Silence.
“The one with the black face?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what happened to it?”
Another pause.
“I thought you had it.”
My stomach dropped.
“I don’t.”
“Well, I didn’t take it.”
“Did you donate it with his clothes?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sophie, I donated six shirts, three jackets, and those awful brown shoes he refused to throw away. I wrote everything down.”
Of course she did.
“So where was the watch?”
“I don’t know.”
Her voice changed.
“It disappeared before he died.”
“How long before?”
“A year, maybe longer.”
“You never asked him?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“He said he gave it away.”
“To who?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
I closed my eyes.
“Let me guess.”
Mom sighed.
“He said it was complicated.”
I barely slept that night.
The next morning, I decided I wasn’t going to interrogate Leo.
He had already spent too much of his life answering questions from adults.
So instead, I made pancakes.
“Chocolate chips?” I asked.
Leo looked suspicious.
“In pancakes?”
“Yes.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Barely.”
Ethan pointed at me.
“She’s been investigated twice.”
