“Little brother!
What a surprise!” He set the bags down with a flourish, kissed his mother’s cheek, clapped Ezra on the shoulder.
And for the next hour, he talked — about the weather, the neighbors, a ball game — a warm, constant, practiced stream of nothing, and every time Ezra steered toward the subject of the bank, Gideon turned the wheel smoothly back.
Ezra watched his brother’s eyes, and noticed that they kept flicking, again and again, to an old wooden cabinet standing against the hallway wall.
Inside it, he would find, sat a dusty wooden box, tied shut with a faded blue ribbon.
Chapter 5 — The Box