The kitchen refrigerator hummed its low, uneven rattle, but it was the small blue velvet jewelry box sitting on top of the local bank statement that made me stop. The top drawer of the oak desk was still half-open. I had lived in this house long enough to know when a brass latch had been forced, and the small key was missing from its hook behind the pantry door.
“Kenneth,” I said, “why is the farm account down to eight hundred dollars?”
My brother did not look at me. He was sixty-two years old, but when he was caught in a corner, he looked like the boy who used to hide in the silo when our father was angry. He stood by the stove, his thumbs rubbing his temples as if trying to press his thoughts back into his skull.
“The money is exactly where the future needs it to be, Evelyn,” he said, his words crowding together as he spoke. “It is an entry position. A ground-floor launch.”
I looked down at the white paper. Forty-five thousand dollars had been moved out on Tuesday, leaving barely enough to cover the winter heating oil. My silver wedding band felt tight, and I twisted it twice around my knuckle to quiet the slight, familiar twitch in my left index finger. I had spent thirty years as a surgical nurse keeping my hands still, and I was not about to let him see them shake now.
“We agreed that money was for the property taxes and the drainage ditch,” I said. “Who did you give it to?”
He did not answer, his boots clicking against the linoleum as he backed toward the porch door.
