Promises to Keep - Ann Tatlock [107]
I thought a moment. “I always go to bed before Mom does. Even if I unlock the door, she might find it open and lock it again.”
Daddy leaned forward over the table. “Listen, honey, I really need your help here, so I’m going to ask you to do something that might be hard. Are you with me?”
I nodded.
“Good girl. When you go to bed, I don’t want you to fall asleep. I want you to stay awake somehow, and after your mother goes to bed, just go on downstairs and check and make sure the door is unlocked. Do you think you can do that?”
“I guess so. Maybe if I keep pinching myself, I’ll stay awake.”
Daddy smiled. “Don’t pinch too hard. But try to stay awake somehow, because this is a big thing, Roz. It’s a big surprise for your mother. It’s the start of a new life. You believe me, don’t you, honey?”
I smiled as big as I could. “Of course, Daddy.”
“That’s good, honey. I knew I could count on you.” He patted my hand and slipped the ring box back into the pocket of his shirt.
chapter
46
I did as I was told. On the night of Wednesday, February 28, I went to bed, but I didn’t go to sleep. I sat up against the headboard and flexed my toes and pinched my earlobes and sucked on Sugar Daddies to keep myself awake.
It was more important than ever, I thought, for Daddy to come home right away, because I didn’t want to lose Mom to Lyle Monroe. Lyle had come to supper that evening, and as he sat at our table eating and talking about his adventures in Bolivia, I noticed Mom listening to him with a new intensity, and I saw the way the two of them locked eyes and smiled like there was no one else in the room. Mom had never looked at Tom Barrows like that; mostly, he’d earned frowns of resignation. Now Mom’s face registered a sort of shy anticipation, as though Lyle’s brush with death had sparked off some sort of feelings between the two of them, and I realized that if my family was going to come back together, there was no time to lose.
Amid all the smiling going on, I smiled only once myself. There’d been a robbery at the boardinghouse, Lyle explained, “and several people, including Charlotte herself, are missing various items.”
“Merciful heavens!” Tillie cried. “Did they take anything of yours?”
“No, Mother,” Lyle said with a laugh. “I don’t have anything of value, so I was kindly passed over.”
“So what was taken?” Mom asked.
“Money, jewelry, a watch – items of that nature.”
“And no one knows who might have done it?”
Lyle shook his head. “Charlotte thinks it’s an inside job, though.”
“Someone at the boardinghouse?” Tillie asked.
“Yes. The police think she may be right. The key suspect right now is the new boarder Charlotte took in last week, a fellow by the name of Louie something. The police questioned him and ended up letting him go. Couldn’t find enough evidence to hold him. So Charlotte’s asked Nelson and me to be extra vigilant, just to see if we can pick up on any clues.”
“Nelson Knutson?” I asked.
“Yes, your friend Nelson,” Lyle answered.
That’s when I smiled. I was proud to think Daddy had been chosen by Miss Charlotte to help solve the crime. If he could actually help in getting the robber arrested, Mom would be proud of him too.
Nine o’clock rolled around, and Mom sent me up to bed. When Tillie went off to her own room, claiming to be tired, I knew she was just giving Mom and Lyle time to be alone together. I didn’t like that one bit, but I consoled myself with the thought that this was the night. Daddy was even now making plans to come with the ring and the flowers and the letter so that Mom would find them in the morning and take him back.
I wiggled my toes and hummed quietly to myself, even while sucking on a Sugar Daddy. Minutes slipped by, and then an hour, and then two. I was fighting sleep by then, growing drowsier by the minute. But I was determined not to fail Daddy. I sat straight up and dug my nails into the palms of my hands, hoping the pain would keep me awake. Finally I heard the front door open and close – that was Lyle leaving to catch the last bus back to