“Aren’t you afraid of what Tish will say in her book?” Serena asked.

Peter studied Tish, who stood next to Stride among the people near the wooden coffin. It was as if she could feel eyes on her back, because she turned and saw Serena and Peter standing together up the hill. Her lips folded into a frown.

“Tish can write what she wants,” Peter said. “I don’t care. Sometimes the easy explanation is the right one, Serena. Finn was in love with Laura, and Laura didn’t want him. So he decided that no one else was going to have her, either.”

“Except some people might think you felt the same way,” Serena said.

“Maybe I did, but Laura’s big mistake wasn’t saying no to me.”

“Then what was it?”

“It was letting Rikke get her tangled up with Finn. That was like buying a ticket to a house of horrors.”

He nodded his head toward Finn’s sister, who stood with her hand resting on the coffin, but with her face turned toward Tish. Serena could see fury in the woman’s taut skin. Her eyes never left Tish, and Tish stared at the ground rather than look up at her.

“Rikke knows what Finn did,” Peter said.

Serena pursed her lips and thought about the macabre striptease that Stride had described on the beach between Finn and his sister.

“Finn and Rikke were a strange family,” she agreed.

“You’re right, but don’t forget one thing,” Peter told her.

“What’s that?”

“Back in 1977, Laura was in the middle of that family.”

47
___________

Stride and Serena led a parade of cars away from the cemetery. They headed north on Tower Avenue and turned into the parking lot of a bookstore and café where they often stopped for soup and coffee when they were on the east side of the Twin Ports. Maggie followed them into the lot, and so did Tish. The four of them went inside together, where nutmeg and blueberries wafted in the air. Amanda, who ran the store, waved at them and broke off from the stacks of books long enough to get a hug from Stride.

They took chairs in the café at a table by the window. Stride leaned his head against the wall. The sky through the glass was gray and burgundy, as dusk sped quickly into night.

“What can I get everyone?” Maggie asked.

Stride shrugged. “Coffee.”

“You, boss? Plain old coffee? I figured you for a moka-loco apple fritter latte.”

Stride gave her a withering stare.

“How about you, Serena?” Maggie asked. “You want to join me in a chai tea?”

“I’d love one, but you may as well take a hypo and shoot it into my thighs. Get me a bottled water.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “Tish?”

“Nothing, thanks. I have to head to the airport soon.”

Maggie sighed and went to the café register. She placed their order and wandered over to the books counter to chat with Amanda.

“How’s the book coming?” Serena asked Tish.