Chương 8
Evelyn went silent.
“Ask Grace,” Mara said.
“What blue envelope?”
“The one my mother brought here after Thomas died.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“That might be true.”
“You believe I would lie?”
“Yes.”
A sharp breath came through the phone.
Mara closed the peanut butter jar. “Your daughter took it. Your staff saw her.”
“Who?”
“Someone who spent twenty-three years being afraid of you.”
Evelyn’s voice changed. “Mrs. Keene.”
Mara regretted the confirmation immediately.
“Do not punish her.”
“I am not in the habit of punishing retired housekeepers.”
“She isn’t retired.”
Evelyn said nothing.
“Exactly,” Mara said.
She ended the call.
Two hours later, Pritchard texted that Mrs. Keene had been instructed not to return to Vale House pending an internal review.
Mara called Evelyn back.
“What did I just say?”
“I did not suspend her.”
“Grace did.”
“Grace manages personnel.”
“You own the house.”
“That distinction matters.”
“Only to you.”
Mara paced the kitchen. “Put her back on the schedule.”
“I cannot dictate operational decisions whenever someone displeases my daughter.”
“You dictated whether I got paid.”
“That was different.”
“Because you felt guilty.”
“Because it was fair.”
“Then try being fair twice.”
Evelyn’s answer came after a long pause. “Mrs. Keene will be paid.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
“No. It is what I can do today.”
Mara almost hung up again.
Instead she said, “Did Thomas have a child before he died?”
“No.”
“Did he ever talk about wanting one?”
“He talked about not wanting to become his father.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
For the first time, Evelyn sounded tired rather than careful.
Mara sat down.
“What was Robert like?” she asked.
“My husband?”
“My mother was afraid of him.”
“Many people were.”
“You?”
The silence lasted long enough to become an answer.
Evelyn cleared her throat. “Bring the letters tomorrow. I will bring every document I can find regarding Sofia’s arrest and settlement.”
“Not at your house.”
“Where?”
Mara looked at the chipped kitchen table, at Noelle’s cereal bowl in the sink, at the stack of funeral bills held beneath a magnet shaped like a strawberry.
“Here.”
Evelyn arrived the next day in a dark sedan without Grace.
Pritchard drove. Leonard sat in front. Evelyn climbed three flights because the elevator had stopped between floors. By the time she reached the apartment, her breathing was controlled but not invisible.
Noelle opened the door wearing sweatpants and said, “Shoes off.”
Evelyn looked down at her low-heeled pumps.
“The floor was mopped,” Noelle added.
Evelyn removed them.
In stocking feet, she seemed less like a matriarch and more like someone’s difficult aunt.
Mara placed copies of the letters on the table. The originals remained in the cedar box under her bed.
Leonard set down a folder containing the police report, the settlement agreement, and correspondence between the Vale attorney and the district attorney’s office.
The police report was twelve pages.
Sofia had been arrested at Vale House on June 20, 2003. Evelyn reported the family emerald stolen from her safe after seeing Sofia wearing what appeared to be the necklace. Sofia insisted Thomas had commissioned a duplicate and given it to her. Thomas could not be reached. The necklace from Sofia was taken as evidence.
Seven days later, Thomas died.
The next morning, a friend entered Thomas’s apartment with Grace’s permission and found Evelyn’s original necklace in a locked desk drawer. The theft charge against Sofia was dismissed.
That should have ended it.
Instead, Robert Vale’s attorney demanded Sofia sign a statement acknowledging that Thomas had never promised marriage, that she had no financial claim against his estate, and that any allegation of pregnancy was unverified. In exchange, the company paid forty thousand dollars and agreed not to pursue a civil claim concerning the duplicate necklace.
Mara read the sentence twice.
“Civil claim for what?” she asked.
Leonard said, “The copy used the protected design of a family piece.”
“My mother didn’t make it.”
“No.”
“Thomas did.”
“Yes.”
“Then why threaten her?”
Evelyn looked at the settlement. “I never read this.”
Mara laughed.
It came out harsher than she intended.
“You signed the cover letter.”
“I signed many documents that week.”
“My mother signed one document, and it followed her for the rest of her life.”
“I am not excusing it.”
“You keep describing how it happened as if that isn’t an excuse.”
Evelyn’s fingers rested on the table. She had noticed a coffee ring and was rubbing it with her thumb.
“Robert told me Sofia was attempting to use Thomas’s death,” she said. “He said she had appeared after the crash with a claim that could not be proven. He said paying her would prevent further cruelty.”
“To whom?”
“To our family.”
Noelle stood at the counter with her arms folded. “Your family seems to have survived.”
Evelyn looked at her. “I am aware of how this appears.”
“No,” Noelle said. “You’re aware people can see it now.”
Leonard shifted in his chair. “Perhaps we should focus on the evidence.”
Mara pushed the settlement toward Evelyn. “Did you know my mother was pregnant?”
“I knew she claimed to be.”
“Did you ever ask to meet me?”
“No.”
“Did you ask where the forty thousand dollars went?”
“No.”
“Did you ask why Thomas had her name written on a jewelry invoice?”
“I did not know about the invoice.”
“Did you ask why he had your necklace in his apartment?”
Evelyn’s hand stopped moving over the coffee ring.
“He said he was borrowing it for a photograph,” she said.
“When?”
“The week before he died.”
“So you did speak to him after my mother was arrested.”
“Briefly.”
Mara leaned forward. “What did he say about her?”
Evelyn looked toward the window.
Traffic moved below. A delivery truck blocked half the street. Someone leaned on a horn.
“He asked whether Sofia was safe,” Evelyn said.
The room seemed to tilt.
May you like
“You told the police he couldn’t be reached.”
“He could not be reached when they first asked.”
