Buy А Whisker

Chapter 24

I think you could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

“What happened?” I said finally.

Caroline put both hands flat on the table. “He came to the bakery to talk to Lily. He wanted to get back together, but she didn’t like how possessive he’d gotten. He grabbed a knife off the counter, backed her into a corner in the basement and cut her, right here.” She put hand to her collarbone. “There was a pair of scissors I’d been using to cut string to put around the recycling on top of a box. He was going to cut her again. Or worse.” She dropped her head. “I stabbed him.”

Liz reached over and laid a hand on Caroline’s arm. “You were protecting your child. No one would have faulted you for that.”

“Daniel would have,” Caroline said. “Lily was terrified about what he’d do.”

I thought of Swift out on the deck, determined to get rid of me. I didn’t doubt Lily’s conclusion. But I couldn’t miss the irony that Lily was dead because Daniel Swift was convinced she knew what had happened to his grandson, and he’d been right.

Caroline swallowed hard. “We got his body into one of the tea chests we kept for storage and got it on the dolly. I put on Caleb’s hoodie. I knew the Levengers had a security camera and it would record me leaving. I was banking on the fact that the quality of the image would be poor because the old man was pretty cheap.”

“What did you do?” Liz asked.

“I got his body onto the Swift Current. I used to sail a lot when I was younger. I took the boat out to deep water at the mouth of the harbor.” She stopped and swallowed again. “I weighed down the body and . . . dumped it overboard.” Her voice had lowered to a whisper. “Then I swam to shore and Lily picked me up.”

No one said anything. Pain was etched in every line of Caroline’s face. “The knife Caleb attacked Lily with is wrapped in plastic and buried under the concrete next to the floor drain in the basement. Lily kept it in case we ever needed to prove he’d attacked her.”

“That’s why Lily wouldn’t sell,” I said softly.

“She was protecting me,” Caroline said. “I didn’t care about myself, but I was afraid she’d go to jail for helping me cover up what I did. She was afraid of what Daniel would do to me.”

Tears began to slide down her face. “Whatever he would have done to me could never have been worse than this.”

Caroline had come to tell us the truth before she went to the police. Liz convinced her to stay with us and wait for Michelle. And she called Josh Evans. By the time Josh and Caroline had left for the police station with Michelle, I was finding it hard to stay awake.

“Sarah needs to get some rest,” Liz proclaimed. “Time to clear out.”

Avery and Mr. P. cleaned up and loaded the dishwasher.

Mac blew up the air mattress for Jess, and Rose made her a bed with two of my grandmother’s quilts.

Rose wrapped me in a hug. “I’ll be in my apartment. If you need me, send Jess to get me and I’ll be here with bells on . . . and a shovel in my hand.”

I laughed and hugged her extra hard.

Jess ran me a bath, poured in about a third of a bottle of patchouli oil and left me to soak.

“You don’t have to stay,” I said, admittedly halfheartedly.

“Yeah, I kinda do,” she said. “I don’t think your snow shovel can take it if Rose decides to go all kung fu on someone else with it.”

Once I was settled in bed, I couldn’t sleep. It looked like the North Landing project would go ahead now, but there was nothing to celebrate. I kept thinking about Lily’s desperation to protect her mother and Daniel Swift’s to find out what had happened to his grandson. It was all so sad.

With everything going on, I’d forgotten about the package Nick had given me. I’d brought it into the bedroom and left it on the chair. I got up and brought it back to the bed. Inside the bag was something wrapped in white tissue. I undid the paper. It was a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers T-shirt.

I could hear Jess snoring softly in the living room. I didn’t want to wake her up, but I wanted to talk to someone. The phone was on the nightstand. I reached for it and punched in a number. He’d told me to call if I needed anything. It rang three times and then he answered.

“Hi, Mac,” I said. “It’s me.”