A Paper Plate at My Own Table novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Receipts

The garage door rose halfway and stopped, and a pair of white sneakers stood under it.

Then a phone on a selfie stick came ducking in, with a ring light clipped to its side.

"Okay, you guys, I'm outside the house right now," Kristen was saying in her bright online voice, "and I just want to show you where my sister-in-law has been living with my brother's, wait."

She saw us.

Timothy stood beside the workbench with the open tin box.

I stood beside him with my phone.

"What's that?" Kristen said.

"Turn it off," Timothy said.

"I'm recording, I can't just..."

"Kristen," I said. "Witness: Kristen Ellery."

She stopped moving.

I held up my phone so she could read the deed.

The selfie stick sagged, and the ring light swung to the floor and rolled.

It kept shining on the concrete.

I put my foot on it, gently, and left it there.

"I don't know what that is," Kristen said.

"It's the closing papers on this house. Dean's name is on it. And Timothy's name, signed by someone who has never made a C like that in his life."

"I, I was just..."

"You signed as witness. Seven years ago in April, to watch Timothy sign a deed. Timothy was in Alaska that month."

"I didn't, he told me, Dean told me..."

"What did Dean tell you?"

She looked at her brother.

Timothy said nothing.

He stood there with his hands loose and just looked at her.

"Kris," he said finally. "I taught you to ride a bike."

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