“He didn’t like the reminder that his girlfriend was a mother.”

“Maybe that was it. I was still careful, though. I started helping Kayla in the bath again, to look for signs ... I had to be sure. I couldn’t say anything about how he treated Ginny—she wouldn’t listen. But if he’d ever touched Kayla ... ”

“Did Ginny or Brandi have any contact with Alastair Koppel?”

“Favorite suspect number two. I don’t know anything about that commune or cult or whatever he has going up there. Neither did Ginny. He takes in young women, and Ginny and Brandi were young women, but that’s the only connection. Mr. Koppel has never recruited in town. Never even approached one of our local girls. He’s not stupid. Some people want him gone and he won’t give them any excuse.”

“What about Ginny’s father?” I asked.

She started at that, coffee sloshing. “Pardon me?”

“Ginny’s father. Is he a local? Did she have any contact with him?”

“Oh.” She laughed. “Sometimes I forget she had a father. Certainly never felt like it. He left town before she was born. She was, for all intents and purposes, my daughter. Mine alone.”

My responsibility. I heard that, even if she didn’t say it.

“What about Claire Kennedy? I know she arrived after Ginny’s death, but was there any way Ginny might have known her? Did Ginny ever move away from Columbus? Work outside it? Socialize outside it?”

“The only time Ginny left Columbus was to party, and even then, no farther than Portland. I encouraged her to take a job in the city. I thought it would help if she got away from Brandi. She just accused me of trying to get rid of her. The truth, I’m sure, is that she was afraid to leave. This was all she knew. Could she have met Claire at one of those parties in the city? I suppose it’s possible, but from what I’ve heard of Ms. Kennedy, she didn’t seem the type to have gone to them.”

“Did Cody know Claire? Any rumors? A chance meeting, maybe?”

She shook her head. “Nothing I ever heard of.”

“I did,” said a voice from the hall.

We turned to see Kayla. She stood there, notepad clutched to her chest.

“Dorothy told Aunt Rose that she saw Cody talking to Claire the day before she died. They were fighting.” She pursed her lips. “Arguing, I think she meant, not really fighting.”

“I never heard this,” Paula said.

“Neither has Bruyn,” I said. “He’d have been all over it.”