Chapter 3 - THE BAG
A neighbor opened her front door and shouted:
“I’m calling the police!”
Ashley and Jake ran.
Not far.
Fast enough to disappear around the corner before officers arrived.
Margaret refused an ambulance.
She had a bruised shoulder.
Nothing more serious.
Emily shook with rage.
“They attacked you.”
Margaret said:
“They wanted the bag.”
“Why?”
Silence.
“Grandma.”
Margaret checked the handbag.
Wallet.
Keys.
Old brown envelope.
Still there.
Then she looked terrified.
Emily saw it.
“What’s in that envelope?”
“Old papers.”
“What papers?”
“From your mother.”
Emily went still.
Margaret rarely mentioned Laura’s things.
Photographs, yes.
Stories, sometimes.
Documents, never.
Police took statements.
Emily described Ashley and Jake.
The officer frowned.
“You know them personally?”
“Yes.”
Margaret said quickly:
“This may be school bullying that escalated.”
Emily turned.
“No.”
Margaret looked at her.
“They were trying to take your bag.”
The officer asked:
“Do you believe there was something specific they wanted?”
Margaret hesitated.
Then:
“I don’t know.”
Lie.
Emily knew.
That night, after Margaret went to bed, Emily opened the hall closet.
Found the brown envelope hidden under winter scarves.
Inside:
photocopies.
Westbridge Educational Foundation.
Scholarship disbursements.
Donor lists.
Student IDs.
Bank transfers.
Emily understood almost none of it.
Then she found a handwritten note in her mother’s writing.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, DO NOT LET RICHARD REED GET THIS BACK.
Emily stared.
May you like
Richard Reed.
Ashley’s father.
