Page 29 of The Pretender

“Barely.” As she’d done for years, she skipped the liquor in favor of the big bowl of chips Ted had put out. Today’s variety was sour cream and onion. She’d eat any chip of any type any time. All were welcome in her world. Heck, she could down a family-sized bag on her own.

“This island sure is crowded all of a sudden.” Kramer ended the comment by taking a long swig from the bottle.

Ted laughed as he reached over his father’s shoulder to grab a handful of chips. “Dad thinks there are too many people wandering around here right now.”

She didn’t disagree. “He’s not wrong.”

“Ridiculous.” Kramer snorted. “It’s all a waste of time.”

The endless parade of Stephen’s paid employees did get annoying, but there was a bigger issue. One she refused to forget. “If they really can figure out who killed Tabitha, I don’t care how many of them come.”

“I get that.” Kramer reached over and put his calloused hand over hers. “But this group your uncle hired isn’t going to figure it out.”

She was almost sorry Harris wasn’t here to hear that. “What’s your theory?”

“Bah.” Kramer shook his head. “We’ve talked about this before.”

They had. Many times. She chalked the circular conversations up to grieving, but she wanted to hear his reasoning again. “Humor me.”

“Who knows. Probably someone from that online group of hers figured out she had money and came looking for a payday. But they underestimated how tough your little sister was.”

Ted sat down next to his father and grabbed another chip. “Someone probably thought she’d be afraid to leave her room. Like she was some kind of shut-in.”

Gabby understood the misconceptions about Tabitha and how so many people underestimated or believed the tales that went around about her. That still wasn’t the point. “But how did they get on the island?”

“Swim, boat? They are long gone now.” Kramer shoved the chip bowl to the side, out of easy reach by either Ted or Gabby. “No one but gawkers come around these days.”

She winced. “I’m afraid that’s about to get worse.”

“We can take it.” Ted shot her a smile before he got up to tend the grill again.

“Thanks for coming to help out.” She knew Ted had a life. Kramer mentioned Ted had started dating someone seriously, a woman in his office. He had other places to be. He wasn’t a longtime Wright family employee. He was a friend... one she’d pushed away when she pushed all the other ones away.

He glanced at her over his shoulder. “It’s what family does, right?”

“Still, I appreciate it.”

“And he likes the paycheck,” Kramer said. “The only thing you and Stephen agreed on was paying for extra help to get the property back in shape after all that investigating.”

Ted rolled his eyes. “Dad.”

“Gabby here is a practical woman. She knows how the world works.”

“Speaking of which.” Ted set a plate of steaming burgers in the middle of the table. “What’s with this art guy? Dad thinks he’s working with the investigator.”

She tried to concentrate on getting the twist tie on the bag of hamburger buns off. “Probably.”

“Then why is he bunking with you?” Kramer asked.

She stopped playing with the bag and looked up at Ted. He smiled at her. Kramer stuck with scowling. “It’s hard to get excited about going back in the main house. Harris told me I could stay with him for now.”

“With him? The place is basically yours.” Ted’s smile dropped. “Gabby, I didn’t think...”

“It’s fine.” She ripped a hole in the side of the bag. “I need to get past the block because there is work to do. The investigator thinks there might be a diary tucked away somewhere, which I doubt because police have been in and out of there for months. The paperwork that used to be in there might even be gone.”

“Did Tabitha hide things?” Ted asked.

“Reading all that true crime stuff had to make her a little paranoid.” That had been the one thing Gabby constantly worried about, that her sister would retreat further and mentally disappear into these horrible crime scenes filled with danger and terrible endings. Gabby never dreamed she should worry about Tabitha actually being attacked. “Truth is, I won’t know what she left behind until I’m in there.”

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