45ebf3c490593574dd454e5dfd5a5758

The door to the outer office creaked open, then silent footsteps reached our ears, a person walking through the office on sneakered feet. The person paused for a moment, listening intently for noises signaling another presence than their own. Finally satisfied they were all alone, the intruder set foot for Neda’s office and so Odelia and Chase slowly inched their heads above the desk so they could see what the person was up to.

We could hear drawers being opened and shut, and office closets, and finally we could hear muffled cursing.

“Where is that damn thing!” suddenly the person grunted in extreme agitation.

Chase and Odelia now snuck out of Cher’s office, and emerged in the door to Neda’s, blocking the intruder’s escape route. “Looking for this?” suddenly Chase piped up.

The intruder froze, and slowly turned to the cop, who was waving a diary.

“I…” said Titta Riding, for it was her, then sank down on the chair which had belonged to her big sister, and said, dejectedly. “I walked straight into a trap, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did,” said Chase. He and Odelia stepped into Neda’s office. “And this?” he added, throwing the diary onto the desk. “Is a fake.”

Titta picked it up and leafed through it.“Figures,” she said as she discovered that the diary was empty—not a single page covered by writing. “So what happens now?”

“Now I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of your sister,” said Chase simply.

“How did you figure out it was me?” asked Titta.

“We talked to Neda’s lawyer,” said Odelia as she also took a seat at the desk. “He told us how when your father cut all ties with you, he also cut you out of his will.”

“He didn’t even have the decency to tell me,” Titta scoffed. “I had to find out from that same lawyer after my dad died that Neda had inherited the entire estate: all of Dad’s many millions, the house, everything. As if I never even existed.” She shrugged. “But I didn’t care, you know. I was happy doing what I was doing. I didn’t lie to you about the orphanage. It has become my life, and so whatever was going on over here seemed like a different world—a world I never belonged in, and frankly didn’t want to belong in.”

“But you needed money,” said Odelia. “Or at least your orphanage needed money. So you figured that since Neda had plenty, it wouldn’t hurt to ask her to share some of it with you.”

A hard look had come over the young woman’s face. “I called her, out of the blue, and told her I was going to be in the country for a couple of weeks, talking to potential donors, and could we meet. She didn’t sound happy about it, but obliged me. So yesterday I came over to see her, and asked if she wanted to be a donor. I was sureshe’d be interested, since over the years I kept reading how she donated to this foundation and that charitable institution. So why not my orphanage? You know what she said?”

Odelia shook her head.

“Over my dead body. She said she owed me nothing, and she wasn’t going to waste her money on some third-world orphans. I told her I was practically an orphan myself, the way Dad had cast me out, but she said I only had myself to blame for that. So we argued. I told her a couple of home truths that she didn’t appreciate, and finally she decided to rub it in and said Dad had claimed I wasn’t even his—that Mom must have had an affair with the plumber or the milkman, because I looked nothing like him. He said I was my mother’s daughter—that she’d been a disappointment and a failure, just like me, and that her death had been a blessing, and he’d been glad to be rid of me, too.”

“Your sister said that?”

Titta nodded.“And a lot of other stuff, too. She really unloaded on me, you know, as if she’d been waiting a long time to get this stuff off her chest. So finally I couldn’t take it anymore, and gave her a pretty hard shove. She landed badly, hit her head against the fireplace and the rest of the story you already know.”

She stared down at a framed picture of her sister for a moment, then picked it up to study it.“You know, when I came to Hampton Cove, I really did so with an open and a hopeful heart. I was actually excited finally to meet my big sister again, eager to recreate a bond that probably only existed in my imagination. I already saw us working together, with her providing the funds, and me out there on the ground, maybe setting up more orphanages in other parts of the country, or the world.” She replaced the frame. “I always thought Dad hated me for my teenage shenanigans, and if only Neda and I could reconnect, I’d find a sister, and maybe even a friend.” She grimaced. “How wrong I was.”

Epilogue

We were out in the backyard of Marge and Tex’s house, and even more than usual, the doctor was giddy with excitement. He was manning his grill again, just like old times, and he was doing it in his own backyard—of the house they were about to move into!