“It’s more than okay, Liv. You are welcome to stay,” she said, but thinking her planned week of exploration and relaxation was turning into something else. She wasn’t quite sure what.
She finished embroidering her red coffee cup. It turned out well. Um, well, at least it resembled a cup. She wasn’t quite ready to stop stitching. Next, she’d work on the saucer. Maybe by the time she finished it, she’d feel a little less unsettled. No matter how hard she tried, it was hard not to think about Gracie killing Henry.
* * *
Cora, Jane, and Ruby had previously scheduled time together for an “after the event” meeting where they could discuss what went well and what didn’t for that afternoon. This felt a little odd to Jane, since they still had three guests staying at Kildare House, plus Paul, who had yet to find a new apartment.
After Jane dropped London off at a friend’s house for a few days, she made her way back to Kildare House.
The three of them sat in the fiber-arts room, which hadn’t seen much action, really. But it was gorgeous with its shelves of yarn, felts, and fabric. A modern geometric quilt hung high on the wall, and underneath was a shelf with spools of thread and an assortment of needles.
“Well, I think it was a smash,” said Ruby, opening up the meeting.
“I think it could only have gone better if things out of our control hadn’t happened,” Cora said.
“True, but how could we possibly plan for a person disappearing and a murder and—” Jane stopped. She had almost said and now they think Gracie killed Henry. But she didn’t.
“True,” Cora said. Her fingers tapped on her notepad. “Was there anything else we could have done to make it better?”
“We did the best we could with the circumstances we were given,” Jane said. “But maybe next time you don’t invite someone else to stay here during a retreat.”
Cora shot her a glare. Then seemed to relax. “Okay. Fair enough. Maybe I shouldn’t have invited him to stay.”
“But I mean, come on, what else could you do?” Ruby said. “You thought he was in danger.”
Cora glanced at Jane. She still thinks he is, Jane thought. And he might be.
Cora bit her lip. Jane saw. It was getting difficult not to bring Ruby into the fold. Not to tell her the police think Gracie killed Henry. Those words rolled around in Jane’s head and she wondered at the strangeness of them. This woman, Gracie Wyke, who tucked London into bed, fed her, bathed her. This gentle, smart, young woman killed a man? She could not make sense of it. Her stomach fluttered and she felt a chill travel up the length of her spine. She shivered. What if Gracie had harmed London? She would never forgive herself. Jane trusted her!
“Okay, besides all the other stuff going on,” Cora said. Jane’s head was still swimming. She was trying to concentrate on what Cora said. “What about the crafts? Did we stay in budget? Did people like them?”
The women all agreed that the crafts and catering went well. They may have even turned a bit of a profit during this retreat. They needed to firm up plans for the next retreat. But before then, all three of them were guest teaching at another retreat.
“Speaking of next time, the Big Island Beach Retreat is coming right up,” Ruby said.
Jane hadn’t even thought about it. She had been too busy thinking about this charm class and the disappearance of her babysitter. Gracie, where are you? What have you done?
She was trying to tamp down the feeling she placed her daughter in grave jeopardy by allowing Gracie to babysit her.
Cora poked her. “Jane?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “What?”
“What are you going to do at the Big Island Beach Retreat? They want our class synopsis next week,” Cora said.
“I’ve been giving that some thought. But I’ll let you know when I make up my mind,” Jane said.
Cora sighed. “Okay. The deadline is next week, ladies. Get it together.”
“Oh, there you are,” Paul said as he entered the room.
Jane turned toward him. He was trailed by his mother and father, who examined the room in awe of the floor-to-ceiling fabrics and yarns.
“Hi, Paul,” Cora said, then nodded to his parents. “What’s up?”
Jane’s heart started to race. There was something about this man she didn’t quite like. She couldn’t put her finger on it. And it was kind of absurd of her. He seemed so in love with Gracie. Refused to believe she ran off with the professor. Turned out he was right. Why didn’t she quite like him?
“I think I found a place,” he said, “but I won’t be able to move in for a few weeks.”
Weeks? Jane wanted to say. This man would be around Kildare House for weeks? That was it. That was one reason she didn’t like him. Couldn’t he see what an imposition he was? Couldn’t he see the danger he was bringing to Cora and everybody who lived on the property?
But she knew Cora. And she knew she couldn’t help but want to help people. It was in her genes. The disease to please. That’s why she became a counselor. It was not something she could shake.
“Do you mind if I stay on until then? I promise I won’t be a bother,” Paul said. His puppy-dog eyes blinked. Jane knew what Cora’s answer would be—she didn’t have to wait.
Chapter 51
Cora mentally checked off the people who were still staying in Kildare House even though the retreat was over. Sheila and Donna would be leaving early in the morning—as would Liv. That left just her and Paul. For two weeks. Jane was glaring at her from across the table and she knew what she was thinking. Why didn’t Jane trust him? Well, Jane didn’t trust anybody—especially men—and with good reason.
“Of course, you can stay here. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she told him.
Jane looked away.
Ruby sat back and crossed her arms.
