“I don’t know. If Dad were alive, he could tell us, but he’s not, so...”
“But you have no idea who she...associated with?”
“None at all.” Gil looked at Jack. “I think you should know that there’s a lot of gossip around town.”
“I know. It’s about Roy.”
“We were told that he’s the suspect, but we don’t think he’s guilty,” Sara said. “But how do you get an alibi for twenty years ago?”
Jack leaned back against the couch. “I bet Grans knows where her precious son was on every day of his life.” He looked at Sara. “Why don’t you pop over to her house and have a chat?”
“Got a flamethrower I can take with me?” Sara’s upper lip was curled.
Kate looked over to Jack, who shrugged. It didn’t take much to put together that Sara wouldn’t have a close relationship with the woman who was married to the man she loved.
“I think that’s my cue to leave,” Gil said. “Keep the yearbook as long as you need it, but I don’t think it’ll be much help. There’s just the one posed photo of Cheryl. It doesn’t showher. When she used to hurry down the hallways, every male in the building would stop to watch her. She really was an unusual girl.”
Sara leaned forward. “She had all that male attention but shealwayssaid no?”
“If she was dating, I don’t think it was anyone in Lachlan.”
“Who you knew about,” Sara said. “On the videos, she could have passed for thirty. Maybe there was an older man. Or a married one.”
“I don’t think that Verna would have allowed that,” Gil said.
“Maybe not,” Sara replied. “I wonder if Verna wanted something, and that’s why she worked so much.”
“Yeah,” Gil said. “She wanted her daughter near her forever.”
At that, they all drew in their breaths. It was what had been given to both of them.
SEVEN
After Gil left, the three of them moved back to the kitchen together and were silent. Kate ate her eggs while Sara cooked an endless supply of bacon-wrapped cheese sticks. Jack ate them while trying to scratch under his cast.
The wordsnow what?might as well have been a neon sign flashing above their heads.
“If we could just find someone whoknewher,” Kate said.
“Who am I?” Jack asked. “The Invisible Man? I knew Cheryl better than anyone.”
“Okay, then who hated her enough to murder her and her mother?” Kate said, but Jack had no answer.
“Or loved them enough.” Sara slid another pan full of bits onto Jack’s plate.
“Love. Hate. They’re the same deep level of emotions.”
“I think it had to be love,” Jack said.
Sara halted, the granite-topped counter between them. “We can talk to Elaine Langley, but Cheryl seemed to be such a loner that I wonder if it will lead anywhere. Butsomeonemust have known them. People don’t live in isolation in this town—or anywhere, for that matter. All we’ve looked at is the school. Who lived in the houses around theirs?”
“They were rentals,” Jack said. “Two-week snowbirds. In and out. Nonpaying visitors.”
“What does that mean?” Kate asked.
“August heat is the price Floridians pay for the perfection of February. Snowbirds are people who show up just during the winter. They get the good without paying for it.”
“But then they go away,” Sara said quickly. “We need to find people to talk to. Who might have known them on anadultlevel?”
