Page 59 of This is Why We Lied

“You know about the sale?”

“I gathered the details from the screaming match over who would get Jon’s proxy vote, particularly if Dave is arrested.” She crossed her arms. She felt a strange kind of vulnerability on Mercy’s behalf. “Somewhere in the middle of it, Jon disappeared upstairs. I tried to follow him, but Bitty said to give him time.”

“That’s what his note said—that he needed time.”

Sara remembered, “I got onto the Wi-Fi. Open your phone so I can share the connection.”

Will tapped in his code with his thumb. Fortunately, he was left-handed, so at least he still had dexterity. Sara made sure he was on the network before retrieving his shirt from the rocking chair. She started to unbutton the ridiculously tight chef’s jacket.

Will said, “You know I can do that.”

“I know.” Sara helped him out of the jacket. He made it clear he was humoring her when she held open the arms so he could dress. Her hands felt clumsy on the buttons. The events of the night had left her shaken. She did the last button, then pressed her hand to his heart. There were a lot of things she could’ve said to keep him from leaving, but Sara knew above all else that Will wanted to get to work.

So did Sara.

Not many people had cared about Mercy when she was alive, but there were at least two people who cared very much that she was dead.

“You’ll need these.” She took his earbuds out of her pants pocket and slid them into his. Will could read, but not quickly. It was easier for him to use the text-to-speech app on his phone. “I texted you the names of the kitchen staff along with their phone numbers. I managed to get them off a list taped by the kitchen door. They should come through when your messages load.”

He was looking out toward the parking pad. He was ready to go. “I’ll start with the cottages, then I want to check that woodpile. Delilah told me Christopher and Chuck were hanging around there earlier. Could be there’s a hiding place.”

“I can talk to Gordon and Landry, try to figure out what that tattoo means.”

“Landry answered to the name Paul, so that’s what you should call him until he gives a better explanation.” Will pointed to one of the cottages. The lights were on. “The guys are over there. Drew and Keisha are there, but they’re refusing to talk. Not that I think they’d have much to say. I doubt they could hear anything inside their cottage. It was basically a wind tunnel. They’re really upset we lied to them about who we are.”

Sara felt an ache over their lost week. She knew that Will had liked Drew, and she had been looking forward to spending time with Keisha.

He said, “There was something odd that Drew said to Bitty before they stormed off. Something along the lines of, ‘forget that other business. Do what you like up here.’”

“Maybe they had a complaint about their cottage?”

“Maybe.” He continued through the rundown. “Monica and Frank are there. Chuck came out of there. Max and Sydney were there. They already left.”

“Great,” Sara said. The crime scene was washed out and the witnesses were disappearing along with it. “What a shitshow. Does anyone care that Mercy’s dead?”

“Delilah does. As least I think she does.” He looked down at his phone. His messages had started to load. “According to her, Christopher had a few failed relationships. One woman got pregnant by another guy and left him, another woman was lost. I don’t know if that means dead or disappeared or if it even matters. People hide things for their own reasons.”

Sara felt a lightbulb clicking on in her head, but not about Christopher’s love life. “The argument the app guys had on the trail outside our cottage.”

“What about it?”

“Paul said, ‘I don’t care what you think. It’s the right thing to do,’ then Gordon said, ‘Since when do you care about the right thing,’ then Paul said, ‘Since I saw how she fucking lives.’”

Will was giving her his undivided attention. “She, meaning Mercy?”

“There are only two women living at this place, and the other one is Bitty.”

He scratched his jaw. “Did Gordon have a response?”

Sara closed her eyes, trying to recall. The two men had spent perhaps fifteen seconds arguing in front of the cottage before walking down the trail. “I think Gordon said, ‘You’ve got to let it go.’ Then Paul walked down toward the lake, and I couldn’t hear anything else.”

“Why would Paul care how Mercy is living?”

“It sounded like he resented it.”

The screen on Will’s phone lit up. He looked down. “Faith dropped me a pin half an hour ago. She’s on seventy-five, about to hit five-seventy-five.”

Sara felt a total disconnect between the happy honeymooner who’d made the same car trip yesterday and the woman in the middle of a murder investigation now. “She probably has two more hours until she gets here.”

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