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around his fingers. Leaning in, he touched his lips to her forehead. “I’ll miss you.”
    Abigale closed her eyes and let herself melt into his embrace. Then she stepped back. “Stay safe, okay?”

CHAPTER
14

    M anning punched Julia’s number on his cell phone as he drove. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.
Come on, come on, answer
. Five long rings, then voicemail.
    “Hi. It’s Julia. I’m probably out riding. Leave a message.”
    He waited for the beep. “Julia. It’s Manning. I need to talk to you. It’s important. Call me on my cell as soon as you get this message.” He thumbed the END key on his phone. Now what?
    Who besides Julia could tell him how long he’d been at the Blackthorne Inn yesterday? He could always go to the pub, see who was around, ask who had been working the evening before. But then what? Tell them that last night—even yesterday afternoon—was a total blank? That he couldn’t remember where he’d been or what he’d done for, what, sixteen, eighteen hours? No way was he going to do that.
    He remembered leaving the hunt. And taking his horse back to the barn. And, once Percy had brought it up, he vaguely remembered talking to Richard at the hunt, agreeing to help repair the timber on one of the fences. But he’d never made it to Longmeadow. At least he didn’t think he had. Had Richard really been waiting for him? Could
he
be the reason Richard had been alone at Longmeadow? The reason Richard was murdered? Or had he told Richard he couldn’t make it, as he’d just told his mother he had?
Damn it! He
pounded a fist on the steering wheel.
    Manning’s cell rang and he snatched it off the passenger seat, muttering, “Please let it be Julia.” He glanced at the caller ID, feeling a twinge of guilt at the fleeting urge not to answer his mother’s call.
    “Hello.”
    “It’s your mother.”
    He stuck the cell between his shoulder and ear as he accelerated and shifted gears. “What’s up?”
    “I’m getting ready to pay Sheriff Boling a visit, but I wanted to let you know I spoke with Abigale. She’s leaving Afghanistan now and will arrive tomorrow afternoon.”
    Manning’s mind flashed to a moment in time he’d fought furiously to shove to the pit of his memory. The truck behind him flashed its lights and Manning realized his speed had dropped, creating a line of traffic that crawled behind him. He shook the thought away and stomped on the accelerator.
    “How’s Abby handling it?”
    “As you’d expect. Caroline is too ill to make the trip, so Abigale will be coming alone,” Margaret said. “I’ve invited her to stay with me. I thought it would be nice to have a little get-together for her tomorrow evening. Make her feel at home.”
    A dinner party?
Jesus Christ. That was classic Mother. Throw Abigale into the mix as soon as she arrives.
    “Manning?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What do you think?”
    “I think she’ll be exhausted after flying all the way from Afghanistan, and the last thing she’ll want to do is make small talk at some dinner party.”
    “Well, she has to eat. Besides, it’s not a dinner party. I just want to surround her with friends.”
    “Okay,” he said, not meaning it.
    “Good. I’ll invite Smitty, of course. Who else do you think we should include?”
    “It’s up to you.”
    “I know it’s up to me. I’m not asking you for permission, I’m asking for advice. You better than anyone knows who Abigale’s friends were. Who would help make her feel at home?”
    Manning groaned. “God, Mother, I don’t know. Most of the kids we hung out with went off to school and moved on after that. They don’t live here anymore.”
    “Some of them must still be around. What about Percy? As I recall you, Abigale, and Percy were like the Three Stooges that last summer.”
    “For a while. Until the night Abby and Julia Farleigh went skinny-dipping in the Community Center pool and Percy stole their clothes.”
    “That sounds like