“No, it’s because of the fire,” Allison said. “The stables are near there, and the horses are all really unsettled. The police said it wouldn’t be safe to bring them out around the kids.”
“Terrible thing that,” Gerry said. “I’ve been saying for years those outbuildings were unsafe. Not to mention a terrible eyesore.”
“What fire?” As Mack spoke again, Hailey saw that the veins in the side of his face were visible, as if her betrayal had worn a layer of skin off him.
“Don’t you two follow local news?” Betsy chided them. “Some old shack burned down, just up the road. Right in Bratenahl. They said it was just teenagers messing around, but one of them got hurt.”
It could have been Hailey’s imagination, but it felt like the warm, boozy atmosphere that surrounded them had frozen over as quickly as the late November air outside. She watched this information spread over Mack’s features, and a terrible feeling came over her.
“That’s awful,” Hailey managed. “I hope everyone is all right now.”
The answer took forever to reach her ears.
“No, I don’t think so.” Gerry shook his head with grandfatherly solemnity. “Third-degree burns, is what they said. Fire marshal told me some youths were inside smoking marijuana or what have you and the place went up like a haystack. I knew it would happen. I pick up beer bottles from all around the neighborhood; you wouldn’t believe the delinquents that run around here at night.” Was it Hailey’s imagination, or was he looking right into her soul as he said this?
“They didn’t say whether these were neighborhood kids or, well,youknow...” The three of them waited for Allison to finish her sentence, and when she didn’t, Mack seemed to come alive again.
“We knowwhat?” There was such an edge to his voice that for a moment Hailey felt relief: he wouldn’t be picking a fight if he’d had anything to do with the fire. She was crazy even to entertain it. But the coincidence was shocking...impossibleeven.
“What is it that we know?” Mack said again, and his words were shrill and dangerous.
Even with as much wine as Hailey had just watched Allison drink, the woman knew enough to be defensive. “I just meant that it could be outsiders who came in to make trouble, that’s all.”
“And so they deserved to be...” Mack choked on his words. “Burned up? Just because they aren’t rich Bratenahl bra—” He stopped himself and clenched his jaw, and Hailey knew again without having to think about it that he was guilty, and also that she had to save him before he made a scene.
“I’m so sorry,” she said to the little circle. “That’s just such an upsetting story, and my husband’s been under a lot of stress recently.” She smiled knowingly at the little group and prayed that the acknowledgment of one secret would bury the trail of another. “We’d better go find the girls, Mack, and leave these nice people to their drinks.”
Fortunately, Mabel and Gigi were nowhere to be seen in the main ballroom, so Hailey was able to follow Mack as he fled through the foyer and out the main front door. She faced him as he bent double in the bushes.
“Mack, stop it. Whatever’s going on you can’t do this here—”
“Are you okay, sir?” One of the parking valets had started toward them.
“He’s fine,” said Hailey, blocking his view of Mack with her body. “He just needs a little air.”
The kid nodded and headed back toward his cohorts; discretion was everything at the Shoreby.
Mack mumbled something incoherent.
“What?”
“I can’t breathe. I just... I really can’t breathe.”
A Cadillac pulled up in front of them, and a family they had pushed past to get out the door piled toward it—parents, grandparents, and children. The sound of their laughter was obscene.
“Will you look at that!” cried the grandmother, and Hailey noticed for the first time that snow was falling around them. “It was sixty-five degrees on Wednesday. Winter’s hit us all at once!”
Their waiting Cadillac gave Hailey an idea. She took the valet ticket from her purse and flagged down the same attendant. “I’m going to go get the girls,” she told Mack. “Just get in the car when he brings it back, okay? Just wait in there. I’ll drive. Don’t talk to anyone.”
As she pressed back through the crowd, she weighed up the best way to lure her daughters away; they’d been here in this winter wonderland for less than an hour. She was prepared to pull them out kicking and screaming, but when she found Mabel at a glitter-covered art table, she was teary and miserable. As her daughter rose from her child-sized chair, Hailey saw why: the beautiful white-tipped forest on the Christmas dress was no more. All of the hand-painted snow-covered trees had been colored in with a fat green marker; Hailey could still see it there, lying capless at Mabel’s place. It was the scented kind—this dark-green color, Hailey knew, smelled ironically like pine—and now Mabel was left with a plain blue dress with irregular dark blobs on it. Thanks to her mother, Hailey knew the stains would never come out.
“Arabella made me do it,” said Mabel, tears pooling in her eyes. “She said she got her dress first, and I copied.”
“That’s just silly. It’ll wash out, Mabs,” Hailey lied. “Don’t worry. Where’s your sister?”
“Dunno.” Mabel put her thumb in her mouth and kept it there while Hailey picked her way through endless rooms overflowing with Christmas trees and wooden reindeer and human-sized snowmen and giant sleighs full of stacks and stacks of brightly wrapped presents. After fifteen minutes of circling and just as real panic was setting in, they found Gigi in some sort of library room. Hailey arrived in the arched doorway just in time to see her youngest sneeze all over an untouched tray of intricately decorated Christmas cookies, much to the horror of a group of nearby parents. Hailey swooped in with the waitress, who removed the contaminated baked goods almost as quickly as Hailey made off with Gigi.
When they finally made it outside, the car was in the front turning circle. The driver door was open, and the engine was running, but Mack was nowhere to be found.
