44 Cranberry Point

"I'm sure he must have been," Roy concurred, although as she'd said, the plastic surgeon had done a masterful job.



At first glance, one would hardly have known that Russell had undergone extensive surgery.



'That's about it."



Roy jotted down a few more notes.



"Is there anything else?" she asked.



He did have other questions, but Roy wanted to mull over what he'd learned. "Not now. Would it be all right if I called you again sometime?"



"Of course." There was a silence. "I find it hard to accept that anyone would want my father dead. Even now, it's difficult to believe he isn't here."



"I'm sorry, Hannah, for your loss," he said, meaning it. "Thank you for your help."



"If you need any further information, please call."



"I will."



The conversation over, Roy hung up the phone and tilted back in his chair, closing his eyes.



Something was still missing here.



Fifteen



1 swear this class is going to kill me one day," Grace muttered breathlessly as Olivia led the way into the dressing room. Grace used the towel draped around her neck to wipe the sweat off her face. "I'm thinking," she continued, slumping down on the locker-room bench, "that we could just meet for dinner on Wednesday nights and give up this whole aerobics nightmare."



"Come on, Grace, you love our class."



"Wrong, I love to have finished our aerobics class. It's the jumping up and down part that's a drag."



Olivia laughed out loud. It'd been the same whiny song for the last four years. Grace complained constantly about the class but Olivia was convinced that her friend actually enjoyed it. Grace just didn't know she enjoyed it. However, she was the first to arrive each week and while she might moan through the entire routine, she always admitted she felt better afterward. Not immediately, but as soon as she managed to catch her breath.



"What's that goofy grin about?" Grace's narrowed eyes focused suspiciously on Olivia.



"You." Hands on her hips, Olivia laughed again. "You crack me up."



"I'm glad you find me so amusing." Groaning, she raised her bent knee to the bench and untied her tennis shoe. "You'll be sorry one day when I'm taken away in an Aid Car."



Olivia rolled her eyes. "Would it make you feel better if I bought you a piece of coconut cream pie?"



Grace looked up. "It might. Any reason in particular?"



Olivia nodded. "I want to ask you something."



"Sure." Grace nodded as she untied the second shoe and kicked it off.



Her immediate willingness to listen and to help if she could was what made Grace such a good friend. There wasn't a single thing Olivia couldn't share with her. That was the reason this conversation would be so difficult and painful. She was afraid her oldest and dearest friend hadn't been completely honest with her—and she was afraid she knew why.



A half hour later, they sat in the PancakePalace with large slices of coconut cream pie and coffee.



"I hope you realize this defeats the entire purpose of going to aerobics class." Grace lifted the fork to her mouth and savored the first bite.



"In certain circumstances, only pie will do," Olivia said.



"Is this one of those times?"



Olivia didn't answer her. Instead, she launched the topic that had been on her mind all week. "I got a phone call from Will a little while ago." She studied Grace, hoping to read her reaction to Will's name.



Sure enough, Grace instantly dropped her gaze. So it was Will she'd been involved with earlier in the year. A flash of anger, first at Will and then Grace, nearly made her lose her train of thought. Olivia squelched the urge to shake them both.



"Don't you want to know what he wanted?" she asked, trying hard to disguise her feelings.



"Sure."



Olivia sighed. "He wants me to have Ben Rhodes investigated."



Shocked, Grace raised her eyes. "Ben? Whatever for?"



"He thinks Ben's planning to swindle our mother out of her life savings."



Grace's frown revealed her disapproval. "Are you going to do it?"



Olivia hated to admit she'd caved in, but she couldn't see any way around it. "I am. I spoke to Roy earlier in the week, although I think it's a waste of good money."



"Olivia!" Grace seemed horrified, which only made Olivia feel worse. "I can't believe you actually did that."



She regretted it now, but she'd told Will she'd hire someone to look into Ben's background and so she had. "My brother made a good case. Ben doesn't have any family in the area and we really don't know much about him." It sounded ridiculous when she said it out loud. "Will convinced me we should do this. He can be persuasive when he wants to be." Again she watched Grace, studying her reaction.



All Grace did was shake her head as if she couldn't believe Olivia would agree to anything so foolish. In retrospect Olivia agreed with her. She wished she'd sat on it a day or two before calling Roy, but it was too late.



"If Mom ever hears about this, she'll be outraged," Olivia said.



"Yes, she will," Grace muttered.



"I told Will how much I like and trust Ben. I can't imagine him doing anything underhanded."



Grace lowered her eyes and sliced energetically into her pie with the side of her fork. Olivia had the impression that her friend was concentrating on the pie in an effort to conceal her reluctance to discuss Will.



Olivia looked at her carefully. "Seems to me you haven't asked about Will in a long time," she said in a deceptively casual voice. "Any reason?"



