Chapter 19: The Visit

Saturday morning I sat in Room 14 and did my mother's crossword aloud.

I had told her nothing about the threat. She knew anyway, because she had known me for twenty-eight years.

"You keep... looking at the door," Maureen said.

"I'm checking the weather."

"The door... has no weather."

My real phone buzzed in my pocket. Vaughn, who was across town with two lawyers and a laptop.

I stepped into the corridor to answer.

"Anything?" he asked.

"Nothing. He said Sunday."

"He's a man who says Sunday and arrives Saturday. I'm coming. Twenty minutes."

"Vaughn, you've got the lawyers."

"I've got a car," he said. "Stay with her."

I hung up and turned around.

Richard Draycott was walking toward me down the east wing.

He had a cane in one hand and a bunch of white flowers in the other.

He wore the grey cardigan under his good overcoat.

A nurse walked beside him, smiling, carrying his hat.

"Tara, dear," he said warmly. "What a lovely surprise."

I couldn't speak.

"I was telling this kind woman that I'm a friend of the family. I do so like to meet the mothers." He looked past me. "Is that her door?"

"Don't."

"It's only a visit."

He stepped around me, and the nurse held the door.

I went in behind him.

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