That was not an exciting rumor. “So? She might have been asking him to donate to her nonprofit. Or investing in something herself and needed his help.”
My mom snorted. “That wasnota dress you wear to a business meeting.”
“How do you know?” I said. “You weren’t even there.”
Mom sighed. “Well. It was great seeing you, Angela.”
“It was great seeing you too,” said Andrea, with the grace not to call my mom Gail or Gloria. I didn’t bother lying to them and saying it had been great to see them as well, just gave them limp goodbye hugs as they left. When the door closed behind them, a weight lifted off my shoulders, like after taking off my wings the year I’d walked in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show (those wings were surprisingly heavy, and I felt considerably more floaty and angelic once they were off. There was probably a metaphor there).
Andrea looked just as relieved to see them go. She stayed for a few minutes to chitchat, probably to make sure she wouldn’t run into them on the sidewalk, then made her escape. “Well,” said Gabe. “At least it wasn’t one of your parents. Probably.”
It was a relief, I supposed, to know that neither of my parents had murdered anyone this time. But, honestly, last time my mom had given me a clue that had pointed me to the next place to go. The next thread to pull. This time?
Ruling out my dad put me at a dead end. I didn’t know who else to look at, or what else to look for.
CHAPTER
Twenty
Ineeded more time to noodle upon my next suspect. There were still a number of people who weren’t in an alibi photo, but I couldn’t just go around spraying off interrogations willy-nilly. People would start to talk. No, I needed to be laser focused. I needed another motive. Conrad’s habit of hoarding people’s secrets must have come back to bite him, but those secrets had died with him. Which was a motive in itself. All I needed to know waswhosesecret had pushed him over the edge.
Literally.
So after I’d moaned and groaned and moped around the apartment a bit, I told Gabe, “Let’s take a weekend for us. Let’s go somewhere and have fun and not think about murder or dark secrets or anything horrible.” I had to solve this murder to save my nonprofit and therefore the kids who needed it—needed me—but that could wait a weekend. Self-care was important too.
He stood up a little straighter, eyes gleaming. “Where?”
I took a moment to think. I didn’t really want to go anywhere the social scene would find me. Most of the people I’d wanted to befriend, like Kitty and Libby and John, were still shunning me, and I couldn’t be seen with the ones who didn’t, because then the former would never take me back. And Gabe had seemed a little intimidated and stressed by our trip to KevinMiller’s private island, so probably I didn’t want to make a grand gesture like that again (there was also the small point of me being grounded from the jet). I was about to suggest going up to the house in the Berkshires, but stopped right before the words crossed my lips. My parents wouldn’t be there, but it was still an Afton family home. Same for going to the Afton Philadelphia or Afton Portland.
I took a deep breath, already regretting what I was about to say. “How about that national park you’ve been wanting to go to? The one in Virginia? We can drive there.”
“Shenandoah?”
“Yeah.” I was already mad at myself. “We can get your tent and camping gear out of the storage cage in the basement and… use it. Go camping or whatever. It will be… fun.”
Gabe’s entire face lit up, which made it worth it. Almost. Kind of. “It’s going to be so much fun. Sleeping in the great outdoors in all kinds of weather. Going to the bathroom outside. Cooking cans of beans over the campfire. Wearing the same clothes the entire time no matter how muddy and sweaty they get.”
I did my absolute best to arrange my face so that it didn’t look as if I were about to cry. “Yes. All of that.”
A wry smile twitched at his lips. “Pom, you don’t have to do this. I knew going into this relationship that you probably were not going to be my camping partner.”
But maybe that was what was missing from our relationship. He accompanied me for all this stuff that was second nature and beloved to me, like galas and sunning on private islands, but I didn’t do the things with him that he loved. Like—God—sleeping in a flimsy canvas cover that didn’t totally keep out the mosquitos, all while marinating in the same sweaty clothes from your active day. “I can be, though,” I said earnestly. “I want to be.”
I really, really did not. But I would, if that’s what I had to do. I squared my shoulders, lifting my chin, readying myself for the misery ahead.
Gabe sighed. “Look, I know what you’re trying to do. And I appreciate it. But I would rather just go hike Shenandoah with Caleb when he has some time off than go with you, knowing you hate every second of it.”
“I wouldn’t hate every second of it,” I said. “I’d enjoy being there with you.”
He leaned in and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. The tension in my shoulders melted, a little of the stress in my stomach easing away. “Why don’t we do something that we’d both enjoy? Like the Queens Night Market. I’ve been meaning to go back for ages, but we were a little distracted last summer.”
I knew what I’d just said, but I still couldn’t keep myself from grimacing. A national park was one thing. But Queens? I’d had quite enough of Queens last year.
But this wasn’t about me. I mean, itwasabout me—most things were—but it was also about Gabe. I said, “I’d go anywhere with you.”
Even back to Queens. We stepped out of our car into a cool but sticky evening, the smells of grilling meat and candied nuts drifting through the air around us. Hand in hand, we walked through a packed park, kids playing volleyball on one side of us and more kids riding bikes on the other, stands selling ices and churros and cold drinks lining the sides of this central pathway. Ahead of us sprawled an enormous grass field lined with tents and already bustling with people.
“I can’t believe you’ve lived in the city most of your life and you’ve still never been here,” Gabe said, craning his neck over the line of people ahead of us waiting to go through the security gate. “It’s one of my favorite places in the city. Only open during the spring and summer.”
