A shock jolted Ollie. He bent over like he’d been punched in the gut. “No,” he whimpered in disbelief. A bombardment of thoughts and emotions made him feel as though the ground was spinning. Numb and having difficulty walking, he was helped into the police car by the officer. As they drove away, the smell of cigar smoke embedded into the interior made Ollie’s stomach churn.

“The driver had been drinking,” the officer said, gripping the steering wheel. “He ran a red light, veered onto a sidewalk, and struck your parents as they were leaving Casco Hardware.”

“There must be some mistake.” Ollie’s head throbbed, and his heart was ravaged by a mixture of anger and despair.

The officer cleared his throat. “I wish there was, son.”

Ollie slumped in his seat like a marionette with its strings severed. This can’t be happening! He had an impulse to pull the door handle and jump out, anything to escape this nightmare. Ollie, his eyes welled with tears, buried his head into his hands. He bit his lip and tasted copper.

Twenty minutes later, Ollie arrived at the Cumberland County Morgue. A scent of rubbing alcohol hung in the air. The coroner, a thin, stoic man who was washing his hands over a sink, turned off the water and then led Ollie to a wall of nickel-plated cooler drawers. The coroner wiped his hands on his lab coat, pulled two latches, and slid the bodies out.

Ollie’s heart sank. His eyes watered. A flash of his father picking oxeye daisies, his mother’s favorite flower. An image of Mom placing a handwritten note into Dad’s lunch box. Simple gifts were symbols of their affection for each other. But there would be no more flowers for Mom to place on the kitchen table. And no more sweet notes for Dad to add to the stack that he kept in a bedside drawer.

The officer, standing in the doorway, turned his head.

The coroner finished drying his hands, using the tail of his lab coat. “Are these your parents?”

Mother was missing a shoe, her toes a pasty blue. Father’s chest was sunken, and his left arm was badly broken. Unable to bring his eyes to look at their faces, Ollie touched their hands, cold and stiff. He began to weep, then nodded to the coroner. Steel casters rolled. And his parents disappeared into the chamber.

CHAPTER 3 - EPPING, ENGLAND—SEPTEMBER 11, 1940

CHAPTER 3

EPPING, ENGLAND—SEPTEMBER 11, 1940

Susan woke to the smell of damp earth. She opened her eyes but saw only black, as if she had gone blind in her sleep. A rush of fear flooded her body. Her heart pounded. She shot up in her cot.

“Are you all right?” Bertie whispered.

Susan found Duchess nestled beside her leg. She touched her wings, feeling the softness of feathers beneath her fingers. “Yes.”