Chapter 17: Sleep on It

My aunt's kitchen light was still on at midnight.

Dad sat at the table in a borrowed robe, with a mug of decaf and the cardiologist's note flattened in front of him.

Colt stood by the stove with his phone in his fist.

Shelby sat on the counter, which her mother had never allowed in her life.

My aunt was making toast nobody had asked for.

Abram came in behind me and stopped just inside the door.

"This is Dr. Castellan," I said. "He's my boss."

"He's the man who got your cat," my aunt said, and gave him a plate.

He took it and ate standing up.

I put my phone on the table.

Dad looked at the photo of the bank statement for a long time.

He put on his reading glasses and looked again.

"Thirty-one thousand," he said.

"And the church check."

"What church check?"

"Colt says she deposited a check from the church fund last week."

Dad took his glasses off.

"Diane has kept the church books for eleven years."

"I know."

"She doesn't just sit on the board, Mal. She writes the checks."

Nobody said anything.

My aunt put down the butter knife very carefully.

"Russ," she said. "I think my sister has been stealing from the Lord."

"Don't say it like that."

"How would you like me to say it?"

"I'd like to not know it," Dad said, and he laughed once, ugly.

Then he squared his shoulders.

"All right. What do we do tomorrow?"

"We don't do anything tomorrow," I said. "We do it tonight, and it's already Saturday."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Out of Time: The Family That Lost Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.