“Me?” I swallowed hard. “But I barely even spoke to him. He wouldn’t have any reason to?—”
She gave me a pointed look. “I know his process. It’s the same one he always uses.”
“What did he want you to help him fix?”
“No idea. By the time he forced me out there, I was a blubbering mess. He left me in the greenhouse for a while, but I don’t know where he went or what he did. I tried to make myself go back through the tunnel, but when I thought of Mr. Finch and what had happened to him down there… I just couldn’t.”
That, I understood. I’d ridden back in one of the estate’s golf carts with a police escort last night. I never wanted to step foot in that underground tunnel again.
Katie put a hand to her chest as if she needed to catch her breath. “I’m sorry. It’s… it’s a lot. Before last night I didn’t think the tunnel was in use any longer. The last time I was down there, Savilla was nine and wanted to be an explorer when she grew up. She pretended to be the archeologist and made me her assistant.” She smiled at the memory, but almost immediately, the terror crept back into her features. “How could he do that to Mr. Finch? To Mrs. Finch?” She studied me, remembering the personal stake I had in all of this. “And all the while, framing your poor aunt. Thank God she’s out.”
“Have you seen her yet?” I glanced around. “Or the sheriff?” I wanted to hug DeeDee’s neck and… well, I didn’t know what I wanted to do to the sheriff, but strangely I wanted to see him.
“I left the police station after I gave my official statement. I couldn’t stay awake for another second. Came straight back here and collapsed into bed for a few hours.”
Katie arched her shoulders and pasted a beauty queen smile on her face as she attempted to brighten our conversation again. “Your man is so very… well, so very strong. No pun intended.”
“My man?” I was glad to hear her returning to some semblance of herself, though I knew the trauma of last night would linger. Still, I wasn’t sure what she meant by referring to “my man.”
“Sheriff Strong,” she clarified.
“Oh, he’s not… we’re not…”
“I see.” Katie patted my arm and then crossed two fingers. “We’ll keep hopeful thoughts for a happy ending.”
THIRTY-THREE
As I finished my second coffee, Aunt DeeDee hustled over, throwing her arms around me. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, Dakota Green.”
I let myself sink into her embrace, and my eyes began to fill. I blinked back the tears, and Aunt DeeDee released me. “Let me get a good look at you, sweetheart.” She wiped a thumb under one of my eyes. “Now, none of that. Pull yourself together. We don’t want your face puffy for the grand finale.”
I laughed at the words. “I see prison didn’t change you.”
“It was just jail, darling,” she said with a grin.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t be… they wouldn’t let you…” I didn’t know how to finish the statement, so I kept it simple, looking her directly in the eye, trying to communicate how sorry I was for the years spent overlooking her efforts, years of forgetting the importance of her presence in my life. I didn’t have my mother, but I had a close second: the woman who’d been there in the background, making cookies and chauffeuring me around town and bringing me forgotten homework. “I missed you.”
Aunt DeeDee seemed to understand the depth of my feeling because she pulled me back into a long hug.
“I have so much to ask you… and tell you,” I said, surprising myself at how badly I wanted to recount the past forty-eight hours. “I made friends, and the people here… there’s more to them than I thought.”
I’m not sure why this was the thing that felt most important to communicate. Maybe it was because I wanted to validate my aunt’s life’s work, or maybe because I wanted her to know I saw her and appreciated her.
“And I cannot wait to hear all about it,” Aunt DeeDee told me. “But now that they have the perpetrator behind bars where he belongs, all that can wait. You’ve got a job to do.”
She nodded toward the 1950s tent, where Summer and Jemma and my other fellow contestants were waiting for me to rehearse. Even from where I stood I could tell that Jemma’s arms were crossed, and she wore impatience like a mantel. Summer had an anxious look on her face as she darted back and forth trying to be of help.
Aunt DeeDee nudged me toward them. “I’ll be here when you perform, I promise. In the meantime, Savilla’s acting as our substitute judge. What do you think?”
“She’ll be great,” I said. “Just don’t let her give any speeches with big words.”
By noon guests had parked in downtown Aubergine and were shuttled to the front steps of the Rose Palace. Soon after, they began streaming through the gates, eyeing the ornate architecture and making their way to the decades tents, for which Lacy had outdone herself.
“Don’t be nervous,” Jemma said. I could tell she was trying to be helpful, but her entire vibe was a bit left of bossy. She must’ve realized it because she took a deep breath and tried again. “You know your lines, so you’ll be fine—great, even.”
“Thanks,” I said, sending her a soft smile. “I appreciate that.”
She patted me twice on the arm as we took our places.
