Chương 5
“Don’t touch anything else,” I said.
Daniel gave a sharp laugh.
“Great advice ten minutes after I opened every cabinet.”
“Is Dad with you?”
“He’s in the den watching a baseball game from 1997 because apparently current baseball lacks discipline.”
That sounded so exactly like my father that my knees weakened.
“Did he see anyone?”
“I haven’t asked.”
“Ask now.”
Nina was already gathering her papers.
Jonathan stood.
“If there has been unauthorized entry into a residence, you should contact local law enforcement.”
“We will,” Nina said.
Lena looked at me.
“Claire, whatever is in that file, do not retrieve it and bring it here without documenting where it came from.”
“I can’t retrieve something that’s gone.”
“Maybe not gone,” Daniel said in my ear.
“What?”
“I said there’s an empty space, not that I know what was there.”
“You just told me somebody had been in the garage.”
“They had.”
“How do you know?”
“The side door was unlocked.”
“That could be Dad.”
“Dad hasn’t used the garage door in eight months.”
I closed my eyes.
“Call the police.”
“He’ll hate that.”
“I know.”
“He’ll say we’re turning his house into a circus.”
“I know.”
“He may try to throw them out.”
“Daniel.”
“Calling.”
He hung up.
Kelsey was still connected on the other line.
I had forgotten.
“So that red file was at your father’s house?” she asked.
“Maybe.”
“And Evan knows about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think he does.”
I turned toward the phone.
“Why?”
“Because when Barbara said the thing about the originals, Evan told her, ‘Then I’ll get them.’”
Nina stopped moving.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes before he left.”
“And he took the banker’s box?”
“Yes.”
My pulse thudded in my neck.
“Did he say where he was going?”
“No.”
“Kelsey, is there any chance he heard you listening?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then leave the office.”
She hesitated.
“Why?”
“Because if Evan comes back angry, I don’t want you alone there.”
It was an odd sentence to say to the woman who had replaced me in my own marriage.
It felt stranger when she answered softly.
“Okay.”
“Take your purse and your phone.”
“His laptop?”
“Leave it exactly where it is.”
“What about the ring?”
I almost smiled.
“Keep it.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Then put it somewhere safe.”
There was a pause.
“I’m not pawning it.”
“That was not one of my better moments.”
“No kidding.”
“Go, Kelsey.”
She disconnected.
Nina looked at me for half a second too long.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was about to say we should leave.”
“That’s not what your face said.”
“My face bills separately.”
Jonathan nearly smiled.
We made it to the elevator before my phone rang again.
This time it was an unfamiliar local number.
I answered.
A man identified himself as Officer Ruiz and said he was at my father’s house with Daniel.
He asked whether I could come.
“We’re on our way.”
Nina touched my arm.
“Not Mercer’s car.”
“I didn’t say we were taking one.”
“You were looking at Lena.”
Lena raised both hands.
“I am staying out of transportation decisions.”
I called the driver.
On the way to Dad’s house, I tried Evan four times.
Straight to voicemail.
On the fifth attempt, his phone rang once before disconnecting.
“He turned it off,” I said.
“Or lost signal.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“I don’t have to believe it.”
Nina spent the ride calling her firm’s litigation partner and asking him to preserve time for an emergency corporate matter.
I watched neighborhoods slide past the window.
People were mowing lawns.
A woman in running clothes pushed a stroller.
Two teenagers sat on a curb sharing something from a paper bag.
The normality irritated me.
Then I felt ridiculous for being irritated.
The world had no obligation to coordinate itself with my panic.
Dad’s house sat at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac where nearly every tree had been planted before I was born.
A patrol car was parked crookedly at the curb.
Daniel stood near the garage with his arms folded.
He looked furious.
Officer Ruiz met us halfway up the driveway.
He was younger than me and had a patient expression that suggested he had already dealt with my father.
“Ms. Hawthorne?”
“Claire Morgan now.”
The corrected name came automatically.
For years, I had been Claire Hawthorne professionally, though Hawthorne had always been my father’s surname first.
Evan had taken it when we married because he said Morgan sounded more distinguished for business.
At the time, I had found that romantic.
Now it felt like theft with stationery.
Ruiz nodded.
“Your brother says you may know what was stored in the garage.”
“Maybe.”
He gestured toward the side entrance.
“The lock doesn’t appear forced.”
“Could someone have had a key?”
“Your brother says several family members did.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Evan had one.”
Ruiz looked at him.
“You didn’t mention that.”
“You asked who currently has keys.”
“And?”
“I took his back in February.”
“You physically received it?”
“Yes.”
“Could he have copied it?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Sure.”
Dad shouted from inside the house.
“Claire?”
I turned.
He stood at the end of the hallway with his walker, wearing gray sweatpants and one slipper.
His left foot was bare.
“Dad.”
“What are the police doing here?”
“Checking the garage.”
“I can see that.”
His speech had improved tremendously since the stroke, but irritation still made certain consonants drag.
“Why?”
Daniel answered.
“We think somebody came in.”
Dad looked at him.
“People come in houses.”
“Not through locked garage doors.”
Dad dismissed this with one hand and nearly lost his balance.
I crossed to him.
He glared at me as though I had caused gravity.
“Where’s your other slipper?”
“Under the chair.”
“Why?”
“I took it off.”
That was the full explanation.
I guided him back to the den.
May you like
The television showed an old playoff game.
A half-eaten bowl of cereal sat on the side table though it was nearly four in the afternoon.
