Chapter Twenty-Two
Back in the parlor after dinner, Kelly is still waiting for a chance to talk to Midge and Talia alone.
The caterers are clearing away the dessert plates.
Caleb is upstairs with Ben. Nap and Linden are somehow engaged in a political debate despite both being on the same side of the issue.
Hayley is back out on the terrace, FaceTiming with her friends back home.
Midge keeps looking at her watch and checking her phone, and Talia is yawning.
It’s now or never. Kelly gets to her feet. “Midge and Talia, can you two help me in the kitchen for a few minutes?”
They follow her. Midge is humming to herself.
“Wow, something has you in a chipper mood tonight,” Kelly comments.
“Or someone,” Talia says. “I bet it’s—”
“I’m not chipper. I just heard a Britney Spears song on the nineties radio station on the way over, and now it’s stuck in my head, and I keep picturing that CD at the morgue with . . . the remains.”
“That’s definitely not chipper.” Talia shudders. “It was Britney Spears? The CD in the player?”
“Yes. It was Oops . . . I Did It Again.”
In the kitchen, Midge points at an array of blades in a wooden case on the counter. “Those are some serious knives.”
“They’re Marcel’s.” Kelly indicates the adjacent butler’s pantry, where the staff is cleaning up and conversing in French.
“He brings his own?”
“Most chefs do. Especially when they’re left-handed.”
“Like Caroline. Remember how hard it was for her to use regular scissors when we were kids?”
Kelly nods. “I was her partner on a paper snowflake project. I was afraid she was going to cut herself, so I made a big stink until the art teacher gave her a special pair of lefty scissors.”
“You always had her back.”
“I still do. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Talia’s hands shake a bit as she clasps them in front of her on the gleaming black granite surface. Midge’s gingery brows are furrowed above blue eyes zeroed in on Kelly as if she’s just taken the witness stand.
“The thing is, I’ve been feeling sick every time I think about what happened to her after she left us that night,” Kelly says.
Midge nods. “You’re not alone.”
“Definitely not,” Talia agrees. “I think it’s hardest on you, Kelly, because you live here at Haven Cliff. But all summer, I’ve been wishing we’d never found out the truth. I wish I could go back to assuming she was out there somewhere, living her own life. I don’t need to know any more.”
Kelly shakes her head. “I do. I want to know the whole story. How about you, Midge?”
“I just want to make sure Mary Beth Winterfield pays for what she did to her sister. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do, the second we have an ID on those remains.”
“I can’t believe it’s taking so long,” Talia says. “What’s the holdup? Did Nap say?”
“This is how it always goes. Forensic test results aren’t instant, like on TV. There’s nothing to do but wait.”
“Well, we all know what they’re going to tell us,” Kelly says. “That’s Caroline. We know it is. But I need to know more.”
“About her death?”
“And about her life. So I hired a private investigator to look into it.”
Midge gapes. “You what?”
“I hired a—”
“No, I heard you. But why? It’s not like we don’t know what happened to her.”
“It isn’t that. I just wanted to understand how we could have missed what was really going on with her. I keep going over all the things that led up to her winding up in that hole in the woods, and I know we can’t undo any of it, but . . . I guess I need to blame someone.”
“You can blame Mary Beth,” Midge says.
“I mean someone other than Mary Beth. And other than ourselves.”
“Ourselves?” Talia echoes. “Why us?”
“Because we were her best friends. We were supposed to have her back,” Kelly says. “We should have been paying more attention to what was going on with her those last few months.”
“We tried. But her parents didn’t want her hanging around with us. They pushed Gordy on her. She was always with him or involved in some church activity.”
“Speaking of that, I was over at Congregational today,” Midge says. “Remember the purity ball?”
Talia groans. “I do. Caroline seemed like she was so into it. And since she and Gordy had taken a vow of chastity, I never would have imagined that they . . . you know. But she was pregnant, so I guess you never can tell what’s really going on with someone, no matter how well you know them.”
“Or think you know them,” Kelly says. “What if it wasn’t Gordy? What if she was involved with someone else?”
Midge nods. “I’ve wondered that myself.”
“Same,” Talia admits. “Like . . . maybe she was secretly in love with another boy she knew from church—or even someone from school, someone her parents would oppose.”
“Exactly,” Kelly says, and turns to Midge. “Why were you at Congregational today?”
“I was on a case. As soon as I walked in there, I had a flashback, and when the pastor came out to talk to me, I thought for a second it was Caroline’s Reverend B. Remember him?”
Heart racing, Kelly says, “Reverend Bauer? I can’t believe you said that, Midge, because that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”