Page 101 of Murder on Charity Lane

“God help me,” Lily-Ann said. “He does the happy baby pose on my living room floor.”

Chuckles rippled around the table even before Mrs. B asked what on earth the happy baby looked like.

“When Anthony does it?” Nicholas said. “A joint venture of Pampers and Harley-Davidson.”

We laughed more, finished dinner, then passed around a box of See’s chocolates Ocean had picked up while looking for Mrs. B.

“Peanut crunch!” Mrs. B said, dipping into the box. “And here’s something even sweeter. CJ’s coming home.”

An uneasy silence spread around the table even faster than the chocolates had. Ocean lowered her gaze, though she gave a faint smile when Anthony, who was passing behind her, briefly squeezed her shoulder.

“That feels unlikely,” Nicholas said.

I looked away from my dark chocolate truffle. “They did arrest her for murder, after all. How is she coming home?”

“Well, I suppose,” Mrs. B said with another airy jangle of her bracelets, “that someone bailed her out.”

“Oh, shit,” Ocean said. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!”

“What did you do!”

“Well, I … I went to talk to her and everything fell into place.”

“Golda. Spill.”

Mrs. B huffed. “Stop looking at me like that! This is good news. Wonderful news. It’s exactly what you wanted! CJ will be home tomorrow.”

“How?”

“Well, you know, everyone really is trying their best. Nobody means harm, it’s just that sometimes we get muddled, so I went and tried to un-muddle things, that’s all.”

“Sure,” Ocean said. “Now explain using words.”

“My assumption,” Lily-Ann told Ocean, “is that Mrs. B used the Cottages as collateral to bail out CJ.”

47

LILY-ANN

Lily-Ann watched the reactions to her statement on the faces around the table. The surprise struck her as odd. Of course Mrs. B had risked the Marigold Cottages for CJ. Nothing could be more in character. They were only YMCA locker room buddies? Well, naturally you’d risk your home for a kind stranger. Your unofficially adopted daughter had gone on a few dates with her? Nothing could possibly matter more than that!

“Well, fuck,” Ocean said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Now you’re being silly,” Mrs. B told her. “It was the right thing to do, because she’s innocent. And you can take her out to dinner to celebrate!”

“Fuck.” Ocean considered for a moment, then added: “Fuck.”

“You bailed her out using … what exactly?” Sophie asked Mrs. B.

“Bail isn’t bail,” Hamilton said, but everyone ignored him.

“She used the Cottages,” Lily-Ann told Sophie. “Unless there’s a substantial amount of wealth of which I’m unaware.”

“Er,” Mrs. B said. “Well, I didn’t really use the Cottages.”

“What does that mean?” Sophie asked.