Page 100 of Darkwater Lane

“Riiight,” he admits, reluctantly drawing out the word.

“How did you know that?”

He freezes. “Um.”

“His grave is supposed to be anonymous. That’s why there’s no name on the marker.”

He swallows but doesn’t have an answer.

“The woman who used to visit that grave, are you the one who told her where Melvin Royal was buried?”

He glances past me toward the door, and I’m sure he’s calculating an escape. I shift slightly, blocking his exit.

“I’m not looking to get anyone in trouble,” I tell him. “I’m just looking for answers.”

He seems to think about it for a moment, then deflates entirely. “I only talked to her on the phone a few times. When she visited, she always wore a large sun hat and avoided interacting with anyone. I assumed…” His cheeks color slightly.

“What did you assume?” I press.

He lets out a breath. “She told me her name was Gina Royal.”

I wasn’t expecting that. “Did she ever show you any kind of identification?”

He counters with, “Can I see your ID?”

Touché. I can’t show him any because my license and all my credit cards are under Gwen Proctor. I have nothing officially tying me to my old identity. That’s how I prefer it.

“Can you describe her?”

He shrugs. “Dark hair. Good looking.”

As far as descriptions go, it’s pretty useless. I try to keep the exasperation from my voice when I prod, “Older? Younger? Tall? Short?”

“Average?” He guesses.

I bite back my impatience and move on. “Callum said she stopped visiting at some point,” I say, trying to pull the interview back on track. “Do you remember when that was?”

“Summer about a year and a half ago. Around the Fourth ofJuly. I remember because Callum was out on his yearly beach trip, and I had to cover for him. Had to cancel my own plans.”

“So, after that week, you never saw her again? And that didn’t surprise you?”

“It happens more often than you think. People don’t come here for the dead, they come for the living. They come because they need closure, or to work something through, or just to say things out loud, even though no one is listening. I figured she got what she needed and was done.”

She did get what she needed, I think to myself.Melvin’s body.

27

GWEN

On my way back to the airport, I check in with Sam. He and the kids are over at Kez and Javi’s, helping to put the finishing touches on the nursery. He lets me know that all is well and says he hasn’t noticed anything suspicious.

“Were you able to learn anything from the cemetery?” he asks.

“I’m fairly sure I know when his body was taken. Someone salted the ground over his grave right around the Fourth of July a year and a half ago. They had to pull up the dead grass and nearly a foot of dirt to make sure they got it all. The caretaker then went on vacation, but when he got back, he said the ground was churned up. He chalked it up to someone loosening the dirt to prep the area for the new sod and didn’t think twice about it.”

“But you don’t think that’s what happened?”

“It would have been the perfect time for someone to dig up Melvin’s body. The grass had already been pulled up, and the area was already disturbed. They could have snuck in, dug up the coffin, and replaced it without having to worry about putting the grass back down perfectly.”