“After breakfast.”
“What happened?”
Liam rubbed his face with both hands.
“Dad said we had to get something.”
“What thing?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he use the front door?”
Liam nodded.
“He had a key.”
That explained the untouched lock.
Then Liam said something that made my stomach tighten.
“He told me not to tell Mom.”
I did not react in front of him.
I simply asked, “What happened after you came inside?”
“Dad looked in Mom’s room.
Then the desk room.”
Clara’s home office.
“What was he looking for?”
“He kept saying, ‘Where did she put it?’”
Liam’s voice began shaking again.
“He got mad.”
“At you?”
“No.
At the boxes.”
The boxes.
Clara’s strange comment from that morning came back immediately.
Don’t be surprised if the house looks a little empty.
I boxed up some things before I left.
I looked down the hallway toward the office.
Several drawers stood open.
I had not noticed them from the front door.
“Then what?” I asked.
“Dad saw your truck.”
My breath stopped.
“At noon?”
Liam nodded.
I suddenly saw the whole scene from the outside.
I had pulled into Clara’s driveway to water the flowers.
Someone had been inside.
Someone had seen me arrive.
And minutes later, I had watched an unfamiliar pickup truck leaving the neighborhood.
Evan had been there while I was standing ten yards from the front door.
“What did your dad do when he saw me?”
“He said, ‘Stay here.’”
“Here in the closet?”
Liam nodded.
“He said you’d leave soon.”
“Then what?”
“He closed the door.”
The anger that moved through me was so sharp I had to look away.
I kept my voice calm.
“Did he come back?”
Liam shook his head.
That was why the crying had sounded weak and distant.
Liam had stayed where he had been told to stay, afraid that leaving the closet would get him in trouble.
He had been waiting for his father to return.
