“Good morning.” I smile, waving her inside. “You’re here early.”
“I could say the same for you.” She steps inside and closes the door behind her before wiping a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead. “Do you have an early appointment today?”
I sense a panic in her expression, a fear that she had overlooked something on my calendar and now, here she was, showing up to work in gym clothes. I shake my head.
“No, I’m just trying to catch up on some work. Last week was … well, you know how it was. I was distracted.”
“Yeah, we both were.”
The truth is, I couldn’t stand to be in the same house as Daniel for a minute longer than necessary. Sitting in that kayak, the water bobbing us gently as I stared at Cypress Stables in the distance, I had finally allowed myself to be scared. Not just suspicious … scared. Scared of the man who was sitting right behind me, my neck within grabbing distance of his hands. Scared of sharing a roof with a monster—a monster that hid in plain sight, like that alligator gliding across the surface of the water. Like my father twenty years ago. Not only did I have the necklace nagging at my conscience, Cooper’s distrust, and my mother’s warning, but now I had this. I had another dead girl linked to me—linked to Daniel. And just like I had been keeping secrets from Daniel, in that moment, I was positive that he had been keeping them from me, too. Cooper was right—we don’t know each other. We’re engaged to be married. We’re living under the same roof, sleeping together in the same bed. But we’re strangers, this man and I. I don’t know him. I don’t know what he’s capable of.
“I’m getting a bit of a headache,” I had said to him then, not exactly lying. A wave of nausea was rolling through my stomach as I stared at that house in the distance, at those empty rocking chairs being pushed by phantom legs. I wondered if Aubrey had been wearing the necklace at that very moment, the necklace that was now tucked away somewhere in my home. “Can we turn back?”
Daniel was quiet behind me; I wondered what he was thinking. Why did he take me there? Was he gauging my reaction? Was this part of the fun for him—dangling the truth in front of me, just barely out of reach? Was he warning me? Does he know I know? I thought back to my conversation with Aaron, about Cypress Cemetery holding some kind of special meaning. I should have put it together sooner. I first saw Aubrey at Cypress Stables, and her body was found in Cypress Cemetery. I didn’t think anything of it before—that name is so common—but now, like Lacey’s body showing up behind my office, it seems too coincidental. Too perfect to have been left to chance. Did Daniel want me to recognize Aubrey when her body was found? Or was he genuinely confident enough to show me another piece of the puzzle and expect me not to see the bigger picture that was starting to form?
“Daniel?”
“Sure.” His voice was offended, quiet. “Sure, yeah, we can turn back. Everything okay, Chlo?”
I nodded my head, forced myself to peel my eyes from the farmhouse and focus on something else. Anything else. We paddled back to the landing and rode home in silence, Daniel with his eyes on the road and his lips pursed shut, and me resting my head against the window, massaging my temple with my fingers. When we pulled into the driveway, I muttered something about a nap before retreating to our bedroom, locking the door, and crawling into bed.
“Hey, Mel,” I ask now, looking up at my assistant. “Can I ask you a question? It’s about the engagement party.”
“Sure.” She smiles, taking a seat opposite my desk.
“What time did Daniel get there?”
She chews on the inside of her cheek, thinking.
“Not much earlier than you, honestly. Cooper, Shannon, and I were there first. Daniel was running late from work, so we let everyone else in until he showed up, maybe twenty minutes before you did.”
I feel that familiar pang in my chest again. Cooper, trying to push his feelings aside. He had been trying to be there for me, despite it all—or maybe because of it all. I imagine him standing at the back of my living room, his face hidden in the crowd. Watching me scream, my arm shooting into my purse, searching frantically. Daniel pulling me in, hands on my hips, working the crowd. It would have been too much for him to handle, I’m sure. Watching Daniel flash that iridescent smile, manipulating me into submission. So he had turned around before I could see him, ducking into the backyard, alone with his pack of cigarettes. Waiting for me there. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before—stubbornness, I suppose. Selfishness. But now, it was obvious: It had been the same way Cooper had always been there for me—quietly, in the background, the same way his head had bobbed over the sea of other faces at the Crawfish Festival, breaking apart from the crowd. Finding me, comforting me, when I had been alone.