Chương 9
The room blurred for a second.
“That was the last serious argument we ever had.”
Park’s voice softened.
“What happened after?”
“Margaret got sick.”
“How soon?”
“Two months later.”
“What kind of illness?”
“Pancreatic cancer.”
Park’s posture changed only slightly.
“That moved fast.”
“Very.”
“Did she ever raise the issue again?”
“No.”
“Did Dennis?”
“No.”
I sat.
“In the hospital, she asked me to promise something.”
Park waited.
“She said if Dennis ever came to me desperate for money, I should make him explain why before helping him.”
“Did you?”
I laughed without humor.
“Obviously not.”
Park closed the notebook.
“Mr. Stanley, I need to be careful here.”
“That usually means I’m not going to like the next sentence.”
“We do not know whether Margaret knew about Sophie.”
My chest tightened.
“You think she did.”
“I think her name appearing on a document connected to Sophie means we have to ask.”
“She would have told me.”
Even as I said it, I heard the weakness.
Would she?
If Margaret believed I would protect Dennis before I protected the truth, perhaps she would not have.
The possibility hurt in a place anger could not reach.
A knock came at the door.
Bell opened it.
A nurse said Sophie’s physician had cleared her for discharge medically, but placement needed to be resolved.
Bell looked at me.
“I have preliminary approval for an emergency kinship placement tonight.”
My mind did not shift gears quickly enough.
“With me?”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“What do you need?”
“Home assessment.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“Background check?”
“Preliminary check is clear.”
“Then let’s go.”
Bell held up one hand.
“Sophie comes only after I complete the assessment.”
“Fine.”
“And there will be conditions.”
“I’ll sign them.”
“You haven’t heard them.”
“I’ll hear them while signing.”
Bell’s mouth tightened.
Park said, “He’s going to make you slow down until you become reasonable.”
“That could take years.”
Bell finally smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
“No contact between Sophie and Dennis or Trisha.”
“Agreed.”
“No direct contact with Marissa until her care team and the caseworker coordinate it.”
“Agreed.”
“No discussion with Sophie about the investigation except responding to what she raises, and even then you do not question her.”
“Agreed.”
“You notify us if Dennis contacts you regarding Sophie.”
“I’ve been doing that.”
“And if he comes to your home, you call law enforcement.”
That one landed harder.
“He won’t.”
Bell said nothing.
I heard myself.
“Right.”
He handed me a form.
I signed.
Rosa agreed to stay with Sophie until Bell returned.
When I told Sophie I had to leave for a little while, she sat upright.
“You promised.”
“I know.”
“You said right here.”
Her eyes moved to the ugly chair.
A promise remembered exactly.
“I did.”
I pulled the chair closer.
“I need to make my house safe so you can come there tonight.”
She stared at me.
“You live in a house?”
“Yes.”
“Is there an upstairs?”
“One upstairs.”
Her fingers tightened around Bunny.
“No attic?”
I swallowed.
“There is an attic.”
Her face closed.
“But nobody sleeps there.”
I leaned forward carefully.
“You would have a bedroom with a regular door, a lamp, a window, and a bed you can get out of whenever you want.”
“Can I close the door?”
“Yes.”
“Can I open it?”
“Any time.”
“Even at night?”
“Especially at night.”
She studied me for so long I felt the answer being weighed against things I could not see.
Then she held out one finger.
“Promise.”
I hooked my little finger around hers.
“I promise.”
Bell drove separately to my house.
I followed with Park behind us because she wanted to see Margaret’s old things if the assessment permitted.
My home was twenty minutes away in Sellwood, a smaller place than the one Dennis lived in, with cedar siding that needed repainting and a maple tree whose roots had begun lifting one section of the walkway.
The porch light was still on from that morning.
I had left it burning at seven because I expected to be home before lunch.
That version of the day seemed absurd now.
My cat, Winston, met us inside with the hostile expression of an animal whose dinner schedule had been violated by government intervention.
Bell looked down.
“Fat is accurate.”
“I prefer substantial.”
Winston sniffed his shoe and walked away.
The home assessment was less dramatic than my nerves expected.
Bell checked smoke detectors, locks, medications, cleaning supplies, sleeping space, basic food, and the condition of the bathroom.
He asked about the unloaded hunting rifle my father had left me.
I had forgotten it existed.
It was locked in a case in the garage.
Bell did not forget it.
“That needs to be inaccessible under the placement conditions.”
“I’ll have it removed.”
“By whom?”
“My neighbor has a gun safe.”
“No informal transfer tonight.”
“Fine.”
Park watched from the hallway.
“Procedure feels different from this side, doesn’t it?”
“I used to be charming when I did it.”
Bell said, “I doubt that.”
I liked him slightly more.
In the spare bedroom, I removed a stack of tax folders from the desk while Bell checked the window latch.
The room had belonged to Margaret’s sister whenever she visited.
After Margaret died, it became the place where objects waited because I lacked the courage to decide whether they were trash.
A sewing basket sat under the desk.
Three framed photographs leaned against the wall.
A cardboard carton marked MARGARET—PERSONAL occupied the closet shelf.
Park saw it at the same time I did.
“Is that everything you kept?”
“No.”
“May I look?”
I hesitated.
The hesitation embarrassed me.
Margaret was dead.
Privacy should have become simpler.
Instead, I felt as though opening the box in front of Park would be another betrayal.
Then I thought of Sophie in the hospital asking whether she could open a bedroom door at night.
“Go ahead.”
May you like
Park put on gloves.
The box contained greeting cards, shelter newsletters, old eyeglasses, a wallet, a handful of receipts, two notebooks, and a blue zippered pouch.
