She answered on the second ring.
“Uncle Walter?”
“I need you.”
She heard something in my voice and asked no unnecessary questions.
“I’m on my way.”
Inside the house, shouting began.
Melissa was yelling at Brian.
“You said he never checked anything.”
“I didn’t think he would.”
“He was an accountant, you idiot.”
I stood on the porch and listened.
For the first time, their masks slipped when they thought I could not hear.
By ten o’clock, my home had more witnesses than my birthday dinner.
Two police officers stood in the foyer. Samuel sat at the dining room table with his leather briefcase open. Rachel stood beside me with one hand on my shoulder, furious in the controlled way only nurses and mothers can be furious.
Melissa had finally removed Helen’s robe after Rachel looked at her and said, “Take it off before I take it off for you.”
