“Actually, I don’t think I do,” Lizzy told him, knowing full well that she’d ripped the hideous thing in half and stuffed it into a bin in the mudroom. The last thing she needed was Rhanna walking in to find the police in the foyer. “I’m pretty sure I threw it out. In fact, I know I did.”

Evvie suddenly reappeared, cradling the remains of the doll in the crook of one arm. She passed the messy jumble of straw and black cloth to Sergeant Woodruff, then wiped her hands on her skirt, as if relieved to be rid of it. “There it is. The note too.” She cut her eyes at Lizzy. “They’re here. May as well show it to them.”

Sergeant Woodruff examined the remains of the doll with more than a little curiosity, slowly turning the pieces over in his hands. “Crude. Definitely homemade.” He lingered briefly over the note, then handed it to Grainger, who had come in behind him.

Grainger held the scrap of paper up to the light. “No watermark. Heavy, but definitely not expensive. Looks like it’s been torn from something. The text is in block letters. Red crayon. Could be a kid, but the verse feels too grown-up. Do you recognize the handwriting, Ms. Moon?”

Lizzy shook her head. “No.”

“Right. Just covering the bases. We’d like to take both the doll and the note with us, if you don’t mind. We also have some questions, if you can spare a few minutes.”

Lizzy opened her mouth to protest but nodded when she couldn’t think of a plausible excuse. She was going to kill Andrew.

Forty minutes later, Sergeant Woodruff finally closed his notepad and pushed to his feet, having gathered far more information than Lizzy wanted to share about her visits with Fred Gilman and Louise Ryerson. At least she’d managed to keep Roger’s name out of it.

“I think we have what we need for now,” Woodruff said, slipping his pen back into his shirt pocket. “Thank you for your time, though I suggest you leave the detective work to us in future. There’s a reason we caution people about taking matters into their own hands. It rarely turns out the way they hope.”

Leave the detective work to us? They’d done that eight years ago. It hadn’t worked out well. She managed to nod dutifully.

Grainger collected the note and the remains of the effigy, cradling them awkwardly against his chest. “We’ll be in touch, but feel free to call us if you see anything suspicious. We’ll be working with SCFD on the shed fire. When we have something, we’ll let you know. Until then, try to be patient.”

Lizzy watched from the doorway as the squad car backed down the drive. Thank the goddess that was over. She closed the door, leaning her forehead against it with a groan. Be patient. Were they kidding? She’d been patient for eight years. She was done being patient.

“Hello.”

She hadn’t heard Andrew come up behind her. She whirled, glaring as she waited for him to explain himself. At least he had the good grace to look sheepish.

“I saw Evvie in the kitchen. She told me to come in. She said she was pretty sure you wanted to talk to me.”

Lizzy folded her arms, eyeing him frostily. “I can’t imagine why.”

“I’m sorry. I wanted to get here before they did.”

“And that would make it better how?”

“I know you’re mad, but they needed to know, Lizzy. They needed to know all of it.”

“And you thought you should be the one to tell them?”

“You weren’t going to, so I did.”

“The fact that I told you I didn’t want them involved didn’t matter to you?”

“No. Yes.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Damn it. Of course it mattered. Just not as much as keeping you safe.”

Lizzy closed her eyes and pulled in a breath, shaking her head as she slowly let it out. “I don’t need to be kept safe, Andrew. I need answers. I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to find someone, anyone, who knows how those girls ended up in my grandmother’s pond, and trying to stay under the radar while I did it, because that’s what you have to do when your last name is Moon. You have to not bother anyone. And then you go dragging the police into it. Who’s going to talk to me now?”

“I get it. I do. It’s about Althea. But your grandmother would back me up on this. She wouldn’t want you putting yourself in danger.”

“If they wanted to hurt me, they could just as easily have set fire to the house. Instead, they burned an empty shed. They wanted to scare me.”

“And did they?”

She stared at him, unwilling to admit that, yes, they had in fact scared her. Because that was the point of it all. “I’m tired of being bullied, Andrew. Tired of tiptoeing around lies and silly superstitions. Tired of having to apologize for my family.”

