Chapter 10: The Folder

I got to my feet slowly and looked at my brother.

"What did Mom mean, Colby?"

"Nothing." He took Jasper's hand. "Kids repeat things. Ignore it."

"Jasper said it like a fact."

"He's seven. He says a lot of things."

The teacher in the green scarf was standing in the school doorway with her arms folded.

Colby noticed her and let go of whatever else he had meant to say.

"Come on, bud," he said, and walked Jasper back up the street toward a rented car.

Jasper looked over his shoulder at me twice.

I stayed on the pavement until the car had gone.

Then I went in and found Maisie's classroom, and sat in the hall until the bell rang, though nothing was wrong.

Regina called on Thursday from the unknown number.

"I need to meet you," she said. "Not at the house. Somewhere with people."

"There's a diner on Front Street. Across from the harbor."

"I'm already in town."

She was waiting at a booth by the window when I got there, in a gray coat, with a large brown envelope in front of her.

She had not slept.

I could see it in how she held the coffee cup.

I sat across from her and did not order anything.

"I've been staying in a motel since Saturday," she said. "Your parents are in a hotel across the bay. They think I went home."

"What do you want, Regina?"

"I want you to have this."

She slid the envelope across the table.

"I still have a key to their house. Your mother's closet has a shelf behind the winter coats. I waited until they went to dinner."

"You broke into my parents' house."

"I used a key."

Her mouth trembled and then steadied.

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