The Man My Sister Left Behind novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Dock

By the time the launch tied up, there were forty people on the pier.

The morning ferry had come in behind it, and every passenger stopped to look.

Ansel and I came down the inn steps together.

He had put on his coat, and I had put on yesterday's jeans, and neither of us said a word.

Cora stood at the top of the steps behind us, in her grey sweatshirt, with her arms around herself.

Beatrice came up the gangway.

"Good morning, Ansel."

"Mother."

"Good morning, Wynne. Thank you for finding her."

"I haven't found anything for you."

"The bet was that you'd bring Cora to me by Sunday week."

"And I will."

"But you've found her three days early and you've hidden her on an island," Beatrice said, loud enough for the whole pier. "That is concealing a fugitive."

"She's not a fugitive. Nobody's charged her with anything."

"Sheriff?"

The sheriff stepped forward, wiping his neck.

"Mrs. Rooke has sworn out a complaint," he said unhappily. "For the missing necklace."

"The necklace is glass," I said. "The sheriff held it up to a window in front of eighty people."

"Your sister stole the real stones. That glass is her work."

"Show them the check, Wynne," Cora said.

Her voice was thin, but it carried.

Heads turned.

I took the folded slip out of my back pocket.

"This is the check Beatrice Rooke wrote my sister," I said, "and it was never cashed."

"She told Cora to leave town, and she named the price of staying."

A whisper ran along the pier.

Beatrice didn't look at the check.

She looked at me with the faintest, kindest smile.

"I gave that to Cora for the school," she said. "For room four's roof."

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