Chapters (46)
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- thirty-eight
- thirty-nine
- forty
- forty-one
- forty-two
She tilted her head, then after some thought, nodded, this apparently being an acceptable sign of competence.
“Is your grandma home?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Can I speak to her?”
“I don’t know, can you?” She giggled.
“May I speak to her?”
“Stop giving Ms. Levine a hard time, Kayla.”
A woman stepped from the next room. There was no question who she was—she looked like a forty-something clone of her granddaughter—small and wiry, with graying blond hair and quick blue eyes.
“Off with you, miss,” she said, pointing to the front door. “Go outside, but stay—”
“—off the road and on the property.” Kayla rolled her eyes. “But what if Savannah has questions for me? She needs to interview everyone. I’m someone.”
Her grandmother’s face softened and she bent to kiss the top of Kayla’s head. “You are indeed, but for now, I’d like you to play outside.”
When Kayla was out of earshot, I said, “About yesterday, it was an accident. Kayla found me checking out some things in the library and we started talking. When I realized who she was, I shut up. I apologize if I upset her in any way. If I’d known she was Ginny’s daughter, I wouldn’t have spoken to her.”
“I’d like to believe you, Ms. Levine, but it’ll be easier if you tell me the whole truth. She wasn’t at the library, was she?”
“Well, she was supposed to be.”
She gave a small laugh and finally stepped aside, unblocking the entrance to the family home.
She offered me a chair in the living room. “She was in the building where Genevieve was found, wasn’t she? With her detective kit.”
I said nothing.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She sighed, still standing, as if she hadn’t quite committed herself to talking to me yet. “I suppose buying her that kit wasn’t my best parenting idea ever. She just ... she wanted it so much. I thought it might help. Empower her.” A wry smile. “Yes, I’ve read too many books on helping children cope with grief.”
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I ...” I hesitated. I wasn’t the sharing type, but this seemed as good a time as any to work on that. “My mother died when I was a little older than Kayla. Murdered. It was just the two of us. If I could have found out who killed my mother—or thought I could—it would have helped me deal. Trying to solve the crime doesn’t seem to upset her, and that’s the main thing.”