Chapter 19: The Referee

Claire slept in Bridget's flat on the couch, and Margot did not sleep at all.

At three in the morning she sat down on the coffee table across from her, with a lamp on low.

"You're awake," Claire said without opening her eyes.

"You put the letter in the box."

Claire opened her eyes.

"Yes."

"You walked into First Lakeshore as Otto's assistant, with a letter in your bag."

"Yes."

"The clerk watched you take it out of my mother's box."

"Otto wrote it," Claire said. "I carried it. He wanted a witness who'd say she saw it in the vault."

"And you said yes."

"I said yes to everything for two years, Margot. It was a habit."

Margot looked at her.

There was no apology in the face, and no play for sympathy either.

It was oddly restful.

"Why should I believe anything you say?"

"You shouldn't." Claire sat up and pushed her hair back. "Test me. Put a phone in my hand and let me call him."

"And say what?"

"What you tell me to say."

Elias had stayed in the kitchen, with his arms folded and his shoulder on the fridge.

Now he came to the doorway.

"She could be telling him everything the second we dial," he said.

"Then let him hear exactly what I want him to hear." Margot stood. "Bridget. Get the speaker."

They did it at nine, with the bar closed and the sun on the windows.

Four of them stood around the kitchen table: Margot, Elias, Bridget and Thaddeus's lawyer.

The lawyer had arrived in his cardigan, looking miserable and loyal.

Claire sat with the phone in front of her.

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