Chapter 7

The car came Friday morning at a quarter to ten, a black town car with tinted windows and a driver in a crisp grey uniform. Delia was ready — she had been ready since six, standing in the guest room with the blue curtains, wearing a plain grey dress that had appeared in the wardrobe two days before with no note attached.

She had not been back to the small room off the pantry since the night of the gala. She did not know who had cleared it. She did not ask. She only knew that when she woke that first morning in the blue-curtained room, her mother's silver locket was on the bedside table, and her worn black flats had been replaced with a pair of dark leather shoes that fit.

Hale Whitmore met her in the hallway. He wore the same slate-grey suit, the same thick glasses, the same leather folder tucked under his arm. If the county attorney had unsettled him, he did not show it. He offered her a small, formal nod.

"The assistant district attorney is waiting," he said. "She has been thorough. She reviewed the bank records first thing this morning."

Delia nodded. She followed him down the stairs, past the kitchen where the chandelier was off, where the marble counters had been wiped clean, where the chipped plate was gone.

The car took them to a low grey building in the center of town. Delia had seen it before, from the back seat of the town car, but she had never been inside. The lobby smelled of paper and floor wax, and the man at the front desk asked her name and checked it against a list.

The assistant district attorney was a woman in her forties with dark hair pulled back and a calm, flat voice. She introduced herself as Ms. Okafor and led them to a room with a long table and a recording device in the center.

"Before we start," she said, "I want you to know what we have found. Your mother's estate and insurance proceeds totalled one hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars. They were placed in a trust in your name, to be managed by your guardian until your eighteenth birthday."

She paused.

"The account was opened four years ago. It was depleted within eighteen months. The withdrawals include cash and checks payable to Nessa Vale. There is also a transfer to the household account in the amount of four thousand dollars, dated one month before the gala."