“But it wouldn’t make sense for her to give one to Sophie. Maybe both of them, but not one. And when would she have done it?”

“Nope,” Frances agreed. “Sophie found that earring.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Maybe she’s scared to tell where. Maybe she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be, sneaking around smoking or something. You remember Laura told us that Sophie popped out from behind the dryer in the laundry room and scared her to death.”

“Or maybe she saw something she wasn’t supposed to see.” Haley turned and looked at the beach, but there was no black-clad figure down there.

“That’s scary,” Frances said.

“I’m sure Major has thought of that possibility.”

“I wonder if her parents have,” I added.

“Y’all look mighty serious,” Sister said, coming out on the balcony. “How was your shopping trip?”

“I got a bathing suit at the Adrienne Vittadini outlet,” Haley said. “Bright red.”

“It looks great on her. I got a couple of wedding presents at the Lenox place.”

“How’s Fairchild?” I asked.

Sister sat down beside Haley. “He’s doing okay. Some insurance man is already over there with him. Lord, I remember when Will Alec and Philip and Roger died, what a mess the insurance was. And especially with Philip dying on that plane while we were on vacation.”

“It was Roger,” I said.

“Whichever. They both just went thump, right over. Nice men.”

We thought about this for a moment. Then Sister asked Frances if I had told her that Major Bissell didn’t think Laura had gotten the threatening call.

“Really? What makes him think that?”

“It came from the pay phone in front of Delchamps. It showed up on our phone, but not on Laura’s. There was no call made to Laura’s from that phone or any other at that specific time.”

“Well, if she didn’t get a phone call, she deserves an Academy Award,” Haley said. “That woman was shaking like a leaf. I thought for sure she was going to keel over.”

“I agree,” I said. “She didn’t say she had just come from her apartment, did she? We all just assumed she had.”

“They could even have a phone on the boat,” Sister said. “Probably do.” She rubbed the frown line between her eyes.

“There could be all kinds of explanations,” Haley assured her, and then changed the subject by asking Sister if Fairchild had said what he was going to do with the land over on the bay.

“It reverted to the Blue Bay Corporation, Haley. You looked it up.”

“Not all of it. Wait a minute.” Haley disappeared inside for a moment, and came back with the brochure for Blue Bay Ranch that Lolita had given us and the photocopied papers she had gotten at the court house.