Софи Райан - Telling Tails

I held open the back door for her and we went inside. Mac was on his way out.

“I think I found a pair of hinges that will work for that old hope chest,” he said to me. He smiled at Charlotte. “Yell if you need me.”

Charlotte waved hello to Mr. P., who was still bent over his laptop, and we headed for the shop. We walked in to find Avery high-fiving Rose.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I sold that dresser and bed that came from Edison Hall’s house,” Rose said. She looked pleased with herself, and for good reason. We’d been trying to sell that bedroom set for months.

“Rose is a selling ninja,” Avery said, nodding for emphasis.

“That’s good news,” I said.

“I got the full price,” Rose said tipping her head to one side to look at the heavy mahogany head- and footboards, which were resting against the back wall along with the side rails and dresser.

“Full price? Avery is right. You are a selling ninja,” I said, giving her a hug. “I’ll get a check ready and let Stella know it’s here.” We didn’t take many items on consignment, but the bedroom set was a special case. The money would go toward Stella’s niece’s medical bills.

“I saw Stella and Ellie at the grocery store last weekend,” Charlotte said. “Ellie is getting around with a walker now.” Stella Hall was the late Edison Hall’s sister. Ellie had been his daughter-in-law.

“That is good news,” I said. Ellie Hall had had surgery on her back about six weeks earlier. She had little ones at home. I was happy to hear she was doing well.

“Sarah, can I use some stuff in the boxes under the stairs?” Avery asked. Her eyes darted to Charlotte. “I mean, may I use some stuff in the boxes under the stairs?”

I nodded. “Go ahead.”

She headed for the storage space. Rose brushed her hands on her apron. “Alfred told me about your conversation with Dr. Durand.”

Charlotte looked from Rose to me. “Who’s Dr. Durand?”

Rose waved a hand at her friend. “I’ll explain later. What I want to know is, how was aquacize?”

“Remember when Maddie convinced us to try Zumba?” Charlotte asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Rose said. I was clearly missing something, not the least of which was that I didn’t know Rose and Charlotte had tried a Zumba class.

“Maddie takes Zumba?” I said. “Maddie Hamilton?”

“Yes, dear. It’s very good exercise,” Rose said. She turned back to Charlotte. “What did you find out?”

“Nothing as far as another woman goes.”

Rose sighed.

“Jeff Cameron arrived at the gym to change and run, and that was it,” Charlotte continued. “No one saw him with a woman. Or anyone else, for that matter. He was pleasant, but he kept to himself for the most part.”

“They hadn’t been here that long,” I said. “It’s not surprising.”

Charlotte nodded. “The only thing anyone noticed about him was that he’s very competitive. He did some of the weekly timed runs the gym ran, and he always wanted to be the top person in his age group.”

“What about Leesa Cameron?” I asked.

Charlotte shook her head. “No one I spoke to remembers ever seeing her there. I think she pretty much kept to herself.”

“Maybe it was because she was doing Reece’s father,” Avery said. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the storage space under the stairs.

“Excuse me?” Charlotte said.

Avery turned to look at us over her shoulder. “Sorry,” she said. “Maybe because she was sleeping with Reece’s father.” She made air quotes around the words “sleeping with.”

“Sweetie, who’s Reece?” Rose asked.

“She goes to my school.”

“Why do you think her father was involved with Mrs. Cameron?” Charlotte said, frown lines forming between her eyebrows.

Avery shrugged. “I saw them, two or three weeks ago, maybe. I didn’t know who she was until I saw the photo of her that Mr. P. had.”

“Saw her where?” Rose said.

“Running.” Avery made a face. “She pretty much sucked at it, by the way.” She looked over at Charlotte. “I know, I know, you hate the word, but she did suck. Her arms and legs were going all over the place and she had to keep stopping.” Avery looked at me. “She didn’t look like you when you run.”

“Thank you,” I said. She seemed to have meant the remark as a compliment. “When exactly did this happen?”

“Sometime between five thirty and six.”

“In the morning?”

“I like mornings,” Avery said with a shrug.

Charlotte and I exchanged a look. Avery had to be the only teenager in town who willingly got up at five thirty during the summer.

“I like to get up and make a smoothie and sit in the elm tree in the front yard. I like it there. I saw Mrs. Cameron and Reece’s dad go by a bunch of times—at least five or six. When she had to stop, she’d be all bent over like she couldn’t get her breath and he’d rub her back. Seemed kind of personal to me.” She looked up at Rose, who had walked over to the stairs. “I’m sorry. If I’d known it was important I would have said something sooner.”

Rose leaned down and put her arm around Avery’s shoulders. “It’s enough that you said something now.”

“What’s Reece’s last name?” I asked.

Avery turned to look at me. “Vega.”

I nodded. The name, Vega, soundly vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why.

My cell phone rang in my pocket. I held up a finger. “Hang on a second.” I pulled out the phone. It was Dad.

“I need to take this,” I said. “Excuse me.” I walked over to stand by the front door to the shop.

“Hi, Dad,” I said.

“How’s my favorite daughter?” he said. I could hear his smile.

“I’m your only daughter.”

He laughed. “Well, didn’t that work out well for everyone?” He and my mom had gotten married when Liam and I were both in second grade. Dad had always treated me as though I was his biological child. I’d heard someone ask him once if he had any children of his own. He’d given the woman a blank look and said, “But Sarah is my child.”

I hadn’t just gotten a father. I’d also gotten a big brother. There was a month between Liam and me, him being the elder. He could be a pain-in-the-butt, overprotective big brother when I wanted to date someone he thought was a scuzzbag, but he could also be my biggest ally.

“Your mom gave me your message,” Dad said.

“What did you find out?” I asked, leaning both elbows on the counter.

“I prowled around the archives at the paper. They’re online now. I couldn’t find any obituary for a Catherine Cameron. Not with a ‘C’ or a ‘K’ or several other spellings I tried. I went back a year and forward a year.”

“Crap!” I said.

“I did find a death notice for a Catherine Hennessy. It was three years ago and she was survived by her two grandchildren, Jeff and Nicole Hennessy.”

“That’s a weird coincidence,” I said.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, Sarah,” Dad said. “Are you sure the woman’s last name was Cameron?”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “No. But Cameron is the last name the grandchildren are using.”

“This has something to do with what happened to Rose, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Jeff Cameron—or whatever his name really is—bought a pair of candlesticks for his wife. Now no one can find him.”

“Maybe you should start looking for Jeff Hennessy instead.”

“Maybe we should,” I said.

I thanked him for his help and said good-bye. Rose and Charlotte were in deep discussion about something, probably the trip Mr. P. and I had made to the library. We’d discovered a lot of information, but I had no idea how it fit together.