A pause.
“Well, the front-door key you gave me isn’t working.”
Now I understood.
Robert had changed the front lock the previous winter after the old mechanism began sticking. He had given me two new keys.
I had given Gregory one.
The key Brenda had taken from the hook that morning was the old copy.
“What about Gregory’s key?” I asked.
“He says he doesn’t have it.”
Interesting.
“I gave him one.”
“Well, he says he doesn’t.”
In the background I heard Cooper laughing.
Then Paisley shouted, “Is Grandma coming?”
My chest tightened.
Brenda lowered her voice.
“Mom, can you call someone? We’ve been driving for hours.”
“You’re already there?”
“Yes.”
“And everyone is safe?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“A simple one.”
“Yes, everybody’s safe.”
“Good.”
“Mom.”
I could picture her standing on the porch, sunglasses pushed onto her head, irritated because life had refused to arrange itself around her expectations.
