Part 47 (2/2)

I glanced over at Sarah, who was holding Olivia's diary like I hold the refrigerator door when I'm trying to lose a few pounds. Sure enough, she opened it again.

”That was a quick break,” I said.

”Can't help it,” she said. ”I need to get through this, to read everything. Probably a couple of times.”

I understood. She was really intent on bringing down Ned Sinclair. She had total focus on her goal. So much so that everything else seemed inconsequential. For example, where the h.e.l.l were we heading? South, yes, but certainly not to my house. At least not on Sarah's watch.

I kept driving while she kept reading, both of us unsure of what lay ahead. Then, about ten miles and twenty pages later, everything changed.

”Holy s.h.i.+t,” muttered Sarah, her head still buried in the diary.

”What is it?” I asked.

As I turned to look, she held up the page she was reading. I saw it immediately.

The key to everything.

Chapter 74

SARAH SHOOK HER head for practically the entire flight out to Los Angeles. After a while, I had to laugh.

”What's so funny?” she asked.

”You,” I said. ”You're like my mother when I was a kid. I'd come home from school boasting that I got ninety-eight percent on my math test, and the first thing she'd say was, 'Who got the other two percent?'”

Sarah had been savvy enough to do a t.i.tle search for any property that Ned Sinclair might still own. But now she was beating herself up because-the other two percent-it didn't occur to her to also check for property owned by other members of the Sinclair family. Especially Nora. Just because she'd been dead for years didn't mean she still couldn't own a home.

Sure enough.

It was a two-bedroom split-level in Westwood near the UCLA campus, where Ned had been an a.s.sociate professor. Nora had bought it for her brother and, according to the diary, for Olivia as well.

Here's the key, Mother, for the day when you get released.

That's what Nora had told her during one of her visits to Pine Woods. The key was a token of optimism, something to keep Olivia's spirits up. Nora wanted her mother to think that one day she might actually be set free.

Deep down they probably both knew it would never happen.

So it was only Ned who lived in the house. That is, he lived there until he was committed to Eagle Mountain Psychiatric Hospital.

But what had Sarah and me flying across the country was that the place was never sold. It still belonged to Nora's estate.

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