Page 106 of The Summer Guests

“True,” Ingrid admitted.

“So in a way, it’sallrelevant.” Jo looked around the table. “This case has been one big machine with multiple moving parts. Reuben. The Conovers. Project MKUltra. And the damage your Agency did here.”

“Which we werenotinvolved in, may I remind you,” said Ben.

“Right. Pure as the driven snow, you people.”

They were hardly in a position to claim sainthood, so they let her comment slide.

“This should change things for Reuben, and the way the town looks at him,” said Maggie. “I hope people will be kinder.”

“It definitely changes things for Elizabeth and Arthur,” said Jo. “You should hear what folks are saying about them. No wonder they fled town so fast.” She raised her whisky glass. “That’sworth celebrating.”

“You seem in an especially fine mood tonight,” observed Declan.

“I am.”

“Any reason for that?”

Jo looked around at their faces and sighed. “You’ve already heard the news, haven’t you? God, I can never surprise you people.”

“Tell us anyway.”

“I just got the call from the town manager. I’m no longer acting police chief. I’m now, officially,thepolice chief of Purity, Maine.” She put down her glass. “Oh, come on. You can at leasttryto act surprised.”

Maggie glanced at Ingrid. Ingrid glanced at Ben. None of them knew about this decision, but they were too proud to admit it. They reallymustbe slipping.

Declan raised his glass. “To our new police chief. The youngest ever, I assume? And the first woman?”

“Right on both counts,” said Jo. “And I have all of you to thank.”

“For what?” Maggie asked.

“For pushing me to dig deeper. For making me look beyond the obvious. For being, basically, a giant pain in my ass.”

“That does not sound like gratitude,” said Ben.

“You made my job both easier and harder. By introducing MKUltra into the equation, you got me into trouble with Detective Alfond. Butthen you got me out of it by pointing me to Brooke Conover.” She looked around the table. “I appreciate what you did for me. And for the town.”

“It’s our town, too, Jo,” Maggie said. “And if you need our help again, we’re here.”

“Unofficially,” interjected Jo.

“Unofficially,” Maggie concurred. She looked around at her friends, who’d spent their careers living undercover. Their lives once depended on hiding the truth, on pretending to be who they were not. Even though retirement had allowed them to cautiously venture a bit into the light, they would never truly be able to shake that old habit of adhering to the shadows. “As long as we agree to keep this just between us,” Maggie said, “the Martini Club is always here to help.”

“I can keep a secret,” Jo assured them.

Maggie smiled. “So can we.”

Chapter 49

Susan

Susan stood at the edge of the pond where she had almost died, and she gazed at water that shimmered like gold silk in the morning light.

“Do you think we’ll ever come back, Mom?” asked Zoe.

“After what happened here? I don’t think so.” She turned to her daughter, who was finally starting to look like herself again. Zoe still had the bald spot where the surgeon had shaved her scalp, and she needed to use a walker until her hip fracture healed, but with every day that passed, as her bruises faded and her bones mended, she was more and more like the old, fearless Zoe.