Chapter 5: Paper Trail

Tanya's smile did not move.

"Oh, you're back!" she said, looking straight at Kurt. "Emmeline said Thursday. I made enough for four."

Kurt stood up from the table.

"Open your purse, Tanya."

"What?"

"The phone in your purse is ringing with my wife's name on it."

She glanced down.

For one second her face was empty.

Then she laughed, high and easy.

"This old thing? Em, I told you I'd recycle it. I keep forgetting it's in here."

"You kept it for a year," I said.

"I'm scatterbrained. You know that."

"A text came from this phone eight months ago," Kurt said. "It told me to stop writing. It was signed D."

"That wasn't me."

"Then who is D?"

She set the casserole on the counter and pressed her hand to her chest.

"Kurt, I love you both. I swear. Emmeline was in a very dark place. She asked me to answer your texts because she couldn't. I was trying to help."

"I never asked you that," I said.

"You don't remember. You were not well."

It was the same line she had used on me at the bank.

I heard it twice now, and the second time I heard every word.

"We're going to the credit union in the morning," Kurt said. "All three of us, when it opens."

"Of course." She picked up her purse. "Anything to clear the air."

She hugged me at the door.

Over my shoulder, I saw her look at the folder on my counter, the one with Lowell's name on it.

Then she went down the steps and I locked the door behind her.

We were at the credit union at eight forty-five.

Tanya was already behind her window in a pink cardigan.

The branch manager came out of her office, and I saw her face tighten when she saw Kurt's uniform.

"Sergeant Gleason," she said. "Mrs. Gleason. Please come in."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Sent Every Dollar, So Why Was My Daughter Starving? from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.