Page 76 of Night Falls on Predicament Avenue
Mike.
LeRoy.
The only other names on the list with no one to account for their whereabouts on the night of Naomi’s abduction were Ralph and Otto. That would be like accusing Santa Claus of murdering Rudolph. Norah could have told the cops that had she known they’d even considered the two brothers as suspects.
Norah lifted the page that reported the condition of Naomi’s body when it was found. She steeled herself as the heaviness of anxiety began to seep into her.
“You can do this,” she breathed aloud to herself. A prayer would probably help too, so she tried that. What was it about being afraid that pushed a person away from God instead of toward Him?
Deciding to explore that conundrum later, Norah let her eyes examine the report.
Norah had been found in the woods just twenty yards from a gravel road. She had been fully dressed. No signs of sexual assault. In spite of the condition of the body having been lyingthere for three months, the investigators were able to identify her based on the graduation ring she wore that was inscribed with her name.
Norah drew in a shaky breath. Yes. She remembered helping Mom give the police a list of articles Naomi would have had on her. The ring, her cellphone, her Coach wallet...
She stilled. Norah stared at the next line.
Her hands were bound behind her back with a pink bandanna.
Pink.
Norah began to tremble. It traveled from her head down her neck and shoulders, then through her torso and down her legs until she had to grip the edge of the table.
A pink bandanna.
She knew Naomi had been found with her hands tied together with a bandanna. The cops had mentioned it several times. A few had commented on a bandanna being a flimsy way to control a prisoner.
But she’d never heard the color before.
That pink bandanna had been Naomi’s! The person who bound her had taken the bandanna from Naomi’s belongings. Naomi never went anywhere without her pink bandanna, which was given to her by one of the most important people in her life.
“Always have a bandanna on ya. Can useit as a nose wipe, a rag, wet it down to keep ya cool in the summer, and can evenmake a tourniquet out of it. People underestimate the powerof a bandanna.”
Those words had come from Otto—and Ralph too—but Otto had spoken them for the brothers. Norah heard them as clearly as the Christmas when they’d both opened their gifts with the bandanna of their favorite color. Naomi’s was pink. Norah’s had been green. Norah had lost hers rather quickly, not fully believing in the so-called power of a bandanna. Naomi, though, was fiercely protective of hers. Because she was fiercely protective of the brothers.
The room began to whirl as Norah struggled to retain her equilibrium. Now wasnotthe time for the panic attack to return. How dare someone use something so precious to Naomi as her pink bandanna to bind her for her death! If Otto and Ralph were to find out, it would break them. Norah stared at the names and then reached for a pencil and crossed out Otto’s and Ralph’s. She wouldnevertell the boys that Naomi had been restrained by the very gift they’d meant to be sweet and special.
Norah shifted her attention to the remaining two names.
LeRoy.
Mike.
Strangely, she might be led to believe that either of them could have done it. But now just a little bit more of her was less suspicious of LeRoy and more concerned that Dover wasn’t who he said he was. If Dover had been Naomi’s coworker, he would’ve had ample opportunity to see her with her pink bandanna. He would’ve known that Naomi was carrying in her bag the very restraint that would eventually be the tool used in the taking of her life.
27
SHEHADN’TREALIZEDhow long she’d been sitting there, staring at the document in front of her.
The front door opened and shut, causing Norah to startle. She looked up and out the front window to see the world was shrouded in darkness already. All afternoon she had scoured through the files.
She was losing her mind over this case. She was losing her mind over everything.
Norah looked toward the door, expecting to see Sebastian there. Only he wasn’t. The entryway was dark. She reallyhadlost track of time in her frantic searching of the files.
She took a moment to push back the hair from her face and tugged her T-shirt down over her hips. She stepped into the hall and glanced at the grandfather clock. It was past ten. Sebastian had to have snuck in and slipped past her without saying hello or good night. She squelched the hurt his distance had created. Right now she’d like nothing more than to run all this by him.
Norah padded her way across the entry, not bothering to flick on lights. She didn’t want to risk waking Harper whom Sebastian had helped home from the hospital just that morning.They’d stayed distant from Norah, for whatever reason. But even without interaction, Norah knew the poor girl needed to sleep. Norah knew that sometimes the lights from downstairs could seep through the cast-iron floor vents and shed light into the bedrooms above.
