An enormous stone fireplace stood at one end of the room; a long, narrow office was behind the fireplace wall. Annie walked toward the office and peeked into the doorway, but no one was there, either.

She turned back to the main room, her footsteps echoing in the emptiness. She wondered if the driver of the pickup was outside cleaning up the yard for summer. But as she reached the back door, a voice shouted:

“Annie?”

She blanched. She snapped around. And there was Taylor, who apparently had been in the small kitchen at the opposite end of the main room. Or she’d been in the restroom that was there, too. Or she’d been in a closet. Hiding from the world. In any event, Taylor was one of the last people Annie felt up to seeing. Pretty much ever.

“Earl told me you were coming. Lottie’s off this week, so I have her key.”

“Oh.” She didn’t add: “That was fast.”

“I thought you’d appreciate it if I came over and unlocked the door for you.”

“I do. Yes. Thanks.” Annie didn’t know why, after all this time, Taylor still had a way of unnerving her.

“There’s no meeting today, so it’s all yours. How long will you be?”

“I don’t know. A few hours? I need to make cookies and do some writing.”

Taylor nodded, her auburn mane marching in time to her nod. “Too bad about your mother. Is she doing okay?”

As much as islanders left one another alone, it always amazed Annie that everyone seemed to know his or her neighbor’s business. “She is. Yes. Thanks.”

Taylor nodded again. “I hardly got along with mine, but I miss her.”

Annie did not respond because she saw no need to get into a discussion about Taylor’s recently dead mother or about Donna.

“Jonas is gone.”

“I heard that. I’m sorry, Taylor.”

They kept their distance, standing a good thirty feet apart, as if getting closer would imply, well, getting closer.

“I didn’t do it, you know. I didn’t kill his father. I hope that’s his skull. Maybe it will prove I didn’t push him overboard.”

Annie felt her body stiffen. “We might not hear anything for a while,” she said. “Believe me, we all want this resolved as quickly as possible.”

Rubbing her hands on her hips, Taylor said, “Kevin’s going to leave next. He’ll say it’s because of your mother, but it’s really because of me. I don’t think he believes me, either.” She managed a half-grin. “Who wants to be with someone they think already killed a man?”

Annie did not want to be having any of this conversation. Nor did she like standing there with Taylor when no one else seemed to be around. “I don’t think Kevin thinks that,” she said.