Concealed in the Shadows (Book #1)

Chapter Nine

What? Instantly the anxiety and qualms that have enslaved me since I heard Evvie's voicemail are freed. I found my mother. The few people who cared always emphasized that. "I heard she was the one to find her," one of my classmates wrote in a message not meant for me. She was mortified, and I was trying to figure out if I was supposed to be after having found her that way.

Dead. I have many uncertainties about my mother, but whether she is still living is certainly not one of them. I often wonder if she was always crazy—even before my father died. I question whether she could have really loved Evvie and me because of the way she neglected our needs. I speculate on those things, but I've never wondered about her death. I am certain of the cold, hard truth that my mother is dead.

Evvie and I aren't here, beyond Miles, because of my doubts. She was clearly shocked and rattled by something or someone that made her think that our mother could be alive. I need to hear her out instead of cutting her off for how silly this sounds to me.

"What makes you think that?"

"On Thursday afternoon, I stopped in the court to see if I could make my typed statement about the case instead of waiting until Friday. I felt like I would need more time crafting it than it would take for you and Merideth to make your testimonies." I bet my sister is regretting that decision now. If it was a long enough case to merit a recess, it was plenty long for Evvie to craft a brief statement. Then again, she does have difficulty abbreviating her thoughts and feelings.

Until she mentioned it, I had forgotten that Evvie wasn't technically allowed to orally testify in the court on her own behalf since she isn't fifteen. Like thirteen and eighteen, fifteen is another staple age where things are first allowed. Since teenagers can begin driving and working at this age, fields of life that often produce lawsuits, they also have to be allowed to testify in court. Evvie is only fourteen, and so, she was permitted only a lightly weighed, typed statement to assert her wish to live with me.

"So I took the light rail into the city while Merideth was at work," Evvie continues. "After going through security, a secretary gave me a laminated card with directions for how to get into the statement program of the computer in the soundproof station where she said I would be able to speech-to-text in private. The secretary told me she would sign as my witness when I was finished."

I nod, but my patience for her extra babble is wearing thin. You're straying, Evelette. Get to the point. She has a tendency to do this when she's nervous.

"The secretary told me to scan my wrist first, and then follow the directions on the card. When I scanned my wrist, my Miles public record came up. I was supposed to click on the Court Cases tab to get started, but I noticed a guardian list section toward the bottom of the biographic tab that was automatically open. I waved this part of the screen up because I couldn't remember Trista's last name and thought that I might need it for part of my statement."

Evvie was only ten when we lived with Trista and had already learned every adult in her life was temporary. What need did she have for remembering some irresponsible caretaker's last name when the lowlife lush did no good for either of us? I couldn't fault Evvie for forgetting.

"You know when you're scrolling on a touch screen and your finger accidentally sticks to the screen or your wave across the interface is misread and you end up opening something you didn't mean to open?"

"Yeah," I answer, wondering where this is leading. Did Evvie open something that she wasn't supposed to see? How did it suggest to her that our mother could possibly be alive? Most importantly, if something in her records was indeed amiss—why is it that way and who might know what my sister has mistakenly seen?