Chương 14
“You need to be precise.”
“I know.”
I hated how often those words had come out of my mouth lately.
“I hadn’t checked for it in months.”
“Okay.”
His tone softened slightly.
“Don’t assume the missing key and the party are connected.”
“I’m trying not to.”
“You’re going to.”
That surprised me.
“What?”
“You’re going to connect things because that’s what people do when something personal is stolen.”
He paused.
“Just let us separate what we can prove from what feels connected.”
I stared at the desk.
“I’ll try.”
After we hung up, I searched the drawer again.
Then the bedroom dresser.
Then the kitchen junk drawer.
Then my purse, though there was no reason the key would be there.
By the third search, I knew I was no longer looking for the key.
I was looking for a version of the last month in which I had not missed something obvious.
My phone buzzed.
Daniel.
Rose had agreed to go back inside the sheriff’s office and tell them about Evan.
I sat very still after reading the message.
Agreed.
Not forced.
Not exposed by somebody else.
It was a small distinction.
I gave it more weight than it probably deserved because I needed one thing about Rose to move in the right direction.
The next two days were strangely quiet.
Not peaceful.
Quiet.
The cleaners finished.
The damaged rug went out for treatment.
A flooring contractor measured the scratches.
The broken window screen was replaced after the sheriff’s office released the room.
I found myself making lists of repair costs on a legal pad.
Four thousand became forty-eight hundred.
Then fifty-two.
The hardwood repair estimate pushed the total above six.
I did not send Rose an updated demand immediately.
For once, I wanted to make a decision after the numbers stopped moving.
Daniel stayed at the lake house the second night.
We ate Chinese food from cartons at the clean kitchen counter.
Neither of us mentioned Rose until he had finished half his noodles.
“She told them everything about Evan.”
I looked up.
“Everything?”
“The photograph too.”
I put down my fork.
“How did that go?”
“They took it seriously.”
“Did they already know him?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I think so.”
That made me uneasy.
“What does that mean?”
“They didn’t say.”
He rubbed the cardboard edge of the carton with his thumb.
“Rose says one of the deputies recognized the name.”
I stared at him.
“And now?”
“She’s supposed to save every message and not contact him.”
“Has he contacted her?”
“Not since Saturday.”
“That’s good.”
Daniel gave me a look.
“Or bad.”
I knew what he meant.
Silence could be safety.
It could also be preparation.
“I don’t like this.”
“Neither do I.”
He took another bite, then set his fork down without swallowing immediately.
“There’s another thing.”
I waited.
“Rose says Evan knew about the party.”
My shoulders tightened.
“How?”
“She complained to him that she couldn’t afford her birthday plans.”
I almost laughed.
Of all the details in the story, that one might have been the most Rose.
Crushed under debt.
Owing money to a dangerous man.
Still planning a birthday party.
“What did she tell him?”
“That she was using the lake house.”
“And?”
“She says that’s all.”
I gave Daniel a long look.
He looked exhausted.
“I know.”
“No, I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I was thinking she has not exactly established herself as a reliable narrator.”
“That too.”
We ate in silence.
A fly kept circling the hanging light over the table.
Daniel finally stood, found a dish towel, and spent several minutes trying to guide it toward the open door.
The fly ignored him.
Under different circumstances, I would have teased him.
Instead I watched him wave the towel around like a man losing an argument with an invisible opponent.
Eventually he sat down.
“I give up.”
“That’s your family motto.”
He stared at me.
I regretted it before the words finished leaving my mouth.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
He folded the towel carefully.
“That one was earned.”
I reached across and touched his wrist.
He turned his hand over and held mine.
The gesture did not fix anything.
It helped anyway.
The following morning, Deputy Hale called.
They had recovered my mother’s signet ring from a pawnshop two counties away.
Tyler’s identification was attached to the transaction.
The relief came so quickly that I nearly cried.
Then Hale said, “The third ring is more complicated.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“Tyler says he never saw it.”
“You believe him?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“What does he say happened to the lockbox?”
“He says Melissa took it.”
That made me stand.
“She told me she set it by the back door.”
“That’s what she told us too.”
“So one of them is lying.”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“Or both remember a drunk party badly.”
I walked toward the window.
“Tyler had one ring and pawned another.”
“Yes.”
“How could he not have the third?”
“He could have sold it privately.”
“Then why say Melissa took the box?”
“To shift blame.”
“Exactly.”
“Or because she did.”
I hated that answer because it was reasonable.
“Has Melissa changed her story?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“We’re checking video.”
The party footage had come from multiple phones.
People dancing.
People shouting.
People filming themselves rather than the room around them.
Most of it was useless.
But one clip showed the kitchen at 10:14 p.m.
Melissa was near the back door.
The gray lockbox was still on the floor beside a cooler.
Tyler was visible across the room.
At 10:27, another video showed the same area.
The box was gone.
Melissa was still there.
Tyler was not.
“That’s thirteen minutes,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Who left during those thirteen minutes?”
“We’re working on that.”
The phrase had become almost comic.
I did not laugh.
“Was Rose there?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the kitchen for part of it.”
My stomach tightened.
“Near the box?”
May you like
“Not that we can tell.”
I closed my eyes.
