Chapter 4: Front Door

I made myself laugh.

"Nothing," I said. "She's guessing."

Jae looked at me over the top of his sunglasses.

"Mina doesn't guess, Hana. She just hasn't found it yet."

"There's nothing to find."

"Okay." He put his phone away. "Then I'm five hundred bucks richer."

He hugged me with one arm and drove off.

I sat in my car in the parking lot for twenty minutes.

Then I went upstairs and knocked on 413.

Eli opened the door with a soldering iron in his hand.

"She knows there's money," I said.

"She thinks there's money."

"That's worse. That means she'll look."

He set the iron down on its stand.

"Did you tell anyone? A roommate? A friend?"

"No."

"Then the only people who know are in this hallway."

He went back to his desk.

"Be ready at eight tomorrow," he said. "I'm driving."

"It's my car."

"You drive like a raccoon."

"You've never been in my car."

"I've seen you park."

Thursday morning he was waiting by my old silver Civic at eight with one duffel bag and a garment bag over his shoulder.

The garment bag had a suit in it.

A real one, navy, pressed.

"Where did you get a suit?"

"I own a suit."

"Since when?"

"Since my grandfather's funeral."

He held out his hand for the keys.

I gave them to him.

He moved the seat all the way back and checked every mirror twice.

For the first two hours he quizzed me.

My father's practice name.

My mother's favorite dish.

Which aunt was divorced and which aunt we pretended wasn't.