“Then the ducks can wait.”
He laughed once, quietly, and opened the refrigerator.
“The grocery receipt is still under the magnet.”
“The eighty-three dollars and seventeen cents?”
“Exactly.”
“That feels like a different life today.”
He closed the refrigerator.
“I hate that I am standing here talking about a grocery receipt.”
“It is ordinary.”
“I need ordinary.”
He went to the hallway and picked up the gift basket again.
“What should I do with this?”
“Leave it unopened.”
He set it back down.
Then he saw the silver house key beside the mail.
“Your key is here.”
“Put it in the drawer.”
He did not move.
“Elena?”
“Yes?”
“Mom asked for that key because she thought the house belonged to the whole family.”
I was quiet.
Daniel looked at the basket.
“She really believes that.”
“Then let her believe it without giving her access.”
He put the key in the
kitchen drawer.
“I will come back soon.”
“Bring the blue folder if you see it.”
He stopped.
“It is at the hospital.”
“No. I mean if you see another copy.”
He turned toward the hallway.
“There was only one.”
“Then leave it alone.”
He opened the front door.
“Elena?”
“Yes?”
“Do you want me to tell them who you are?”
I knew what he meant.
“No.”
He stood there with his hand on the knob.
“Even now?”
“Especially now.”
He nodded and closed the door.
At 9:05, the Buick sat under the garage lights with Karen in the passenger seat. The folded parking receipt was still in her hand.
The officer sat across from her with a small notebook.
I remained on the phone while he asked the questions.
“Karen, start with why your mother asked you to wait here.”
Karen looked down at the receipt.
“She said she
needed me nearby.”
“Did she say why?”
“She said there was going to be a private family discussion.”
The officer wrote something.
Karen unfolded the receipt.
“She did not tell me about Leo.”
“Did she ask you to take him?”
“No.”
“Did she ask you to sign anything?”
“No.”
Karen pressed the receipt flat against her knee.
“What did she say about him?”
Karen took a breath.
“She kept calling him the Sterling heir.”
The officer stopped writing.
“Those were her words?”
“Yes.”
Karen looked toward the garage entrance.
“She said Daniel was her son, and Leo was his son, so the family had to make sure he stayed connected to us.”
I listened without speaking.
The officer asked, “Did she say Elena had to agree?”
“She said Elena would understand after she recovered.”
He wrote that down too.
Karen folded the receipt again.
“She told me to wait here
