Chapter 4 — Robert Ellis Says Samuel Was a Thief
Robert entered the side room using a cane.
The moment he saw Samuel’s name, he became furious.
“Who invited him?”
Margaret stared at her father.
“He nominated me.”
Robert’s expression changed.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Why?”
Robert looked around the room.
“Because Samuel stole from this family.”
Margaret went silent.
Daniel frowned.
“Stole what?”
Robert looked toward his daughter.
“You were sixteen. You didn’t know everything.”
According to Robert, several weeks before Samuel disappeared, cash began vanishing from a locked kitchen drawer.
Small amounts.
Twenty dollars.
Fifty.
Then nearly three hundred dollars disappeared at once.
Robert confronted Samuel privately.
Samuel denied taking anything.
Then another item went missing.
Margaret’s mother’s gold locket.
The locket was never recovered.
“And you thought Samuel took it?” Margaret asked.
“I knew he did.”
“How?”
Robert hesitated.
“I found the empty jewelry pouch in his room.”
Margaret stared.
“You never told us.”
“Your mother didn’t want you children involved.”
Robert gave Samuel a choice.
Leave quietly.
Or Robert would call the police.
Samuel left the next morning.
That was the story Margaret never knew.
Daniel looked toward Robert.
“Did Samuel confess?”
“No.”
“Did you find the money?”
“No.”
“The locket?”
“No.”
Robert’s expression hardened.
“The pouch was in his room.”
Margaret suddenly remembered something.
Her younger brother Peter.
Peter had been thirteen when the money disappeared.
And only a few weeks after Samuel left, Peter suddenly owned a new secondhand bicycle.
At the time, Robert said a neighbor had given it to him.
Margaret slowly looked toward her father.
“Where did Peter’s bicycle come from?”
Robert went silent.