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“Then why not tell us about it instead of being secretive. There's something nasty about that secretive nature of yours. I'm going to have to speak to Delia about it. She wouldn't like it one bit, not one bit, if she thought you were deliberately frightening folks.”

“Lobelia,” Eileen cut in. “Have a word with Matt. He'll put your mind at rest. Anyone else for coffee?”

“No, thanks,” Lobelia said and the others shook their heads, no.

“I spoke with your husband on the phone,” Joan Reeves said, smiling at Aurelie. “He is such a nice man, but you know that. We're getting together this afternoon.”

Aurelie didn't dare meet any of her friends' eyes. How could this be happening to her?

“I can't think of another couple who would put up with an interruption before five in the morning and still treat me with the sort of kindness you and Nick did.”

“I
f it was you, you'd want to know all about it,” Sarah said. She giggled—again—and instantly knew her mistake. “Sorry. That just slipped out. Tell me what everyone said, though, Rellie. I tell you
everything.
”

They rode in the Hummer with Hoover stationed just behind them where he could poke his head forward and keep his eyes on the road, or what he could see of it in rapidly falling darkness.

“Stop laughing,” Aurelie said. “Stop it right now, Sarah, or I'll…Well, I will, so don't push it.”

“I'll try,” Sarah said, pressing her lips together. No good. She choked and snuffled.

“You are such a baby,” Aurelie said. “Worse than…than that. You're like a junior-high schoolgirl. A mean one. Don't ask me again. Now let me drive. I don't want to be late for dinner. Delia sounded serious about something.”

A couple of hours earlier Sarah had hitched a ride to Oakdale with Ed Webb, Sabine's husband. She'd been working at home on the computer all day then decided to drop some materials with the printer they used locally. Delia believed in supporting businesses in town.

Around closing time, Sarah had turned up at Poke Around to rendezvous with her sister, and Delia had called to ask them to come to dinner that evening. Aurelie was right, Delia hadn't been in the mood for small talk, but she'd made it clear the invitation was more of a summons.

Rather than leave the shop on time, Aurelie had hung around, feeding Sarah coffee and deliberately finding more things to do until it started getting dark and Sarah insisted on leaving.

“Why didn't you want to leave when the shop closed?” Sarah asked.

“Sit, Hoover,” Aurelie said. “That's a good boy.” She didn't answer Sarah.

“Don't stay mad at me, sis. You can't blame me for being curious. Eileen said just enough about that Joan Reeves coming in to make me
die
for more. I can't believe Sabine and Lobelia were there, too. Hey, you wouldn't want Lobelia Forestier spreading our business around town when I don't even know what our business is, would you?”

Not a word, not a flicker.

“C'mon. What did you say when that woman called Nick your husband?” Apart from Eileen's sketchy description of Joan Reeves's visit to Poke Around, the dreamy photographer she'd brought with her, and what she'd said in front of everyone, Sarah hadn't heard the juicy details.

Aurelie blinked rapidly. “You don't give up, do you? All right. But then, drop it. I said he isn't my husband. I told her I was spending the night at his place and we'd gone out to walk my dog.”

Sarah snorted. “You
didn't.
”

“I did.” Aurelie glared at her. “What's wrong with that?”

“It doesn't sound better than the other to me.”

Aurelie actually looked stricken. “Don't say things like that.” She swallowed audibly and moisture sprang along her lower lashes.

“Oh, don't be silly,” Sarah said. She kept smiling and joking, but having Aurelie spend the night at Nick's place had upset her. “You know I'm just fooling around. It sounded funny when you said it, is all. Let's change the subject. So now Lobelia knows you're looking for somewhere to live, she wants you to look at the apartment over Lynette and Frances's salon?”

“Yes. I think it's a great idea. Everyone knows those two. They're good friends of Emma Duhon, and Frances does Sabine's hair.”

“I thought you were set on the Quarters at Oakdale,” Sarah said.

“I changed my mind. I don't need to be that close to work.”

Aurelie's brusque replies were starting to irritate Sarah.

