Free Shadows on the Ivy by Lea Wait Page B

Because she’s sick.”
    “Yes. She’s resting so she’ll get better.” I hope, Maggie added to herself. How could you let a child know her mother might not come home? But it was still way too early to think about that. Sarah might be fine. Please, please be fine, Sarah.
    The aide took Aura’s hand. “After your nap maybe you’d like to draw a picture for your mommy, Aura. A picture of how happy you’ll be when she’s home again.”
    “Yes!” The smile was back.
    “Good-bye, Aura.” Maggie stood and watched as the heavy door closed on the classroom. There was nothing she could do medically to help Sarah recover. But she could try to find out why someone had been targeting her. Maggie had a sudden chill. Whatever reason that person had, she hoped it didn’t extend to Aura.
    Kayla and Sarah had been friends; maybe she knew something that would help.
    In the meantime, Aura was as safe here at the Wee Care Center as she would be anywhere.
    Kayla opened the door at Whitcomb House. She was twenty-two, but looked older. Her black family hadn’t approved of her marriage to a white man, but her daughter, Katie, was a stunning and exuberant combination of brown skin and wavy black hair. Now Kayla’s husband was her ex-husband, an army corporal stationed in North Carolina. He paid child support occasionally, Maggie knew, and sent postcards to Katie. Kayla was one of the few single parents in the house in touch with their child’s other parent, although she made it no secret that she was actively looking for a new father for Katie, and a new husband for herself. She was wearing jeans and a form-fitting top today, but her clothing style was not as provocative as Tiffany’s.
    Kayla’s cup of coffee was on the kitchen table. “Would you like some coffee, Professor Summer? Or I can heat water if you’d like tea. Or cocoa? The kids love it, so we have boxes full. Mrs. Whitcomb is always bringing us more.”
    The practical Formica-topped table was large, piled with books and papers and several boxes of cereal that must have been out for breakfast. Most of the cabinet doors were open; two drawers of silverware and kitchen tools were dumped on the counter. A pile of dirty dishes filled the sink. “Cocoa sounds great,” Maggie agreed.
    Kayla turned on the kettle while she pulled a box of instant cocoa packets from a cabinet.
    Maggie noted that the dozen hand-colored 1840s steel engravings of apples, pears, and plums that Dorothy had carefully selected from Maggie’s collection and framed for Whitcomb House’s kitchen were now almost totally covered by crayoned children’s drawings taped on the glass. Crayoned drawings also covered the refrigerator and most of the kitchen cabinets. With six small people proud of their work, there was never enough space to display it all.
    Would her kitchen someday sacrifice her favorite Cassell roosters to drawings of purple houses and people without legs? Maggie smiled to herself. She could live with that.
    “I stopped at Wee Care on the way here. Aura looked fine, but she’s upset that her mother’s not home.”
    “Of course she is. And so are we.” Kayla sat down to wait for the kettle to come to a boil. “We talked late last night, after you left.” She hesitated. “People were pretty nervous. Someone had to have given her something that made her sick. But we couldn’t think of a reason why she’d be a target.” Kayla paused. “Now we know for sure that she was poisoned. But it all seems unreal.”
    “Could someone she knew before she came here want to hurt her?”
    “No one anyone of us knew about. And even if there were someone like that, how could it have happened? She was here all day yesterday until we went to the Whitcombs’ together. No one at the party had any reason to be angry at her.”
    Kayla was right; who would have had both motive and opportunity to poison Sarah? And based on what Dr. Stevens had said, the poison had worked quickly. So the source must