Lola ignored her housekeeper. “Cady is going to be out all day. We can go as soon as she leaves. I went there once after the accident, but there were police all over the place. I had to turn around and leave. I’m an actress. I was an actress,” Lola clarified. “I know make-believe from reality. You were a stuntwoman. Anthony was one of the best film directors Hollywood turned out. Among the three of us, we might gain some insight into what really happened there if we try to see it through children’s eyes. I’ll go myself if you won’t go with me. Are you in or out?” Lola cackled gleefully.

“What if the police show up and give us a ticket like they did to Cady yesterday?”

“You’ll have to create a diversion, then, while I make my getaway. I’ll bail you out.” She cackled again.

Create a diversion. She was serious. “Why don’t you just buy the damn place?”

Lola reared back in her nest of pillows. “Buy? As in purchase it? What a splendid idea? Who owns it? I am so excited? Yes, yes, let’s do that. A quitclaim deed. I know how things like that work. At nine o’clock, I want you to call the courthouse. Maybe we can get this taken care of today. Now, wouldn’t that be nice?”

Mandy sat down on the edge of the bed and struggled to regain her composure. Sometimes Lola was like a runaway train on a downhill grade. You never knew when she was going to jump the track.

“It belongs to the town. I remember reading that in the paper a while back. There’s going to be red tape, and the council will have to vote. I’m thinking a month here, Lola.”

“Money talks, Mandy. You tell them we’re putting the offer on the table for ninety minutes. That will give them enough time to call all the council members. If the offer is outrageous enough, they’ll vote for it. That’s Plan B. If they don’t accept our offer, we go back to Plan A and just go there and take the chance we’ll be arrested. It’s perfect. What’s for breakfast?”

They’re up to something was Cady’s first thought when she took her place at the dining room table. “What’s for breakfast?” she asked cheerfully.

“Cornflakes,” Mandy said, plopping a bowl in front of her. “It’s Anthony’s day off.”

“Cornflakes are good. I used to eat them a lot,” Cady said, her gaze going from her grandmother to her housekeeper. Something was definitely going on. Something they didn’t see fit to include her in. They reminded her of two precocious squirrels watching their pile of nuts.

Cady had a pile of nuts, too, but she wanted to share them. “I have good news. I’ve started to remember a few things, nothing big, just little things, but it’s better than nothing.”

“That’s what I said,” Lola chirped. “I knew it was just a matter of time and concentration. I was right about you going to the pond. I think that’s what triggered it. Don’t try to force it, though. Let it happen naturally.”