can do better than that. How about I scramble you some eggs?”
“That’s okay. I need to run. Tuttle’s meeting me at the morgue. He has some preliminary autopsy results on Ben he wants to talk about.” He swung his arm around to wrap her up and kiss the top of her head. “About last night…I’m sorry.”
“You beat me to it. I’m sorry for getting so upset. I thought I might spend this morning trying to get the truth out of Lianne.”
“Good luck with that. Think about it. If she’s so innocent, why didn’t she just say so, protest or something?”
Gemma took his chin. “That’s what I need to find out. She didn’t exactly proclaim her innocence to me either last night because she refused to talk about it. After sleeping on it, Luke’s probably right. Something serious is going on with her, and I intend to get to the bottom of it.”
The flaps on the doggie door swished open, and the dogs trotted back in from their outside morning ritual, clamoring for food. Gemma scooped out dog food into dishes just as the toaster gave up its two hot pastries.
Between fingers, Lando juggled the hot pieces before sliding them onto a paper plate. “I gotta go. If I’m late, Tuttle will use that as an excuse to send me packing and make me set up another meeting for this afternoon.”
Gemma patted his chest. “Go on. I don’t want you facing Tuttle’s wrath. Let me know if I can help in any way.”
“For starters, maybe stay away from the Copeland murder house.”
“You know what bugs me about that case?”
“What?”
“There’s no motive.”
“Yeah. That we know about.”
“Exactly. Sandra and Todd seem squeaky clean. But you know what they say about that. Sometimes squeaky clean is nothing but smoke and mirrors. One of them might be hiding a big ol’ fat secret from their past. But if that’s it, I don’t understand why the kids had to die. Even if Julie did recognize him or her, why do that to a child? That’s beyond crazy, beyond motivated.”
“Maybe. How sure are you that little five-year-old Julie recognized the killer?”
“Good question. I’d say ninety percent.”
“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind as I reopen the case.” He leaned down to plant a kiss on her lips. “I’ll see you tonight. Hopefully, we’re looking at a no-drama night.”
She sputtered with laughter. “Yeah. Like that’ll happen. There’s always something beyond the norm going on around here.”
An hour later, Gemma’s insides gnawed with nerves as she waited for Lianne to arrive at work. She’d written down an index card full of questions, jotted down each one at breakfast so she wouldn’t forget to ask about every detail.
Now she was in the process of memorizing what she wanted to say. She started a fresh batch of chocolate truffles, sprinkled them with chopped nuts to keep her mind occupied. But when nine-fifteen came and went, and there was still no sign of Lianne, Gemma finished the other batches of chocolate and sent a text to her friend.
Where are you?
No reply. She waited another ten minutes before sending another text—still silence.
“Come on, Lianne, there’s no sense in acting like a child,” Gemma muttered to herself as she kept one eye on her phone, hoping for an answer. When none came, she headed outside the store to wait.
Standing outside on the sidewalk, Gemma encountered the March wind. It howled and snapped as it blew in off the ocean making for a chilly morning. Gemma wrapped her sweater tighter and kept expecting to see Lianne’s Honda make the turn onto Water Street.
But at nine-thirty, Gemma began to have doubts. Serious doubts. The woman was never late to work. Never. After another fifteen minutes, gnawing nerves turned to full-blown worry. She began to pace the concrete pavement, back and forth, to burn off energy.
At ten o’clock, she gave up and went back inside to get her purse and car keys. The only thing left to do was check on Lianne at her sister’s house, property that rightfully belonged to Lianne, just as the old pizza shop did.
It took less than five minutes to reach the neighborhood. But as Gemma drove down the street, she realized Lianne’s car was not in the driveway. She tried to recall if the garage had enough space for the Honda Civic and remembered it was full of furniture Lianne had brought with her from Portland.
It didn’t deter Gemma that the car wasn’t there. She got out anyway and went up to