Chapter 15: Sisters

"Kitty," Lucas said.

He didn't say it like a question.

He said it.

"She was terrified of you at lunch," I said. "She walked around the sideboard so she wouldn't pass you."

"Then why would she come to my door at three in the morning?"

"That's what I'm going to ask her."

He reached for his coat.

I put my hand on his arm.

"Not you," I said. "If you walk into that house, she'll scream and my mother will call the Post. I'm going alone."

His jaw did the thing.

"I'll be outside," he said.

"I know you will."

【He's letting her go ALONE? Book Lucas would've locked the door.】

【Book Lucas never had a wife who could handle it.】

The Halseys eat dinner at seven, the same as they have since 1950.

I walked in at seven-ten with the elevator printout folded in my windbreaker.

Lucas sat in the Range Rover across Sixty-Third with my guard, both of them watching the cracked front step.

My mother was ladling soup.

My father had his reading glasses on and the Journal by his plate.

Kitty sat in her usual chair in a cream sweater, her sapphire on her hand.

She saw my face and put her spoon down.

"Jules," my mother said. "You didn't call."

"I'm not staying for soup."

I unfolded the printout and laid it in the middle of the table, between the bread and the butter.

"Someone rode up to my door last night with a keycard," I said. "The card was made in August for the bride. It was mailed to this house."

My father looked at the paper over his glasses.

My mother looked at Kitty.

Kitty looked at her soup.

"So someone stole it," my father said. "We had caterers through here for weeks."

"Kitty," I said.

She didn't look up.

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