All the Beautiful Lies(60)

“Who’s this woman?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you her name. Only because I think that she’s still being investigated.”

“That’s okay. I understand. Look, I didn’t really want to meet with you to pump you for information. I really just wanted to know about my sister, and her last few days. She liked you. She sent me an e-mail that said so.”

“I liked her, too. I felt bad for her. I think she really loved my father.”

“Is that what you two talked about?”

Harry told her about seeing Grace at his father’s funeral, and then how she came into the bookstore and asked about a job. He said they’d gone out for a drink together, and the last time that Harry saw Grace alive he’d told her about the other woman, a local woman that Bill Ackerson had also been involved with, and she’d been upset.

“She believed it?” Caitlin asked.

“No, she didn’t believe it at all. She was upset because she thought Alice—that’s my stepmother—was trying to mislead the police. And also, she just seemed jumpy that night, agitated. She seemed different.”

Caitlin nodded, picturing it. She said, “She could be like that.” And then she found herself telling Harry, this stranger, the story of their father leaving, and how Grace had reacted, going to his new house and vandalizing it.

“So it sounds like maybe her affair with my father had something to do with your own father.”

“You think?” Caitlin said, and laughed a little.

Harry smiled back.

“Actually,” Caitlin said, “I don’t think it’s that simple. I don’t think anything’s that simple. People aren’t just defined by a single moment in their life, even if it’s this huge moment.”

“You don’t think so?”

“I don’t. I’m sure Grace was susceptible to an older man because she felt betrayed by our dad, but it’s not like she would have wound up with just any older man. I think she was in love with your father, probably because of who he was, and not just his age.”

“I guess so. I don’t know anything anymore. I thought I knew my father better than anyone, and now I find out that he was having at least two affairs behind his wife’s back. It’s hard for me to imagine.”

“You don’t know that he was having two affairs. Grace was sure that he wasn’t.”

“I know she was, but think about it: if he was willing to deceive his wife with your sister, then why wouldn’t he deceive your sister and be with another woman?”

Caitlin sipped her tea. She’d left the tea bag in too long and it was bitter. She added more sugar, while saying, “You’re right, of course. Grace could be stubborn. If she wanted to believe something, then she’d keep on believing it.”

“I’m sorry she ever got involved with my father,” Harry said. “If she hadn’t, then none of this—”

“I know.”

They were quiet for a moment. The diner’s front door swung open, and a loud group of young girls in soccer uniforms entered, escorted by a few parents. Caitlin watched as a hostess seated the group in three adjacent booths.

“What are you going to do now?” Caitlin asked Harry.

He shrugged, frowning, and for a moment Caitlin thought he was going to start to cry. Instead, he said, “I don’t really know. I guess it depends on what happens next. Since the second murder, since what happened to your sister, Alice is terrified. She doesn’t want to be alone, and I guess I feel some responsibility toward her.”

“Just some?”

“She’s all that’s left of my family, and I don’t want to just abandon her. I’m sure she’s freaking out, right now, that I’m not home.”

“But she is a suspect?”

“No one has said that to me except for your sister.”

“What do you think?”

“The night your sister was killed, I was home, and so was Alice. She couldn’t have killed Grace.”

Caitlin watched Harry shift in his seat, itching to leave. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but Harry placed both hands on the table, and said, “I should go, I think.”

“Okay.”

“When are you leaving?”

“Either tomorrow night or the next morning, depending on when Grace’s body is getting shipped back to Michigan. She can either go in a cargo plane and the funeral director will pick her up at the other end, or she can also go on a passenger plane, and I can ride with her. Not with her with her, but on the same plane. I know it doesn’t make a difference, but I kind of want to be on the plane with her.”

“I think it will make a difference.”

“You do?”

“Sure. Maybe you’ll feel better.”

“My mom will feel better, that’s for sure. It’s silly, I know.”

“I think you should travel with her.”

Caitlin felt something loosen in her chest, hearing from this stranger what she’d been hoping to hear. “Okay, I probably will. That means I’m here for at least another whole day, though. That’s what they said.”

“Do you know anyone here?”

“What, here in Kennewick?”