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Pish’s world. I stored that info to use on him later, when I tried to persuade him to send Roma back to the city. I told Doc I knew Roma from days gone by, but I had other concerns I wanted to discuss. “I’m worried about Shilo, more than anyone. She won’t answer when I call her on the phone. I’m going to have to track her down and get her to talk to me.”
    Doc frowned and wiped his glasses on the corner of his plaid shirt, managing to make them more smudgy than they had been. I took them from him and got a tissue.
    â€œI seen her in the park one day talking to someone,” he said, blinking blindly. “Not Jack.”
    â€œThat doesn’t surprise me. She’s a friendly girl,” I replied, polishing his glasses and handing them back to him.
    He put them on and squinted, grunting. “Better. Thanks, honey. No, this was something else. She looked scared, don’t know why.”
    â€œWhat did the guy look like?”
    â€œSkinny, dark, dressed in city clothes, you know . . . blue jeans, a leather jacket—even on a hot day—and fancy boots.”
    â€œDid you talk to her?”
    â€œI was going to, but she saw me and hurried off; don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I ain’t so fast. Bet she didn’t think I recognized her from a distance.”
    â€œHow long ago was this?”
    â€œOh, ’bout a month ago or so.”
    â€œAbout the time she stopped coming to the phone to talk to me.” I pondered it a moment. “I’ll go see her later today. She’s not going to weasel out of it. Can I tell her what you saw if I need to?”
    â€œSure can.”
    â€œDoc, my friend, I’ve been here over a year, haven’t I?”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œI’m thinking of throwing a party to celebrate. What do you think?”
    â€œI’ll be there with silvery tinkling bells on.”
    I left my friend behind with his book and unsmudgy glasses and found Gogi in her small office off the reception area. She was glaring at a book of figures, her cheaters down low on her nose as she kept glancing from the book to the computer screen and back. It looked like she was trying to reconcile what was in the book with what was on her monitor.
    â€œMerry!” she cried when she saw me. She leaped up and circled the desk, hugging me closely. “Glad you’re back.
Some
folks thought you were gone for good, but I knew you’d come home.”
    Home. I was home. One of the folks who thought I was gone for good may have been her son, Virgil. “I was speaking with Doc. Is his foot going to be okay?”
    â€œWe hope so. It’ll take some time. It was funny to listen to him and the doctor consulting over it.”
    I sat down opposite Gogi and thought for a moment, watching as her eyes strayed back to her screen. “Gogi, before I left, Virgil and I had a talk. I know about his ex-wife.” Virgil’s ex, Kelly, was the daughter of Sheriff Ben Baxter, head of the sheriff’s department for Ridley Ridge and its surrounding county, which abutted ours. Their marriage had been hasty, entered into for all the wrong reasons by them both. When she left Virgil, her father was angry; to him, marriage was for life. In a moment of weakness she told him that Virgil had been cruel to her, and had even struck her.
    Virgil had spoken to her since, and she regretted it deeply—I had read the letter she wrote to him acknowledging her wrongdoing—but she was too afraid of losing her father’s love and, more important to her, his respect, and hadn’t gotten up the nerve yet to tell her father the truth. I hashed this out with Gogi. “It’s unfortunate that the verynext day after we . . . uh, talked, I got the call that Maria was dying and headed to Spain.”
    â€œAnd even more unfortunate that in two-plus months you couldn’t make it back here, even for a visit.”
    Her