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The next picture was the same group of young people with a few more thrown in.
“I can tell you the names of each of these people, but you can trust me when I tell you they had no idea what was going on. They used the cottage for their toilet, coming there to screw and drink and smoke weed. I was disgusted.”
I looked at her sidelong. “You didn’t party?”
“I was a virgin until I met my first husband, believe it or not. No, I didn’t party. I was there to protect my brother, but that didn’t work.”
“Why’s that?”
She looked at me with her poker face, the one she’d probably inherited from her mother. “A lot of extenuating circumstances about my family that I will not share with you right now. But you can trust me that Brent had no knowledge of the death of a baby. None.”
“I’ll take your word for it. But do you know if the mother had anything to do with it?”
“We all assumed it had died at birth.”
“A little dress and rotting lacy socks were found with her. Why would they dress up a dead baby?”
“I have zero idea,” Lisa said. “There’s no proof the baby was dressed, is there? The clothing might have been wrapped up with the baby just to get rid of it. And just an FYI, Julie has an axe to grind, so take whatever she says with a grain of salt.”
“I’m not talking to Julie,” I said, standing up. “Thank you for seeing me, Lisa. I want a relationship with you, and I questioned if this would be a stumbling block to it. I hope I didn’t piss you off.”
“Well, maybe a bit. Dragging all of this shit up now only makes me miss my brother more, and I’m sure once my mother finds out the skeleton was his kid, her granddaughter, there will be hell to pay.”
“In what way?” I asked, not telling her Pam already knew and was heartbroken.
“My mother can hold a grudge.”
“Thank you for letting me know. I’ll be careful with her.”
“Yeah, because it wasn’t you that found the skeleton, after all, was it?”
“No, I was just the unfortunate bystander.”
“Here’s something that you should know about Pam,” Lisa said, red spots high on her cheeks signaling that I should probably stand back a little. “My mother has an agenda. Don’t kid yourself that she’s all sweetness and light. She knows exactly what’s happening. She knew we were all at that moldering cottage for the summer. Where else would we be? Yeah, so be on guard.”
I wasn’t sure what she met by that, but I was over our conversation and just wanted to get out of there. I also decided I was going to call Alan Stone and sweet-talk any information I could out of him.
“I’ll head back up to the cottage,” I said, going for the door.
“Sorry Ryan was so rude that he couldn’t say hi.”
I turned to look at her, and her expression didn’t tell me anything, but I had a feeling she didn’t know I had slept with him. “It’s fine. We had enough of each other on the set.”
“Ha! I bet. But good job. I’m hooked, of course.”
“I thought the finale was in December.”
“They’re already doing reruns. You should get a big royalty check.”
She stood at the door, and I waited, sure there was something more to come. But she just smiled.
“Please come back. When the weather gets a little nicer, we’ll start doing Sunday on the beach.”
“Okay, sounds good,” I said, thinking, why would I come to her cottage with all the rug rats when I have my own beachfront? But I didn’t mean it. I was just afraid of loving her kids and then having the opportunity taken from me. This family was unpredictable.
Back at my cottage, I realized the key to solving the mystery of the baby skeleton could be found talking with Ginger Harrow. She had the legal right to refuse to talk to the police, but if they had probable cause, they could arrest her. Probable cause wouldn’t be enough to prove a case once it went to court, however. That would be up to the grand jury, if they had enough evidence to go to trial.
I called Jake. “Is there any way in hell I can get in to talk to Ginger Harrow?”
