Chapter 13: Sunday Dinner

A black town car was waiting at the gate of Pinewood Estates when they drove back in.

The driver stood beside it in a gray suit and cap, holding a cream envelope in both hands.

Cora got out of Ronan's car and did not take it.

"Mrs. Maddox asks that you come to dinner on Sunday," the driver said. "Seven o'clock. She says it's family."

"I have a family," Cora said. "She's in the trailer."

"Mrs. Maddox said you would say that."

He set the envelope on the hood of the gray car and walked back to his own.

Ronan read the card over her shoulder.

"Go," he said.

She turned and stared at him.

"She cut your brakes in the life you died in," he said. "If she wants you at her table, I want to know why."

"You want me to eat dinner with her."

"I want you to listen to her for two hours," Ronan said. "I'll be at the end of her drive the whole time."

She looked at the card, and at the rain, and at the driver who watched her through his windshield.

"Fine," Cora said. "But I'm wearing the green dress."

Sunday came with a clear cold sky.

Odessa Maddox lived in a white house on a hill, with six columns and a lawn cut short as a putting green.

Ronan's gray car stopped at the end of the long drive, and he switched off the lights.

"Two hours," he said. "Leave your phone on."

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