Sandy swallowed hard. “Do you always take in strays?”
Annie’s eyes twinkled. “I come from a long line of stray-taker-inners.”
For the first time since Annie had met her, Sandy laughed.
Annie zipped up her jacket and turned toward the front door. “Thanks for letting me come in. And truly, I don’t ever want to impose on you or your privacy, but I’d like us to be friends. If you ever need anything or just want to talk, please let me know.”
“You’d better go.”
Sandy’s face was emotionless once again. She had obviously had enough company for one day.
Annie hurried out onto the porch and down the steps to her car. Sandy stood in the front door watching her. Then, just as Annie drove away, she waved one hand.
“Thank you for the cookies.”
13
Before she was halfway home, Annie’s cell phone rang. She pulled over to the side of the road and answered it.
“Annie, it’s Mary Beth. Is, um, everything going all right?”
“It’s OK. I’m on my way home.”
“Whew. Tom just left here, and I wanted to let you know.”
“Wow, I was hoping I’d be home before he headed this way. I’d better take a side street and come around the back way. I don’t want him seeing me coming down the road from his house.”
“Good idea. Call me when you get home.”
“Will do.”
When Annie had first visited the old Morris house alone, she had seen an old white pickup parked behind the house. When she and Alice first arrived at the house, the truck hadn’t been there, but she had seen it after Tom Maxwell had “encouraged” her and Alice to refrain from visiting in the future. Now she kept on the lookout for such a vehicle, but nothing even remotely resembling it crossed her path.
She was almost giddy when she reached Grey Gables.
“You sound like you’ve been running,” Mary Beth said as soon as she answered the phone. “Are you OK?”
Annie laughed. “I guess I’m a little breathless. It takes a lot of energy to sneak around, you know?”
Mary Beth chuckled. “How’d it go?”
“Pretty well, I think. Sandy talked to me and actually let me come into the house.”
“Really? You’re making progress.”
“It’s interesting, too, that she has a lot of the same furniture Susan’s family used to have. I guess it’s been in the house since it was built. It was pretty amazing to see it looking just about the way I remembered it.”
“You don’t think there’s anything weird going on, do you?”
“I’m still not sure. But the only way I know to find out is to get Sandy to trust me, to be a friend to her, and to listen. I just want to let her know that I want to help, that we all want to help, any way we can.”
“Sounds like what Betsy would have done.”
“Gram was the best at making people feel at home. I hope I’ve learned at least some of that from her. One thing I learned is that it takes a while. I may have to make a few more visits. How are things going with the cabinets? Do I have a little more time?”
“Another workday at least. I think, anyway. But Tom said he won’t be able to come back until next week sometime.”
“How did it go? Was he … OK?”
“He doesn’t talk much, that’s for sure. But he’s polite and businesslike, and from what I can see, he does a good job.”
“Hang on, Mary Beth. Somebody’s at the door.”
It was Roy Hamilton.
“I hope you don’t mind me dropping by, Annie. The chief wanted me to tell you what he found out about that drowning in South Carolina.”
“Thanks for coming by. Come in.” Annie put her phone to her ear. “Mary Beth? Can I call you back in just a second?”
“Sure thing. I wouldn’t want to interfere in a budding romance.”
“You’re so hilarious,” Annie deadpanned. “Anyway, I’ll call you right back. Thanks.”
She hung up the phone and smiled at Roy.
“Come sit down. What did you find out?”
“Not a whole lot, I’m afraid.” He followed her into the living room and sat next to her on the sofa. “The report pretty much echoes what was in that newspaper article. She drowned while her boyfriend was asleep below deck. There was a little bit of a squall around midnight, a pretty stiff wind, and over she goes. Not much to it.”
“Did they mention any possibility that it was suicide?”
“No. The report says they asked the boyfriend about it. He said there was no note, nothing about her behavior that would indicate she wanted to kill herself. She never said she didn’t want to live, never talked about wanting to end it all. Do you think she would have?”