get you somewhere where I can take a look,” Theresa says. She turns toward me. “Aubrey, please show yourself out. Now.”
“Okay,” I gulp. Gran’s face is a mask of pain. “I really am sorry.”
Theresa hustles Gran inside, and I try to retrace my steps. I make a wrong turn, though, ending up in a library-like room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a massive desk stationed directly in front of the windows. There’s an ornately carved side table right inside the door, holding a variety of vases and decorative bowls. When I glance over them, I spot something familiar nestled inside a bronze salver—a slim silver card, just like the one the chauffeur used to open the gates leading to Catmint House.
I don’t think twice. I just do what Gran would never have expected of me, and slip it into my pocket.
By five o’clock on Sunday, I’ve officially missed my ferry back to Hyannis. I’m not sure what comes next in the big scheme of things, but for the here and now we’re having a cookout. Which seems strangely normal given the past twenty-four hours, but it’s summer and we have to eat.
“I’m not much of a cook,” Archer says, flipping burgers on the grill he found in the gardening shed and managed to start up. “But these are hard to get wrong.”
Milly and Aubrey are here too, brought over in the resort Jeep by Efram. Carson Fine finally confiscated the keys, which would’ve come across as a Donald Camden move if he hadn’t immediately handed them over to Efram so he could give the girls a ride. I wish I’d had a chance to say good-bye to Carson, who all in all was a pretty great boss.
Efram declined Archer’s invitation to stay. “Seems like a family thing,” he said, then grinned at me. “And pseudo family. But thanks anyway.” Before he left, he helped me pull all the chairs that were strewn haphazardly around the yard into a circle on the concrete patio. Milly’s still not talking to me, but she’s sitting next to me, and I don’t think I’m wrong that her overall posture is less chilly than it was earlier today.
The wooden door on the fence enclosing the backyard rattles, then swings open to let a woman through. She’s dark-haired, maybe a little younger than Archer, and carrying a large, foil-wrapped pan.
“Oona!” Archer calls. “Thanks for coming. You didn’t have to bring anything, though.”
“Well,” the woman says, crossing over to the patio and putting her pan on the wrought-iron table. “I wasn’t entirely sure what you’d be feeding these poor kids.”
“I’m doing my best,” Archer claims, flipping a burger straight into the grass.
Oona shakes her head and smiles warmly at Milly and Aubrey. “Hello again, girls. I was sorry to hear how everything turned out at the gala.” My face flames with fresh guilt as she adds, “You both deserved better than that.”
I brace myself for another death glare from Milly, but it doesn’t come. She just tosses her hair and says, “At least we looked good while we were getting thrown out.”
Oona takes a seat and turns to me. “And you must be Jonah.”
“Yeah,” I say, grateful that she leaves it at that.
She leans forward, lifting the rock that’s been keeping the autopsy report from blowing off the table. “Is this what you wanted me to look at?” she asks Uncle Archer.
“Yeah,” he says, scooping up a burger and placing it carefully on an open bun sitting on a plate beside the grill. “Sorry if that’s weird, or morbid, but I couldn’t figure out why Dr. Baxter would want me to have it.” He repeats the process with another burger. “And Aubrey mentioned that my mother had a strange reaction to Kayla’s name this afternoon.”
“Strange how?” Oona asks, her eyes roving over the report.
“Well.” Aubrey purses her lips. “I asked if there was anything unusual about how Kayla died, and she seemed…I don’t know. Not surprised, exactly, like you would be if something like that came at you out of the blue. More as though she was alarmed that I’d asked. But I spilled coffee on her before she could answer.”
“That’s odd,” Oona says, still staring at the paper. “And so is this.”
Archer shuts off the grill and starts handing burgers around. “So is what?” he asks.
“This says Kayla had lorazepam in her system. That wasn’t in the report my family has.”
“Loraza-what?” I ask, before taking a big bite of my hamburger.