Tessa sighed to herself. Her father would have a sort of sad existence if she ever moved out and left him to his own devices.
Lord, please don’t let anything have happened to him. I don’t even know what the last thing I said to him was. Probably some kind of distracted goodbye at best.
Caleb didn’t seem to notice her emotional rollercoaster. “Makes sense if someone was looking for something that it might have been hidden in the safest place in the house.”
“Does it look like it was broken into?” Tessa crossed the room and sat on the edge of the desk feeling a thousand pound weight of worry settle on her shoulders.
He turned the dial one way, then the other, put his ear to the door and listened.
She looked around. “Where is he? He was supposed to come home after he went to town this morning and he isn’t here.”
It was so unlike her father to be AWOL. She needed to see him—to know he was safe. Sure, she was repeating herself but the spiral of thoughts continued to drag at her, pulling her down.
Where was he?
Caleb lifted his head away from the safe door. “You’ve lived here your whole life. You’re telling me you’ve never seen this safe before?”
That sounded like something a cop on TV would say. “Am I a suspect? Because I can show you the doorbell footage of the person who broke in my house and you can see that this had nothing to do with me. I was at your house at the time.”
The edge of the smile curled his lips. “And you didn’t call the police yet?”
“You seemed to think I shouldn’t do that yet, so I haven’t.” But she would.
Why his line of questioning was making her defensive, she wasn’t entirely sure. Except that maybe he was good at his job. She could appreciate that was a positive thing because crime everywhere should be investigated and justice should be found. The world needed solid cops who stood on integrity. But that didn’t mean she wanted any of that business in her house.
He turned and moved the dial some more. “Any idea what the combination might be?”
“Why don’t you step out of the way, and I’ll give it a try.”
He turned to her and she saw some suspicion on his face.
“It doesn’t mean I’m lying about having never seen it before. Maybe I’m just good at guessing.” How this was going to help her figure out where her father was, she had no idea. But it was worth a try—presuming it had something to do with whoever broke in. “Like my mother’s date of birth.”
Easy enough to remember. She turned the dial one way, then the other. She tried not to think what it would mean that her father had chosen his wife’s details as his safe combination. A nice sentiment, but the grief that rushed up in her was another well of despair that wanted to drag her down.
Most days she had to keep from thinking about her mother, except those ethereal memories of twirling together outside or the white dress she wore one Easter.
What secrets was he keeping from her?
Maybe the safe had church financial records in it. Or notes from counseling sessions. That would make sense. But she knew where he kept those things, and why hide them? This could be a fire safe, and it had keepsakes in it—but the fire safe was in her closet, and her father had given her the photos and trinkets from her mother’s life. Had he kept some for himself?
“It didn’t work.”
“Any other combinations you can try?”
“We’re invading a man’s privacy now. This might have nothing to do with him being late coming home.” She winced. “And a break in. But whatever they were looking for, clearly they didn’t find it. Maybe it should remain a secret.”
“Whatever the other combination is that you thought of, just try it.”
Apparently, he had seen right through her. More memories of her mother’s life, and death, rose to the surface in her mind.
Tessa turned back to the safe, her eyes burning. She dialed the three numbers that made up the date of her mother’s death. A day her father honored more than any other day.
The safe clicked.
“If he didn’t mean for you to see what was inside, you would never have been able to guess the combination.”
She blinked back tears. “Or I just know my father better than anyone.”
