Page 69 of The Housekeeper

“Yes.”

“Do you mind telling us what happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened? Nothing happened. I went to see my mother—she has Parkinson’s—but it turned out that my father had taken her for a drive, so I talked to the housekeeper for a little while. We had coffee, and I left.”

“You didn’t take anything with you when you left?”

“Excuse me?”

“According to your father, you absconded with all of your mother’s jewelry.”

“I absconded…?What?!” I said, incapable of saying anything more.My father actually called the police and accused me of stealing?!

“Your father isn’t interested in pressing charges,” Officer Lewis explained quickly. “He just wants the jewelry back. He asked us to come over and talk to you as a courtesy.”

“I did not steal that jewelry!”

“Do you have it?” one of the officers asked.

I was so shocked that I could no longer discern who was speaking and who wasn’t. I felt dizzy and light-headed, the macaroni and cheese in my stomach in danger of coming back up. “It’s upstairs,” I muttered. “But I didn’t steal it. Elyse gave it to me.”

“That would be the housekeeper, Elyse Woodley?”

“Yes. My father had given her a pair of my mother’s earrings and she didn’t feel right about accepting them. She said I should take my mother’s jewelry home. For safekeeping. She had everything in a baggie, all ready to go. Talk to her,” I urged. “She’ll tell you.”

“We have talked to her.”

“So, then, you know…”

“She confirms your father’s story.”

“What?No! What do you mean, she confirms…”

“She says that you dropped over unexpectedly, demanding to see your mother…”

“No, that’s not true. She calledme,invited me over.”

“Why would she do that when your parents weren’t there?”

“She said that she wanted to clear the air…”

“Clear the air?”

“There were some issues,” I said, loath to reveal the details.

“You were upset that your father had gifted her a pair of your mother’s earrings,” Officer Lewis stated.

“Among other things, yes.”

“You accused her of sleeping with your father.”

“Sheissleeping with my father!” I sputtered. “But I didn’t accuse her of anything this morning. In fact, she’s the one who brought it up. She apologized, said she understood that she’d have to leave, that she’d already started packing, and that I should have the jewelry.”

“For safekeeping.”

“Yes.”

“According to Elyse Woodley,” Officer Stankowski said, reading from his notes, “you dropped over unexpectedly and accused her of sleeping with your father. She tried to calm things down by offering you coffee and a piece of pie, which you accepted but then excused yourself to use the washroom. She then went into the kitchen to put the coffee on, and a few minutes later, she heard the front door close. She assumed you’d had a change of heart and left. It wasn’t until your father came home and she told him about your visit that they discovered your mother’s jewelry was missing.”