Page 28 of What She Saw

Like Bailey, I’d acted out as a teenager. I didn’t get blind drunk, but I liked to break things. A tipped-over potted plant in an abusive vice principal’s office. “DICK” scratched in the high school bully’s car. A body check against a guy who hadn’t given his seat to an older woman on a bus.

Bailey had done nothing to me. But she annoyed me. Maybe I saw myself in her. Or more likely she’d been Dawson’s princess, whereas Patty had been on Team Outcast.

I placed my hand on the stack and eased it closer to the edge of the desk. I imagined the flutter of papers scattering all over the carpeted floor.

“Hello?” Bailey called from the back room.

I curled my fingers, drawing my hand back. “Hey, it’s Sloane. The renter of the house in the woods.”

Bailey came out of the back room holding a steaming cup of coffee. The Briggs Realty logo was embossed on the mug. I wondered if she had logos on her underwear. “Oh, hey.”

“Sorry to bother you.” I tossed on my best smile.

“Everything okay with the cabin?” she asked.

“It’s great. No complaints.” While some people might have been freaked out by the isolation, I liked it. I did my best thinking in the quiet. Even if there were ghosts.

“Can I get you a cup of coffee?” She raised her mug.

“Thanks. But no. I stopped by the Depot and had several,” I lied.

“The Depot’s coffee will put hair on your chest.”

I smiled. “I believe that.”

“What can I do for ya?”

“I’m looking for a family that used to live near town, and I figured no one knows the area and the families like you do.”

A half smile tugged her lips. “Not much gets past me.”

“Great. I’m looking for Monica Carr. She was a friend of my mother’s.” Very possible they’d crossed paths but not likely they were friends.

Bailey’s gaze glanced upward, as if she were accessing a data bank of families in her brain. And then her smile softened, and she shook her head. “You said Monica was your mother’s friend?”

“They went to school together and corresponded for many years. Thought I’d say hi, but her number isn’t listed.”

“Your family is from the area?” Her head tilted.

“My mother and grandmother weren’t here very long.”

“Grayson. You remind me of Patty Reed. Was she your mother?”

“That’s right.”

“And Patty was friends with Monica? I don’t see how.”

“Not super close,” I lied. To my knowledge the two women had never met. “But they liked each other. Did you know my mother?”

A detached emotion passed over Bailey’s face. “I saw Patty working at the diner all the time. But we never hung out.”

No, I doubt the town princess would have hung out with the diner waitress with a bastard kid. “I get it.”

Bailey cleared her throat. “I didn’t realize Monica hung out with Patty.”

“They did.”

Bailey’s face tightened as if she were looking back in time. “Monica keeps to herself. She’s not fond of surprises.”