PART 5

The police searched my house for nearly two hours.

They photographed the broken lock, the open drawers, the bedroom, and the empty space where my Bible cover had been.

When the officer asked what had been inside it, I told him the truth.

“Seventeen savings bonds.” His pen stopped.

“How much were they worth?”

“I don’t know yet.” “Who knew you had them?”

I hesitated.

“My cousins.”

“Names?”

I gave him Dale’s name.

Pam’s.

Alan’s.

The officer wrote them down.

Then he looked at me.

“Did any of them have a reason to believe the bonds were valuable?”

“I think they knew.”

“Think?”

“I know they knew.”

He closed his notebook.

“Then I’d keep everything you find from this point forward somewhere secure.”

“I will.”

He walked toward the door.

Then he stopped.

“Mrs. Ellis?”

“Yes?”

“If someone broke in looking for paper, they weren’t looking for your television.”

“I know.”

After he left, I locked the door.

Then I sat at my kitchen table until nearly midnight.

Robert had called.

My father.

A man I had spent most of my life believing was dead.

I wanted to call him back.

But I couldn’t.

The number had been blocked.