Chapter 73
OCEAN
Ocean returned home after teaching her adult ed art class, parked on the street, and turned off the car.
She didn’t leave the driver’s seat, though.
She checked nobody was looking, then played a voicemail from CJ that she’d saved, talking about an Etsy shop that sold handmade felt monsters: “One is part mermaid and part fox. There’s a frog with starfish hands—oh!
Oh, one is a sexy polka-dotted cyclops. That one looks a little like you. ”
Then she’d giggled, which made Ocean even more embarrassed to be sitting there mooning about her. She hoped she was okay. Despite everything, she hoped she was okay.
As she headed for her cottage, she noticed Mrs. B’s front curtains were closed.
Huh. Mrs. B never closed her curtains during the day.
So she tried the door, and it was locked.
She fished in her bag for the key and went inside, her mouth suddenly dry, afraid of what she might find.
What she found was a half-empty box of Entenmann’s apple cider donuts on the kitchen table beside Mrs. B’s collection of pills.
“Golda?” she called. “Golda!”
She checked all the rooms, then went back outside. Mrs. B’s car was still parked in its place, thank god, so at least she hadn’t driven off again. She started for Hamilton’s cottage, to see if he knew anything, when a text dinged on her phone.
She read the message, then ran back to her car.