Page 44 of Four Steps to the Perfect Fake Date

After getting out of the truck, he squared his shoulders and faced the front door. His shoes echoed on the wooden porch steps as he approached, keeping his ears open for any strange noises. All he heard was the distant calls of seabirds and the rustle of the wind in the trees. He rang the doorbell.

Footsteps approached. A lock scraped. The door opened, and Helen Davis stood on the other side. “Sheriff!” she exclaimed. “What a pleasant surprise.” Her eyes slid past him, and she smiled wider. “And who’s this?”

“I’m Cecilia, but you can call me Ceecee,” the girl said, coming up beside Calvin as she stuck her hand out to shake Helen’s. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Pleased to meet you too, Ceecee,” Helen replied, eyes sliding back to Calvin, who tried to hide his frustration.

He looked down at his sister. “I told you to stay in the car.”

She just shrugged and stayed right where she stood. “I think I’ll be more useful if I can be there for the interrogation.”

Helen tilted her head and met Calvin’s gaze.

Calvin rolled his lips inward and released a breath through his nose. Glancing at his sister, he considered ordering her back. But her eyes were bright, and he was a sucker for that little smile at the corner of her lips. Besides, he trusted Daphne. He just wanted to know why she’d been parked outside his mother’s house.

He turned back to Helen. “I’m looking for the owner of that vehicle,” he said, pointing to the getaway car. “May I come in?”

Helen pursed her lips and stepped aside. “They’re in the living room,” she said in a tone of voice that said she wasn’t surprised, and closed the door behind him.

The house was worn but tidy, with evidence of many years of happy memories. Family pictures hung on the walls, threadbare rugs covered the floors, and a sense of calm permeated every room. Calvin slowed at the sight of Daphne’s high school graduation picture hanging in the hallway, right next to Ellie’s. He’d never sat for his photos; there hadn’t been any point, when no one cared about his graduation, least of all him. Daphne beamed at him from the nineteen-year-old photo, as straight backed and determined as she was now.

Ceecee’s head was on a swivel as her hand found her way into his. When they got to the end of the hall and turned into the living room, she shimmied closer to him so her body was pressed to his side.

“Greta,” Helen said, “Sheriff Flint wants to talk to you about your car.”

Three elderly ladies were sitting around the coffee table along with Daphne. A board game was set up before them, with coffee mugs on coasters in front of every player. All the mugs looked nearly full; the women hadn’t been here for long. But Calvin already knew that.

Daphne glanced up and met his gaze, blinking innocently. “Flint?”

One of the ladies shifted to look at him, adjusting her bifocal glasses on her nose. “My car? What about my car? The tags are all up to date, and it’s definitely roadworthy.”

Calvin pursed his lips. “I want to know why it was parked outside my mother’s house half an hour ago.”

“Well, I never!” Daphne’s grandmother said. “Outside your mother’s house? Greta’s car?”

“You’re mistaken, Sheriff Flint,” the third old lady said. “We’ve been playing Monopoly all day.”

His gaze shifted to the property cards in front of her, half of which were upside down. When he looked at Daphne, her cheeks were bright red. He held her gaze as he asked, “Are you aware it’s a crime to lie to an officer of the law?”

“Lying?” Greta exclaimed, grabbing the dice and rolling them. “Don’t be ridiculous! Monopoly is a classic, and it’s right here in front of us. And Saturday is for board games.”

“You’re going around the board the wrong way,” Ceecee piped up to say, pointing at the way Greta’s silver top hat was moving along the squares.

Greta made a big show of adjusting her glasses, then laughed and started moving the other direction. Calvin arched a brow at Daphne.

It took her about three seconds to crack. “I told them about the vow renewal,” she said. “It was my grandmother’s idea to go check out the house.”

“We were curious,” Mabel said, picking up her coffee.

“Wait,” Ceecee said, dropping his palm to put her hands on her hips. “Thisis your girlfriend?”

“No,” he and Daphne replied in unison.

Daphne forced a smile. “We’re taking things slow.”

Ceecee ignored them as she took a step forward and squinted at Daphne. She tilted her head. “She’s pretty.”

Daphne blinked. “Who are you?”

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