“Which is?”
“Figuring out how to get you back after Absolom sends you to the past.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Today it is. But not one day. I’m going to make sure that day comes. That you see your family again, Sam. But I need one thing from you.”
“What’s that?”
“Your help.”
Sam made another important decision then. He reached under the couch cushion and handed Daniele the note.
“I found it taped to the bottom of the dining table.”
She scanned the page quickly and looked up. “You were going to keep this from me, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I think whoever is doing this is way ahead of me and unbeatable.”
“I don’t ever want to hear you say that again. Or think it, Sam. That’s a dangerous thought.”
She set the note between them. “Do you ever wonder what happens to them—the people we send through Absolom?”
“A lot, actually.”
“They’re alone, in the distant past, millions of years ago. It’s a survival situation. Do you know what the most important thing is in a survival situation?”
“Shelter? Food? Water?”
“Those sustain life, but the most important thing is your will to live. You lose that, you die.” Daniele fixed Sam with an intense gaze. “Promise me you won’t lose that will. That you won’t give up. Because I won’t give up on you. Promise me, Sam.”
He exhaled. “I promise.”
Daniele held up the note. “Who do you think wrote it?”
“It has to be either Elliott, Hiro, or Constance. They are the only ones that sat at that table—besides you and me.”
“And you’re assuming it’s not me?”
“I’m betting my life—and my family’s future—that it isn’t.”
“Of the three, who do you think did it?”
Sam tilted his head back. “Elliott is the most likely. He’s got a motive for Nora’s murder—she opposed Absolom Two. So did I. That gives him a motive to get rid of me as well. And to scare the others into helping finish his work.” Sam shook his head. “But I refuse to believe it. He’s one of my oldest friends. And… I just don’t think it’s him.”
“Connie?”
“I can’t see it. For the same reason I know she can’t take Adeline and Ryan: she’s too sick. And she wasn’t even in town that night.”
“She could have hired someone.”
“True. But I doubt it.”
“Hiro?”
“Wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Sam said. “I don’t think it’s him.”
“Then who?”
“That’s the question. I simply have no idea who could have done it. That’s one of the reasons I confessed. But that’s not my greatest concern.”
“What is?”
“I fear that Nora was just the start. That they got rid of her for a reason we can’t see. And that the same thing is going to happen to others. Maybe you. Or Elliott. Or Adeline. When I’m gone, the killer will still be here.”
TWELVE
The door opened and Adeline looked up to see Daniele Danneros, one of her father’s friends and colleagues.
Adeline had known the woman for a long time （she had been close with Adeline’s mother）， but she hadn’t seen her that much in recent years.
Daniele hugged Adeline and explained that she would be coming home with her.
“I want to see my father.”
“We’re working on that.”
“What’s happening? Why are they releasing me and not him?”
“I’ll explain when we get home.”
*
Daniele’s home was quite similar to the one Adeline shared with her father and Ryan. Almost eerily so.
In fact, the bedroom Daniele led her to was a near mirror image of Adeline’s own bedroom. The size was the same and the bed was in the same location. Even the furniture was a similar style.
Daniele seemed to read Adeline’s unease.
“It’s the same builder and floor plan—with some slight modifications. Same interior designer too.”
“I want answers.”
“You should sit down, Adeline.”
“I don’t want to sit down.”
Daniele placed a hand—gently—on Adeline’s shoulder, guided her to the bed, and sat beside her.
“What I’m about to say is going to be hard to hear.”