Maya stood motionless in the alley. Her mother had died eleven years earlier, and nobody outside the family mentioned her without first asking permission. Evelyn Ellis had worked as a seamstress at the old Bellhaven Textile Company, where she spent her days repairing industrial uniforms and her evenings helping neighbors mend clothes they couldn't afford to replace. She was never wealthy, but she always found a way to put an extra plate on the dinner table.
"How do you know my mother?" Maya asked.
Thomas looked down at the sandwich.
"I knew a woman named Evelyn once."
"Lots of people are named Evelyn."
"That's true."
He rubbed his hands together, avoiding her eyes.
Maya felt foolish for allowing herself to hope. The stranger might simply have guessed, or perhaps he'd heard Dennis call her surname. She was exhausted, and losing her job had already left her frightened about paying rent.
But Thomas spoke again.
"She had a little girl who wore yellow rain boots, even when the sun was shining."
Maya's breath caught.
She remembered those boots. Her mother bought them at a church rummage sale when Maya was six. One had a loose buckle, and Evelyn repaired it with a piece of red ribbon.
"Who are you?"
Thomas seemed to struggle with the answer.
"Someone who should have helped her."
He folded the paper bag carefully and placed the remaining sandwich inside his coat.
Maya stepped closer.
"Helped her with what?"
The old man looked toward the street. A black sedan had slowed near the alley entrance, and he watched it until it disappeared.
"I need to go."
"Wait."
He shook his head.
"You've already done more than enough."
Maya followed him toward the sidewalk, but Thomas moved with surprising urgency for someone who had barely managed to stand minutes earlier.
"Please," she called. "If you knew my mother, tell me how."
He stopped beside a boarded storefront.
For a moment, Maya thought he might finally explain. Instead, he reached into his coat and removed a tarnished silver button attached to a short length of blue thread.
"Your mother gave me this the night the factory closed."
Maya recognized the design.
Evelyn used identical buttons on the blue wool coat she wore every winter.
"Why would she give you that?"
Thomas pressed it into Maya's palm.
"She told me to keep it until I found somebody brave enough to ask what happened."
Before Maya could respond, he stepped onto a passing city bus.
She watched him disappear through the doors.
Three days later, a stranger arrived at her apartment carrying a leather briefcase.
He asked whether she was Evelyn Ellis's daughter.
When Maya nodded, he said, "Thomas Ward has named you in his final instructions."