Free Copper Lake Confidential by Marilyn Pappano

more convenient time. As if there were a convenient time to deal with Louise Wetherby.
    Since it was too late—and she didn’t have that backbone—she stepped aside for the older woman to enter, then closed the door and went into the living room.
    “So you are putting the place up for sale.” Louise made no effort to hide her perusal of the handwriting on the boxes in the hallway, making Macy glad she’d settled on shorthand and a numbering system. There was a detailed itemized list of the cartons’ contents in the kitchen, but nothing on them that would give much, if any, clue.
    Of course she was putting it up for sale. The house was forbidding, dark, filled with memories of Mark and his lies. It seemed so obvious that she didn’t bother to comment on it, but sat instead, fingers laced loosely together. “What kind of paperwork do you have?” Surely it was something to do with the homeowners’ association. Louise had been president since it was formed, a position Mark had chosen her for. They had the same goals, he’d said, and she had the time to do the job properly.
    What he’d really meant was that Louise had been so hungry for Howard family approval that she was fairly easy for him to manipulate, and he’d been too busy with his murders to worry about grass height, paint colors or parking.
    Louise settled at the end of the sofa nearest Macy’s chair and laid the folder in her lap. “Since you’ve been gone so long with no hint of whether you’d ever return, there’s been some concern about your property here.”
    Macy blinked. Her so-called abandonment. The place had been cleaned regularly, the lawn watered and mowed, the house inspected routinely for any maintenance needs. Really, what more could the woman expect? “You can see the house is as well maintained as when I lived here.” Not that it’s any of your business. Of course, Louise liked to think that money and a sharp tongue made everything her business.
    Diamonds flashed with Louise’s dismissive wave. “Not this property. Fair Winds. Your daughter’s ancestral home.”
    Another blink, followed immediately by a shudder. Fair Winds was a beautiful place, two centuries old, rising out of the middle of a lush expanse of lawn on the banks of the Gullah River. For generations there had been rumors the place was haunted. The discovery of more than forty bodies buried on the grounds made the rumors easy to believe.
    “What interest could you possibly have in Fair Winds?”
    Louise offered what passed for a smile. “I’m the president of the Fair Winds Preservation Society. You know the plantation holds an important part in Copper Lake history, along with the Howard family, and of course Willadene was one of my closest friends. It would break her heart to see the place falling into such disrepair, knowing that it’s standing empty and all alone out there. We formed the society to come up with a plan for its future and—”
    “‘We’ who?”
    Louise listed a few names—ladies who lunched on the misfortunes of others, vipers every one—then opened the folder. “We’re proposing that you sign the plantation, with its contents, over to the society for the purpose of preservation, education and promoting tourism for the community. Certainly you won’t want to live there, and a donation such as this—”
    Macy tuned out her voice and focused on her own thoughts. Georgia was filled with beautiful antebellum homes open to the public; the Calloway Plantation just north of town and River’s Edge downtown were two prime examples. And as far as Louise being Miss Willa’s closest friend...ha. Miss Willa hadn’t had friends. Hadn’t needed or wanted them. Had thought herself too good for everyone in Copper Lake besides Mark.
    In eighteen months Macy had considered a lot of things—whether she could survive the loss of her baby, whether she could get past Mark’s ugly secrets, whether she would ever be well enough to take care of Clary, where