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her robe while humming a lullaby. Ella Mae could almost feel the soft, ocean-blue comforter from her childhood bed and smell her mother’s perfume of roses and moonlight. She poured these images and feelings of comfort and love into Mrs. Drever’s pie.
    “You look like you’re makin’ somethin’ special,” Reba said, startling Ella Mae from her reverie.
    “I am. And I’ve sent the Upton siblings home. You and I need to talk.” She pointed toward the dining room. “How many customers are left?”
    “Half a dozen. They’re all about done too.” Reba narrowed her eyes. “But I can’t wait to hear what you have to say. I can tell it’s serious because you keep touchin’ your burn scar.”
    Ella Mae hadn’t realized she’d been doing that. Sticking her hand into her apron pocket, she said, “Yes, it’s serious.” And then she gave Reba an abbreviated version of what she’d seen at Aunt Verena’s house.
    “What does any of this have to do with Mrs. Drever?” Reba asked.
    “Her daughter lives in the Orkneys, so she must be worried sick. I just want to check on her.”
    “She’s the one who gave you that recipe for the banoffee pie.” Reba raised her eyes to the ceiling and moaned. “I have dreams about that pie.” Shaking her head as if to clear it, she looked through the window to the dining room and back at Ella Mae again. “Okay, so we’ll drop by her place after work and then hit the books. I might not have Suzy’s ability to memorize everythin’ I read, but I can do my best to help you find what you’re lookin’ for.”
    Ella Mae smiled at her. “What would I do without you?”
    Reba peeked through the window leading into the dining room. “Have a bunch of unsatisfied customers, I suspect. Be right back. It looks like everyone’s finishin’ up at once.”
    •   •   •
    An hour later, the two women were in Ella Mae’s truck heading north. They passed the newly paved streets leading to the mansions overlooking Lake Havenwood and continued upward. The road narrowed, winding its way higher and higher into the blue-green hills to where the forest became denser and tiny lanes sprang off the main thoroughfare like streams branching off a river.
    “They all look the same,” Ella Mae said, slowing down in front of a gravel road. “And half of them are missing signs.”
    “It’s the next one,” Reba said, her eyes eagle-sharp even in the fading afternoon light.
    Ella Mae drove carefully over the bumpy lane. She didn’t want to pass Mrs. Drever’s driveway, and she’d only been to the secluded cottage once before. Last month, she’d accompanied Aiden on his delivery round, providing him with a short tour of the homes, trailers, and cottages dotting the hillside. Mrs. Drever’s was one of them.
    “This is it,” Ella Mae said, turning into a driveway flanked by pine trees and mountain laurels. “I remember the faded violets on the mailbox. Mrs. Drever told me that her daughter painted those. She also asked me to call her Fiona the last time I was here, but it just doesn’t feel right.”
    “It’d be like callin’ one of your schoolteachers by their first name,” Reba agreed.
    Ella Mae pulled in front of a fairy-tale cottage. The snug, two-bedroom home was made of gray stone and had a periwinkle door with matching shutters. Every window featureda window box crowded with multicolored pansies, and the tidy garden was filled with birdhouses and spring blooms.
    “Mrs. Drever must have gotten a new car,” Ella Mae said, gesturing at the Ford sedan in the parking nook. “She used to drive a green Subaru. It had a Scottish flag decal on the back window.”
    Reba glanced at the Ford. “She traded down, then. This car’s at least ten years old and the frame is startin’ to rust. The only sticker is on the side window. See? It says, ‘My Shih Tzu Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student.’”
    Ella Mae frowned. “Mrs. Drever doesn’t have a dog. At least, she didn’t have one