Nate’s brand-new Ford Explorer was in the drive. This one was a color Ford called Kodiak Brown, on account of the bad luck we’d had with two of the Metallic Grey versions. He got out of the car as I pulled in and parked beside him. The porch light on the traditional Charleston-style home came on and Robert opened the front door and stepped out onto the lower piazza.
Olivia had ruined my sunny disposition with her tirades. Nevertheless, I tried the gentle approach. “Come on, let’s go get us a glass of wine and we’ll figure this whole thing out.”
She sat rigidly, eyes front, with one arm on the console, the other on the armrest. Her right hand gripped the door pull. She didn’t say a word, but her posture shouted, You can’t pry me out of this car.
I climbed out and called to Robert. “Would you help Olivia, please? She’s a bit shook up.”
Robert hot-footed it down the steps.
Nate and I met at the front of my car.
“Short version?” Nate said under his breath.
“She’s either delusional or a witness in a murder case. Robert tried to hire me this afternoon to follow her. I turned him down, thought it was a domestic. Clearly it’s something else and they need help.”
Nate nodded, glanced at my attire. “You must’ve left the house in a powerful hurry.”
I blushed, mortified at how I knew I looked. I combed my fingers through my hair.
“Now you know I didn’t mean to criticize,” Nate said. “In fact, you look quite appealing. That’s just not your normal attire for a trip into Charleston.”
Robert said, “She’s locked the car door. Liz, can you help me out?”
I reached into my purse, grabbed the key fob, and unlocked the door. Before Robert could open it, Olivia pressed the lock button again.
“For Pete’s sake,” Robert said. “Olivia, you can’t take up residence in Liz’s car.”
I walked over and grabbed the driver’s door handle. The car automatically unlocked and I opened the driver’s door in the same instant. “Sooner or later you’re going to have to go to the bathroom, you know.”
Olivia gave me a bonus hateful look, then opened the passenger door, sprung out, threw herself into Robert’s arms and commenced theatrical wailing. “I thought you were dead,” she managed to sob.
“Why on earth would you think that?” Robert hugged her reassuringly. After a moment, his eyes sought out mine.
I cocked my head towards the house.
To Olivia, Robert said, “I’m fine, sweetheart. Everything’s fine. Let’s get you inside.”
“Everything is far from fine,” she said. “You’re going to divorce me, and Mamma and Daddy will disown me because of the scandal.”
Robert gentled her towards the house. “This is all nonsense. Here we go now.”
Nate and I followed them up the steps. Olivia babbled. Robert shushed her and rubbed her back, murmured soothing things. That man was a saint.
Colleen’s voice came from the front porch. “For the first time in forever, she’s probably not overreacting.”
My chin snapped up. There she sat, in a wicker chair. Flowing red hair, bright green eyes, in a long white flouncy dress, with a ring of flowers in her hair. She looked like a fairy princess. No one could see her but me, of course. I’m her sole human point of contact. She can materialize when she wants to, but she only does that in extenuating circumstances. Colleen can also read my mind.
Where the hell have you been? I thought hard, and glared at her. I need to know if anyone died at 12 Church Street tonight.
“I had business to tend to. And to answer your question, I don’t keep track of all the departures in the county.”
Can you find out?
“I can try, but it’s a long shot. If I’d been there at the time I could’ve told you.”
Exactly.
She gave me a mulish look and vanished. But when our procession finally reached the keeping room that opened to the kitchen in the Pearson home, Colleen waited, sprawled across the granite island, her head propped in her hand, elbow on the counter. “I know she’s nutty, but I miss Olivia.”
Robert settled Olivia in a club chair near the fireplace, pulled her feet up onto the matching ottoman, and tucked a throw around her. He skipped the wine and poured her two fingers of bourbon. “What can I get y’all?”
Nate and I both declined his offer. I needed to keep a clear head.
Robert perched on the end of a sofa to Olivia’s right. I took the other end of the sofa, and Nate grabbed a chair next to me. Olivia had gone quiet, save for an occasional hitched sob. Robert studied her carefully.