She could hear the tinny theme song of her son’s favorite cartoon show. Then her son’s voice. “Yes! I’m good boy.”
“He really has been pretty good,” Farrah said. “I got him to sleep almost the whole night in his new bed. He’s had breakfast, and now we’re just chilling with someCaillou.”
Brooke smiled despite herself. “Ugh. I hate that show.”
“For real. Whatever happened to Barney the purple dinosaur like I used to watch?”
“Dunno. Listen, Farrah. Would it be possible for you to stay ’til later in the day?”
“I guess. I mean, it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do since me and Jaxson are broken up. How late are we talking about?”
“Not sure yet.”
“Is everything okay? You sound kind of stressed.”
“Yeah, well, stressed is putting it mildly. The thing is, Josephine is dead.”
“What! For real? What happened?”
Brooke described the scene she’d found in the bathroom.
“Oh, man. That really sucks. What happens now, with the island and everything?”
“It’s way too soon to tell. I’ve called the sheriff’s office, and he’ll be over pretty soon. In the meantime, I’ve got to deal with things here, which could get complicated. Which is why I’d really, really appreciate it if you could keep watching Henry. I’ll pay extra, of course.”
“No problem. It’ll be fun. Maybe we’ll head over to the park in a little while.”
“Good idea,” Brooke said. “I can’t thank you enough, Farrah. Can you put Henry on the phone?”
“Sure thing,” she said. “Henry!” the babysitter called. “Hey, Henry, come here. Your mama’s on the phone. She wants to talk to you.”
“No!”
“Come on, buddy,” Farrah coaxed. “Don’t you want to tell Mama about the awesome thing you did last night?”
“No!”
“Never mind,” Brooke said, sighing. “I’ll get home as soon as I can. Give him a kiss for me, okay?”
“All day long,” Farrah promised.
“Just out of curiosity, what did he do last night?”
“Oh. Big news. Huge news. He pooped in the potty.”
“Major breakthrough,” Brooke said, laughing. “I’ll call you later.”
***
Gabe Wynant was just emerging from his bedroom, dressed, with his briefcase tucked under his arm. “Oh, good,” he said, seeing Brooke approach. “You’re up. I was going to see if somebody could give us a ride to the ferry…” He left the sentence unfinished, noticing her pained expression. “What’s wrong?” He clutched her arm.
“Josephine’s dead,” she said.
“Oh no.” He shook his head. “Heart attack?”
“Maybe, but maybe not. Louette found her lying on the bathroom floor. It looks like she fell and hit her head on the tile.”
He glanced up and down the corridor at the closed doors. “Have you told the others?”
