Chapter 4: Sign Nothing

The care home had a new rule that morning, and the nurse at the desk read it to me off a card.

"No visitors for Mr. Brandauer without a signature from his guardian."

"I'm his daughter," I said.

"The guardian is Mrs. Reinholt."

She said it politely, and she did not look up.

I had not slept.

I had sat on the narrow bed with the key in my fist.

I had listened to the Kell house creak around me until the window went gray.

At six I put the photograph in the pocket of my coat and went down for breakfast.

The gray-haired housekeeper set a plate in front of me without a word.

Matthias came in as I finished, and I showed him the picture.

He turned it over and read the back, and his face did not change.

"The cut is clean," he said. "Whoever did it had a good blade and no hurry."

"Somebody in your house."

"Maybe."

"Or you."

"You have the only key to that room," Matthias said. "Where was the photo before you slept?"

"On the pillow, when I walked in."

"Then it was put there before I handed you the key." He set the photograph down very gently. "That's a Kell blade. It's still not a Kell hand."

I wanted to argue, and I could not find the argument.

"I'm going to see my father," I said.

"I'll drive you."

"I didn't ask."

"No," he said. "You're allowed to say no."

I said yes.

So now I stood in a lobby that smelled of floor polish.

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