emily.
"She ran a private adoption agency."
Emily felt hope and fear arrive together.
"Where is she now?"
Michael took out his phone.
He searched the name.
Seconds later his face changed.
"She died eight years ago."
Emily closed her eyes.
Margaret whispered, "Of course."
Then Daniel, who had been examining the photographs on the wall, spoke.
"Maybe not everything died with her."
He pointed toward the back of the cassette case.
There was an address written in faded ink.
Vale Family Services.
And beneath it, a storage unit number.
Ruth looked at it.
"I've never noticed that."
Michael photographed the address.
Emily stared at the numbers.
If Marianne Vale had kept records, the truth might still exist.
Then Ruth touched Emily's hand.
"There's something else you should know."
Emily turned.
Ruth's expression had changed.
"When they came to take you away, you weren't alone."
Margaret frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Ruth looked at Margaret.
"The woman who came with Marianne was carrying another baby."
May you like
Emily felt a chill.
Ruth whispered, "A boy."
