Chapter 4 - What Sophie Heard Through the Wall
The SUV disappeared before the police arrived.
Officer Morales came anyway.
She walked the parking lot with a flashlight, spoke to two neighbors, checked the security camera near the apartment entrance, and took photographs of tire marks near the curb.
The camera had not captured the license plate.
Of course it hadn’t.
Sophie sat at my kitchen table wrapped in a blanket.
“Who was the man?” Morales asked.
“I don’t know his name.”
“Where have you seen him?”
“At Grandma’s.”
“How often?”
Sophie looked at my mother.
Mom went rigid.
“Sometimes,” Sophie said.
“What does he do when he comes over?”
“They go into Grandpa Richard’s office.”
Morales turned toward Mom.
“Mrs. Hale?”
Mom stared at the table.
“His name is Marcus Bell.”
My stomach dropped.
I knew the name.
Marcus owned three used-car dealerships outside Columbus and had been one of Richard’s closest friends for as long as I could remember.
He came to Thanksgiving.
Christmas.
Family cookouts.
When Megan and I were teenagers, we called him Uncle Marcus.
“What was he doing outside my apartment at three in the morning?” I asked.
Mom rubbed her arms.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying again.”
“Claire.”
“No. We’re done doing this.”
Officer Morales intervened gently.
“Mrs. Hale, if someone is attempting to intimidate a witness, we need to know why.”
Mom stared at Sophie.
That was when Sophie said, “I heard them talking about a safe.”
Mom’s head snapped up.
“What?”
Sophie swallowed.
“Last week.”
She looked at me.
“I was in Grandma’s hallway doing homework. Grandpa Richard and Mr. Marcus were in the office. The door wasn’t closed all the way.”
“What did they say?”
“They were arguing.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know. Money, I think.”
She twisted the blanket.
“Mr. Marcus said something about records. Grandpa Richard said everything important was in the safe and Grandma didn’t know the combination.”
Mom became so pale that Officer Morales noticed.
“Mrs. Hale?”
Mom stood too quickly.
“I need air.”
I followed her onto the balcony.
Cold October air hit us.
“Safe?” I asked.
Mom gripped the railing.
“There’s a safe behind a painting in Richard’s office.”
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve lived there sixteen years.”
“He never let me open it.”
“Then why did hearing about it scare you?”
She looked down at the parking lot.
“Because two months ago Richard changed the combination.”
“So?”
“He’d never changed it before.”
“How would you know if you didn’t know the combination?”
She looked at me.
There it was.
Another lie.
“Mom.”
She began crying.
Quietly.
“I knew the old one.”
“And?”
“I opened it once.”
My pulse quickened.
“What did you find?”
“Papers.”
“What papers?”
“I didn’t understand all of them.”
“Try.”
She wiped her face.
“Bank statements. Loan documents. Copies of checks.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Mom.”
“One of them had Megan’s name.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“A loan.”
“For how much?”
“I don’t know. Fifty thousand. Maybe more.”
Megan had never borrowed fifty thousand dollars in her life.
She worked as an elementary-school counselor and still complained about her student loans.
“What kind of loan?”
“I don’t know.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“Mom, Megan didn’t sign anything.”
“I know.”
My skin prickled.
“What else?”
Mom shook her head.
“I closed the safe.”
“Did Richard know?”
“Eventually.”
“How?”
“He had placed a tiny strip of tape along the frame.”
Of course he had.
“He knew someone opened it.”
“He asked me that night.”
“What did you say?”
“I lied.”
“What happened?”
Mom stared across the dark parking lot.
“He smiled and said he hoped I understood how dangerous curiosity could be.”
The balcony door opened.
Megan stood there, cast held against her chest.
“What loan?”
Mom closed her eyes.
Megan had heard enough.
“What loan had my name on it?”
Mom couldn’t answer.
Megan stepped outside.
“Mom.”
“It might have been nothing.”
“A fifty-thousand-dollar loan in my name is not nothing.”
“It might have been an old document.”
“I have never taken out a fifty-thousand-dollar loan.”
Officer Morales joined us.
“Do you still have access to the house?”
Mom nodded.
“Legally, yes.”
“Is your name on the deed?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
Richard handled everything.
That sentence was so obvious none of us needed to hear it.
Morales looked at Mom.
“I strongly recommend you do not return there alone.”
Mom nodded.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number again.
I answered before she could stop me.
“Hello?”
No one spoke.
Then I heard breathing.
A man’s voice said, “Tell Helen she has until noon.”
“Marcus?”
The caller hung up.
Officer Morales immediately requested the number.
Mom sank into a chair.
“Until noon for what?” Megan asked.
Mom covered her face.
And finally, the truth came out.
“He wants the house documents.”
“What house documents?”
Mom looked at me.
“The deed.”
I frowned.
“What about it?”
She took a long breath.
May you like
Then said something none of us expected.
“Because Richard doesn’t own the house.”
