Kate smiled and nodded, but Wes ignored him. “Thus Handyman Pizza was formed. Two businesses in one. I have an employee and a dispatcher for my handyman business downstairs. And I kept the employees of the restaurant here, which Grady oversees.” He nodded to where the cook had disappeared back into the kitchen. “But there are weird crossovers, like when people call for a handyman and ask that a pizza be delivered, too. Or when customers in the restaurant bring in broken lamps, and eat here while the lamps are rewired downstairs.”

“That’s very clever,” Kate said.

“I just fell into it,” Wes said.

“You always were pretty easygoing.”

Wes snorted. “Meaning I let you boss me around.”

Devin finished her pizza slice and said, “Hey, Wes, look what the alligator gave me.” She lifted the knobby piece of wood she’d set on the counter earlier. She carried it around with her like a flashlight everywhere she went. “I think it’s a clue.”

Wes took the piece of wood and gave it due consideration. “A clue to what?”

Devin shrugged. “Something the alligator wants me to find.”

“It looks like part of a cypress knee,” he said, handing it back to her.

“You know … it does,” Kate agreed.

Devin looked excited. “What’s a cypress knee?”

“It’s the part of a cypress tree root that sticks out above the ground or water. Your mom and I used to go diving around the cypress knees at the far end of the lake, looking for treasure.”

“Not that you can do that,” Kate added quickly. “It’s too dangerous. My mother would have had a fit if she’d known what I was doing. I remember how tangled those roots were underwater. It’s amazing we didn’t get trapped.”

“But we grew gills, remember?” Wes said.

Kate actually reached up and touched a place behind her ear. “I remember.”

She also remembered the story she’d made up about the three girls who went swimming in the cypress knees and got trapped, about how they had stayed there forever and grown up underwater, their hair floating like seaweed as they watched their parents look for them every day. And how, when they were grown, they figured out how to harness the fog and appear above the water. Ursula, Magdalene, and Betty. The ghost ladies.

Devin hopped off her stool. “Let’s go back to the lake. I want to check out these knees!”

“Are you coming to Eby’s party?” Kate asked as she stood. She called for Devin to wait by the door.

“I’ll be there,” he said.

“So will most of the town, apparently. It’s snowballed into something bigger than Bulahdeen expected.”

“I can come out later today, if you’d like. I can help get the place ready.”

“I think everyone would be grateful for that,” Kate said.

“Mom, come on!”

Kate smiled as she walked away. “I’ll see you then.”

*   *   *