Aurelie edged to a stop at the junction with Rice Street. The next turn, small enough to miss real easily, was the entrance to a little strip of shops tucked in behind Main Street. That's where Lynette Cayler and Frances Broussard ran their salon. Aurelie slowed to a crawl again.

The sisters peered down the gloomy alley. “Does anyone else live back there?” Sarah asked.

“I have no idea,” Aurelie told her. “A spotlight or two on the outside of the building and it'll be daylight at midnight. Don't worry.”

“Let's drive down there and take a look.”

Without a word, Aurelie turned the wheel hard and shot down the alley to where it opened into a parking area for six or seven shops, including the salon. The brakes squealed and she pulled the Hummer to a stop.

“What was that for?” Sarah asked. “What's the matter with you?”

Aurelie stared ahead at darkened shop windows. “Did you see Nick at all today?” she asked.

“No.” Sarah's tummy did a flip. “I thought he might come over but I haven't seen him at all. He's not at his place and he didn't answer his phone—again. He's making a habit of that.” She felt uneasy.

“So he's turned into the Invisible Man.” Aurelie knew she couldn't play completely dumb with Sarah any longer.

“He was meeting with that Joan Reeves this afternoon, she didn't say where. Like I said, she's writing a book on the generations of people who have lived in antebellum houses. She wants to know all about the current family attached to Place Lafource.” Sarah hadn't mentioned Baily, which meant she didn't know about the death.

Sarah rolled down her window. After another scorching day, the wind still held its heat. “I don't like the sound of her book. I hope we can stop her from giving our real names or where we live.”

“Nick won't tell Joan Reeves anything that could be difficult for us,” Aurelie said. “Although I don't think there's much hope that she won't publish something anyway. Having the photographer with her means she intends to have photographs of Place Lafource and of us. Why would she do that if she didn't intend to mention us directly?”

Sarah jerked her head away from Hoover's tongue. “We'll have to find out if we can insist on privacy. I think we can, I just don't know the rules.”

“Can you complain when someone writes the truth about you?” Aurelie asked. Her palms sweated on the wheel. “I'd have to check. Have you talked to Delia today? About anything else but dinner?”

“Nope. Nothing except for the grand summons. You know how she loves a buildup. She didn't have any intention of tipping her hand before she could get us lined up in front of her.”

“I know. She may just want to get us all together,” Aurelie said. It made sense that Delia would expect Sarah to have found out about Baily's death by now. This dinner was for some other reason, but someone had to break the news to Sarah.

“I wonder if Nick's coming.”

Aurelie shook her head silently. From the way he'd kept to himself today he couldn't want to be with her any more than she wanted to be with him.

She would just like to know he was okay.

Screaming wouldn't help but it might feel good.

“What do you really think's on Delia's mind?” Sarah asked.

“No idea,” Aurelie said. “Um, Matt didn't call you, did he?” If she could save Sarah the unpleasantness of hearing that Matt, Nick and Aurelie wondered if Sarah had been the one intended to end up in the rosebushes, she would.

Sarah drummed her fingertips on her thigh. “You are being secretive. I thought you were. You wouldn't ask about Matt talking to me if you didn't have something on your mind.”

“Sure I would. He's a good friend. He could have called you. Do you think he's really interested in Eileen?”

“Yes.” Sarah sounded short-tempered. “Are you going to tell me what all the secrecy is about?”

“Secrecy!” Aurelie hammered the wheel. “There's that word again. D'you know that Lobelia Forestier said I was secretive? She had the nerve to tell everyone I had a
nasty
habit of being secretive and she was thinking of going to Delia about it.”

Sarah snickered. “Sounds about right to me.” She pulled herself together. “Let's get serious. Delia used that voice she has when she's about to hand down final judgment on something.”

“Okay,” Aurelie said, and put on the handbrake. “I might have known I'd end up being the one who told you this.” Now she sounded petulant and didn't like it. “I mean, I hoped you knew about it by now. You ought to. Delia should have made sure she came and told you.”

“Stop it!” Sarah turned sideways in her seat. “Rellie, please, what are you talking about? Don't do this to me.”

