He’s right. Mom never owned a cell phone even when she was capable of using one. ‘If someone needs to talk to me they can use the house phone,’ she’d say when we tried to coax her into getting one. This cell phone did not belong to her. Someone left it here – no, hid it here. But who would do that? I think I know, but I’m afraid to accept the obvious answer.

‘I don’t think I should touch it, Barry.’

He nods his head like I’ve just answered a tough question correctly.

‘Do you want to take it with you?’ he says.

I think about this for a moment. Should I call the cops? But what will they do? Send it to be fingerprinted and waste another few weeks waiting for the results. No, I can’t wait that long for an answer. I need to know who hid this phone in Mom’s room.

‘I’ll take it with me, try to find out what I can before taking it to the cops.’

Barry goes to a nearby sink and removes two plastic gloves from a box hanging on the wall. Then he places the cell phone in a plastic bag and hands it to me. He knows, and I know, that there are only two people who could have put this here. Dad or Danny. Mom never had any other visitors except me.

‘Did you open it?’

‘No. I tried, but the battery’s dead.’

When we pack up the box, I take it in my arms and leave the room. This is all that’s left of Nancy Wall now. Just things. Things she couldn’t take with her.

‘I’ll tell the cops I found it when I searched the box at home, Barry. I won’t tell them you had anything to do with this.’ He nods like he’s not particularly bothered whether I do or not, then takes me back out to the reception area.

The thought of driving back to the city scares me. Everything scares me now. I should have let Jeff drive me out here when he offered, but my newly acquired independence decided it would be best to go on my own, for Barry’s sake. Arriving with someone else in tow might have unnerved him, made him less willing to reveal his discovery. Fuck independence. Now I’d give anything not to be alone.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

The cold wind seems to have disappeared. Or else I can’t feel anymore. My hands are busy carrying the box so I bite my lip to make sure I can feel. Blood seeps into my mouth. It tastes of steel. Am I made of steel now? I hope so.