Braden looked away, but not before he caught a glimpse of her graceful neck as she stretched. She left the old diary on the desk and followed him through the house and to the kitchen on the opposite side of the mansion.
“Maybe I can learn what it is that Diggins wants to know without having to ask Mrs. Monroe directly,” Cressida said. “But I need to know what he knows about my father.”
“Or I could grill him as a detective,” he said.
“You think he’ll tell you because you’re a cop?”
“He shouldn’t be holding back possible evidence regarding a suspicious death.”
“Let’s do it my way first,” she said. “The more information we have, the better.”
“Have you talked to your mother about your father?” Yes, he was going there. He needed to steer her in this direction. “Maybe she knows something about his death that she hasn’t shared with you.”
Cressida’s face fell. He’d overstepped. She was angry but controlling it. “Why don’t you look at police reports? You have connections. You can dig deeper into the fatal traffic accident in which a pedestrian was killed in DC. Maybe Ihaven’tbeen told everything about his death.” She sounded furious. Incredulous.
“My question wasn’t unreasonable, and as for yours, I’m already working on it,” he said.
She narrowed her eyes. “Why would you think my mother would know?”
He lifted his shoulders. “Just looking at all the angles.”
Tell her. Just tell her.
But ... Elise depended on him. He couldn’t be the reason that sweet little girl’s health failed her.
Change the subject.He poured coffee into mugs.
She opened the fridge. “What’ll it be for you tonight?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Sure you are. I’m having the pasta e fagioli. I’ll make some for you too,” she said. “This seems like a soup night.”
“Actually, that does sound good.”
“Two soups coming up.”
“You don’t have to do it,” he said. “I can heat them up.”
“You made coffee. I’ll make the soup.”
“Thank you,” he said. He drank the black brew from the mug. “Earlier today, after we chased away the intruder, we were all in the room that he’d ransacked. That’s when I saw someone in the woods, peering at the window through a scope. Thought maybe he was the escaped intruder. It would have been about right in terms of the distance he had to run from the house. Nothing was caught on the camera, by the way. They’re disabled on that side of the house. I’ll get permission from Evelyn to get her cameras fixed and possibly add additional security measures.”
“I remember,” she said. “Evelyn was having chest pains, and you suddenly exited.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize she was having a health crisis.”
“It’s fine. She got the care she needed.”
“Because you were there for her.” He smiled, hoping to chase away her irritation with him.
“Go ahead and tell me the rest.” The microwaved soupwas ready, and she grabbed it, along with their spoons, then pushed a bowl over to him.
He paused and said a blessing over the food and was glad that Cressida joined in.
“When I got to the woods, I followed someone heading down the old steps in the cliff’s edge to the beach. The ones you took before, possibly. He took a boat out to a vessel waiting for him in the fog—it was theMariner’s Gambit.”
Cressida’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure?”