Cora saw her week of exploration and relaxation being chipped away. Tomorrow, after everybody (except Paul) was gone, she’d etch out some time for herself to start a new project. Which one first? She wanted to try to crochet a rug. Maybe she should start there. She’d also been collecting old lightbulbs to experiment with—she’d seen them used as planters. But then, there was a spoon project she wanted to try. Spoons made into jewelry—necklaces using old jewelry pieces and spoons. Hmmm.
“How are you doing?” Cora asked as Paul came into her view.
He shrugged. “I’m on edge. I don’t know what to think. I knew my Gracie wouldn’t run off with that creep. But at the same time, at least I’d have known she was alive. Now—” His voice cracked. “I just don’t know what to think.”
“Have they released Henry’s body yet?” Ruby asked.
“Nope,” he said.
Jane glanced at Cora, then glanced away. Of course it was necessary to keep the body for evidence. But only the two of them knew what the evidence yielded. Cora’s stomach clenched. Suddenly, she wished she hadn’t been told about any of it. Paul was still in the dark. What would his reaction be when he learned the evidence pointed to his missing girlfriend killing his best friend? It was too much. Cora’s heart lurched. Poor Paul.
“I keep thinking I’ll get a text from her any minute. Or a call,” he said, sitting down at the table. He was holding his phone. “But nothing.”
“Something is bound to happen soon,” Ruby said with a soothing voice Cora had not heard from her before. “The cops are working on it. Cashel has told me to stay out of things. He said they are close to cracking the case.”
“Which case?” Jane said.
“I assumed he meant Henry’s murder,” she said.
Paul tapped his fingers on the table. “I miss her,” he said. “I don’t know what I’ll do if she never turns up. Or if they never find her or whatever.”
“That reminds me,” Ruby said. “How did your day go? You were going to trace Gracie’s footsteps. What happened?”
Paul sat up straighter. “You what?”
“Yes,” Cora said. “We thought maybe we coul
d figure out what happened if we traced her footsteps the day she disappeared.”
“But we didn’t get very far. We were sidetracked,” Jane said.
“How far did you get?” Ruby persisted.
“Well, we did get a chance to search her apartment a bit this morning,” Cora said.
“You did?” Paul said.
“Did you notice anything out of place?” Ruby asked.
“Well, we wouldn’t know if something were out of place, but for the most part it just resembled a typical law student’s apartment,” Jane said.
“There were a couple of odd things. The black wall—”
“Yeah, we just painted it. It’s chalkboard paint. She wanted a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard,” Paul said.
“Oh, I didn’t realize that’s what it was,” Cora said.
“You know, we did notice something odd. Knowing Gracie was such a coffee freak, I found it strange about the leftover coffee in the pot,” Jane said.
Paul’s dark head tilted. “That is odd.”
“I mean, she always carried the big cup with her, right?” Jane said. “It’s not like her to leave any coffee behind.”
“She must have been in a hurry,” Ruby said, shuffling some papers around on the table.
“No,” Paul responded after a beat. “Not like her at all.”
“Did she drink coffee all day long?” Cora asked.
“She used to. But she stopped. She had a few cups in the morning. And a few around three. She said if she drank more after three, she’d have a hard time sleeping.”
“So what time did the cops say she probably disappeared?” Cora asked.
“I think it was between two and four,” Jane said.
“So, she had made her afternoon pot of coffee, and maybe had one cup?” Cora said.
“I didn’t notice the sink. Were there cups?”
Paul shook his head. “No, nothing in the sink. Well, just the cereal bowl.”
“She’s a very tidy person,” Jane said.
“And very caffeinated,” Ruby said.
Paul laughed. “It was her one weakness, she used to say. She didn’t drink or do drugs or anything like that. But she did love her coffee.”
Cora didn’t know why her brain was stuck on the image of the half-full tiny coffeepot. But maybe what they had just come up with—a sort of timeline—was significant. She’d give Brodsky a call later to see what he thought—but that meant she’d have to tell him they were in Gracie’s apartment. She knew he’d be unhappy.
Chapter 52
Before Cora settled in for the night, she checked her text messages.
There was a text from Adrian: How about lunch tomorrow?–A.
Okay, she texted back.
His response came right away: My place? I make a mean Greek salad.
His place? Hmm. It gave her pause. But as she thought about it, she didn’t know why. He had taken his good old time kissing her. She was certain he was a good guy.
“Okay,” she responded.
Then she checked over her other messages. There was one from Brodsky. She called him. After saying hello, he explained that he just wanted to check in with her about Paul.
“He’s fine. But I just wanted to tell you about something. Please don’t be angry,” she said. And then she explained about being over at Gracie’s place with Jane and about the coffee. “Anyway,” she said. “I don’t know why, but I thought the detail about the coffee might be important.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“Brodsky?”
“Just a minute. I’m checking my notes,” he said.
Cora heard the shuffling of paper. “Yeah,” he said. “There was no coffee in the pot when we were there. Someone has been in the place. But since Chelsea is letting everybody and their brother in, it could be anybody. Even her.”
“She said it was okay,” Cora said.
“It’s not a crime scene,” he said. “But I specifically told her to stay out of there.”
“Clearly, she’s not thinking straight. Can you blame her? So, who else could have been in her place?” Cora asked.
