There was a flurry of panic as Nick’s headlights approached. Viola issued quiet orders. Knives were hidden, stuffed in pockets, or tossed into the trees. Sally scurried into the cabin to hide. Lola, Birdie, Kathy, and Gita sat on the porch steps, blocking the entry. Mrs. Haggerty stood beside Vero and me at the foot of the stairs. Viola positioned herself like a sentry in front of us.
A car door shut. Footsteps crunched cautiously along the path.
Viola cocked her rifle and stared down the barrel. “You’re trespassing on private property,” she called out as Nick came into view. “Announce yourself if you don’t want to be shot.”
Nick paused. He raised one hand and used the other to hold up his identification. His badge glinted in the moonlight. “I’m Detective Nicholas Anthony,” he called out. “Fairfax County Police. I’m looking for two women, possibly in distress. I have reason to believe they might be on this property.”
“Is anyone else with you?” Viola asked.
“No, ma’am.”
“Keep your hands and ID where I can see them.” She kept her gun trained on him as he slowly approached the cabin.
She gave his badge a performative glance before lowering her rifle. “I apologize, Detective. I don’t get many visitors out here, especially at this time of night. My friends and I were enjoying our retreat, and we heard your car come up the driveway. Women have to be careful. I’m sure a man in your position understands. I hope you’ll forgive our hostile greeting.”
Nick nodded once, his posture tense and wary, his hand hovering close to his side as he put away his ID. His eyes made a quick pass over Vero and me. “You two okay?”
“We’re fine,” I said, thankful for the dark as I glanced at Mrs. Haggerty. “It was all a big misunderstanding.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed on us. “A misunderstanding?”
I cleared my throat. “More of an accident, really.” It was, wasn’t it? How else could I explain any of this without dumping more lies on the heaping pile that already existed between me and Nick? He stared at me, waiting for an answer. “You see, Vero and I were very concerned about Mrs. Haggerty,” I explained. “We heard her leave the house after dark, and she isn’t supposed to be driving—”
“Because she’s a menace to the public,” Vero said through her teeth.
“If we had known Mrs. Haggerty wanted to join her friends at their book club retreat so badly, we would have offered to drive her. But she left without telling anyone where she was going or who she was meeting here. So we followed her.” That was all true, if not entirely complete.
“We thought maybe she was having one of those senior moments,” Vero said flippantly. “You know, like wandering off and not remembering who she is or where she lives. I, for one, would havebeen satisfied to pretend she didn’t exist and let her shrivel up and die like the big, fat pimple on my ass that she is, but Finlay was determined to go after her, just to make sure she wasn’t getting into any trouble. Right, Finn?”
“In a manner of speaking.” I was finding it hard to hold Nick’s gaze. He wasn’t buying a word of this. Any trust I had earned with that phone call, asking for his help, was slipping like cremains through my fingers.
“If you both followed her, why wasn’t Vero with you when you called me? You said she was in danger.”
Vero threw up her hands. “That wastotallymy fault. See, Mrs. Haggerty stopped to pick up a friend on the way here. They were all following each other,” she explained, “and while they were stopped—”
“We were snooping,” I admitted. Nick’s eyes cut to me. “Vero was curious about what was in the refrigeration truck, and she accidentally locked herself in it. Mrs. Haggerty’s friends started driving away before I could stop them. I was terrified Vero was going to freeze to death. But she’s fine. See? We’re all fine.” I winced, remembering Sally’s husband.
“What were you looking for?” Nick asked in his cool cop voice.
Vero’s eyebrows shot up. “Who, me?”
“You said you were worried about Mrs. Haggerty. But that truck isn’t hers.” All of Nick’s focus shifted to me. “What were you looking for in the truck, Finlay?” A chill tightened my skin, every one of his questions peeling back a layer, leaving me more exposed. He was about to catch me in a lie and he knew it in that way detectives always seem to know that something isn’t what it seems.
The cabin door creaked open behind me. “They were looking for me,” a voice said.
We all turned to stare at the figure on the porch. In the dim light from the window, I could just make out her short bob and the soft lines of her long sweater. Nick stiffened as Penny Dupree stepped out into the moonlight.
Mrs. Haggerty gasped. The others shot to their feet.
The bathroom.Penny must have been hiding in the bathroom the entire time we’d been here. Just as she had at Birdie’s house, during the last book club meeting. When I’d tried to flush the brownies in the toilet, the downstairs bathroom had been occupied. It all made sense now, why Mrs. Haggerty never wanted me to join her club. Why Viola met us on the porch when I’d come to her house. Why Birdie had only cracked the door when I’d knocked, forcing me to barge my way into her home.
They’d been hiding Penny.
Penny had been a member of their book club all along, in cahoots with all of them. And now that Nick knew she had lied, what would these women do to us?
His eyes darted over her as she descended the stairs, as if he was trying to reconcile this modestly dressed, fresh-faced woman with the glamorous blonde he’d met five days ago.
She tucked back a lock of her chestnut hair and hugged her cardigan closed over her chest. “I don’t know why you look so surprised, Detective. Finlay’s been telling everyone who will listen that she suspected I was lying about her ex-husband. She’s a damn sharp and determined young woman. I’m guessing she was looking for proof in that truck because no one was willing to believe her.” She shook a reproving finger at him. I reached for Vero’s hand as Viola tightened her grip on the gun. The women all tensed. Time stood still, suspended on a fulcrum as we waited for Penny to seal his fate.