“I know you are.”

She sighed, dropping her arms to her sides. “Then help me.”

“How?”

“By letting me do what I have to. Stop trying to rescue me, and just . . . be on my side.”

“I’ve always been on your side, Lizzy. Always.”

It was true. He had been. Long before the Gilman girls had become a part of their lives. But she needed something else from him now. “I mean about this. All of this. Selling the farm, dealing with my mother, trying to find out what happened to two dead girls eight years ago. I need you to tell me I’m doing the right things—and that I’m doing them for the right reason.”

Her voice cracked. She bowed her head, suddenly exhausted. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired. I didn’t expect any of this when I came back. I thought I’d swoop in, pack up a few things, put the farm on the market, and go back to New York. Instead, the place is falling apart, there’s no money to fix anything, my mother shows up out of the blue, and there might be an arsonist on the loose. Every time I turn around, something else is imploding. And I have no idea how to deal with any of it.”

Andrew closed the distance between them, took her hands, and pulled her close. “And everyone keeps telling you you’re doing it wrong—including me.”

Lizzy leaned into him, folding against his chest like a sulky child. She didn’t care. She felt sulky. And tired. And lost. “Maybe I am doing it wrong. Maybe none of this is what Althea would want. Maybe it’s what I want, and I’m just mucking through it all so I can feel better. So that this time, when I walk away, my conscience will be clean.”

“Is that really what you think? That this is just some selfish quest for absolution?” He cupped her chin, tilting her face up toward his. “How is it possible that you know yourself so little, Lizzy Moon?”

Lizzy met his gaze, breath held as she plumbed the depths of those warm amber eyes. Familiar eyes, she realized. The kind a less wary woman could get lost in.

She took an abrupt step back, holding him at arm’s length. “I don’t know anything anymore, Andrew. Except that when I leave here, I don’t want any unfinished business. I don’t want to have to look back—ever.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

Lizzy hovered in the shop doorway, glad for a few minutes alone with her thoughts. The birds had quieted, the void filled with a deepening chorus of peepers and crickets. In the distance, fireflies winked on and off, random yellow pulses in the rapidly falling dusk. It was her favorite time of day. Her mother’s too, apparently.

She’d left Rhanna in the kitchen, helping Evvie wash up the supper dishes. To say she’d been surprised by her mother’s sudden willingness to pitch in was an understatement. But even more astonishing than the sight of Rhanna with a dish towel in her hand was the sight of her blowing Evvie a trio of noisy air kisses, followed by the announcement that she’d decided they should be friends. Evvie had rolled her eyes, grumbling that she didn’t have time for foolishness, but Rhanna was a skilled charmer when she needed to be. A full thaw was only a matter of time. And then what? Surely there was some motive behind all this sweetness, some angle she was working.

In the distance, she heard the slap of the mudroom door. Rhanna appeared moments later, barefoot as she crossed the lawn. She had plaited her hair into two long braids and tied the ends with matching yellow ribbons. They slapped her shoulders as she walked. She broke into a grin as she halted and clicked her bare heels.

“Rhanna Moon, reporting for soap duty, sir.”

“At ease,” Lizzy replied dryly, backing out of the doorway to let Rhanna in. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming.”

“I said I would, and here I am, keeping my promise.”

Lizzy reached for Althea’s remedy book and flipped to the page she’d marked several days earlier. “That was quite a show you put on for Evvie,” she remarked finally. “For a minute there, I thought she was going to swat you with the frying pan.”

Rhanna’s smile wavered. “She doesn’t like me.”

“She doesn’t know you. All she has to go on is what she’s heard.”

“Well, then. I’m doomed.”

Lizzy thought of her own first encounter with Evvie. The unspoken disapproval. The wary distrust. “Evvie’s big on loyalty. Especially when it comes to Althea. You have to earn your way in with her.”

“Three thousand miles,” Rhanna said softly. “Most of it on foot. Does that count for anything?”