“Shit,” George said, clearly surprised. “Did he know?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Shit.” George sat and tapped his pen on a legal pad, it sounded like tiny bullets firing. “We could hire a private detective. People do that. We could try to trace his steps and see if we can find him.”
“Then what?” Melody said.
Nobody spoke.
“Let me make some calls,” George said. “One step at a time. Let’s just see if we can track him down.”
“God. My eyes are going to be so swollen tomorrow,” Melody said, pressing her lids with her fingertips. “I feel nauseated.”
“Can we have a minute alone, George?” Bea asked. “The three of us?”
“Absolutely,” George stood, looking like a kid who’d just been let out of detention hours early. “As much time as you want.”
Bea dunked her hand in the water pitcher and grabbed a fistful of ice, wrapped it in a cloth napkin, and handed the makeshift ice pack to Melody. “Here. For your face.”
“Thank you,” Melody said, leaning back in her chair a little and pressing the ice to her eyes. She started humming. Jack rolled his eyes at Bea, who motioned for him to zip it.
“Relax,” Melody said, sensing Jack’s disapproval through shut eyes. “This is Sondheim.”
“I didn’t say a word,” Jack said.
“You didn’t need to.”
“Sondheim?” Jack asked. “I approve.”
“Hooray,” Melody said.
They sat listening to Melody hum for a minute or two, something from West Side Story. “Sondheim didn’t actually compose that show,” Jack said. “He wrote the lyrics—”
“Jack?” Bea cut him off. “Not now.” She stood and smoothed her skirt, cleared her throat. “Listen. I have an idea. A proposal. I don’t need my share of The Nest. I’m okay right now. I’m not going to lose my apartment, I don’t have kids with immediate financial needs. Leo has obviously forfeited his claim. So if you two split what’s there, the $200,000, that should help, right?”
“No,” Melody said, removing the soggy napkin from her eyes. Her mascara was smeared, her nostrils red. “I’m not taking your money. That’s not fair.”
“But I want you to,” Bea said. “We can call it a loan if that makes you feel better. A no-interest, no-deadline loan. I know it’s not enough for either of you to completely resolve the loss, but it’s something.”
“Are you sure?” Melody said, quickly calculating that Bea was giving them one entire year of tuition—more if it wasn’t a private school, which, increasingly, did not seem to be in the cards. “You don’t want to take some more time and think about it?”
“I’ve thought about it a lot in the last week. I don’t need more time.”
“Because if you’re sure,” Melody said, “yes, it would help.”
“I’m sure,” Bea said, visibly pleased. “Jack?”
“Yes,” Jack said. “I consider it a loan, but yes.” The extra money wasn’t enough to completely extricate him from his mess, but it might—just might—be enough to buy time for the house or maybe to get Walker to start taking his phone calls again. “It won’t be quick, but I’ll pay you back.”
“Okay,” Bea said, sitting back down, pleased. “Good. Good! This is progress. And if George can find Leo, I’ll go and talk to him.”
“He won’t find him,” Jack said. “And even if he does, nothing will change.”
“I can try,” Bea said. “I can try to change things.”
Melody blew her nose, rooted through her purse for more tissues. She had the hiccups. “When did Leo start hating us?” she said. Nobody responded. “How was it so easy for him to leave?” She wasn’t crying anymore, she was spent. “Was it really just about money? Was it about us?”
“People leave,” Jack said. “Life gets hard and people bail.” Bea and Melody exchanged a worried look. Jack didn’t look good, and he wouldn’t talk about Walker or the fight at the birthday dinner. He’d fiddled incessantly with his wedding ring since they sat down. “Besides,” he said, a little brighter now, arms spread wide, “what could possibly be wrong with any of us?”
Bea grinned. Melody, too. Jack laughed a little. And as they sat, trying to muster the momentum to make their way out of the office, they all thought about that day at the Oyster Bar, seeing Leo’s agreeability then for what it really was. Jack wondered how he—of all of them, the one the least susceptible to Leo—could not have been more suspicious about how disarming and humble Leo had been. Bea remembered how it had seemed that Leo was maybe, kind of, taking responsibility and evincing a desire to make