“The cops came by and asked what was taken, made a list, and then they left,” Thea said, biting her lip every few words. “They didn’t take fingerprints or anything. They said they would talk to the property manager to look at the cameras, but I don’t know if they did.”
Exhaustion hit me right in the shoulders as I stood there, and I couldn’t help but glance around the rest of the apartment. There was a doorway right across that seemed to lead into some sort of hallway, and closer to where we were standing, there was a cracked door that showed like it had a half-bath, and another few doors that might have led to a pantry, maybe another bedroom, and I wasn’t sure what else.
But nothing seemed out of place.
The place wasclean.
Too clean?
“What did they take?” I found myself asking my little sister.
Her hand went up to her face to wipe at her eyes again. “My laptop. Some clothes. Some jewelry.”
What jewelry did my sister have that was worth stealing?
“They went through my room and all my drawers and opened up everything in the kitchen, but I already set everything back where it was supposed to be,” she explained, shakily.
Oh. “Thea, I’m so sorry.” If she had been Lily, I would have hugged her, but it was my heart that wouldn’t let me raise my arms, and my brain that wouldn’t let me embarrass myself if she didn’t accept my comfort. Again. “What do you need help with?”
My little sister bit her lip again, shaking out her hands, and swallowing so hard I was sure her throat had to hurt. “I’m sorry, Luna. I don’t really need anything. I don’t even… I shouldn’t have even called you.” She swallowed again, and I couldn’t help feeling my eyes narrow. “I shouldn’t have asked you to come. I was just freaked out, and you were the first person I thought of to call. I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to apologize for asking me to come,” I told my sister. “I’d come if you just asked me to for the hell of it, Thea. You know that.” But….
Her hands flexed at her sides and she nodded, giving me a watery look. “I know, Luna, but I shouldn’t have asked you to. I just freaked out.”
None of this felt right. None of it. “It’s fine. You’re all right though, yeah?”
My younger sister nodded.
“Do you have rental insurance?”
She lifted a shoulder.
I pressed my lips together and ignored the growing ache in my chest. “What about your roommate? Did they take anything from her?”
Her “no” was the sharpest one she’d ever given me.
I held my breath. “Where is she?”
She did it. She scratched at her cheek. If I hadn’t known her as well as I had once upon a time, I wouldn’t have known that was her tell when she was full of BS. But she sounded pretty freaking convincing as she said, “She’s out. She’ll be back in a little while. She had to work tonight.”
Work? At midnight? With a place like this, she wasn’t exactly a waitress.
Thea lifted her hands and scrubbed at her eyes, putting me more on edge. “I’m sorry for making you drive all the way over here for nothing.”
It wasn’t that easy not to flinch.
“I’m fine. I know… I know it’s just stuff they took. I’ll find out if we have insurance that’ll cover it. The only thing I’m worried about is my laptop.”
Her laptop. For school. I tried to push down my disappointment in her lying—because I’d seen that scratch—and her regretting making me drive so far to come over… and told myself that I loved this person. I wanted the best for her even though she was making my chest hurt and it wasn’t the first time she had done so.
“How much is a laptop?” I managed to ask, clinging onto that thread of love like it was going to save me from falling off a cliff.
“You don’t have to do that, Luna. It’s fine. I can figure it out,” she said.
“But you need it for school. I can send you some money over—”
Thea shook her head sharply. “No, it’s fine, Luna. I’ve got it.”
