Chapter 6 - THE LIE IN THE BURGUNDY SUITCASE
The burgundy suitcase had been in Union Station lost property for six weeks.
That was easy to establish.
Its original owner had already been reimbursed by an insurer after it went missing on a trip from Boston.
The bag itself had no connection to Hannah.
The AVA tag did.
Grant had the station’s property log.
Nadine had checked the suitcase out at 10:36 Friday morning.
Five minutes after warning Hannah that Luke was coming.
Seven minutes before Luke’s car entered the garage.
Nadine had said she merely noticed the bag on a luggage cart.
That was false.
She had put it there.
Grant interviewed her again.
“Why?”
Nadine looked exhausted.
“I was trying to fix what I did.”
“By lying to police?”
“I panicked.”
“What was the bag for?”
Nadine pressed her lips together.
Grant waited.
Eventually she said:
“A distraction.”
She had taken the burgundy suitcase from lost property.
Filled it with station blankets to give it weight.
Attached a spare luggage tag.
Written AVA on it.
Then placed it on a cart headed toward Track 8.
“I thought if Luke saw it, he’d think Hannah was going that way.”
“Why would he know the name on Ava’s bracelet?”
“He bought the bracelet.”
That was another detail nobody had known.
Luke had ordered matching burgundy travel tags and the bracelet before Ava was born.
A sentimental family set, Nadine said.
The kind of thing that looked loving in photographs.
Nadine knew Luke would recognize it.
Grant leaned forward.
“So after you called him here, you became afraid enough of him to create a decoy.”
Nadine nodded.
“But you still didn’t tell Hannah you had called him until he was almost there.”
“I was ashamed.”
“That shame cost her time.”
Nadine looked down.
“I know.”
Grant was not finished.
“When Emma found Ava, why did you point us toward the decoy?”
Nadine’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know Hannah had hidden Ava.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I saw the bracelet.”
“And?”
“I realized immediately what the burgundy case would look like.”
“So you pretended to discover it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if I admitted I staged it, I had to admit why.”
Grant sat back.
“You delayed the investigation because you were protecting yourself.”
Nadine began crying.
“Yes.”
That consequence spread quickly.
DCF removed Nadine from consideration for emergency kinship placement.
Her employer placed her on administrative leave for misuse of station property and dishonesty during an active police response.
Hannah did not celebrate.
When she heard, she sat on the edge of a borrowed bed at her aunt’s house in Massachusetts and stared at the wall.
Her aunt asked:
“Does that make you feel better?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Hannah looked over.
Her aunt softened.
“I don’t mean she shouldn’t face consequences.”
“Then what?”
“You’re still Ava’s mother. You can’t build your recovery around whether your mother hurts enough.”
Hannah looked down.
That sounded almost exactly like something Nadine would have said once.
May you like
The difference was that this time, nobody was asking Hannah to forgive.
Only to decide what she would do next.
