“Clara.” He stood. “What are you doing here?”
“Never mind that,” I replied, my gaze flicking between Owen and the police officers. “What’s going on here?”
One officer stepped forward. “Ma’am, I’m Officer Miller. Your husband reported a break-in approximately two hours ago. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”
I turned to Owen slowly. “A break-in.”
“Someone got in while I was putting Ava to bed.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I came downstairs and the side door was open. Your jewelry is gone, Clara. All of it.”
I said nothing.
I watched Owen’s face instead… the slight tension around his jaw, and the way his eyes moved just past mine rather than looking into them.
Officer Miller stepped forward. “Can you confirm that the jewelry was kept in your bedroom closet?”
“And were there any other valuables in that area?”
I thought of the blue folder. The one Ava had described. The one I kept in my bedside drawer, tucked beneath a cardigan.
“There was a folder,” I said carefully. “Personal documents, including the insurance papers for my jewelry.” I turned to face Owen. “Is the folder still there?”
“I don’t know.” His voice stayed flat. “I didn’t go through everything.”
Officer Miller made a note. “We’ll need you to walk through the bedroom and confirm what’s missing, ma’am.”
I nodded, but I didn’t move yet.
Something sat heavy in my chest, and it seemed to grow heavier the longer I looked at Owen. I thought of Ava’s phone call and knew I had to say something if I was ever going to get to the bottom of this.
I turned to face Officer Miller. “Officer, I need to tell you something. My daughter called me about three hours ago, while I was still at my conference. She whispered to me that Owen was taking pictures of my jewelry and of that blue folder.”
The room went very still.
Owen exhaled sharply. “She saw me updating the insurance records. That’s all that was.”
“Then why were you photographing the jewelry?” I asked. “That information is already on file.”
“Like I said, I was updating the records.” He suddenly raised his hand and turned to Officer Miller. “Wait a minute… What if someone saw me through the bedroom window when I had the jewelry out? They would’ve known exactly where it was, decided to wait until the house was quiet, and then snuck inside to steal it.”
It was a clean story. Logical, even. But I didn’t buy it for a minute.
I opened my mouth to respond when I heard small feet on the stairs.
Ava appeared in the doorway in her pajamas, her stuffed rabbit pressed against her chest. She saw me and ran.
“Mommy!”
I caught her and held her close. She buried her face in my shoulder, and I stroked her hair slowly, steadily.
She pulled back just far enough to look at my face. Her eyes moved once to Owen, then back to me. Then she rose on her toes and put her lips against my ear.
“Daddy put the jewelry in a bag and hid it in the trash. Before the police came.”
I stayed very still and kept my face calm for her sake.
“Thank you, baby,” I whispered back. “You were so brave telling me.”
I set her gently on the couch and straightened up.
Owen was watching me with a careful expression. I realized he was waiting to see which direction I would go.
