Mavis shrugged. “Doctor G was at home in Nyack. They told us he had a heart attack.” She plucked an invisible hair from her leg. “Bad things happen in threes, I remember someone saying that. Have you ever heard that? I think we were hoping for Zelda to kick off, but of course she didn’t. The angels aren’t exactly rushing to gather her into heaven.”

“I saw why,” I admitted. “She wouldn’t tell me anything about my sister.”

“Zelda’s a freak, a serious freak, about privacy. She’s always worried that something would damage Idylhaven’s reputation. I mean, with Doctor G around, that must have been tough.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was kind of a running joke. What does G stand for? Groping, grasping, G-spot.” Mavis made a face as if she’d just tasted a rotten lemon. “I guess that’s in bad taste now that he’s dead. But I heard he had relationships with some of the girls who came through here. That’s a gross, gross thing for a doctor to do.”

“He seemed to have a relationship with Claudia.”

“Did he ever.” Mavis’s eyes went wide.

“You knew about it?”

“Idylhaven’s a pit of vipers when it comes to gossip,” said Mavis. “I heard that Claudia had found out he was screwing another girl—or girls—and she’d relapsed. I don’t know, that part sounded a little fishy to me.” She shrugged slightly. “Claudia and I weren’t BFFs, but we were in group together and I knew her pretty well. She’s the kind of girl who’d strangle a guy if he pissed her off.”

She relapsed because she had a miscarriage, I thought, but I kept that to myself.

“When Claudia came back to Idylhaven, she was having a really tough, tough time. Like her withdrawal kept getting worse. Suddenly Doctor G appeared on the scene to help her. It was supposed to be this huge secret, but everybody knew. I mean, there are no secrets here.”

“Was he able to help Claudia?”

“He did. It was weird. One of the girls said Claudia wanted to kick H for him. Who knows? But then Doctor G proposed to her. It was a huge, huge big deal because he’d spent his whole life preaching against marriage, and suddenly he wanted to get married. He gave Claudia this stunning diamond ring. She said it was his grandmother’s engagement ring. I don’t know if that part was true, but it was this beautiful, antique monster ring.”

I almost choked. “Claudia got engaged?”