Chapter Eleven
Beverly Barrow still lives in Kelly’s childhood home, a three-story brick Colonial in Pine Ridge, which until recently was Mulberry Bay’s only private development of luxury homes.
Now there’s a new gated community of McMansions on the opposite side of town, and several others in various stages of planning and construction.
“Mrs. Verga?” Kelly calls, ushering Beverly into the formal entry hall.
The housekeeper appears, wiping her hands on a dish towel. Stout with a gray-streaked bun and flinty eyes, she greets Kelly with a disdainful expression before turning to Beverly with a smile.
“How was your appointment?”
“Appointment?”
Kelly answers for her mother. “It went well. We’re going to try a new medication. It will be ready at CVS tomorrow morning. I can arrange for delivery, unless you’d prefer to pick it up before you come?”
“Delivery would be best,” Mrs. Verga says, even though she drives right past CVS on her way over every morning. “There are too many people around town right now.”
“Well, at least that’s good for the local economy, right? Listen, I need you to stay until Mom’s overnight aide gets here. Please tell her I’ll call later to check in. Thanks! See you tomorrow, Mom.”
She presses a quick kiss to her mother’s cheek and is out the door without giving the housekeeper an opportunity to protest.
Mrs. Verga will do anything for Beverly, but she was never a fan of Kelly, whom she considered a spoiled daddy’s girl from day one.
Their frosty relationship became downright frigid after Kelly failed out of Dartmouth freshman year, then ran off to marry the ne’er-do-well scion of a wealthy New York family.
Never mind that it all unfolded amid her friend Caroline’s disappearance and her estrangement from Midge and Talia. Or that she’d never wanted to attend her parents’ Ivy League alma mater or law school—their goals for their only daughter.
That Kelly did eventually go back to college and earn her law degree meant nothing to Mrs. Verga, because her perceived neglect of her parents far overshadowed her achievements.
She expected Kelly to drop her own life and move back to Mulberry Bay after her father’s unexpected death in 2010, even though her mother was in excellent health at that time, still her competent, active self.
Kelly was a practicing attorney at a large San Francisco law firm, married to—well, about to divorce—her second husband.
A wildly wealthy Silicon Valley tech genius, he didn’t just leave her for another woman—he left her set for life.
Now she can afford just about anything her heart desires.
Like Haven Cliff.
Like private investigators.
Toby’s latest discovery weighs on her mind as she races home on back roads to skirt around the traffic in town, doing her best to keep the speedometer within fifteen miles per hour of the limit and keeping an eye out for cops.
Midge scolded her the last time she got pulled over in town, even though the nice patrol officer let her off the hook because she dropped Midge’s name.
Even after all these years, Midge sometimes still perceives Kelly as the scofflaw she once was.
And yes, Kelly sometimes resents Midge for always doing the right thing and making it look easy.
Almost always.
What they’d done that summer, with Caroline . . .
That had been a lot harder on Midge than it was on Kelly and Talia. Her father was the chief of police, and she already knew law enforcement would be her own career path. Kelly and Talia convinced her that it didn’t mean she should betray Caroline’s trust.
All these years, Kelly had believed Caroline really was out there someplace in the world, living her life on her own terms. That she would come home someday to Mulberry Bay for good, just as Kelly had.
Until those bones turned up in June, Kelly had expected to welcome her old friend over the threshold of her ancestral estate, restored to its Gilded Age glory.
She’d hand her the keys and say, “It’s for you, Caroline. You’re the reason I bought Haven Cliff. It’s all yours. A gift from me.”
Instead, every day since June, Kelly confronts the gaping hole in the ground where her friend was buried all these years, right under her nose.
Now it turns out there might be far more to the tragedy than anyone, even Midge and Talia, would ever imagine.
There’s a chance that Toby’s latest bombshell has nothing to do with Caroline, that it’s meaningless.
But if it isn’t . . .
Midge and Talia need to know, and Kelly’s going to tell them. Tonight.