“Baily…Baily Morris died last night. Out at the lab.”

“No.” Sarah shuddered and shook her head. “
No.
Baily? No, that can't be.”

“She, er, she fell off the roof.”

Sarah put fists to her cheeks. “What?” She frowned at Aurelie. “She fell off the roof? Why didn't anyone let me know? We couldn't stand each other but that wasn't her fault. Not really. It was because of Nick. Damn, I'm babbling.”

Aurelie decided to keep quiet.

“She always seemed to want to outdo me,” Sarah said. “Nick and I get along so well, and she had to work hard just to get him to ask her out. Not that it lasted. She was a mental case. No, no, forget I said that. Baily was highly strung. My God, Rellie, how did she fall?”

“I don't know.” That much was the truth.

Sarah started to cry quietly.

Aurelie put her arms around her. “You're shocked,” she said. “It was unbelievable. They found her in the rose gardens in front of the lab.”

“No. Don't say it.
No.
” Sniffing, she wiped the back of a wrist across her eyes. “Listen to what you're saying. Baily wasn't…I mean, she didn't want to break up with Nick, but she wanted to live. If anything, when she couldn't make it stick with Nick, she blamed the family. I think she wanted to show us all what a success she was going to make of her life. Rellie? Did she trip?”

“They mentioned suicide.”

Sarah let out a long, long breath, faced front again and rested her head back. She closed her eyes and didn't try to stop Hoover from licking her gently. “I can't stand it,” she said. “I feel so guilty.”

Aurelie knew what she meant. “Because you didn't like her? I didn't like her, but what happened wasn't my fault.” Even as she spoke, her own throat grew tight. She detested the pictures that formed in her mind, pictures of Baily twisted up the way she had been.

“Delia knows about this?” Sarah asked.

“Yes.”

“I can't believe she didn't say anything on the phone.” Sarah said. “Sometimes she behaves as if bad things will go away if she doesn't acknowledge them.”

“I know,” Aurelie said. “It could be an irritation but it may be what helped her to deal with getting three teenagers dumped in her lap, and all the stuff she went through to keep us together.”

Sarah gave a short laugh. “Remember how she just sailed through the whole thing? You talked about Matt. Were—dumb question—of course the police were called.”

“Nick and I went out there,” Aurelie said, turning her face away. “I was so sure you'd know right away, this morning, when you couldn't get into the lab.”

“What do you mean? I haven't been out there today. I didn't feel like it after getting so shaken up yesterday.”

“Matt called Nick on his cell last night, when we were driving to Oakdale from your place.” Driving to Oakdale and about to break an unwritten rule between them.

It wasn't a rule at all, dammit.

“You didn't see her?” Sarah almost whispered.

“I did. But I wish I hadn't.” And all day she had driven thoughts of what happened from her mind. “The lab is closed off as a crime scene, or potential crime scene.”

“Crime?” Sarah shot upright. “Suicide isn't a crime—not that way.”

“If it was suicide.”

“Oh.” Sarah found Aurelie's hand and held it. “Do they think she was murdered?”

“Sarah, I haven't heard another thing about it all day. I kept expecting Matt to contact me.”

“I bet he spoke to Nick,” Sarah said, sounding upset again. “Isn't that the way it always is. The guys stick together as if we don't exist.”

“Could be. Could be Matt's had his hands too full to be chatting to anyone. This is a big thing in a little town.”

Sarah put her elbows on her knees and cradled her chin in her hands. “We're not talking about what's really on our minds,” she said. “Colin Fox. It's not knowing if he's dead or alive, or if he would actually come after us that's driving us mad.”

“I keep trying to push him out of my mind. But I can't believe someone won't find out about all of us and come after us. The press, I mean—or the police out there.”

Sarah rocked her head from side to side. “The only thing we ought to care about is staying safe. Staying
alive.
We're handicapped because we don't think we should go to the police.” She put her forehead on her fists. “We can't be blamed for being afraid. Rellie, you don't think Baily's death has anything to do with Colin, do you?”