Chương 9
“That’s not fair.”
“There it is again.”
He looked away.
I hated how familiar the argument had become.
Not even the content.
The shape.
I pushed.
He defended.
Rose created damage.
Daniel tried to reduce discomfort.
Then I felt cruel for making him choose.
We all knew our parts.
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
“I’m going to pick her up.”
“Okay.”
He seemed surprised.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
I sat on the arm of the couch.
“But I’m staying here.”
“At the lake?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
He nodded slowly.
Then he picked up his keys.
At the door, he stopped.
“I am sorry.”
I looked at him.
“For which part?”
He flinched.
I regretted it immediately.
Not enough to take it back.
“For making your no negotiable,” he said.
That answer I had not expected.
Daniel looked embarrassed saying it.
“I didn’t hand her the key.”
“I know.”
“But I’ve spent years making sure she never really had to hear no from me.”
The quiet that followed felt different.
Not solved.
Just true.
He opened the door.
“I’ll call you later.”
“Okay.”
He left.
I stood in the living room until his car disappeared down the road.
Then I went upstairs and sat on the floor beside the empty shelf where the lockbox had been.
The house was quiet enough that I could hear insects hitting the window screen.
For the first time since discovering the party, I did nothing.
No photographs.
No calls.
No lists.
I sat with my back against the closet wall and stared at the shelf.
My mother had kept that lockbox beneath her bed for years.
When I was a child, I had assumed it contained treasure.
Once, when I was eleven, I asked what was inside.
“Things too boring to steal,” she had said.
I had been disappointed.
Now someone had stolen them.
The irony would have amused her.
That thought hurt worse than the missing jewelry.
My phone buzzed.
A message from an unfamiliar number.
Is this Claire Bennett?
I stared at it before answering.
Yes.
The reply came quickly.
This is Melissa Grant.
Rose gave the sheriff my number.
I think we should talk.
I sat straighter.
About the lockbox?
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Returned.
Yes.
Then another message.
And about Tyler.
I called her.
She answered after one ring.
“Hi.”
Her voice was younger than I expected.
Nervous.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Did the sheriff contact you?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell them?”
A pause.
“That Tyler had the box.”
“I already know that.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you calling me?”
She breathed out.
“Because there’s something I didn’t tell them.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m scared.”
“That isn’t a good enough reason.”
“I know.”
Her voice trembled.
“I’m trying to fix it.”
Something in the phrasing irritated me.
Everybody was trying to fix things only after they had become afraid.
“What happened to the box, Melissa?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Then what do you know?”
Silence.
I heard a television somewhere in the background.
A man’s voice.
Then Melissa lowered hers.
“Tyler didn’t find it.”
I waited.
“He went upstairs looking for it.”
The room seemed to narrow around me.
“How would he know it was there?”
“I told him.”
I stood.
“Why?”
“I didn’t know what it was.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“I heard Rose talking about it.”
“When?”
“Before the party.”
My stomach dropped.
“What did she say?”
Melissa took a shaky breath.
“She said there might be money in the house.”
For a moment, I could not make sense of the sentence.
Not because it was complicated.
Because it did not fit.
“Rose said that?”
“Yes.”
“To you?”
“To a few of us.”
“When?”
“The week before.”
My mouth went dry.
“What exactly did she say?”
“She said her sister-in-law’s mother had died and left everything in the house.”
I closed my eyes.
Melissa kept talking quickly now, as if speed might make the confession less ugly.
“She said old people hide cash in weird places.”
“My mother was sixty-one.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Keep going.”
“She said there was a little lockbox upstairs.”
My free hand went to the wall.
“How did Rose know that?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she say was inside?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Then why mention it?”
“I thought she was joking.”
The phrase arrived right on schedule.
Everybody thought everything was a joke until someone wanted accountability.
“Did Rose tell Tyler to take it?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he go looking for it?”
“Because he’s an idiot.”
“That isn’t enough.”
Melissa was silent.
Then she whispered, “He owes money.”
“To who?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“All of what?”
“He gambles.”
I walked to the bedroom window.
Below me, the porch roof sloped toward the yard.
The torn screen fluttered slightly where it had been cut.
“Did Tyler come through this window?”
“What?”
“The bedroom window.”
“I don’t know.”
“Was he at the party from the beginning?”
“No.”
“When did he arrive?”
“Late.”
“How late?”
“Maybe after seven.”
That mattered.
I had arrived before then.
The window had not been part of what I noticed, but Tyler might not even have been in the house when I first saw Rose.
“Did he leave and come back?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“He went outside.”
“With you?”
“No.”
“With anyone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Melissa.”
“I really don’t know.”
I pressed my forehead against the cool glass.
“Where is Tyler now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you dating him?”
“No.”
“You brought him.”
“He’s my cousin.”
That explained the protection.
Not enough to excuse it.
“What’s his last name?”
“Grant.”
“Address?”
“I gave it to the deputy.”
“Then why haven’t you told them the rest?”
Melissa started crying.
Quietly.
I felt no immediate sympathy.
That frightened me more than her confession did.
“My aunt will lose her mind,” she said.
“He’s already on probation.”
“For what?”
May you like
“A theft charge.”
I pulled away from the window.
