Land of Careful Shadows by Suzanne Chazin

as he watched her brush dirt off the little girl’s knees and zip up her jacket. She was a natural mother. He could see that. It radiated off her skin like pollen, infusing everything she touched. He could only imagine how hard it must have been for her to discover that she couldn’t have any children of her own.
    She rose to her feet and Vega felt a sudden panic that she might see him spying on her. He quickly ducked into the building.
    He found Adele on the second floor, in what had once been a bedroom of the house and had now been converted into a makeshift office of the preschool. The room was oddly shaped to accommodate the flue of a fireplace that had been boarded up on the first floor. Plaster fissures ran up the walls like geothermal fault lines. The floors creaked when he walked across them, announcing his presence.
    Adele was seated behind a desk overflowing with folders of papers in no discernable order. Across from her sat a young mother with a toddler on her lap. The young mother’s long, black hair was pulled back tightly into a ponytail. A small fringe of stray hairs framed her round, high-cheekboned face. The toddler sucked on a lollipop, her dark eyes staring up at Vega as if she half-expected him to break into song. A new preschool candidate, Vega supposed. He knocked on the doorframe.
    â€œMs. Figueroa? Sorry to bother you but we really need to talk.”
    â€œPerfect timing. I got your messages. Have a seat.” Adele gestured to an empty chair across from the young mother. Then she turned to the woman and spoke in Spanish to tell her Vega’s name and title. He didn’t see why all this was necessary. The woman was going to be leaving anyway. The mother started telling Adele in Spanish that she needed to catch the three o’clock bus. But Adele looked at her watch and replied that the woman had plenty of time and motioned for her to stay seated.
    â€œUh, Ms. Figueroa?” said Vega. “I need a few minutes of your time in private. ” He spoke in English. He had a sense the mother didn’t speak much English.
    â€œI think she should stay for what you have to say.”
    That’s when it hit him. “Is this Claudia?”
    â€œClaudia?” Adele laced her fingers under her chin. She had a way of making Vega feel a step behind in all their encounters, like he was always walking in on the punch line without hearing the joke.
    â€œA busboy at the Lake Holly Diner told me José Ortiz has a cousin in town named Claudia.”
    â€œClaudia Acevedo, yes,” said Adele. “She has a three-year-old son, Damian, who attends preschool here.”
    Vega felt a cinch at the back of his neck, a tightening in his jaw. He’d been as honest as he could yesterday. And for what? So she could play games with him until she could tip off Ortiz? He braced a fist on one thigh and leaned forward.
    â€œDo you mean to tell me that you knew all along that I could find Ortiz through his cousin?”
    â€œDetective—”
    â€œâ€”This is not some moot court at Harvard, you know, Ms. Figueroa. I found out this morning that Ortiz worked with Ernesto Reyes. He was the last person to see him alive. He may be the only person who can help the police find out whether Reyes was chased to his death. Don’t you care about that? Or about the fact that his wife, Vilma, could be the body we found in the lake?”
    â€œShe’s not. I can assure you.”
    â€œWhat are you, Ortiz’s lawyer all of a sudden?”
    â€œNo, Detective. But this”—she gestured to the woman in the chair—“is Vilma Ortiz. And her daughter, Bettina.”
    The young mother, who clearly didn’t understand a word of their conversation in English, bowed her head slightly at the sound of her name. Vega regarded her warily. He’d been blindsided by Adele on one too many occasions to look pleased that his supposed victim was sitting right beside