Софи Райан - No Escape Claws

Since we already were I didn’t see how anything had changed. “Works for me,” I said.

Gram called midafternoon to invite me to supper. Actually to invite Elvis and me to supper.

“I’d love to,” I said. I hadn’t bought groceries and my cupboards were looking like Old Mother Hubbard’s.

Gram had made potato scallop—one of my favorites—along with ham and a big salad. About halfway through the meal I caught Gram and John exchanging a look. I set my fork down.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “You two remind me of Elvis right before he tries to stick his face in the popcorn bowl.”

“I’ve started going through that box of papers you brought me,” John said.

“You found something,” I said.

“That’s the thing,” he said, putting his own fork down. “I’m not sure if it is something.”

“Was it some kind of accounting irregularity?”

John shook his head. “No. It was something I noticed in the minutes from the board meetings.” He looked at Gram.

“Tell her,” she said.

“I read through the minutes from several different meetings and there are notations about several projects I don’t remember.”

My pulse quickened. “What do you mean by ‘projects you don’t remember’?”

“Those meetings were a long time ago and if you’d asked me what we talked about in any particular one I wouldn’t have been able to tell you, but as I read through the minutes they nudged my memory.”

I nodded.

“For example, at one of the board meetings we talked about a new roof for the dining hall at the Sunshine Camp. Reading that on the agenda reminded me about how heated the discussion got about whether we should use asphalt shingles or invest in a metal roof.”

“But I’m guessing not for those projects you don’t remember.”

“Exactly.”

I tucked my hair back behind one ear. “Do you remember the names of those projects?” I asked.

Gram got up, went over to the counter and came back with a piece of paper. She handed it to me. There were six names on it. They were the same projects that weeks ago Liz and I had discovered had never been implemented or even documented anywhere other than those minutes.

I knew this had to be important. I just wasn’t sure how.

I looked up at John. “Have you given these names to Liz yet?”

“I was going to call her tonight.”

I rubbed the back of my neck with one hand. “These projects that you don’t remember. They have to mean something,” I said.

“I could see myself forgetting one or maybe two,” John said. “But not six.” He smiled at Gram, who had reached over to give his shoulder a squeeze.

“Has Liz considered having a full audit done, at least of the camp’s books?” Gram asked.

“Channing Caulfield found a forensic accountant,” I said. “It’s already being done.”

“That might be where the answers are,” John said.

Gram picked up her fork. “What’s going on with Liz and Channing?”

I was glad for the change of subject. “She says nothing, but I’m not so sure. They’ve had dinner several times—all ‘business,’ according to Liz. Of course that hasn’t stopped me from needling her about him.” I grinned across the table at Gram.

She smiled back at me. “I think they’d make a very nice couple.”

“Not everyone wants to be part of a couple,” John said. “If that’s the case, no amount of matchmaking is going to work.”

I almost choked on a bite of scallop. I reached for my water and Gram patted my back.

“What did I say?” John asked, a frown creasing his forehead.

I took another drink of water. “You and Gram wouldn’t be married if it wasn’t for Rose and Liz playing matchmaker, Mr. Single and Happy. And Charlotte . . . and maybe me.”

“Sarah Grayson, what on earth are you talking about?” Gram said.

It occurred to me that I’d said too much.

“I’m waiting,” she said.

I held up both hands. “It’s just that we all thought you two were perfect for each other. You talked to John for maybe five minutes that day in the library and then he was all you talked about for the next week.”

He smiled at her over his glasses. “Is that true, Isabel?”

Gram’s cheeks were pink. “You weren’t all I talked about.”

“Yes, you were,” I said. I pointed a finger at John. “And you pestered Liz with questions about Gram.”

Gram looked down at her plate and smiled, her blushing more pronounced.

John looked at her with so much love my chest ached. “I couldn’t help it,” he said. “I’d been struck by Cupid’s arrow.”

“Actually I think it was a history textbook.”

Gram narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re not going to let that go, are you?” she said.

I grinned. “Not a chance.”

John leaned over and kissed Gram’s cheek. “So what exactly did you do?”

I picked up my knife and fork. “Didn’t you ever question how you both ended up at Sam’s for lunch on the same day?”

“No,” Gram said. “Charlotte asked me to have lunch with her and Rose because she was worried about Rose’s decision to move into Legacy Place.”

“She was worried about that,” I said. “And it turns out for good reason, but that was just a ruse to get you there.”

“And I’m guessing you really weren’t that interested in the history of the MaineWorks Alliance?” John said.

“I was interested,” I said. “I joined after we had lunch that day, but I was really just doing what Liz had told me to do.”

Gram was smiling and shaking her head. “That’s why Rose made such a point about finding the perfect table. She wanted to make sure John saw us.”

“That was the plan.”

“I saw you,” he said. “The moment you came in the door I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. You were wearing that same little gray hat with the feather that you’d been wearing at the library.

They exchanged that look again.

I picked up my plate and got to my feet.

“What are you doing?” Gram said.

“I’m thinking I should just take my supper and go home and leave you two lovebirds alone.”

“Sit,” she said. There was still a touch of color in her cheeks. “Let’s talk about your love life instead of ours.”

Elvis meowed loudly from the floor at my feet. “It’ll be a short conversation,” I said.

“Nothing happening between you and Nick?”

I shook my head. “He’s more like my brother than anything romantic.”

“What about Mac?” John said.

“I don’t know when he’s coming back. I don’t even know if he’s coming back.”

“Have you asked him?” Gram said.

“No.”

She got up from the table and patted my shoulder as she moved behind me. “You can’t get the right answers if you don’t ask the right questions.”

Chapter 14

Nick called me about a half hour after Elvis and I got home.

“I did a little digging to see what Mike Pearson had said about where he was when the fire started.”

“And?”

“And basically he didn’t offer any explanation other than one of the firefighters remembers him saying he’d just been out driving around. But no one else heard him say that and as far as I can find out after that, he didn’t say anything. It was just one more detail that made him look guilty.”

“Crap,” I muttered. “I was hoping you might come up with something that would give us another direction to go in.”

“Sorry,” he said. “If I come up with anything else I’ll let you know.”

• • •

Liz came in the next morning at about ten o’clock carrying a small bag from McNamara’s. I was just coming down the stairs. “Is there something in that bag for me?” I asked, linking my arm through hers.