set her and the kid up at a halfway house; essentially, he currently has her on house arrest.”
“She can’t leave?”
“Not alive.”
Lorna sucked in a breath.
“Sweetheart, Zella played a role in my shooting. The only reason she’s not dead now is because we plan to question her.”
“I shouldn’t feel bad. She was never nice to any of us.”
“Right now,” I said, “Zella and the kid are being guarded by trusted Sparrows. Honestly, I don’t recall what happened at the scene after I was shot. Mason said he plans to question her.” My cheeks rose. “Your brother has a knack for getting answers.”
Lorna shook her head. “I don’t want to know those details either.”
As memories returned of previous inquisitions, I was certain I didn’t want to tell my wife what her brother was capable of doing. “Let’s just say he’s persuasive.”
“Zella never liked our mother.” Lorna wrapped her arms around her midsection. “I can’t see them cohabitating unless it involved drugs.” Her nose wrinkled. “We should look to see if she has needle marks. I didn’t see any, did you?”
“I didn’t look that closely, but no.” I took a deep breath. “There’s something else we learned.”
“What?” my wife asked as she turned back to me.
“Maples mentioned that at one time your mother received payments from a Mexican named Garcia.”
“A Mexican?”
“His description, not mine.”
“Why would anyone...” Her body stiffened. “Oh, wait. Remember my dream? It seems more and more that it was real. If it was, Nancy told me that she sold Missy.” Her words came faster and faster. “Missy looked different than me and Mason. Her skin and hair were darker. I never noticed until we went to school and people made comments. Grandma would say that God made everyone unique.” Lorna stood. “This is all making sense. Missy was half-Latina, and I recall Nancy saying she sold her to her birth father.”
I nodded. “It does seem to connect dots.”
My wife spun in place, the palms of her hands slapping her jean-clad thighs. “Reid, don’t you get it? We have a name. What did you say, Garcia?”
“Do you have any idea how common that name is?”
“But it’s a name.” Plopping back down beside me, Lorna reached for my hand. “Please tell me you’ll work on this. Reid Murray, you can do anything when it comes to information. Find Missy Garcia.”
Tears filled her eyes, and for the first time in weeks, they weren’t of despair or fear but of hope. I refused to be the one to dampen this new positive emotion.
“Melissa?” I asked, realizing I’d never questioned that before.
“No, her name on her birth certificate was Missy, not short for Melissa. She was...maybe is eleven months younger than me. I’ll give you her birth date. Tell me you’ll look.”
I leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Yes, sweetheart, I’ll look.”
A knock came to the door.
“Let’s not mention this yet to whoever is out there,” I suggested.
Lorna nodded as she walked to the door. When she opened it, Araneae and Laurel stood at the threshold with trays of food in their hands.
“I hope we’re not interrupting. I tried to text,” Araneae said.
“Oh,” Laurel said, talking to Lorna, “your hair is cute.”
Lorna stepped back, allowing the ladies to enter, and shrugged. “In hindsight, it was a rash decision. It’s short and brown, but thank you.”
“I always wanted purple,” Araneae said.
The ladies laughed.
“I was limited on my choices,” Lorna said, gesturing the other ladies inside our apartment. “You two didn’t need to bring this food down. I could have come up or made us something here.”
“You have to try these,” Laurel replied. “They’re really good. The vegetable one is my favorite.”
After placing the trays on the dining room table, Araneae and Laurel both turned their eyes on me. Araneae lifted her hand. “And I admit...the food was our excuse. We wanted to see Reid.”
I pushed off, using the sofa’s arm to stand.
“No,” Laurel said, “stay seated. You’re supposed to be resting. We just wanted to see for ourselves that you’re all right.”
“As all right as I can be.”
Laurel came close and lifted her arms, but stopped inches away. “Wait, can I hug you? I don’t want to hurt you.”
From across the room, I saw my wife’s smile. “I think I can take a hug.”
“Oh, then make it two,” Araneae said as she also wrapped me in a quick embrace. When they stepped back, Araneae’s tone turned stern. “Sterling said that you’re supposed to rest, and if he finds out otherwise, well, he said