Page 96 of The Summer Guests

They seemed so normal, Brooke and Colin, going about their tasks. Opening and shutting the refrigerator, sliding boxes into cabinets while their son crunched on cereal.An ordinary family, doing ordinary things,thought Susan, watching them from the doorway.

The ear stud felt like a hand grenade in her pocket, waiting to explode.

She left the kitchen, retreated upstairs to her bedroom, and shut the door. She turned on the bedside lamp and took the ear stud out of her pocket. It was missing the back clasp, which was how it had fallen free. She remembered the day she and Zoe had gone to the jewelry store and bought ear studs just like this one.I don’t want anything flashy, Mom,Zoe had said. No, it had to be something simple that wouldn’t snag on her swim goggles. Susan turned the stud over and over, searching for any clue that would tie this particular piece of jewelry to her daughter, but it was like countless other studs, just an anonymous nubbin ofgold. Had she seen Brooke wearing something just like it? Women lost earrings all the time. It could easily happen as you unloaded your car. Bend down, lift a suitcase from the trunk, and an earring could slip off your ear, unnoticed. Yes, that’s what most likely happened, and this must belong to Brooke.

But what if it’s not hers? What if it’s Zoe’s?

She pulled out her phone to call Jo Thibodeau, then stopped. Considered what she would say, and how it would come across to the family.I think someone in this house tried to kill my daughter.Things were already tense between her and the Conovers; this would be like launching a nuclear war.

As evening deepened, Susan paced the room, trying to decide what to do next. Call Ethan? Call the police?

Downstairs, a phone was ringing.

She stopped, straining to listen, but heard only the indistinct rumble of Colin’s voice. A moment later, an engine growled to life, and she looked out the window to see their car driving away. They hadn’t told her they were leaving again, even though they must have known she needed a ride back to the hospital.

The hospital. Zoe.

She looked at the gold ear stud, so small, so ordinary. Where was its mate?

She stepped out into the hallway, where she could hear muffled electronic gunfire coming from upstairs. Kit was back at his video games in the attic, so focused on shooting the enemy hordes that he wouldn’t notice anything else happening in the house.

She moved down the hall, to Brooke and Colin’s room.

Their bedroom door hung open, and she could see the bed was nicely made up, the cover smooth and the shams propped against the headboard. Brooke the neatnik. Susan crossed straight to the dresser and slid open the top drawer. It was a likely place for a woman to keep her jewelry. She rifled through both drawers but found only lingerie,all of it expensive and meticulously folded. Who bothered to fold their underwear these days? Who had the time?

She turned and crossed to their bathroom, where Brooke’s quilted pink toiletry case sat beside the sink. She unzipped it, revealing a jumble of makeup, and dug through lipsticks and eyeliner, blusher and mascara. Not here either.

But when she opened the top drawer of the bathroom cabinet, she found a satin pouch, just large enough to hold the few pieces of jewelry a woman might bring on a rustic vacation in Maine. She emptied the contents onto the bathroom counter.

Out spilled wrist bangles and hoop earrings, a pendant necklace and a sapphire ring.

And a pair of gold ear studs. Both were still attached to their back clips.

She looked at the lone stud she’d found in the trunk of their car.Where is your mate? If Brooke isn’t missing one, then this must belong to ...

“What are you doing in my room?”

Susan spun around. Brooke was standing in the doorway.

Chapter 44

Maggie

Elizabeth Conover had yet to make a move.

For the past twenty minutes, the woman had not stirred from the chair but seemed to have fallen into a trance, as if hypnotized by the sight of her granddaughter sleeping so soundly in the bed.

“Strange,” said Maggie. “It’s as if she’s keeping watch.”

“This is not what we expected,” Ben said.

Not what they’d expected at all. While Jo Thibodeau had balked at the idea of using Zoe as bait, the Martini Club had had no such qualms. It would be routine surveillance, they’d told her, just a camera feed to assess if hospital security was adequate, now that Zoe was no longer under the watchful eyes of the ICU staff. They hadn’t told her there’d be a multiple-channel feed, including audio, to alert them when to move in. When Elizabeth had walked into the hospital, it seemed as if their trap was about to be sprung, that Elizabeth would finally make her move.

Instead, the woman just sat there, watching.Waiting for what?

Her phone buzzed. It was Declan, calling from the car. “Guess who just walked into the hospital?” he said. “Colin.”

Thiswasa surprise. She looked at the video feed from the second-floor hallway, and a moment later she spotted Colin stepping out of the elevator. Walking toward Zoe’s room.

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