“Yeah. She was so happy. I didn’t think anybody could be that happy, let alone goth girl. She was wearing the ring on a chain around her neck, since it was too big for her finger, but she kept showing the ring to everyone. She was like a little kid. I mean, in a good way. She said she couldn’t wait to tell you, but she was going to get herself clean first.”

“Did you see Gorevale?”

“A couple of times, just coming and going. I knew he wasn’t allowed on Idylhaven’s grounds. I think there was actually a restraining order or something.”

“Did you know Trina Greene?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Mavis’s mouth twitched as if she’d had another taste of that bad lemon. She was actually silent for a couple of heartbeats. “She was my counselor for a while. Group and private sessions.”

“She was a counselor?” My voice was loud, even to my own ears. “She wasn’t a patient? She worked here?”

“For a couple of years. Miss Popularity. Everybody’s best friend. Though, trust me, Trina has some serious issues of her own, especially with food,” said Mavis. “Though, actually, I heard she lost a ton, a serious ton, of weight when she was out of work over the summer. It was crazy that she thought Zelda would take her back.”

“Take her back?” I was having trouble following the thread of conversation, partly because of Mavis’s rapid-fire delivery, but also because there was so much I hadn’t heard before. I’d assumed Trina Greene was a patient. What else had I gotten wrong?

Mavis sighed. “If you met Trina, you’d have loved her. Loved! At first, anyway. She would seem so warm, like she cared about you so much. Of course, that was all bullshit. But she was really, really great at getting people to open up to her, though.”

Of course she was, I thought. That was how she knew so much about Claudia. That was why she was able to regurgitate parts of Claudia’s family history. “Why did she leave Idylhaven?”

“Trina was always looking for her next bigger, better deal,” Mavis said. “She talked this girl from a rich family into hiring her as a sobriety companion. So Trina quit and went with her to California. Then, like three weeks later, this girl gets coked up and had a massive, massive car wreck. I heard Trina came back around here, but Zelda wouldn’t give her her job back.”

“Why would she come back here, then?” I asked. “Is her family around here?”

“No, I don’t know where she’s from. But she was dating a guy in town and she moved in with him. I guess she was regrouping till she figured out her next move.”

“Who’s the boyfriend?”