“I can’t find a record that they were married in Florida,” Letty said. “But maybe they got married somewhere else.” She hesitated. “There’s more, though. Almost as soon as Tanya moved to the city, while she was still living with me, she got involved with Evan. At the time, I worked for him. And we were … sort of dating.”

“She stole your boyfriend?” Isabelle said indignantly. “Wow. That’s cold.”

Letty allowed herself a sad smile. “The next thing I knew, they were living together. And then Tanya got pregnant. Maya was born seven months later.”

“Wait,” Isabelle said, doing the math in her head. “Oh my God. Maya’s eyes. They’re just like Rooney’s. That dark blue. And her eyelashes. Oh my God!” She pounded the top of the folding table. “Rooney is Maya’s father. I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out earlier.”

“I only figured it out myself after your brother told me Sunday about the scammers who’d been living here at the Surf. He mentioned a man named Rooney, and I remembered that was the name of Tanya’s boyfriend. The one who ripped her off. The only other time she ever mentioned him to me was when I was asking her how she always got involved with losers. And she said he had deep blue eyes—like a mountain lake you wanted to dive naked into.”

Isabelle absorbed that piece of information. “But Tanya told Evan he was Maya’s father.”

“I’m sure that in Tanya’s mind, it all made sense. She was pregnant, Rooney was gone. Evan was available, sort of, and he was rich. Why not let him think he was her baby’s daddy?”

“And even after they broke up, she didn’t tell him Maya wasn’t his?” Isabelle asked. “Even when he was trying to get custody of a kid that wasn’t his, she still kept it a secret? Why?”

“Money, for one thing,” Letty said. “As long as Evan believed Maya was his daughter, he’d support them both, even if they weren’t married. Even after things got really, really ugly between them, she never hinted to me that he wasn’t Maya’s father. Typical Tanya.”

“I can’t believe Tanya is dead,” Isabelle repeated, blinking back tears. “I’m so sorry, Letty. I really liked her. Everybody here liked her, even the Feldmans, and they don’t like anyone.”

“Yeah,” Letty said, nodding. “That sounds like my sister. Our mom used to say Tanya could charm the birds out of the trees.”

“I was just a goofy kid, but she was always super nice to me. Rooney was nice too, but I guess that was just so he could rip people off.”

“What can you tell me about him, Isabelle?”