“All right,” I said. I leaned over and kissed Rose on the cheek. “I’ll see you later.”
They got into Liz’s car and I waited until they had pulled away from the curb before I walked back to my SUV. I looked at Nicole Cameron’s house again as I unlocked the driver’s door. By now Michelle would know that Leesa Cameron’s alibi was fake. Rose had been vindicated.
I wasn’t even halfway back to the shop when my cell phone rang. It was lying on the seat and I glanced sideways to see who was calling. Rose. I put my blinker on and pulled over to answer.
“Hello, dear,” she said. “Could you please say hello to Liz? She’s right next to me.”
“Hi, Liz,” I said, wondering what on earth was going on now.
There was some kind of noise in the background I couldn’t identify. Then I heard Rose’s voice, seemingly a distance away from the phone, say, “There. Are you satisfied?”
“Rose, what’s going on?” I asked.
She came back on the line. “I was just showing Liz that I had in fact called you because she didn’t believe me.” She raised her voice at the end of the sentence.
“And why did you call?”
“I think I might remember something—something from the night I saw Jeff Cameron’s body.”
I leaned my arm against the door and propped my head on my hand. “What did you remember?”
“It doesn’t exactly make sense,” she said. “Do you remember when we cleared out the Cooper house?”
“I remember,” I said. It wasn’t likely I’d forget that.
As I’d told Glenn, we’d developed a bit of a side business at the shop, clearing out apartments and houses, most of the time for the families of seniors who needed or wanted to move but were just overwhelmed by dealing with everything they’d accumulated over a lifetime. The Cooper house was a rambling farmhouse with more rooms than was apparent from the outside. And every one of them filled with stuff. I wasn’t sure how the house was connected to Jeff Cameron.
“When we were at Nicole Cameron’s house I was going over what happened that night, and those tea chests we found in the attic at the Coopers’ kept coming into my mind. I don’t understand why.”
“I don’t see the connection, either,” I said. “I’m sorry.” We’d found several vintage wooden tea chests from Indonesia with the original wooden strapping, and in the case of one of them the original foil lining with bits of tea still clinging to it, in the attic of the old house. One of them contained several bolts of silk that Jess had bought and used to make beautiful robes for her clothing store.
“I need to go over there,” Rose said. “I don’t know why this matters, but I know it does.”
I knew she meant the cottage, not the Cooper house. “Bad idea,” I said.
“You sound like Liz.”
“Great minds think alike, then.”
“And fools seldom differ, dear,” Rose countered.
“I heard that,” Liz said in the background.
“Well, obviously I meant you to,” Rose retorted.
I knew how this was going to play out. “Okay, hang on,” I said. “Let’s just skip the step where we argue back and forth and go right to the bottom line.”
“I need to go over there, Sarah,” Rose said. “I could have just let Liz take me home and then headed over once she was gone, but I didn’t.”
She had me. I closed my eyes for a second and tried to exhale quietly so she wouldn’t hear me sigh.
“How about this? You and Liz drive over and park in front of the Clarks’. I’ll be right behind you. Then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do.”
“Hang on a minute, dear,” Rose said. I heard voices again just far enough from the phone that I couldn’t make out the conversation. Then Rose came back on. “Liz wants to talk to you,” she said with what sounded like a touch of self-righteous indignation in her tone.
“Fine,” I said.
After a moment Liz’s voice came through the phone. “Are you crazy?” she asked.
“It’s a possibility,” I said lightly. “I’ve never been officially tested.”
“Well, maybe you should be so we can get confirmation.”
I laughed. “I’m right behind you. Less than five minutes, I promise. If Rose tries to do anything rash, get the dog to sit on her.”
“Easy for you to say.” Liz gave a snort of skepticism.
Rose came back on the phone. “Thank you, darling girl,” she said. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
When I got to the Clarks’ I turned in the driveway and parked behind Liz. She and Rose were standing in the driveway with Ashley Clark and Casey. The big Lab was sitting beside Rose and her hand was in his fur. It was pretty clear she had a friend for life.
I walked over to join them. Ashley smiled. “Hi, Sarah,” she said. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You, too,” I said. Casey turned to look at me and I reached over and scratched the top of his head.
“Ashley says she just saw Leesa leave about forty-five minutes ago,” Rose said.
Liz pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes at me but didn’t say anything.
“Okay,” I said, gesturing with my sunglasses. “We’ll go down there for five minutes.” I held up five fingers. “If it doesn’t trigger any kind of a memory, that’s it.”
Rose nodded. “That’s fine.”
“Do you want to take him with you?” Ashley asked gesturing at the dog. “He’s a softie, but people who don’t know him don’t know that.”
“Will he go with us?” I asked.
The big Lab was leaning his head against Rose’s leg.
His owner laughed. “I think he’d happily live with Rose.” She walked over to the front steps and picked up the braided leather leash that was lying on the top one. She snapped it on the dog’s collar and handed the end to Rose. “He knows how to heel and sit and stay,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said. “We’ll only be a few minutes.”
Ashley reached over and patted the dog’s head. “Take care of Rose, boy,” she said.
We walked along the road to the Camerons’ cottage. Casey stayed by Rose’s side and I got the feeling that if anyone gave her any trouble the dog would cheerfully chew their arm off.
There were no signs that anyone was home at the small green cottage. Nonetheless, being there made me antsy. Rose stood in the middle of the driveway. “Sit,” she said to Casey, who did as he was told. She looked around the yard and then she closed her eyes for a moment.
Liz and I waited. “This is a waste of time,” she muttered.
“Do you have a train to catch?” I whispered back.
Rose opened her eyes. She looked at us and shook her head. “I’m just going to stand on the steps,” she said.
I glanced back down the road. There was no sign of any cars coming. I walked the rest of the way up the driveway looking for anything that might have made Rose think of those old tea chests. Nothing twigged.
Rose stood on the steps and, just as she had on Wednesday night, peered through the window. She sighed. “I don’t know why I thought of those old tea chests,” she said. “I guess it doesn’t mean anything after all.” She came down the steps, and she and Casey started down the driveway toward Liz, who was standing in the shade of a tall maple tree.
I climbed the stairs and took a quick look in the sunporch. There wasn’t anything in it or the kitchen beyond that looked like a wooden tea chest. I turned, and as I did something on the small deck on the other side of the porch caught my eye. I stopped and took a second look.
Someone seemed to be sitting on a wooden Adirondack chair looking out toward the water. Something about the angle of the person’s head made the hairs come up on the back of my neck.
“Just stay there a second,” I called to Liz.
“Why?” Rose asked.
I was already on my way down the few stairs. “Just please stay there for now and I’ll explain in a minute,” I said.
I started around the side of the house. I only went far enough so I could see what I already suspected. Leesa Cameron was slumped in the chair. And it was clear she was dead.