Софи Райан - Telling Tails

“How does he know?”

Rose indicated a woman who looked to be in her late thirties sitting on the front steps of the house. “Because he talked to the mom to see if there was anything useful on their security camera. He wanted to confirm Leesa Cameron’s alibi.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” I said.

She shrugged. “There was nothing to tell, dear. The camera wasn’t aligned properly. All it recorded was some blurry footage of the peonies.”

Liz pulled in in front of us then and we got out of the car. “Let’s get this show on the road,” she said.

Nicole must have been watching for us because she opened the front door before we reached it. She was pale and serious in a gray T-shirt and black walking shorts. “Please come in,” she said, holding the door open.

“I’m so sorry about your brother,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said. She seemed a little nervous, rubbing her right wrist with the other hand.

“Is there anything we could do for you?” Liz asked.

Nicole shook her head. “No. Thank you for suggesting the funeral home to handle things on this end. I wouldn’t have known who to call. I . . . uh haven’t been able to get in touch with Leesa. I’m not even sure she’s still in North Harbor.”

“Why did you want to see us?” Rose asked.

Nicole stared down at the ground for a moment, then lifted her head. She glanced at Liz and me but focused her attention on Rose.

“I have to apologize to you,” she said.

Liz gave me a knowing look.

“I lied,” Nicole continued. She was still rubbing her wrist as though she was twisting a watch or a bracelet around her arm. “Leesa left earlier than I told you she did.” She swallowed hard. “The truth is, Jeff and I didn’t always get along, especially after our grandmother died, but the last six months things had been good. Then Leesa showed up here Wednesday night and said he was gone. She showed me the text he sent her and the statement she’d gone online and printed out from their investment account.”

She made a helpless gesture with both hands. “I know I shouldn’t have, but all I could think of was how he left me to deal with everything after Nana died and now here he was doing the same thing to Leesa. I was signed in to the hospital server, doing some in-service training. I just figured, who would know if I said she was here. Stupid, I know.”

Rose reached over and laid a hand on Nicole’s arm. “It’s understandable that you would feel that way,” she said. “Try not to be so hard on yourself.”

“That’s nice of you to say that when I protected the person who assaulted you,” Nicole said.

“You didn’t know that,” Rose said.

Nicole shook her head. “It doesn’t make what I did right.” She looked at me. “Leesa called me after you and the detective went to see her. I . . . I offered her an alibi because my first thought was that Jeff had cut out on her.” She swallowed hard. “My brother was dead and I was so quick to think the worst of him.”

“Rose is right,” I said. “You couldn’t have known that something had happened to your brother.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I should have given him the benefit of the doubt. He was my brother.” She looked at Rose again. “And I should have done the same to you. I am so sorry.”

“Thank you,” Rose said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Nicole Cameron got to her feet. “I wanted to apologize and explain to the three of you first. Now I’m going to call the police and explain what I did to them.”

She walked us to the door and Liz reminded her to call if there was anything we could do to help. Rose was quiet as we walked down the driveway, seemingly lost in thought. Finally she looked at Liz. “You said she wasn’t telling us everything. You were right.”

Liz raised an eyebrow. “It happens.” She looked at me. “At the risk of Rose swinging her purse at me, I think she should go home and maybe take it easy. This is a lot to digest.”

“I wouldn’t hit you with this bag,” Rose said, patting the wicker roll bag with tan leather handles she was carrying. “Alfred bought it for my birthday. Your big melon head would probably leave a big dent in it.”

“I agree with Liz,” I said. “Can you just humor us for once and take it easy?”

Rose glanced at Liz and then looked at me. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll go home and take it easy, but this is a onetime thing and should not be construed as setting a precedent.”

Liz rolled her eyes.

“Don’t give me that look just because I like to watch CNN,” Rose said.

“Go back to the store,” Liz said to me. “I’ll take Rose home.”

“Are you sure?” I said.

“Go.” She made a move-along gesture with one hand. “I’ll be there later to get Avery.”

“All right,” I said. I leaned over and kissed Rose on the cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

They got into Liz’s car and I waited until they had pulled away from the curb before I walked back to my SUV. I looked at Nicole Cameron’s house again as I unlocked the driver’s door. By now Michelle would know that Leesa Cameron’s alibi was fake. Rose had been vindicated.

I wasn’t even halfway back to the shop when my cell phone rang. It was lying on the seat and I glanced sideways to see who was calling. Rose. I put my blinker on and pulled over to answer.

“Hello, dear,” she said. “Could you please say hello to Liz? She’s right next to me.”

“Hi, Liz,” I said, wondering what on earth was going on now.

There was some kind of noise in the background I couldn’t identify. Then I heard Rose’s voice, seemingly a distance away from the phone, say, “There. Are you satisfied?”

“Rose, what’s going on?” I asked.

She came back on the line. “I was just showing Liz that I had in fact called you because she didn’t believe me.” She raised her voice at the end of the sentence.

“And why did you call?”

“I think I might remember something—something from the night I saw Jeff Cameron’s body.”

I leaned my arm against the door and propped my head on my hand. “What did you remember?”

“It doesn’t exactly make sense,” she said. “Do you remember when we cleared out the Cooper house?”

“I remember,” I said. It wasn’t likely I’d forget that.

As I’d told Glenn, we’d developed a bit of a side business at the shop, clearing out apartments and houses, most of the time for the families of seniors who needed or wanted to move but were just overwhelmed by dealing with everything they’d accumulated over a lifetime. The Cooper house was a rambling farmhouse with more rooms than was apparent from the outside. And every one of them filled with stuff. I wasn’t sure how the house was connected to Jeff Cameron.

“When we were at Nicole Cameron’s house I was going over what happened that night, and those tea chests we found in the attic at the Coopers’ kept coming into my mind. I don’t understand why.”

“I don’t see the connection, either,” I said. “I’m sorry.” We’d found several vintage wooden tea chests from Indonesia with the original wooden strapping, and in the case of one of them the original foil lining with bits of tea still clinging to it, in the attic of the old house. One of them contained several bolts of silk that Jess had bought and used to make beautiful robes for her clothing store.

“I need to go over there,” Rose said. “I don’t know why this matters, but I know it does.”

I knew she meant the cottage, not the Cooper house. “Bad idea,” I said.

“You sound like Liz.”

“Great minds think alike, then.”

“And fools seldom differ, dear,” Rose countered.