Chương 6
“Did anyone visit today?”
“Daniel.”
“Before Daniel.”
“No.”
“Evan?”
Dad’s eyes shifted toward the television.
“No.”
The hesitation was tiny.
Too tiny for anybody who did not know him.
I sat opposite him.
“Dad.”
He adjusted the blanket over his knees.
“I said no.”
“You looked away.”
“I’m watching television.”
“You’ve seen this game fifty times.”
“Forty.”
“Did Evan come here?”
Dad’s mouth tightened.
Nina stayed near the doorway.
She understood enough not to enter the conversation unless invited.
Finally Dad said, “His mother came.”
My heart dropped.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“What time?”
“Before lunch.”
“Why?”
“She brought soup.”
Daniel appeared behind me.
“Barbara brought you soup?”
Dad frowned at him.
“She knows how to cook.”
“She hates you.”
“She hates everybody.”
Fair.
“What did she want?” I asked.
“She asked about old papers.”
“What papers?”
Dad rubbed his thumb over the edge of the blanket.
“I told her I didn’t know.”
“Did she go into the garage?”
“I was in the bathroom.”
Daniel swore.
Dad glared at him.
“Language.”
“Dad, she may have stolen records.”
“She didn’t steal anything.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I moved them.”
Nobody spoke.
I leaned forward.
“You moved the metal case?”
His eyes came to mine.
So clear suddenly.
So much like before the stroke that the sight hurt.
“You remember it.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Where is it?”
He looked at Nina.
“Who’s she?”
“You know Nina.”
“I know who she is.”
“Then why did you ask?”
“I want to know why she’s standing in my house.”
Nina answered before I could.
“Because Claire may need legal advice.”
Dad grunted.
“She always needed legal advice after she married that idiot.”
Daniel coughed into his fist.
I looked at him.
“Not helping.”
Dad pointed at the television.
“Men who wear loafers without socks can’t be trusted.”
“That is not a legal principle.”
“It should be.”
I waited.
“Where is the case?”
His humor vanished.
“I moved it after Evan asked about the shares.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Where?”
He shook his head.
“Not with police standing in my kitchen.”
Ruiz was nowhere near the kitchen, but correcting Dad seemed counterproductive.
“Dad, somebody may be trying to use forged documents to take control of Hawthorne.”
His expression changed.
Not surprise.
Something worse.
Recognition.
I felt cold all over.
“You knew.”
He looked at his hands.
“Bits.”
“What bits?”
“Evan wanted me to sign.”
“Sign what?”
“A change.”
“The buy-sell amendment?”
“I don’t know what they called it.”
“Did you sign it?”
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“Did you sign a guarantee for Mercer?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“I signed papers.”
“Business papers?”
“Maybe.”
“Dad.”
“I was sick.”
His voice rose.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
He struck the arm of the chair with his good hand.
“I could read a page and forget the top before I reached the bottom.”
The anger went out of me.
Dad stared toward the television, where a batter adjusted his gloves between pitches.
“I knew people were handing me things,” he said.
“Evan?”
“Sometimes.”
“Barbara?”
“Once.”
“What did she bring?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t remember.”
Daniel came around the chair and crouched beside him.
“Dad, where did you put the case?”
Dad looked at my brother.
“In the cemetery.”
I thought I had misunderstood him.
“The cemetery?”
“My plot.”
Daniel stared.
“You buried business records in your cemetery plot?”
“I did not bury them.”
“Then what does that mean?”
Dad’s mouth twitched.
For the first time all day, he looked pleased with himself.
“I paid for a family mausoleum because your mother wanted one.”
Mom had died before the stonework was finished.
Dad had refused to talk about the mausoleum afterward.
“There's a storage compartment behind the lower memorial panel,” he said.
Daniel blinked.
“There are storage compartments in mausoleums?”
“There is in mine.”
“Why?”
“Ask the man who built it.”
“When did you put the case there?”
“January.”
“Who knows?”
“Me.”
He glanced at me.
“Now you.”
“Did Evan know about the compartment?”
“No.”
“Did Barbara?”
“No.”
I stood.
Nina immediately said, “We document everything before touching it.”
Dad waved a dismissive hand.
“You lawyers would document a sandwich.”
“We do when sandwiches become evidence.”
A noise came from the hallway.
Officer Ruiz reappeared with his phone in his hand.
“Ms. Morgan.”
Something in his tone stopped me.
“Yes?”
“Your brother gave me the plate for the Lexus your ex-husband may be driving.”
Daniel stood.
Ruiz continued.
“County dispatch just ran it because another officer called in a vehicle matching the description.”
“Where?”
He glanced at Dad before answering.
“At Rosehill Memorial Cemetery.”
For a second, I thought Officer Ruiz had misunderstood the name.
Then Dad swore under his breath.
Daniel was already reaching for his keys.
Ruiz stepped between him and the hallway.
“Don’t drive there.”
“My ex-brother-in-law is apparently searching my mother’s mausoleum.”
“And there are officers closer than you.”
“He could have the case.”
“He could also be leaving.”
“That’s why I need to go.”
Ruiz did not raise his voice.
“That’s why you need to stay out of a moving vehicle while you’re angry.”
Daniel stared at him.
I recognized the look.
It was the same one he used when a contractor told him a repair would take six weeks.
Nina touched my shoulder.
“We can go, but we do not confront Evan.”
Dad pushed himself upright.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
All four of us said it at once.
Dad looked offended.
“It’s my mausoleum.”
“You have one slipper on,” I said.
“That has nothing to do with anything.”
“It has a surprising amount to do with your transportation options.”
He glared at me.
I kissed his forehead before he could argue.
“I’ll call you.”
“You never call when you say you will.”
“That’s what people say before not calling.”
Daniel muttered, “He’s got you there.”
Ruiz told another officer to remain with Dad and take a formal statement about Barbara’s visit.
May you like
Then he drove.
Nina and I rode in the back of his patrol car because my driver had already left to refuel and Daniel was forbidden, by unanimous vote, from operating anything with an engine.
