baked a pie in the best tradition of the Old West. Sheâs a historianâat least, sheâs an amateur historianâand she knows a lot about the house. She came over to tell me about it.â
Once again, Lara couldnât decipher what Gina was saying. She sounded as she had when they first came in, as though her meaning didnât lie in her words but in her inflection. The woman in the bed seemed to understand her because the angry lines had smoothed out of her face, making her look younger.
âAutumn Minsky runs Between Two Worlds in Lawrence,â Gina said. âWe met when I went in forâsupplies last week.â
âAs the sheriff was at pains to find out early this morning,â Autumn snapped, but then suddenly laughed. âYou should have seen his face when I gave him one of my business cardsâhe acted as though it would turn him into a toad. Which I wish it had, once he told me heâd been keeping an eye on my store!â
Lara knew Between Two Worlds. It was a New Age store where you could buy incense or books on pagan religion, but they also sold jewelry, little gold suns on gold chains that cost hundreds of dollars, earrings in the shape of crescent moons with turquoise or lapis set in them. Some of the things werenât so expensive, though. Her friend Melanie Derwint had four piercings in her ears and wore silver moon-shaped studs sheâd bought at Between Two Worlds.
âThe sheriff?â Susan asked. âHas Hank Drysdale been out here?â
Gina shrugged. âI didnât catch his name. He stopped by at eight in the morning because he saw Autumnâs car in the yard. He claimed to be worried about my safety.â
âHe wasnât as bad as the other one.â Autumn shuddered. âAt least itâs possible the man was a sheriff, although he didnât have a uniform or a marked car.â
âWhat was he driving?â Lara asked at the same time her mother asked, âWhat other one?â
âSome horrible-looking lout straight out of Cold Comfort Farm had climbed up the big tree outside the bathroom window and was peering in when I got up to pee around six this morning,â Autumn said.
Lara was startled to hear a grown-up woman use that word boldly in the middle of conversation: I have to pee, she rehearsed in her mind. Would Kimberly and Melanie go, âOoh, gross,â or would they think she was totally cool?
âWhat happened?â Susan asked.
âI opened the window and shouted at him. He grinned as though heâd just done the cleverest thing on the planet and kept hanging on the branch while I kept shouting, until I suppose his hands froze and he more or less fell out of the tree. And then got up and ran away.â
Lara said, âWas he about twenty, maybe? With dark curls and red cheeks?â
âHe had on a stocking cap, and anybody outdoors on a December morning would have red cheeks,â Autumn said impatiently. âIs he your boyfriend? Did you two dare each other to spy on us?â
âNo!â Lara cried. âI donât have a boyfriend, and it wouldnât be him if I did, if itâs who I think it might be.â
âCalm down, Autumn.â Gina walked to the bed and put a hand on her friendâs shoulder. âWho do you think it was, Laura?â
âLara,â Susan corrected automatically, while Lara said, âMom, donât you guess it was Eddie? Itâs the kind of thing he does.â
âWhoâs Eddie?â Autumn demanded. âRemember, we donât have a playbill.â
Lara blushed again. âEddie Burton.â
âLara,â Susan said warningly, meaning donât say something you canât back up with facts.
Lara knew her mother didnât like to hear about perverse acts. Susan wanted to believe that people had pure and ardent spirits, that no one, from her beloved abolitionists to the most tiresome of her neighbors,