“That house,” Nell finally said. “Is that where the fire was?”
It had to be. She knew that the accident had happened the summer she’d turned three, and she knew that it had happened in upstate New York, where her family had been renting a house. She just hadn’t known that there had been other people there, her father had never said that, but he never said anything about it. The rest of the details of Eve’s story all matched perfectly.
“Yes and no,” Eve said.
“What does that mean?” Nell insisted, desperate. “The house we lived in burned down. I have the scars. It happened there—it had to have.”
Eve sighed. “It did. It just started long before.”
The chills down her back were like knives. Was this why her father had always refused to talk about her mother? Because there was more to it than just the grief? “Are you trying to tell me that her death wasn’t an accident?”
Eve shook her head again, this time more forcefully. “No, it was an accident. A terrible, terrible accident. She died saving you.”
She seemed to be telling the truth. Nell watched Eve for a moment, surprised at her grief. Nell’s father had always kept his locked down deep, and Nell, as much as she wished her mother hadn’t died, did not remember her mother the way that Eve and her father did. Nell’s sadness was more of a bitterness, a longing, for something she would never have the chance to miss as much as they did.
It made her think of what Eve had said about how much Wally had loved her mother, too.
“Eve. Were my mother and Wally—”
“No,” Eve replied vehemently. “Your mother loved your father more than anything. She never would have betrayed him. And neither would have Wally.” She sighed. “But after he lost her, it drove him to madness. He just couldn’t let go.”
“You’re saying Wally’s the one behind all of this? That he’s the one acting as the Cartographers?”
Eve nodded. “It couldn’t be anyone else.” She looked at Nell. “He’s still searching for a copy of the gas station map.”
“But if there are none left . . . ,” Nell began.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Wally never will believe it. It’s the only thing he has left.”
“The only thing he has left?” Nell scoffed, surprised. “What about what I have left? I’m the one who lost my mother. My father lost his wife.”
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Eve replied quickly. “I can’t imagine your or Daniel’s pain.” Her gaze drifted down again, heavy. “But as terrible a loss as it was, at least you still had each other. Wally had nothing. Nothing but the memory of that map.”
Nell waited for a moment, until she’d gathered herself. “How can I find him?” she asked.
“You can’t,” Eve answered. “After your mother died, he disappeared. None of us heard from him again. No one knows where he is.”
“Except maybe my father,” Nell said.
Eve looked spooked enough to run.
Nell backed off, searching for a new angle. Eve might not know how to find Wally, but Nell knew what he was after. And the Sanborn map was somehow connected to it—otherwise why would her father have spent his last few days desperately contacting his old friends, trying to obtain a copy?
“What’s so special about this Sanborn map, then?” she asked.
“It’s rare,” Eve allowed. “A seventh edition.”
“Why is the seventh edition so rare?” she asked.