Pearl took Eve’s hand and towed her over to the desk. “It’s a bit odd to do a lemon pie with a double crust, but I wanted to do the scales, so I needed a top one.” There was indeed an intricate fish-scale pattern made out of dough on the top of the pie. “There are other ways to communicate the mermaid theme, of course, but what am I going to do? Dye coconut cream aqua and stick a plastic mermaid on the crust? No. I like to be more subtle.”

Eve eyed Pearl’s extremely not-subtle hair.

“Anyway,” Pearl went on, “it’s a work in progress. Try it and give me your feedback. I know Lucille wasn’t in the habit of serving food at cocktail hour, but who doesn’t like a piece of pie? Or I could do mini ones, and you could give one to each guest when they check in. The minis have been getting really popular. Everyone says they’re very Instagram-able.”

“Pearl.” Eve didn’t know how to break it to her. “I’m not going to need a signature pie, because I’m not going to be running the inn. I’m going to sell it.”

“Oh.” Pearl’s brow furrowed like she was confused.

“Hello? Eve?” Pearl had left the door open, and Jason stepped through it.

“Hi, Jason. Come on in. Pearl, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go over Lucille’s will.”

“Oh!” Pearl perked right up. “Oh.” She smiled. “Yes, I’ll be going, then.” She blew a kiss at Eve. “Ta-ta.”

“Sorry everything’s a bit dusty.” Eve led Jason to one of the bistro tables in the dining room and used her sleeve to wipe the back of his chair before he sat. Jason Sims was like an action figure of a lawyer. His hair was freakishly perfect, and he was wearing a pinstriped suit. He looked way too done up to be sullying himself among the dusty mermaid schlock. “I would have been happy to come to your office.”

“You have enough on your plate. It’s easy for me to come here, and I’m done for the day.” He slid a stack of papers across the table. The top one read “Last Will and Testament of Lucille Frances Abbott.”

She had seen it before, in a scan Jason had attached to an email. But even so, being confronted by the words like that, so sharp and final, black on heavy, crisp white paper, made something pinch in her chest. She sucked in a breath.

“It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it?”