“Thank you,” Madison said, giving Dorie a tight smile. “I’d appreciate that.” She picked up the Prada bag, took out a thick, white envelope and handed it to Dorie. “My rent,” she said. “I just assumed your friends wouldn’t want to take a check.”

Dorie’s face colored. “Well, uh, we hadn’t really discussed that.…”

Madison started to close the door.

“Oh!” Dorie said, poking her head back inside. “I nearly forgot. We take turns cooking, and tonight’s my night. It’s nothing fancy, just rotisserie chicken from Harris Teeter and Caesar salad. But we’d love it if you’d join us for dinner. We usually eat between seven and eight.”

“That’s very sweet,” Madison said. “But I’ll probably take a rain check. That club sandwich I had this afternoon will tide me over ’til morning.”

“Well … if you change your mind, or want to join us in a glass of wine or something,” Dorie said, heading down the stairs. “Just come on down.”

“I’ll do that.” Madison closed the door, and Dorie heard the thumb latch click into place.

*   *   *

Julia and Ellis were sitting on the sofa in the living room when Dorie got downstairs.

“Well?” Ellis asked expectantly. “Did she like the room?”

“More importantly, did she pay the rent?” Julia asked.

Dorie sat down in one of the faded chintz armchairs by the fireplace. “She liked the room fine, as far as I could tell. Madison’s just, well … reserved, I guess you’d say.” She held up the envelope of cash. “And yes, she gave me the rent money. In cash.” She stared accusingly at Julia. “She was sure you guys wouldn’t take her check.”

“Cash is king,” Julia said lightly. “Is she coming downstairs for dinner?” Julia craned her neck in the direction of the stairs, as though Madison might be coming down at any moment.

“Not right now,” Dorie said. “She said she’s pretty tired. I get the feeling she might have just driven into town today.”

“She’s got New Jersey tags on that Volvo she’s driving,” Julia reported. “And I think you’re right about her having money, Dorie. That is not a cheap car. Those XC70s run around forty-seven thousand dollars, and that’s just for the basics. Hers is loaded, got the onboard nav screen and the works.”

“How do you suddenly happen to know so much about cars?” Ellis asked. “You haven’t owned one in years, right?”

“Oh, Booker’s turned into a total gearhead,” Julia said airily. “That’s the car he’s been lusting after for months now.”

Dorie had opened the envelope and was silently counting the money. “You guys,” she said, looking from Julia to Ellis. “There’s three thousand dollars here. All in fifty-dollar bills.”

Ellis peered over Dorie’s shoulder at the cash. “Didn’t you say she only wanted to pay half in advance and half at the end of the month?”

“Let me see that,” Julia said, putting out her hand for the money. She fanned the bills out across her bare, tanned legs. “Holy mother,” Julia said. “Dorie’s right. And these are all brand-new bills. What do you make of that?”

“Maybe she knocked over a bank on the way over here?” Ellis said, giggling uneasily at her own joke.

“She did ask if we could get a new lock put on that door to the outside staircase. And get the key to her room,” Dorie said reluctantly. “And she wants a key to the front door too. She said she was willing to pay to have a locksmith come in. Maybe that’s why the extra money.”

“What the hell?” Julia said angrily. “Does she think we’re a bunch of thieves or something?”

“She said she’s used to living in the city, and that she won’t sleep at night until she feels secure,” Dorie said. She looked over at Ellis. “Maybe you could ask Mr. Culpepper if it’s all right to get the locks put on? Tell him we’ll pay for it?”

“I can do that,” Ellis said. “But I really don’t want to let him know we’re subletting that third floor room. He’s already charging us an extra fifty dollars a week to use the garage. I’m afraid if he figures out what we’re doing, he’ll hit us up for even more money.”

“You’re right,” Julia said. “Just don’t even mention Madison. Just blame it on one of us. Tell him we’re paranoid or something.”

“That’s not far from the truth,” Ellis said. “I’m really not a scaredy-cat, but maybe when we get the locksmith in, should we ask him to put locks on our bedroom doors too?”

“Why would we do that?” Dorie asked. She took the bills from Julia, and stuffed them back into the cash envelope.

“Because,” Julia said slowly. “We’ve just invited a stranger into our midst, and we actually know virtually nothing about her. Did you guys notice how evasive she was when I asked her about herself? If she’s that interested in locking us out, maybe we need to start thinking about doing the same for ourselves.”

“Oh, Julia,” Dorie said, flushing. “That’s not fair! I mean, I know you were pissed that I rented the room out, but honestly, I think I know a little bit about people. Madison seems perfectly nice. Perfectly normal. She’s just a little shy. And she wants her privacy. What’s so scary about that?”

“Nothing scary to me,” Julia said. “But if she can drive a car that costs nearly fifty thousand dollars and carry a two-thousand-dollar pocketbook, which, by the way, is the real deal, doesn’t it seem a little odd to you that she wants to rent a crappy bedroom in a fairly crappy house? And that she’s willing to pay all this money to do it—sight unseen?”

“I’m sorry, but I’ve got to agree with Julia, it really does seem odd to me,” Ellis said.

“And I for one intend to keep my eyes and ears open around the woman,” Julia added. “There’s a lot more I’d like to know about this Madison.”

“I really don’t care why she wants to live here,” Dorie said. “All I care about is that now I don’t have to call my sister and grovel and beg her to pay her share for the house. So you guys can go ahead and lock your doors and play detective all you want. Just don’t chase her off. Okay?”

14

The cable was out. When they turned on the television after dinner, the screen was as gray and fuzzy as a discarded sweater.

Ellis reached for her iPhone. “I’m e-mailing Mr. Culpepper. Honestly, we get one thing fixed, and something else breaks down.”

“Why don’t you just call him?” Dorie asked.

“I don’t have his phone number,” Ellis said, typing away. “And he’s pretty cagey about letting me know where he lives, or believe me, I’d be camped out on his doorstep until he got everything here squared away.”

Julia poured herself another glass of wine and leaned back in her chair. “Don’t get your panties in a wad on my account. I could care less about watching television. Especially in the summertime.”

Ellis loaded up the dinner plates and silverware and dumped them into the deep sink she’d filled with soapy water before sitting down to dinner. This part of the summer, she noted happily, was going just as planned, especially now that they had Madison, and her money, contributing to their financial well-being. Madison had been there three days now, and turned down all their invitations to join them for dinner, explaining that she didn’t really “do” dinner.

She was, as Dorie had said, shy around them, spending most of her time in her room, with an occasional walk on the beach. The day after she’d moved in, she’d brought a bike home, and now, when she left the house, it was usually on her bike. Despite Julia’s dire predictions, nothing out of the ordinary had happened since Madison’s arrival.

She was odd, a loner, evasive when asked for personal information. Ellis had suggested that Madison was suffering from a broken heart, and Dorie seconded the emotion. “That ring of hers,” Julia had commented, “would go a long way towards healing my broken heart.”

“Come on, Ellis,” Dorie called now from the dining room. “Leave the dishes ’til later. I’m glad the television’s on the fritz. Let’s do something together. There’s a bunch of jigsaw puzzles here. Let’s work on one of those.”