"Not really." Grace's response was devoid of emotion.



"He certainly had questions about you."



Grace reached for her coffee, still avoiding eye contact.



"Aren't you curious about what they were?"



"Not really."



Olivia was tired of waiting for Grace to admit the truth. "It was my brother, wasn't it?" She was unable to keep the anger out of her voice. She was furious with Will and sick at heart that he'd taken advantage of her best friend—not that Grace was completely innocent in any of this.



Grace didn't answer.



"The least you can do is be honest about it, Grace. You were emotionally involved with my brother."



Tears filled Grace's eyes and she slowly nodded.



"Why didn't you tell me?" Olivia asked. Yet she realized that much of the hurt she felt was due to the fact that Grace hadn't confided in her. "We've always shared everything."



"I couldn't tell you. I should have in the beginning, but I didn't. I don't know why—no, that's not true. I do know. You would've disapproved and rightly so."



"How did it get started?" Will had visited Cedar Cove when their mother had cancer surgery, but to the best of Olivia's knowledge, Grace and her brother had barely spoken.



"It was all so innocent in the beginning." Grace stared down at the table and her voice fell to a whisper. "He wrote me after Dan's body was discovered to tell me how sorry he was. It was a lovely letter and at the bottom he put his e-mail address. I e-mailed him back to thank him. Then he e-mailed me back, and before I knew it, we were sending each other messages every day."



"My brother is married."



"Yes, I know that."



Clearly, Grace had entered into this relationship with her eyes open. Olivia was well aware that Internet "relationships" were becoming increasingly common, but she was so disappointed that someone she considered sensible and honorable would get caught up in this kind of mess. She felt the same way about Will. He was her brother and she'd always assumed he was a faithful husband, but apparently that had been a false assumption. Well, he'd hear about this.



"We managed to keep our feelings for each other under control until I spent Thanksgiving with Cliff and his daughter. I couldn't contact Will and he couldn't reach me."



"Will knew you were with Cliff?"



"Oh, yes. And when I returned from the East Coast, everything changed. He said he'd missed me and I'd certainly missed talking to him. Once I admitted that, Will started phoning me and before long he'd...declared his love." She swallowed, and fresh tears glistened in her eyes. "He kept telling me his marriage was miserable and he was getting out."



"You believed it because that was what you wanted to hear."



Grace nodded, then inhaled sharply. "Will suggested we meet in New Orleans. He sent me the plane ticket and booked us a hotel room. I nearly did it." She cupped her hand over her mouth as if to hold back a sob. "I nearly slept with a married man."



Not since Dan's disappearance had Olivia seen her friend this broken. "What happened?" she asked in a coaxing whisper.



"One night after aerobics, you casually mentioned that Will and his wife had booked a cruise. I refused to believe it. Will told me he and Georgia had split up and that he'd filed for divorce."



This was even worse than Olivia had guessed, but she bit her tongue to keep from saying so. "Don't you think I would've told you that Will was getting a divorce?"



"Yes—no, I wasn't thinking. I was sure you didn't want anyone to know."



"I'd tell you." This was a subtle reminder that Olivia held nothing back and that she'd been hurt by Grace's silence— by her lie of omission.



"Afterward, I was so embarrassed.... I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't do it. The worst of it is that I lied to Cliff. He knew right away. He asked me if there was someone else and I told him no and feigned anger that he'd even think such a thing."



"How did he figure it out?" Grace had lied to both of them, and Olivia wondered how Cliff had been able to see through it and she hadn't.



Grace kept her eyes trained on the tabletop. "His ex-wife had cheated on him for years. He realized what was happening. ... I finally admitted I'd met someone on the Internet. I said it had been innocent—to that point—but he wouldn't believe me. Cliff said he refused to be involved with a woman he couldn't trust. That's why he won't have anything to do with me now—and the truth of it is, I don't blame him."



"How did you find out Will and Georgia were still together?"



"I called the house. She answered the phone."



That must have been a shocking revelation but Olivia didn't comment. The injured party in all of this was her sister-in-law.



Grace tried to smile. The effort was futile. "I told Will I never wanted to hear from him again and blocked his e-mail address from my computer. He tried to contact me a number of times, but I immediately deleted any and all messages. I want nothing more to do with him."



Grace had paid a high price for her indiscretion. "I'm sorry it was my brother who did this."



"I am, too." Her voice was strangled and filled with self-incrimination. "But I blame myself. Even when we were in high school, I had the biggest crush on Will. Then, when he actually claimed to love me, it was like a fantasy coming true—and I let it happen. If anyone had told me I'd willingly begin a relationship with a married man, I would've denied it. And yet that's exactly what I did."



"It could have been worse."