Chapter 5
I sat on the third step of the staircase and pulled the sleeves of my cream sweater down over my hands. The wood was cool under my legs and I could hear everything from the living room without being in it. That was what Dad wanted. He had told me to stay where he could see me and told Tara to stay where he could see her, so neither of us was hidden.
Dad was standing by the couch. He wasn't close to Tara. He kept his hands in the pockets of his brown trousers and his watch caught the light from the window when he moved.
"Tara," he said. His voice was low and even. "Can we go back over the purse for a minute. Just the purse."
Tara was still by the window with her arms crossed over her black shirt. Her gold necklace sat right at her collar. She didn't look at me. "We already did this," she said.
"I know," Dad said. "I want to make sure I have it right. When did you last open it."
She breathed out through her nose. "This morning. Before I left."
"And you zipped it after," Dad said. It wasn't really a question. He waited.
"Yes. I zipped it. I always zip it."
Dad nodded once. "Where was it while you were gone."
"On the entry table. Where I left it."
I watched his face. He didn't frown. He just listened the way he does when he's trying to get something straight for work, his head tilted a little.
"And when you got back," he said. "Did you move it. Did you take anything out, put anything in."
Tara shifted her weight. "I didn't move it after I got home." Her voice was short and flat. "I came in, I went to the kitchen, and then I checked it and the fifty was gone."
The staircase creaked a little when I leaned forward. Dad glanced toward me and then back at Tara. He pulled one hand from his pocket and rubbed his thumb against his palm.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Earlier you said you were gone and Maya was the only other person here. That the money must be her because she was alone with it."
Tara's jaw tightened. "That's what happened."
Dad took a small step closer to the entry table where her purse still sat. It was a dark leather bag with the zipper half open now from when she had shown him it was empty. "But now you're saying you didn't touch the purse at all since you got home. You didn't move it, didn't open it until you checked."
"That's what I said," Tara said.
"You said you came in and went to the kitchen first," Dad said. His tone didn't go up. He stayed calm. "So you walked past it. You were home with it before you checked it."
Tara looked at him then, quick and sharp. "So what. I was home for two minutes."
"I know," Dad said. "I'm just writing it down in my head. First you said Maya was the only one here with it. Now you were here with it too, even if it was just a couple minutes."
He wasn't accusing. He was just laying the two things next to each other. I could feel my heart beating in my ears. My sweater felt scratchy against my wrists.
Tara uncrossed her arms and then crossed them again. "Are you saying I lost it."
"I'm saying we have two different versions of the same ten minutes," Dad said. "I need one version that doesn't change."
The living room was quiet except for the pendant light humming softly overhead. Sun came through the window in a warm stripe across the hardwood floor. Dust floated in it.
Tara stared at the purse on the table. "I told you the truth. I zipped it. I left it. It was gone when I looked."
Dad looked at me on the stairs. His eyes were steady. "Maya," he said, "you heard that. You were on the couch the whole time Dad was gone. Tara came in and went to the kitchen. Did you see her touch the purse."
I swallowed. My throat was dry. "I was on the couch," I said. My voice was small. "I had my book. I didn't see her in the entry. I heard the front door and then water in the kitchen."
Dad nodded. "Thank you." He turned back to Tara. "I'm not calling anyone a liar. I'm just keeping track. You said you didn't move it after you got home. I'm going to keep that with what you said before so we don't get confused later."
Tara's face tightened. She pressed her lips together and the gold pendant on her necklace moved when she breathed. "So now I'm on trial in my own house," she said.
"No," Dad said. "Now we're being careful before we decide who did what."
May you like
He didn't reach for the purse. He left it right where it was on the table. He looked at Tara for a long second and then at me, and I knew he wasn't done, he was just stopping for now. Tara turned her shoulder to him and stared out the window, and the line of her back said she was done talking.
I stayed on the step with my hands tucked in my sleeves, listening to the quiet between them, and I understood that Dad had written down that Tara had been home with the purse alone too, even if she said she hadn't touched it.
