The fact that I found out what was going on was a mistake. It was pure coincidence that I was the only one at the house when the woman rang the bell and made an assumption about who I was.

“Is this the Andersons?” The woman was tall, gaunt, unremarkable except for her eyes that were a pale, shallow blue, flat and expressionless.

“Yes. The Andersons. Can I help you?”

The woman thrust a cardboard box at me. “I was told to give this to you.” Then she turned on her heel and hurried away and she disappeared down the street. She had not given me a chance to tell her that I was not Naomi Anderson but just the babysitter, so here I as holding a box on the front stoop.

I went back inside, shutting the door behind me, and Pamela, my 7-year-old charge, came barreling down the hallway and slammed into me. The box landed with a thud on the marble tile and I looked at it with horror. I had no idea what was in there, but if it was something valuable I was in trouble.

“Pam! How many times have I told you to stop racing through the house! Now look what you’ve done!”

“Sorry, Kerry. I’ll pick it up.”

“No, it’s okay. Leave it to me and......”

But Pamela, trying to be helpful, had already tipped over the box and there were photos and papers all over the floor.

“Pamela! Stop! Look. Just go in and find a movie on Disney and I’ll be right in with your lunch after I pick this mess up. “

She looked at me dejectedly and I gave her a hug and off she went. I could hear “Moana” start up, and then I knelt down and began picking up the mess in the foyer. I didn’t really intend to snoop, but I figured I had to get the papers in some kind of order so I checked to see what they were. Both Pamela and Griffith Anderson were lawyers with their own high-powered law firm. I figured these were some kind of legal stuff.

What I began to see on those papers and in those photos was about to change my life. As I scanned the stuff, I realized right away that this was some kind of information on children. There were photos of babies and toddlers and on the back there were all kinds of statistics written. Some of the photos had what looked like a report stapled to them, some didn’t. All of the children were healthy, Caucasian, and cute as buttons. It was like looking at a box of perfect little boys and girls.

The papers were another matter. They were also reports but as I read a couple I realized they were about young woman. It began to dawn on me that this was some kind of adoption thing, and then I spotted the letter. It had slid under the long table in the foyer, and I pulled it out, curiosity getting the better of me, and read:

Naomi and Griffith,

Here are all the records you asked me for. You realize that these could bring the law down on all of us, and I know you don’t want that to happen. The young woman stirring up all the trouble has been taken care of, but it is time to address the issue of the others who were living there when it happened.

Make sure no one gets hold of this information because the “accident” could lead right back to all of us. I am disappearing for a while. You might consider doing the same.

M.T.

“Kerry! I’m hungry!”

I jumped when I heard Pamela’s voice. “Sorry, sweetie! I’ll be right there.”

I stuffed all the papers inside the box and took it into the kitchen while I made Pamela a cheese sandwich. I kept staring at the box. I had no earthly idea what to do now. Obviously this was not something I should have ever seen, and my instincts were screaming at me that something nefarious was going on. I debated with myself but then carried it out to my car and stashed it in the trunk. While I knew what I was doing was probably completely unethical, I knew that my sister Lynn could tell me what to do with what I had found out.

“Where’s the box?”

Pamela was standing in the hallway when I came back in. Damn! I had to figure out a way to keep her from mentioning it.

“Oh, that was just a box of old school papers I was going to sort and throw away. Nothing important. How about a game of “Chutes and Ladders” before your mom and dad get home?”

“Yes! Can we play on the counter?”

“Sure. And let’s have Oreos, too.”

The distraction worked, and Pamela said nothing else about the box; like most kids, out of sight is out of mind. When Naomi and Griffith got home, I knew I had to get out of there quickly before they sensed how uncomfortable I was around them. I had been Pamela’s sitter for a couple of years now and was having a hard time reconciling the damning materials in the box with the nice couple I knew. I grabbed my check from them and scooted out the door with some excuse about a date and drove off before they could ask about our afternoon.

I was tearing down Highway 52 toward Lynn’s house when my cell phone rang. I always kept it on speakerphone when I drove and my heart almost stopped when I saw the Anderson’s number pop up.

“Um. Hi. Kerry? This is Griffith. Pamela said something about a box that someone dropped off today? I didn’t see one anywhere. Could you call me right back?”

Fat chance, I thought, as I turned into Detective Lynn Paul’s driveway. Fat chance.