Chapter 2 - UNDER NO NAME
“Under what name?”
Victor’s question sat between them.
Dominic looked again at the photograph of Lily Hayes crossing a Sunset Park street in a coat too thin for November.
“Anonymous.”
Victor lifted an eyebrow.
“You hate anonymous.”
“I hate children being hungry more.”
Victor nodded once.
“School lunch account. Full year.”
“And breakfast.”
“Done.”
Dominic turned another page.
Eleanor Hayes.
Sixty-seven.
Widowed according to one housing application, unmarried according to another. Former nursing aide. Sporadic employment records. No Social Security documentation connecting her to Lily. No legal guardianship order.
No birth certificate.
No pediatric records before three years earlier.
It was as if Lily Hayes had simply appeared.
Dominic closed the folder.
“I want DNA.”
Victor didn’t move.
“That can be arranged.”
“No.”
Victor waited.
Dominic looked toward the photograph on his desk.
Anna.
Yellow dress.
Crescent scar.
The same scar.
“We don’t steal blood from a six-year-old.”
Victor studied him.
“You’re asking permission?”
“I’m saying if she’s Anna, the first thing her father does after finding her will not be violating her.”
Victor nodded slowly.
That was not the Dominic Moretti he had known three years earlier.
Then again, three years earlier Dominic had still believed his daughter was dead.
The school lunch payment went through that afternoon.
Lily discovered it the next morning.
She stood in line holding a plastic tray while the cafeteria woman smiled.
“You can take the apple too.”
Lily looked suspicious.
“I don’t have apple money.”
“You don’t need it.”
“Why?”
“Your account’s covered.”
Lily stared.
“For today?”
“For the whole year.”
Her little face changed.
Not excitement.
Concern.
“Did Grandma pay?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart.”
Lily took the apple.
Then quietly placed the carton of chocolate milk back.
The cafeteria woman frowned.
“You can have both.”
Lily hesitated.
Then took the milk too.
That evening, Eleanor found the apple inside Lily’s backpack.
“You didn’t eat this?”
“It’s for you.”
Eleanor stopped.
Lily pulled out a wrapped breakfast muffin too.
“This too.”
“Baby…”
“They said my food is free now.”
Eleanor’s face drained of color.
“Who said?”
“The lunch lady.”
Eleanor sat slowly.
Nobody gave poor children anything for no reason.
Not in Eleanor’s experience.
“Did someone come to school?”
Lily shook her head.
“Did anyone ask about me?”
“No.”
“About the warehouse?”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“I didn’t tell.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
She knew about Warehouse 19 now.
Lily had confessed after coming home with a scraped knee and no copper wire.
She had not mentioned the man’s last name.
Only Dominic.
A man tied to a chair.
A photograph.
A girl who looked like her.
Eleanor had not slept properly since.
That night, she packed a bag.
Not much.
Two sweaters.
Lily’s school papers.
Medication.
Thirty-eight dollars in cash.
The small tin box from behind the radiator.
She opened it once.
Inside lay a silver chain.
At the end was a tiny star.
Eleanor closed the lid quickly.
Across Brooklyn, Dominic sat in a car outside Lily’s school.
Victor drove.
“You realize this is unsettling behavior.”
Dominic looked at him.
“You’ve followed federal prosecutors home.”
“They were adults.”
“Drive.”
The dismissal bell rang.
Children poured out.
Then Lily appeared.
Dominic knew her immediately.
Not because of the scar.
Because she walked like Anna.
A slight bounce when she hurried.
One shoulder forward.
Claire used to call it determined walking.
Lily spotted the black sedan.
Then Dominic.
Her face lit up.
“Dominic!”
Victor swore softly.
Half the parents turned.
Lily ran toward the car.
Dominic got out before she reached the street.
“Stop.”
She stopped at the curb.
He crossed to her.
“You don’t run into traffic.”
“I looked.”
“You looked at me.”
“That counts.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Lily grinned.
Dominic felt something tear open inside him.
Anna used to argue exactly like that.
“Are you still hurt?”
“Less.”
“You look better.”
“Thank you.”
She looked at the car.
“Is that your friend?”
Victor lowered his window.
“I’m Victor.”
Lily considered him.
“You look grumpy.”
Victor stared.
Dominic turned away to hide a smile.
Then Eleanor appeared.
She saw Dominic.
The grocery bag slipped from her hand.
A carton of eggs hit the sidewalk.
Lily turned.
“Grandma!”
Eleanor did not look at the eggs.
She stared only at Dominic.
He knew immediately.
She recognized him.
“Mrs. Hayes?”
Eleanor grabbed Lily’s hand.
“We’re leaving.”
“Grandma, this is Dominic.”
“I know who he is.”
Lily looked between them.
Dominic’s pulse changed.
“You know me?”
Eleanor’s voice shook.
“Stay away from her.”
Victor stepped out of the car.
Dominic raised one hand.
Victor stopped.
“I’m not here to hurt her.”
Eleanor laughed once.
A frightened sound.
“That’s what your people said before.”
Dominic went completely still.
“What people?”
Eleanor pulled Lily behind her.
“Leave us alone.”
Lily protested.
“Grandma—”
“We’re going home.”
Dominic did not follow.
Every instinct told him to.
Instead he watched Eleanor hurry away with Lily.
Victor came beside him.
“What people?”
Dominic stared after them.
“I don’t know.”
Then he noticed something on the sidewalk.
A small metal tin had fallen from Eleanor’s open grocery bag.
She had not noticed.
Dominic picked it up.
Victor watched.
“You going to open it?”
Dominic hesitated.
Then the lid shifted slightly in his hand.
Silver glinted inside.
His breathing stopped.
He opened the box.
A necklace rested on old cotton.
Tiny silver chain.
Tiny star.
Three engraved letters on the back.
A.M.M.
Anna Marie Moretti.
Dominic’s knees nearly gave way.
Claire had ordered it from a jeweler in Manhattan the week Anna was born.
There had only ever been one.
Victor whispered, “Boss…”
Dominic closed his fist around the necklace.
For three years he had searched rivers, hospitals, morgues, shelters and countries.
Now his daughter’s necklace had fallen out of the bag of a woman claiming to be her grandmother.
Dominic looked toward the corner where Lily had disappeared.
His voice changed.
“Find out where Eleanor is going.”
Victor nodded.
“And Dominic?”
“What?”
“If she runs?”
Dominic looked down at the tiny silver star.
May you like
“Then we find out what she’s running from before we decide she’s running from me.”
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