cook in the kitchen, making stew.
“Josephine, can you tell me where Clive is?”
“He’s resting, ma’am. I think the hullabaloo of Miss Toni leaving was too much for him. ”
“Toni’s gone?” The news only increased Lily’s growing sense of urgency. Toni had said nothing to her about leaving. Why would she do that right before the holidays?
“She’s at the beauty shop now, but she’ll be back so Graden can take her to the airport this evening. She was asking where you were before she left.”
“Did she say why she wanted to see me?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Where is Graden now?”
“In town doing errands for Mr. Clive. This is errand day.”
The coast was clear. That should have made Lily feel better, but it only ratcheted up her anxiety. She didn’t believe in coincidence. Toni’s abrupt departure coupled with what Lily had found out from Yancy painted a suspicious picture that was getting darker by the minute.
“Josephine, I’m going to be working on renovations in Stephen’s office and on the second floor. Can you make sure nobody disturbs me?”
“Of course, ma’am.” Josephine drew herself up, huffy and red-faced, and Lily felt guilty. “There’s not anybody in the house to bother you except me, and I don’t go nosing around. I tend to my business in the kitchen, that’s all.”
“Thank you, Josephine. I know you do, and I appreciate that.”
Lily went straight to Stephen’s office to rifle through his desk drawers and his filing cabinets. Most of them were locked, and she couldn’t find a key. The only drawers that were unlocked yielded nothing except the usual files you’d find in the office of any businessman.
If there was any evidence against Clive and Graden in this house, it was likely to be on the second floor, east wing, under lock and key.
Though she’d never picked a lock in her life, not even that time when Annabelle accidentally locked herself in the bathroom and Lily had to call the fire department to get her out, she detoured by the master bathroom in search of a hairpin. Wherever she went, she left a trail of hairpins. That was just a fact of life for a woman with long, heavy hair. She was constantly putting it into a French twist then taking it back down, depending on whim and the weather.
The sight of the second sink she’d had installed in Stephen’s bath hit her like an accusation. Every bad choice she’d made, starting with the day she’d met him and followed her head instead of her heart, rose up to haunt her.
Furious at herself for getting sidetracked, she was reaching for her hairpins when she spotted a sight that chilled her. Long black hair in the bottom of the wastebasket. A wad of it. Too long to belong to Stephen.
She knelt and picked it up. The hair was silky and curly, several long strands, as if somebody had come along, glanced into the mirror, and then brushed it off his shoulder and into the wastebasket.
Cee Cee’s hair?
It couldn’t possibly be. As far as Lily knew, Cee Cee had never been into this part of the house. She had no reason to be in Stephen’s bathroom. And why would her hair be on Stephen’s clothing?
A vision of Glenda Jane’s wig came to mind. Could it possibly be that she and Stephen and had bent over some project and she’d shed some of that long black hair onto his shirt?
Or had Graden or Clive been in Stephen’s bathroom, brushing a captive girl’s long, black hair off their clothing? Had they entered through the kitchen door and sneaked back here to clean up so they wouldn’t get caught coming out of the bathrooms in the less private sections of the house?
Following her instinct, Lily carefully wrapped the hair into a tissue and went upstairs to stow it in the drawer of the French provincial desk. That’s when she spotted the file of engagement photos she’d brought home from her office.
She remembered that Cee Cee was on some of them, as were Clive and Graden. Sometimes a still shot could reveal more about a person than seeing them in the flesh, especially if you were looking at them from a fresh perspective.
Kicking off her high heels, she spread the photos across the desktop and was shocked by what she saw. Clive and Cee Cee were in several group shots together, and he didn’t try to disguise his avid interest in the teenager. Was it just admiration for her spunk and beauty, or was it