Chương 8
“Dad,” Claire said.
“No. He keeps saying it.”
“Dad.”
Robert looked at her.
Claire shook her head.
He sat back.
Evan lowered his voice.
“I thought Claire was going to take Sophie and leave before I could explain anything.”
Claire said, “So you did it first.”
“I created a temporary situation.”
“For who?”
“For forty-eight hours.”
“For who, Evan?”
He stared at her.
“For me.”
The honesty of it changed the room.
He looked tired suddenly.
Older.
Not monstrous.
Not transformed into a stranger.
That was almost harder.
Claire could see the man who made Sophie pancakes shaped like animals. The man who had slept in a plastic chair beside Claire’s hospital bed when she needed an emergency appendectomy. The man who hated cilantro and folded towels incorrectly and called his mother every Sunday even when he was angry with her.
He was all of those things.
He had also done this.
Evan looked down.
“I was scared.”
Claire said, “So was Sophie.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“No. You know now. Monday night, she asked if I knew where she was. You told her not yet.”
Evan closed his eyes.
Robert stood.
Linda reached for him.
This time he moved away from her hand.
“You used a child to buy yourself time.”
Evan looked up.
“I made a terrible decision.”
Ryan would have mocked the phrase.
Claire almost did.
Instead she asked, “Did you forge my father’s signature?”
Evan’s face went still.
“I can’t discuss that.”
Robert laughed.
“That’ll do.”
Linda whispered, “Robert.”
“No, Linda. That’ll do.”
Evan’s shoulders tightened.
“You don’t know what happened.”
“I know my signature.”
“There were electronic authorizations—”
“That is not my signature.”
Claire watched Evan.
He did not deny it.
Another piece moved into place.
The company failure had not made him take Sophie.
The fear of consequences had.
He had been building exits while everyone else believed they were still living in the same house.
Claire said, “You need to leave tonight.”
Evan looked at her.
“This is my parents’ house.”
“I know.”
“You can’t decide that.”
Robert said, “I can.”
Evan turned.
Robert pointed toward the door.
“Go.”
Evan stared at him.
For one second Claire thought he might refuse.
Then the tension went out of his shoulders.
“Where am I supposed to go?”
Robert’s expression changed.
Not softer.
Just sadder.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first time Claire had ever heard her father say that to someone asking for help.
Evan packed a duffel.
He left the SUV because Claire needed it for Sophie’s things.
Claire stood on the porch while he put his bag into a rideshare car that had come from town.
Before he got in, he looked back.
“Can I say goodnight to her?”
Claire hesitated.
Every part of her wanted to say no.
Then she imagined Sophie waking the next morning and learning her father had left without a word.
“You can text her.”
Evan nodded.
He looked like he wanted to say something else.
He did not.
The car disappeared between the trees.
Claire went inside.
Nobody slept much.
At two in the morning, Claire found Linda at the kitchen table eating dry cereal from a coffee mug.
“There are bowls,” Claire said.
“I know.”
Claire sat across from her.
Linda pushed the cereal box over.
Claire took a handful.
They ate in silence.
After a while Linda said, “Your father wants to call every lawyer in the state.”
“That sounds like him.”
“I told him one is probably enough.”
Claire smiled despite herself.
It vanished quickly.
“I should have known.”
Linda looked at her.
“The money?”
“Everything.”
“How?”
Claire stared at the cereal in her palm.
“There were signs.”
“There are always signs afterward.”
“I let him handle everything financial.”
“You worked too.”
“I let him tell me not to worry.”
“That isn’t a crime.”
“It’s stupid.”
Linda leaned back.
“You know what’s stupid? Your father once bought a used fishing boat from a man named Scooter without taking it out of the driveway.”
Claire looked at her.
“What?”
“Water poured into it.”
“Why have I never heard this?”
“Because I was protecting his reputation.”
From the hallway, Robert’s voice said, “I can hear you.”
Linda smiled for the first time all day.
Claire laughed.
It came out wrong and became something close to a sob.
She covered her face.
Linda did not rush around the table.
She let Claire sit there.
That was what Claire needed.
By morning, the family had stopped pretending they were leaving for home together.
Robert and Linda stayed to deal with the loan documents and a local attorney.
Claire drove Sophie back to their house outside Madison.
Ryan remained in Warren County to answer questions.
Evan stayed at a hotel.
The black SUV felt cavernous with only Claire and Sophie inside.
The red suitcase had a new scrape across one corner from where it had fallen.
Halfway home, Sophie asked if they could listen to music.
Claire said yes.
Sophie chose the same pop playlist she had been playing all summer.
Claire hated every song by the third hour.
She let it run.
At home, the first thing Claire did was open the hall closet.
The fireproof box was still there.
She entered the code.
Inside were tax papers, birth certificates, insurance policies, and their passports.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Sophie’s passport was present.
Claire touched it.
Then she noticed something else.
The stack of documents was thinner than she remembered.
She sat cross-legged on the hallway floor and began sorting.
The deed to their house was missing.
So were two years of Morgan Field Systems tax summaries Evan had once stored there.
Claire called Deputy Hale.
He listened and told her not to tear the house apart looking for evidence. Photograph the box as it was. Make a list of what she reasonably remembered. Do not access business accounts she was not authorized to use.
May you like
It irritated her that he sounded sensible.
She wanted permission to search everything.
