Ruby came round the end of the shelter with a small overnight bag across her body.
“Hi.”
I looked at the timetable above her shoulder. Her coach wasn't due for another half-hour.
She sat down beside me and put her bag against her hip.
“You got it?”
“Yes.”
She held out her hand.
I took the tin from my tote but kept it on my lap.
“I counted the money. It's all there.”
“Good.”
“Tell me about the watch.”
Her hand dropped.
“What about it?”
I opened the lid. The notes slid against one another. I moved them aside and unfolded the cloth enough to show her the back.
“Where did your father get it?”
Ruby looked down. “I don't know.”
“You said it was his.”
“It was.”
I picked up my phone and showed her Mara's photograph.
She went completely still.
“That's Oliver Reed's,” I said. “The guest. You remember.”
Ruby reached towards the screen but didn't touch it.
“Where did you get that?”
“I asked Mara.”
“You told her?”
“I asked for the photograph. She wants me to bring the watch to her.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because you told me it was your father's. Because I wanted you to say how it ended up with Callum.”
She looked at the tin, then out towards the kiosk.
“Ruby.”
She took her phone from her pocket and tapped the screen. It was five past five on mine.
“Who are you ringing?”
She put the phone to her ear.
“Callum. She's got Oliver's photograph. She's matched it to the watch.”
I watched her face.
“No. She won't give it to me.”
“Of course I won't,” I said.
Ruby listened, her eyes fixed on the tin.
“I'm at the shelter. My coach is at half past.”
She ended the call.
“Why did you ring him?” I asked.
“We need to talk.”
“We were talking.”
“All of us.”
I put my phone in my jacket pocket, where I could reach it. I refolded the cloth but left the tin open.
Ruby sat with both hands pressed between her knees. I had never seen her stay so quiet while someone wanted an answer from her.
“Does he know it's Oliver's?” I asked.
She looked at me.
Then she looked away.
People passed in front of the shelter. One man had a bucket looped over his shoulder by its string. A child stopped to look at the tin, and his mother took his hand and led him on.
I didn't wait for Ruby to tell me not to ask again.
“Did he buy it?”
“No.”
One word. It took away the explanation I'd carried down from the hotel.
“Did you?”
She shook her head.
I shut the lid.
Callum came along the promenade a few minutes later. He was still in his work T-shirt, carrying his jacket over one arm. He slowed when he saw us.
“Lena.”
I held the closed tin against my thighs.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Let me see the photograph.”
“You don't need to. You know which watch it is.”
He looked at Ruby. She stood up.
“Don't start,” she said. “You agreed half. You don't get to take the whole thing again just because she's found out.”
I turned to her.
“Half of what?”
“What we get for it.”
“For selling it?”
Callum said her name sharply.
“What?” she snapped. “She knows whose it is. You aren't getting out of it by looking at me.”
He put his jacket on the far end of the bench.
“Nobody's sold anything.”
“You were going to?” I asked.
Ruby gave a little laugh with no pleasure in it.
“I was going to take it to a jeweller tomorrow. See what they'd offer.”
“And give him half.”
“That was the agreement.”
I looked from her to Callum.
“You two are still together?”
“No,” he said.
“No,” Ruby echoed. “This isn't that.”
“When did you agree?”
Callum stared at the tin. Ruby answered.
“Yesterday. When he rang. Then this morning he wanted me to swear to it again. He thought I'd keep the lot once I had it.”
I could see his door pulled almost shut. Hear the muffled voice on the landing. I had been picking my socks off his chair, pleased I'd found a way to return her things without another fight.
“After I offered to bring it,” I said.
He looked at me then.
“It would have been out of your way. You wouldn't have had to deal with it.”
“I was dealing with it. I was carrying it here.”
Ruby rubbed her hands on her trousers.
“I needed the money. He wasn't going to pay me anything if I just kept asking. At least this way I'd have the watch myself.”
“Your father's watch?”
She didn't answer.
“You took it from Oliver's room.”
“She did,” Callum said. “I was downstairs with you.”
Ruby turned on him. “Because you asked her to help.”
“It was a linen basket. It needed two people.”
“You told Mara I stayed with you,” I said. “I went back upstairs. You knew I did.”
“I was trying to keep you out of trouble.”
Ruby laughed sharply. “Her out of trouble. Right. And you were just going to sell a watch I'd found?”
Callum stepped towards the bench. I stood, holding the tin, and he stopped.
“Then tell Mara that,” I said. “Both of you. I'm taking her the watch.”
“Not here,” he said, looking at the people passing.
Ruby caught his sleeve. “You're not leaving this on me.” She looked back at me. “I saw it on the bedside table the day before. I told him.”
“You told him to take it?”
“I said we could. We were both broke. He said he'd sell it and we'd split the money.”
“And then he didn't.”
“No.”
Callum lifted one hand towards me.
“I'd have had to sell it round here, just after someone reported it missing. I knew that was stupid. I kept thinking I'd get rid of it. Then things changed.”
He looked at me as he said it.
Ruby made a small, angry sound.
“Things changed for you. I still needed my share.”
“Your share of something you stole,” I said.
She looked down.
The tin had become awkward in my hands. I sat again and put it on my lap. Neither of them moved closer.
“When?” I asked. “When did you actually take it?”
Ruby's eyes went to Callum.
I could see the linen basket before she answered. The heavy handles between us. His silly lift noise. Ruby staying upstairs.
“While you were downstairs,” she said.
I looked at him.
“You asked me to help with the basket then. So she could take the watch.”
His mouth moved. No words came out at first.
“I needed help with it,” he said. “But yes. I chose then.”
I thought of the blister plaster. His hand around my elbow as I hopped out of my shoe. I had been embarrassed by how badly I wanted him to stay on the steps with me.
He hadn't found me there by chance. He had chosen me upstairs first.
“Ruby and I were finished,” Callum said. “Whatever happened with the watch, I wanted to talk to you.”
Ruby looked up. “We weren't finished then.”
“He told me you'd split.”
She stared at him.
“We split two weeks after,” she said.
Callum sat on the other end of the bench, leaving his jacket between us.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“You wanted me out of the room.”
“At first.”
The words hurt more because he said them quietly.
“I stayed because I liked you,” he said. “Down at the shore. I didn't have to stay.”
I could still feel his thumb warming my toes on Tuesday. The washed bedding. The mug he had dried while I packed our box.
“Was any of it for me?” I asked.
“Yes.” He leaned forward. “Lena, yes. I love you. That wasn't—”
I stood before he finished. The tin knocked against my bag, and I had to catch it with both hands.
Ruby watched me. She looked frightened again, but I couldn't make that the only thing I knew about her any more.
“Give it here,” she said. “My money's still in it.”
I put the tin down on the bench instead, close to my leg.
Under its painted lid were her savings and Oliver's watch. That was what I'd carried out of the hotel. That was what they'd agreed I would deliver.