“To stop what?” Thea asked.
“Taking the money,” Jonathan said. “She tookallthe money in the Future Box.”
Thea went cold with panic. She rose to her feet, ran the few steps to the bedroom.
All looked as it should. The bed was neatly made, all tidy and right, but Thea knew her sons were not teasing. She came down to the floor, reached under the bed and pressed the board so that one end would pop up.
Her boys had followed her. They stood in the bedroom doorway, their faces pale.
Thea lifted the box out. It was much lighter.
So much saving, scrimping, planning ...dreaming.
She opened the box. She had to see with her own eyes that it was empty, and it was. All was gone. Everything. The only money she had to hername was the half shilling in her purse she had been going to use to pay Mrs. Gray.
“We told her to stop,” Jonathan said. “Chris didn’t mean to tell her. She had us sharing secrets.”
“Sharing secrets?” Thea said, confused.
“Yes, she said we all had secrets and she told us some and then wanted to know ours. It was a game,” Jonathan insisted. “A game.”
“Yes, she said she was thirsty and wanted to know where we hid things,” Christopher said. “I didn’t mean for her to take the money.”
“I know you didn’t,” Thea answered. She had to stay calm. She must think, reason.
“I told her it was for Jonny’s school,” Christopher said. “She didn’t listen to me.”
Anger welled up inside of Thea, and disgust with her own culpability. She hadn’t known Mrs. Gray other than in passing. She should not have trusted her.
But that didn’t give the woman license to steal from them either.
In a blink, Thea was on her feet, the box under one arm. She marched through the apartment and out into the hall.
“Where are we going, Mother?” Jonathan asked.
“To see Mrs. Gray.”
Thea took the stairs two at a time. Her sonsdashed behind her to keep up, Christopher echoing her words, “See Mrs. Gray.”
They were all on a mission now.
She knocked on the door at the top of the stairs. It opened immediately. Mrs. Hadley looked at the three of them standing on her landing and gave them a tired, welcoming smile. She was a thin woman with a sharp nose and pleasant blue eyes.
“Look who has come to see me,” she said in her soft Irish lilt. “My, you lads are so handsome and brawny you brighten my day. You need to stop growing. Doesn’t your mother put the bricks on your head to keep you little? If you aren’t careful, Mrs. Martin, they will be tall as giants.”
Usually when she made her comments, they all laughed, but not today.
“Where is Mrs. Gray?” Thea asked anxiously.
“Why, I don’t know,” Mrs. Hadley said, her manner changing to concern. “She was not here when I returned home. I went to see my husband in the hospital.”
“How is he doing?” Thea stopped her own concerns to ask.
“Not well. Why do you need my husband’s sister? What has she done now?”
Thea’s heart sank at the wariness in Mrs. Hadley’s tone. “She stole from us.”
“She took the money in the Future Box,” Jonathan chimed in.