The Woman Who Knew the Tide

The motel room had no clock, but Mara knew it was past three by the color of the darkness pressed against the curtains. The storm outside had moved east, leaving the parking lot glazed with rain and the sodium lamps trembling in their puddles.

Jonah sat at the small table with his laptop open, though the screen had gone black twice in ten minutes. Lena remained on the bed, wrapped in a gray blanket, watching the door as if it might breathe.

“You should sleep,” Jonah said.

“So should you.”

“I’m a journalist. Insomnia is tax-deductible.”

Mara almost smiled. Then the motel telephone rang.

No one moved.

It rang again, a thin mechanical sound that seemed too loud for the room. Jonah reached for it, but Mara caught his wrist.

“Don’t.”

The third ring stopped.

A woman’s voice spoke from the dead receiver.

“Ms. Ellison? My name is Evelyn Shaw. I believe we need to discuss your brother.”

Lena made a sound beneath her breath—not quite a gasp, not quite a name. She pushed herself upright, her face emptied of color.

Jonah stared at her. “You know her.”

“I know what she did,” Lena said.

The receiver clicked. Shaw continued as though she had heard them. “I’m in the parking lot. I came alone. If I intended to harm you, Mr. Reed, I would not have announced myself.”

“That’s comforting,” Jonah said.

“It wasn’t meant to be.”

Mara lifted the receiver. “How did you get this number?”

“Your brother gave it to me six months ago.”

Mara’s grip tightened. “Daniel never met you.”

“Not before Blackwater.”

Through the curtain, a figure crossed the parking lot. A woman in a dark wool coat walked without an umbrella. She carried no bag, made no attempt to shield herself from the rain. When she reached the room, she knocked once.

Lena slid off the bed and backed toward the bathroom.

“Don’t let her in,” she whispered.

Mara opened the door anyway.

Dr. Evelyn Shaw looked younger than the photographs Jonah had shown her. Her silver hair was tied at the nape of her neck, and her expression held the polished calm of someone entering a boardroom rather than a motel room. Water shone on her coat. Her eyes moved from Mara to Jonah, then found Lena.