“Give me the bird,” Evelyn said.
He looked toward the hallway instead. Her handbag hung beside the door; her telephone lay on the table, just beyond the papers.
“Who have you been talking to?”
“Put it down.”
He set the robin on the edge of the table with a sharp ceramic click. Evelyn moved it toward herself. Only when it rested safely beside her elbow did she reach for her telephone.
Daniel stepped forward.
She looked up.
“Think carefully about what you do next.”
His hand stopped inches from hers. Outside, a delivery truck rattled over a loose manhole cover. The ordinary sound steadied her enough to unlock the screen.
“You’re going to humiliate this family over an accounting mistake?”
“An accounting mistake doesn’t need my signature on these.”
She pressed Lisa’s name.
Daniel shut his eyes.
That frightened her more than his anger had.
Lisa answered on the fourth ring, breathless.
“Evelyn? Is everything all right?”
“Is your mother with you?”
“Yes. We’re getting her guest room ready. Why?”
“Please bring her here. Daniel has some things to explain.”
“Don’t,” Daniel said.
Lisa heard him.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
“Keep your phone with you,” Lisa said. “We’re coming.”
Evelyn ended the call and sent a second message, this one to Miriam Cole, the attorney she had consulted that morning. Three words: He is here.
Daniel read her expression.
“You planned this.”
“I found the transfer on Tuesday. I asked the bank to investigate on Wednesday. This morning, I changed my passwords.”
He stared at her.
“I hoped you would tell me before I had to ask.”
For the first time, he sat down.
Without his height above her, he looked older than she expected. There were broken red veins beside his nose, a gray patch in the stubble under his chin.
“The money is still there,” he said.
“Then why move it?”
“Ruth needed help.”
“Ruth could have asked me.”
“She has pride.”
“So do I.”
The telephone vibrated. Miriam’s reply said she was on her way and reminded Evelyn not to sign anything.
Daniel leaned forward.
“If you report this, it won’t just hurt me. Lisa loses her husband. Your granddaughter loses her father.”