“Probably Chelsea. But I’ll get a tech crew over there right away. Maybe they can get some prints,” he said. “I’d appreciate it if you’d stop your sleuthing.”
“Well, we did. When you called, it interrupted our plans,” she said, and laughed nervously. “We planned to trace her footsteps the day she disappeared, but then you called and stopped it,” she said.
“Why are you so interested?” he asked.
“Well, you know Gracie babysat for Jane. London is taking this hard. She’s having bad dreams and so on,” Cora replied. She was sprawled out on her quilt-covered bed and getting sleepy. She suppressed a yawn. “And then there’s Paul, who’s staying here. So, of course I’m interested. I want to help.”
“I think the best way for you to help is to let the police do their jobs. Believe me, we are on it,” Brodsky replied.
“You know, I don’t mean to be a bother,” Cora said. “We’re staying out of your way. We’re not doing anything illegal or dangerous. We didn’t find anything, really.”
“True,” he said. “And you’ve been very helpful.” There was a tone of exasperation in his voice.
Had she overstepped her bounds?
“I’m sorry, Brodsky,” she said.
“It’s okay,” he said after a minute. “Just don’t make it a habit.”
“Now, I’ve still got some guests here, so I’m not quite free to move on.”
“Who’s still there?”
“One of my teachers and her daughter and Liv.”
“I thought her father was picking her up today,” he said.
“Car trouble,” she said. “He thinks he’ll be here tomorrow.”
“She hasn’t gone out, has she?”
“No, she’s frightened,” Cora said. “She keeps getting messages. She shut her phone off at one point.”
“I’ll pass it on to the cybercrimes unit and see what they say,” he said.
“They probably already know,” Cora said. “They’re monitoring her phone and computer, right?”
“Hell, I don’t know. If you say so. I don’t understand any of that. I can barely send an e-mail,” he said, and laughed.
Cora knew that was true. But he did seem to use his cell phone to send texts just fine.
He sighed. “It never used to be a part of my job.”
“I hear you,” she said, twisting a strand of her red hair. “What I can’t believe is these gamers. So many of the young people are into these games. And this Darknet stuff is scary.”
“The game is on the Darknet, right? I was just reading about it.”
“Yes, it is. Ruby thinks it’s a front for something else. You know, the game is a front for some kind of criminal activity.” She laughed. “That Ruby. We told her it sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie.”
But Brodsky wasn’t laughing.
* * *
Later, after Cora was actually in bed with Luna tucked between her shoulder and her neck, she grinned when she thought about her old crew at the women’s shelter and what they would think about Brodsky. He was a good cop. She knew there were all kinds. They knew some bad ones, but mostly they were decent people just trying to do their jobs.
She tried not to think about it. She tried to fill her mind with pleasant images. Once everybody was gone and all this was over, she could have her explore and relax week, couldn’t she?
But the events of the past five days nagged at her. Gracie disappearing. The craft retreat’s success. Henry’s murder. Paul staying with her. You just never knew what was going to happen. Life was funny.
But she remembered nobody offered her a plausible explanation as to why she had received that weird text about a kidnapping. Was it because she was listed in Jane’s phone as an emergency contact? That’s what someone said. But nobody knew for sure. Evidently the brilliant cybercrimes unit wasn’t so brilli
ant after all.
Cora closed her eyes and concentrated on Luna’s purring until she drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 53
A loud knocking woke Cora up. She squinted to see the clock: 3:18? The knock came again.
“Cora!” a male voice said. “Open up. You won’t believe this.”
She untangled herself from her blankets and quilts.
“Who is it?” she managed to say.
“It’s Paul.”
Paul? What was he doing here at this time?
She searched for her robe. “Just a minute,” she said. “I’m coming.”
“This better be good,” she mumbled under her breath.
She opened the door to a wild-eyed Paul holding up his cell phone.
“I’ve gotten a text message from her!”
“Her? Who?” Cora managed to say as he walked through her door.
“From Gracie! Who else? I knew she wasn’t dead. I knew it,” he said.
Gracie? Detective Brodsky was right! She was alive and she had reached out to Paul. He told her to watch Paul, but he didn’t tell her what to do if Gracie actually contacted him! Cora stood there, her brain slowly waking up, her heart pounding. Air, she needed air.
“Cora?” he said.
“Yes? I mean, please sit down, Paul,” she said.
“Sit down? She wants to meet me,” he replied.
“Let me make some coffee. Let’s talk about this, okay?”
“What’s wrong? Why are you not excited and happy about this?”
Cora made her way to the coffeepot. “You woke me up out of a sound sleep. Give me a minute, okay?”
“She’s alive!” he said, and started pacing. “I need to get to her. She needs my help. I’m not sitting around waiting for you to make coffee.”
He started for the door.
“Wait!” she said. “Wait! You can’t go until . . . until I tell you something important.”
“About Gracie? How important can it be? She’s alive and that’s all I need to know,” he said.
Cora filled up the coffeemaker with water, then hit the button.
“Yesterday, Detective Brodsky called me into to his office,” she said. The coffee was starting to brew.
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