“What’s going on?” Margo asked, stepping out of the room and walking to the front of the inn with them as three people in white walked into the lobby.
“We have a lead in the case,” June told her carefully. “We need to search Tom’s room here at the inn. We have his full permission.”
Margo’s brows lifted. Her eyes moved briefly to the people in white again. “Of course,” she replied without hesitation. “Whatever you need. I’ll let you in.” She glanced back at the architect and contractor. “Give me two minutes.”
June waited while Margo disappeared into the boardroom. She wasn’t long when she popped out again and went to the person at the front desk.
“Can you please get some refreshments and snacks for my guests in the boardroom?” Margo asked the clerk.
“Of course,” the young woman said.
Margo returned to June, Holt, and the three people, then led them to the room Tom had occupied for the past year.
She unlocked the door and stepped back.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me,” Margo told them.
“Thank you,” Holt replied.
June watched from the doorway as the team got to work and Holt gave them instructions. Just then, her phone rang, and she looked at the screen. It was Lucy.
“Hello, Lucy,” June answered.
“Hello, June. I’m so glad you answered.” Lucy’s voice resonated with relief. “Judy is awake. She’s asking for you specifically. I wasn’t going to call because she’s very weak, and I didn’t want to get you here for nothing. But she’s getting agitated and insisting she sees you.” There was a brief pause. “I don’t know how long she’ll stay conscious. If you want to come, it needs to be now.”
June was already moving toward the staircase. “I’m on my way.”
“June, where are you going?” Holt popped his head out the door.
June stopped and glanced back at him.
“I have to go to the hospital,” she told him. “Judy is awake and asking for me. Lucy doesn’t know how long she’ll stay conscious.”
“Go,” Holt replied immediately. “I’ll stay with the team here. Call me the moment you’re done.”
“I will,” June promised, then jogged down the stairs.
She was in the car and pulling out of the parking lot in record time. Lucy was waiting for her at the hospital entrance.
June pulled up and got out of the car, hurrying toward her friend.
“I thought I’d wait here so I could take you straight through,” Lucy said the moment June joined her at the door. “Come on.”
As they hurried along, Lucy glanced toward June with a telling look.
“How are you holding up?” Lucy asked her. “Tom called and told me what he could.”
June felt a wave of something that wasn’t quite guilt but was close enough to it.
“Lucy, I’m so sorry. The timing of all this, with you and Tom just finding your way back to each other—” June’s voice cut off.
“June.” Lucy’s voice was firm but not unkind. She pressed the elevator button. “Tom has nothing to do with whatever Victoria did. We both know that.” She glanced at June with the steady, clear-eyed composure of a woman who had been a doctor long enough to have learned how to hold complicated feelings in both hands at once without dropping either of them. “He’s devastated and embarrassed and furious, but he’s not involved. I know that.”
“I know you do,” June replied. “I just wanted to say it.”
The elevator doors opened, and they stepped in.
“I still can’t quite believe it,” Lucy admitted as the doors closed. Her voice was quieter now, the professional composure softening slightly at the edges. “You know… about Victoria. I always knew she was difficult. Cold, sometimes vicious, absolutely insufferable at a dinner party.” She shook her head slowly. “But arson. Attempted murder. All of it.” Her eyes met June’s. “Do you really think it was her?”
