“What's Frenchie's?”

She stared at me. “Duh. The grocery store.”

The grocery store? I thought about my grocery shopping trip to the little convenience store. But now was not the time to focus on that.

“And you took him there?” I asked. “And he was cussing the whole way there?”

“Yeah. He needed a ride,” Carrie explained. “And he was, like, all red-faced and muttering to himself the whole way there.” She paused. “But that isn't really where he wanted to go.”

“You've lost me,” I said.

“He didn't really want to go to Frenchie's,” Carrie repeated. “Or he wanted us to think that's where he wanted to go.”

“Yeah,” Mary chimed in. “Like he wanted to fool us. But we were too smart for that.”

It was hard to think of them as being too smart for anything or anyone. “You've lost me again.”

Carrie sighed, like she couldn't believe she was still having to explain. “Okay. He came to us. Said he needed a ride into town to go to Frenchie's. But it didn't make sense, okay? Because he'd gone to the store the night before and he didn't need anything.”

“How do you know that?”

Carried looked at her sister.

“Um, we just know, okay?” Mary said. “We know things.”

“No,” I said, trying to be patient. “How did you know that?”

“She thought he was going to meet another girl,” Carrie said. “So she followed him into town. He actually went to get groceries, though. That time.”

Mary shrugged.

My temples throbbed. “Okay. Got it. So he tells you to take him to Frenchie's. But you said that isn't where he really wanted to go. How do you know?”

“Because we waited for him,” Mary said. “He told us just to drop him and that he didn't need a ride back, that he'd get back on his own. I didn't believe him.”

“So we parked across the street and waited,” Carrie said, dropping her voice a little. “Like, surveillance.”

Just like.

“At the ice cream place,” Carrie said. “I had strawberry while we waited.”

“I had bubble gum.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to stay patient. It was worse than waiting for Emily to get out of the bathroom when we were at home. “But then he came back out?”

“Yeah, like two minutes after we got our cones,” Carrie said. “And he totally looked around, like he was checking to see if we were still there. He didn't see us. And he didn't have any groceries.”

“So then you waited to see where he went?”

They both nodded.

“And where was that?”

“To Mr. Ellington's office,” Carrie said. “We had to drive slow and be tricky so he wouldn't see us.”

“Davis Ellington?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Mary said.

“Why would he go there?” I asked. I glanced at Jake but he looked like wasn't following or wasn't listening. Or both.

“I dunno,” Mary said. “We saw him go in there and then we waited and then we got bored so we came back here. We figured he was just gonna be mad if he saw us there, waiting on him.”

“We didn't want him saying any of those bad words to us,” Carrie said.

I leaned back in my chair, my brain working overtime. I immediately wondered if Harvey was mad about the joint account he'd set up with Delilah or if he was upset over another account. And I was curious why he wanted to go right to Davis Ellington after visiting the bank. What did one have to do with the other?

“I'm burning,” Mary said. “I need more sunscreen.”

“Me, too,” Carrie said. “I'll spray you first.”

“You're the best,” Mary said.

I watched the weird twins swim away toward the other end of the pool.

“Just stop,” Jake said, as they ducked under the rope into the shallow end.

“Stop what?”

“Thinking,” he said. “Or hypothesizing. Or whatever it is you're doing in your head right now.”

“I didn't think you were paying attention.”

“I wasn't,” he said. “But their words just ate away at my brain, anyway. Like zombies.”

I ignored his wisecrack. “Why would he have been so mad?”

“Daisy.”

“And why would he have gone to Davis Ellington's?”

“Daisy.”

“Aren't you the least bit curious?”

“No.”

“Liar. You have to be.”

“It's not for us to fix,” he said. “Or solve.”

“But she needs help. Delilah, I mean.”

“Not from us.” He was adamant.

“Then from who?”

He sighed and folded his arms across his chest.

“I think we should go talk to Ellington,” I said.

“We don't even know him.”

“Um...well, that's not entirely true.”

“What?”

I looked away from him. “I might've met him.”

“Met him? How?”

“Remember when I went to the store? And I was gone too long?”

“I knew I was right. I knew it.”

“I might've gone to his office and told him we were looking to buy property,” I said, ignoring his need to remind me he'd been correct at guessing I'd gone somewhere besides the store. “Which, in theory, could be true.”

“Daisy,” he said, his voice taking that tone it usually did when he was very, very irritated. “You need to explain. Right now.”

I sighed and told him about my excursion into town and our conversation.

When I finished, he was shaking his head. I'd seen that before.

“Daisy,” he said. “Daisy.”

“What? I was just trying to...help.”

“I think your definition of help is a lot different than the one most people use.”

“Probably. I'm very helpful,” I said. I stood up. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“To help.”

“Daisy.”

I tried to lighten the mood. “That's my name, don't wear it out,” I said, smiling at him. “And you can either come with me or stay here. It's up to you.”

“Daisy...”

“You're wearing it out.”

He mumbled something, a dark frown on his face, but he pushed himself out of the chair and stood.

Which was his way of conceding I'd won.

Yay for winning!

THIRTY TWO

“It's nice to see you again, Ms. Savage,” Davis Ellington said from behind his desk. “And I see you brought your husband along this time.”

We'd walked back to the cabin, with Jake trying to talk me out of doing anything other than packing as we walked. I smiled at him the entire time, walked into the cabin, grabbed the car keys to the rental and sat patiently in the driver's seat, waiting for him to get in.

He finally did and we'd driven to Ellington's office in silence.

“Yes,” I said. “This is my husband, Jake.”

Ellington stood and they shook hands. Ellington patted him on the back, congratulating him on all of his kids. Jake forced a smile onto his lips but he shot me a look.

Ellington gestured at the chairs in front of his desk as he sat back down. “Have a seat, have a seat.”

I had a momentary pang of guilt when it dawned on me that he thought we were there to discuss real estate.

“So,” he said, looked expectantly at each of us before settling his gaze on Jake. “Have you all been taking a look around the area? Find something you like?”

Jake turned to me so that I could answer. He leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his lips as he waited for me to talk my way through everything. I'm sure he took some small pleasure in watching me squirm a little.

“Well, not exactly,” I said.

“No?” Ellington said, eyebrows raised. He cleared his throat. “Well, that's okay because I've had several things come on the market in just the past day or two. I think several might interest you, based on what we discussed previously.”

He wasn't going to make it easy.

“Actually, we're here for a different reason,” I said, trying to keep my voice light. “I have a question for you.”

He looked again expectantly at Jake, like he might somehow clue him in as to why we were there, but Jake just kept forcing the same smile. “A question?”

“Yes,” I said. “About why Harvey might've come here a few days ago. Before he died.”

His smile faded, but more out of confusion than anything else. “I'm not sure I follow.”