Page 51 of Summer of Salt

“Only not the pillowcase,” I said. “I’d like that back.”

“Sure thing, Georgina.”

I watched him take the pillowcase around to the front of the house, and I was about to go inside when I heard a sharp whistle from the back door of the house. It was Harrison, but he shook his head when I went to meet him, and instead vanished and reappeared a few moments later at an open window. He made me sit in a wicker chair on the porch, and he hid himself behind the curtain.

“It’s better like this,” he said. “More undercover. If they think I hate you, they’re more likely to talk to me. Let something slip.”

“That sleuthing yesterday really went to your head, huh?”

“Look what I found,” he hissed.

He held up a feather to the window screen. I stared at it for a long time and then he scolded me for being too obvious, so I looked back across the yard.

A feather.

But not a white feather.

He’d found one of Annabella’s feathers.

“Where did you...”

“Don’t be mad,” he said.

“Where did you find it?”

“In your sister’s room.”

“What were you doing in my sister’s room?” I hissed.

“I said don’t be mad! I was just looking around. For clues.” He paused. “Maybe that sleuthingdidgo to my head. Just a bit.”

“And where exactly did you find it?”

He paused again. It was a heavy sort of pause. The kind that made my stomach twist in anticipation. “In her nightstand,” he finally said.

My stomach twisted again. “Her nightstand?”

“Look, Georgina, I still don’t think your sister did it, but obviously she knows something. And she’s an easy target;public opinion weighs heavily here, and as far as they’re all concerned, she’s as good as tried. Which, if true, makes it very lucky that I went snooping and found this before somebody else did, so you should go ahead and forgive me for that.”

“I’ll take it into consideration.”

“Also... ,” he said, rather uncomfortably, with a little less bravado in his voice than just a moment ago.

“What?”

“Have you considered... You know. Theactuallegal implications here?”

“What legal implications?”

“Animal cruelty. Does By-the-Sea have a judge?”

“Of course By-the-Sea has a judge.”

Eleanora Avery.

I was unsure whether she’d actually ever tried a case or not.

“You don’t think they’ll take her to court, do you?” I asked.