Cole read the first page twice. His hands had steadied in the same way they always did when his emotions became too large for easy movement. Then he folded the letter and laid it between the two photographs.
"You knew who it was written to?" he asked.
"No. That's why I started asking around. Every answer led somewhere else. The address is gone now. The shop closed years ago."
"Darla Reeves," Cole said.
"You know her?"
"She made our compass patches. Evan trusted her. Everybody did. She wasn't part of the Brotherhood, but she knew nearly all of us. When we had an argument nobody else could settle, she was the person we'd go to because she couldn't be ordered to take a side."
"Where is she?"
"I lost track of her a few years after Evan disappeared. Her shop closed without much notice. I assumed she'd moved on."
Mara folded her arms. "Do you still think she simply moved on?"
Cole looked at the page. "No. I don't know what happened, but I don't think anything in this letter is ordinary."
Eli had been watching them. "Does it say Dad was scared?" he asked.
Mara touched his hand. "Somebody was making him afraid, sweetheart. We're trying to understand why."
"Were they bad people?"
Cole answered carefully. "People who threaten a family to control someone aren't doing something good. But we don't have enough information yet to say exactly who they were."
"Then maybe we should find the person who knows."
The simplicity of Eli's suggestion struck both adults. Mara lowered her eyes. Cole thought about a child who had waited nearly his entire life for others to explain what had happened. Eli was still young enough to believe that truth was a place you could travel to if you followed enough clues. Cole wanted to be careful not to destroy that belief while also refusing to lie to him.
"That's what we're going to try," he said.
Mara studied him. "We?"
"I've been out of touch with my oldest friend for eight years. A man who knew the truth has been keeping it from me. Your name is being passed around the same people who helped keep that truth hidden. I don't believe this can be separated into your problem and my problem anymore."
"I haven't agreed to let you make decisions for us."
"I know. And I won't."
"Eli has spent his whole life listening to promises people couldn't keep."
"Then don't take anything from me as a promise until I've done it."
She considered that. The answer seemed to make her less suspicious than any dramatic assurance of protection could have done. Cole had spoken without making himself the hero of their situation, and Mara had spent enough years doing everything herself to recognize the difference.
"The mechanic won't finish our truck tonight," she said. "The part is delayed. My sister's expecting us, but she lives another two hours north."