Moment by moment, her memory cells regrouped. She’d borrowed a nurse’s phone because no one knew where hers was. The nurse looked up the Morgans’ number. That’s all she remembered. Her was in a fog, like the kind that had been on the beach the morning she’d met CiCi. Back when Maddie was still able to run but had been walking thanks to the high tide.
She rubbed her eyes, grateful that at least part of her memory seemed intact. “My phone. Do you know where it is?”
He lifted her purse. “I didn’t want to leave this here Friday. Do you want it now? I expect your phone’s in it?”
“You really are my savior. Thanks.” She took her purse and quickly found it. “And it’s still charged.”
“Do you want to keep your purse here?”
“No. Just the phone for now.” She handed him the purse. “I’ll be out of here tomorrow.”
He nodded. “That’s all you wanted? It’s why you sounded so crazed?”
She lowered her eyes, then raised them to meet his. “If there was another reason, I’ve forgotten it.”
“Hmm,” he answered with a frown. “If it’s any help, you insisted that I come alone. Which I took to mean I shouldn’t bring my mother.”
“Ah,” she said, the fog starting to lift. “Right. It’s about Joe Thurston.” She waited several seconds to allow the letters in her brain to fall into words as if being prompted by Vanna White ofWheel of Fortune(her father watched that, of course) or teasing her while she playedWordle. When the words finally formed, she asked, “Brandon? Do you think Joe killed my grandmother?”
Brandon let out a sharp laugh. “Joe? You’re kidding, right?”
“Well . . . no.”
“Why him? He’s probably the kindest, most decent guy I’ve known on the Vineyard.”
So Maddie explained how Joe had told her about some people giving property back to the tribe; she asked Brandon if he thought Joe might be hoping she’d do that with Nancy’s.
Brandon frowned. “Sorry, Maddie, but I don’t believe it. I know you want answers about Nancy’s death, but let’s not jump the gun, okay?”
“So we have to wait for the death certificate.”
“Yes.” Then he fidgeted with the edge of the sheet. “The truth is, sometimes they can’t tell for certain. And, if so, we’ll have to accept that.”
She closed her eyes, wondering why it mattered so much to her to try to solve a mystery that might not even be a mystery, about a woman who hadn’t reached out to Maddie in forty years. Maybe she’d only left Maddie her estate in memory of her daughter.
“I guess you’re right,” she said. “But when we were having brunch, I thought about the people I’ve met here. I guess because my grandmother’s land is worth so much, I’ve been feeling compelled to try to figure out if one of them might have wanted her dead.”
“The land is only worth ‘so much’ if someone sells it,” he said.
“Or returns it to the people it once belonged to.”
Her comment was punctuated by the steady beeping of a monitor.
“Brandon?” she asked. “You really don’t think Joe did it?”
He took her hand, careful to steer clear of the IV port.
“Maddie, you won’t remember this, but when we got to the hospital—I rode with you in the ambulance—I called my mother. Earlier you’d said Rafe was with Joe; I asked my mother to call Joe and have him get your son to the hospital. She said Joe was awfully upset, but he didn’t tell Rafe what had happened, or that you were in the hospital. Which, to me, was a super kind thing to do. But that’s Joe. All he said was that something had come up, and he needed to head back to dry land. When they docked the kayaks, he asked Rafe to go with him—he said he wanted to show him something. When I saw Joe here in the waiting room, he told me he hadn’t wanted your son to be worried all the way to the hospital, that he figured there’d be plenty of time for the poor kid to be upset, that there was no sense alarming him ahead of time. And while Joe was telling me all that, he was crying. He’s a good man, Maddie. Not a killer. And, by the way, with Nancy gone, you and Rafe are Joe’s closest relations. Don’t for a second think he takes that lightly.”
Then Brandon let go of her fingers. “So try not to worry, okay? My mother said George should be back in a couple of days, and I’ll be all over his case for the death certificate.”
She felt as if she’d shattered Michelangelo’sDavid. How could she have suspected Joe? He was her family. And from what he’d told her about Grandma Nancy, it seemed that they’d been close.
It was time to stop tormenting herself into thinking that her grandmother’s death had been anything but an accident. Time to stop trying to make more of things than what they obviously were.
Then another image of the policeman at the door flashed into her mixed-up mind.
* * *
