Darius took it. It was the photo the photographer had taken at the Castle with all of them. He handed it back.
“Ahri must have been shielding me from them.”
He was going to have to thank her for that. She’d been involved in some of the preliminary work on the charity. Darius guessed he’d have to follow through with it. Now that Kayn had resolved his conflicted feelings about it, maybe he’d be willing to partner on it rather than giving it up as he’d originally planned. It was a good program. Darius was glad they’d been able to give Sophia a memorable experience. He’d found it therapeutic, overall, to be pulled out of his work to make a difference in someone’s life.
“You’ve been preoccupied, so I haven’t mentioned it before,” Joe said, his voice tentative. “Bill and I have been in touch with the local police. About the shooting and all.”
“And?”
“Graham passed his lie detector test.”
“Then who?”
“We have an idea and thought we’d set up a scenario that might bring out the perp.”
“What?”
“I’m sworn to secrecy, but considering what’s going to happen when we get there, I thought I’d better warn you. All I can say is to play along.”
“I hope you’re right then.” Like Darius didn’t have enough on his mind already.
“Have you heard from the ex-fiancée yet?” Joe asked.
“No, but I told her I was going to meet with Eve and planned to call.”
Darius heaved out of breath, trying to calm his stomach. If it hadn’t been for daily calls from Mrs. Campbell, he wouldn’t have known how Eve was doing. He’d asked how the housekeeper had gotten his phone number, and she’d told him it’d come through Eve’s grandfather. Evidently, Darius had support from an unsuspected corner.
“Eve isn’t unreasonable.” Joe nodded, his expression reflective. “She’s got a solid head on her shoulders. Whatever you have to explain—and I have a pretty good idea what it is—just lay it all out there.”
“The big question is whether or not Melanie will agree. If not, I’ll be asking Eve to trust me when all the evidence says I’m not worthy of it. And it’s not like I haven’t hurt her before. I don’t know, Joe. I just don’t know.”
“I saw the way she was on the first trip and how she’s been on this one. I think she wants to believe you. Have you figured out an approach?”
“No, and it’s making me crazy.” Darius rubbed at his tight neck muscles. What could he possibly do to convince her he was trustworthy?
“What about your history together? Weren’t you good friends in high school?”
“The best of friends. We ran in the same group for years. We did everything together.”
“Including confiding in each other?”
“About nearly everything.” Except how Darius had felt about her. His mind drifted with those memories. There were so many of them. Maybe that was the approach he should take.
“This is looking familiar,” Joe said, pointing to a farm to the left. “Wasn’t that the one we passed just before we got to her grandfather’s turn?”
“It is.” Darius’s stomach flipflopped.
It seemed like his entire future rested on the next hour. If Melanie wouldn’t accept his call, could he still convince the woman he loved to trust his word alone?
* * *
It’d beena pretty day and the best Eve had felt since she’d accepted that drink from Graham. He was still claiming his innocence, and she’d heard he’d convinced the authorities to give him the lie detector test. She wondered if they’d been able to keep drugs away from him in jail.
Eve knew that addiction was a very difficult thing to overcome, and he’d confessed to having used since he was a teenager. She and her mother had debated whether or not they should educate Granddad on the Rule of Thirds. When adolescents got trapped into addiction, a third of them would be in and out of treatment the rest of their lives while the drugs would kill another third. Only a third of them would ever break free.
She and her mother had decided it was too depressing for an elderly man. At his age, the chances were that he’d likely pass before Graham did, if the younger man was one of that third. There was always the chance that he’d pull his life together again.
Eve, with her mother in tow, had met with a nutritionist and the cook to come up with a plan to rule out triggers for her grandfather’s migraines. He and her father had taken to going on walks around the grounds. The more time the two men spent together, the less they argued and, when they did, they seemed to get over it more quickly.
