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“Stop it.” Laura slaps his arm and gives a lighthearted chuckle. “I’m not losing my mind just yet.”

“You were for a bit, there.” I tuck the blanket around her legs, and smooth down a flyaway hair.

“Well, I certainly haven’t forgotten in that time what a nuisance you are.”

“She’s warming up to you nicely, I see.” Brows lowered, the doctor jerks his head. “May I have a word with you? It’ll only be a moment.”

“A word? Alone? Is it about me?” Running her fingers over her necklace, Laura smiles up at Dr. Powell.

Bending slightly forward, he takes Laura’s hand and leaves a kiss to her knuckles. “Of course not, darling. I’m sure it’ll come as a surprise to know not every topic is about you. I’m off to my next appointment, so you stay out of trouble.”

“You don’t know me very well, then.”

A sly grin crinkles his face, but once outside the room, it sobers to something more serious, as he closes the door behind him. “I, um … thought, rather than have you find out through Laura, I should tell you that Nell was found dead very early this morning.”

The air deflates inside my chest as I stare back at him, confusion and shock waging war inside my head. “Dead?”

“Yes. It seems she overdosed.”

“Overdosed? That … that doesn’t sound right.”

“She’s been skimming pills off Laura for quite some time. I never said anything because, well … I didn’t exactly have proof. Just scripts running out faster than they should’ve. But as far as I know, it was heroin. The housekeeper at the motel found her.”

I know heroin abusers. Nell certainly gave off the addict vibe, but there’s no way she was actively abusing it all this time. This has to be a relapse.

I lift my gaze back to his. “Motel? What was she doing at a motel?”

“One of those pay-by-week things.”

Unless I got bits of the story wrong, I was certain Nell had her own place. “What about her son?”

“Son? I wasn’t aware she had a son.”

Maybe she didn’t talk about him much, or didn’t divulge anything personal like that. “Was it in town? On the island?”

“The motel? Yes, it’s, ah …” He taps his finger to his chin, contemplative for a moment. “Crow’s Nest Motel.”

I know that one. About a mile and a half from where Aunt Midge works. They not only rent by the week, but by the hour, as I understand. “I can’t believe she’d throw everything away.”

And yet, I absolutely can, because that’s how junkies work. There is nothing more valuable than the drug. Not even a child. I know that from firsthand experience, which is how I got dumped on my aunt’s doorstep.

“Well, she was always a little shady. Used to hang out at some skeevy bar. She liked picking up the locals to take back to the motel and shoot up.”

“The Shoal?”

“Pretty sure that’s the one.”

Sure, there are some interesting characters that end up at The Shoal, but I’ve grown up with a lot of those guys. Worked summers with some of them. They’re not the most upstanding citizens on the island, but I can’t imagine any of the regulars taking a young girl back to a motel to shoot up drugs. I’ve seen much skeevier places than that bar.

Then again, maybe I don’t know any of them any more than I thought I knew Nell.

“Anyway, I need to go, or I’ll be late. I just wanted to let you know.”

“I appreciate it. Thanks.”

I head back into Laura’s bedroom, where she sits with one eyebrow quirked, and I shake my head. “Just giving me some info on your new meds.”

“So, it was about me. That man is such a liar,” she says with a smile.