Ruby put her plate in the sink, then turned to me.
“There was a watch in the tin,” she said.
I stopped by the kitchen table.
“What?”
“With my money. I need the whole tin back.”
She pulled out a chair, but neither of us sat down.
“Whose watch?”
“Mine. It was my father's.”
I thought of Oliver Reed and Mara's office. Ruby saw my face.
“Not the guest's watch,” she said. “This was my dad's. Callum knows that.”
The missing tin had been a small, ordinary thing when Callum talked about it. A box of savings. I pictured banknotes folded under a lid. Now there was something else in it, something Ruby hadn't mentioned to Mara.
“How did it get there?”
“I put it there on Monday.”
“You had it when you moved in?”
“No.” She looked down at the chair she'd pulled out. “I got it from Callum's.”
I remembered the yard. Have you packed the bedside drawer yet?
“That's what you were asking about.”
“Yes.”
“You said there were things you'd left.”
“It was something I'd left.”
She sat. I took the chair opposite her.
“Did he give it to you?” I asked.
“I took it from his drawer while he was outside.”
I rested my hands on the table.
“He knew you'd taken it?”
“I told him afterwards. He was angry.”
“And you told him where you were keeping it?”
“I said I'd put it in my biscuit tin. He knows the one. Blue, with the scratched corners. It's always been on my shelf.”
“Why tell him?”
She gave me an impatient look.
“Because I wanted him to stop acting as if he could decide whether I had it or not.”
I thought of Callum saying he'd never gone into her room. The person Tess had seen. His forty missing minutes.
“You think he came for the watch.”
“I think he took the whole tin because it was easier than opening it.”
“You didn't see him.”
“No. I came back from the kitchen, went to put my loose change away, and it wasn't there.”
She got up and opened a cupboard. There were three tins of beans, an empty cereal packet and a loaf of bread. She took one tin out, then seemed to remember I was there.
“Want some?”
“All right.”
I took two plates from the draining board while she opened the tin. We moved around each other without quite meeting, as we'd done all Wednesday in guest rooms.
“Have you told Mara about the watch?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
Ruby tipped the beans into a saucepan.
“I took it out of his room without asking. I don't want her thinking I do that to people.”
“It was your watch.”
“You say that now. You'd have asked me if I could prove it. So will she.”
I couldn't say I wouldn't have.
She put the saucepan on the hob and turned the heat too high. I moved the dial back before it caught.
“He says he came through the yard,” I said. “That he wanted to tell you to stop ringing. Then he changed his mind.”
Ruby stopped with the bread in her hand.
“Is that what he told Mara?”
“I don't know. He told me today.”
“So he was here.”
“He says the yard.”
She put two slices in the working side of the toaster.
“He knows where my room is. He's admitted coming here. That's more than he told you last night.”
“I heard him say he didn't go into your room.”
“And you still want to believe that.”
“I don't want to guess.”
She turned to me, holding the bread bag by its twisted top.
“It's all the money I've got that isn't already spoken for. A hundred and eighty pounds. I need it.”
“I know.”
“You don't, actually.”
I looked at the saucepan rather than her face. Then she put the bag down.
“Sorry.”
“Don't. Just tell me if there's anything else in the tin.”
“The watch and the money. That's it.”
The toaster popped. She took the slices out before they could cool.
I hadn't eaten since lunch. I sat down while she made two more pieces of toast, and we divided the beans between us. Hers soaked through in the time it took her to find a clean fork.
“You could ask him to return it,” I said.
She looked at me over her plate.
“I've asked him for things enough times.”
“I mean without meeting him alone.”
“Would you ask him? If you only ask for a hundred and eighty, he can give you the notes and keep the watch. Ask for the whole tin.”
I scraped my fork along the edge of the plate.
“I can ask whether he's got it.”
“And if he says no?”
“Then I can't promise anything.”
Ruby nodded. She didn't press me to say I believed her.
“Don't tell him I sent you,” she said.
“You haven't sent me.”
“Good.”
We ate without saying much else.
Afterwards, I washed the plates while she dried them. She opened the cupboard for me, and I put them away beside the chipped mugs.
“Lena.”
I turned.
“I didn't want your sympathy. I wanted my money back.”
“You can want both.”
Her eyes flicked away. She put the tea towel on its hook.
I went upstairs and checked my own saved-money envelope. I hadn't thought about it until then. It was where I'd left it at the back of my drawer, with the amount pencilled on the outside.
I shut the drawer and wrote to Callum.
I need to see you tomorrow. About the tin.