Chapter 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.
“As long as CJ shows up for her legal proceedings,” Lily-Ann said, trying to share information and hold off Ocean’s explosion, “nothing happens. However, if she flees, Mrs. B loses the property.”
“Loses like … loses?” Sophie asked.
“Yes.”
Ocean grunted. “And my kids lose the only home they’ve ever known.”
“She won’t run,” Mrs. B said. “She’d never do that to us—or herself! She’ll stay while we prove her innocence.”
“Bail doesn’t exist in California anymore,” Hamilton said. “Mrs. B probably posted a property bond to afford the services of a pretrial consultant to secure CJ’s release. Which is extremely bail-like without actually being bail.”
“She won’t run,” Mrs. B repeated.
“It’s your property,” Ocean said, her voice clipped. “You have every right to do what you want with it.”
“You’re upset,” Mrs. B said.
“Of course I’m upset! Miles and Riley live here. You should’ve told me.”
“But you’re falling for CJ! I’ve seen you looking at her.”
“Sure, and my taste is so impeccable that my wife never left me and the kids.” Ocean rose angrily from her chair. “You turned a few dates into a massive uncertainty in their lives.”
“I, I didn’t think—”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Ocean snapped, before she walked out.
The screen door slammed shut and Mrs. B said, “That was poorly done of me. I … I didn’t think it through.”
“She’s just surprised,” Sophie told her. “She’ll come around.”
“And we won’t let CJ run away.” Hamilton frowned at his phone, his bushy eyebrows beetling. “Despite whatever new evidence suddenly comes to light.”
“She’s not going to try to run away!” Mrs. B insisted. “Stop saying that!”
Sophie clearly couldn’t stand to see Mrs. B so unhappy. “That’s right. Even if she’s guilty—”
“Which she isn’t,” Mrs. B said.
“—she’s not about to run. She worked the same job for her entire adult life. She isn’t a flight risk and she lives right across the courtyard. She’s surrounded by, um…”
“Busybodies?” Nicholas suggested.
“By interested parties,” Lily-Ann offered, “who won’t let her run. We’ll watch her.”
“Well!” Hamilton said. “Someone should go after Ocean. And someone else should make sure CJ has a ride home from the jail tomorrow. And a third person should, um, get to bed early because he has a big meeting at five in the morning. That one is me. I’m the third person.”
“Are you kicking us out?” Sophie asked.
Lily-Ann caught the disbelief in her voice. Hamilton always tried to keep a dinner going as long as possible, he never cut one short.
“No, no,” Hamilton said. “Not ‘kicking’ exactly.”
“I’ll talk to Ocean,” Mrs. B said.
“That’s a terrible idea,” Nicholas told her. “If you two talk right now, there’ll be another murder.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Sophie told Mrs. B.
Mrs. B laid her palm on Sophie’s cheek. “You’re so darling.”
When Lily-Ann stood to leave, Hamilton said, “Actually, Lily-Ann, could you stick around to help me clean?”
She said yes, and Sophie and Nicholas exchanged a look, and Mrs. B fluttered around the buffet table until Lily-Ann said, “Nicholas will escort you home.”
He took the hint. “Right. Let’s go.”
“Oh, Nicholas.” Mrs. B took his arm. “Tell me this will all work out.”
As Sophie followed them to the door, Lily-Ann reflected that Mrs. B hadn’t simply put everyone’s homes at risk, but Nicholas’s inheritance. Yet there was Nicholas, smiling down at her, trying to comfort her. And there was Sophie, watching with her face wreathed in love.
Now what did Hamilton want to discuss in private?