Gabe ran toward the stairs and Edie heard his footsteps up the first flight, then the second. Nathan gently pulled Edie toward him, and guided her body behind his. He reached out to Michelle and did the same. The three of them stood in a triangle, holding on to each other. Would this work? Gabe said the money was in the safe, but what if it wasn’t? What if Lars got angry? When she was pregnant, Edie and Nathan had watched a PBS documentary about stolen babies and adoption scams. People in the U.S. are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a light-skinned newborn. What if Lars had watched the same show? What if Lydia started crying? Where was Claudia?

“Where’s Claudia?” she asked.

Her mother squeezed her arm. “Just wait.”

Lars lowered his gun and Edie saw that he was trembling. Was that good or bad? If he’s scared, he’s unpracticed, maybe unsure about being there. Maybe that’s good. He doesn’t want to hurt them. But scared is careless. And careless plus gun is bad. She watched his face. Again, the smile-sneer.

“You guys have a place on Martha’s Vineyard, right? She’s probably up there.”

Why hadn’t they thought of that? Her sister loved that island. The first year Edie was gone at Vassar, Claudia tried to convince their parents to let her stay at the Edgartown house and finish high school there. Claudia wasn’t the kind of kid who was always planning her future, but when she talked about “someday,” it was always on the Vineyard. Someday maybe I’ll own a flower shop. Someday maybe I’ll teach surfing. Someday maybe I’ll open a gallery. Of course that’s where she’d gone.

“Is she okay?” asked Michelle.

Lars shrugged. “Last I saw her she had a bus ticket and was having a drink at the TGI Fridays in Port Authority.”

Gabe came down the stairs with a handful of cash wrapped in the neat bundles Edie and Claudia had snooped at as kids. The paper money wasn’t nearly as interesting to them as the jewelry Michelle inherited: big milky pearls; cocktail rings with knuckle-sized sapphires and emeralds; diamond necklaces, diamond bracelets, diamond earrings, a dainty diamond watch with a black silk strap. The girls would play with the jewelry for hours when their parents were gone. Lars could have had all of it if he’d been a little smarter maybe. Fuck him, she thought.

Lars took the money from Gabe and went to count it, but seemed to reconsider when he realized he’d have to put the gun away. He backed toward the front door. It was almost over.

“He said he saw Claudia at Port Authority,” said Michelle. “She’s on the Vineyard.”

“How did she seem when you saw her?” asked Gabe

Lars lifted his sweatshirt and stuck the gun into the front of his pants.