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waiting at the kitchen door for breakfast, dressed in their Sunday best. I haven’t seen them this excited since I lost my mind and gave them permission to paint their own rooms whatever color they wanted.”
    “We’re still scraping neon pink paint off of Janice’s mirror and windows.”
    “Oh, thank God you’re here!” Katy said, rushing into the sitting room. “Maddy, I need your help!”
    “Why, what’s wrong?” Maddy asked, going on full alert when she saw Katy’s hands and scrubs were smeared red. “What happened?” she asked, rushing toward her. “Who’s hurt?”
    “No, this isn’t blood,” Katy said. “It’s Passion Red nail polish!”
    The young CNA thrust something toward her, and Maddy gasped so hard she actually hurt her chest.
    “I was painting Mem’s toenails,” Katy continued in a rush, “when Janice asked me to go see if someone had accidentally unplugged the Wi-Fi again. I was only gone for a minute, I swear.” Katy thrust her hand out again. “But when I came back, I found Mem painting her dentures ! I tried cleaning them, but I can’t get it off. And there’s no more polish remover; Lois used the entire bottle to clean the pitch off Hiram’s hands when he collected all those pine cones last week. What do I do? The polish is drying!”
    “Relax, Katy,” Maddy said calmly, trying her damnedest not to burst out laughing. She wrapped her arm around the teenager’s shoulders and headed into the hallway. “We’ll try denatured alcohol, and if that doesn’t work, you can run to the drugstore and get more polish remover.”
    “Welcome back to the most exciting place in Midnight Bay, Ms. Kimble,” Doris chortled, walking toward her office.
    “I’m quite impressed by your restraint this morning, Killkenny,” Kenzie said.
    William finished stowing Charlotte’s wheelchair and Samuel’s walker in the back of the SUV, closed the hatch, and arched a questioning brow. “How so?”
    “I half expected you to jump over that counter and demand that Maddy tell you who put that mark on her face.”
    “And if I had, do ye believe she would have told me?”
    “No. There’s a good chance she would have slapped your face,” Kenzie said with a chuckle. But just as quickly, his features hardened. “She told me she fell off her porch, hitting her head and wrenching her knee, in the wee hours of Thursday morning. What time did ye leave there Wednesday night?”
    “About twenty minutes after you did, when I saw the kitchen light go out and assumed she’d gone to bed.”
    “Then it seems we weren’t the last people to see Maddy that night. A porch step doesn’t leave a handprint on a woman’s face.”
    William realized he must have looked somewhat lethal himself when he saw Kenzie stiffen. “Ye can’t think to extract personal retribution, Killkenny,” Kenzie growled. “That’s not how things are done in this century.”
    “Then what do you suggest I do? Let some bastard get away with abusing her?”
    “I can’t answer that until we find out who the bastard is.”
    “Most likely it’s her ex-husband.”
    Kenzie shook his head. “I have every reason to believe Maddy and Billy Kimble are on good terms with each other. In fact, Eve told me he’s marrying a young woman from Oak Harbor who is carrying his child.”
    “Billy Kimble? Are ye saying Maddy still uses his name?”
    “I asked Eve about that, and she said Maddy kept it out of concern for Sarah, so they wouldn’t have different surnames.” He shook his head again. “I haven’t heard Eve or Maddy mention there being any other man in Maddy’s life.”
    “There’s her brother,” William said with a frown. “And I recall seeing an old pickup truck as I was leaving there Wednesday night, a few miles from Maddy’s house. It was speeding, and I remember thinking that whoever was driving must have a death wish, because it was weaving all over the road.”
    “It’s possible it was Rick, as he has an old blue