The High Tide Club

“When was the last time you ladies saw Josephine?” Brooke asked.

The two women exchanged glances. “It’s been some years now,” Dorcas admitted. “Josephine had become such a shut-in late in life, you know, but Delphine and I made several attempts to contact her.”

“It was my understanding that she refused to see you,” Brooke said. “She was still furious at you for selling your land to the state.”

“That’s all water under the bridge now,” Dorcas said, pressing her narrow lips together. “I must say, it was very upsetting for both Delphine and me to learn about Josephine’s death through a newspaper article.”

“Horrifying,” Delphine said. “We had no idea Josie had even been sick. It breaks my heart to think of our cousin spending her last months so ill and then dying here, all alone, with none of her family around. If only somebody had had the decency to notify us…”

“Oh, she wasn’t alone that night,” Lizzie said cheerfully. “I was here, Brooke and her mother, Marie, were here, Varina and Felicia were here, and of course, Louette, the housekeeper, was here too. And her other lawyer. We had dinner together.”

Dorcas favored Lizzie with a withering stare. “I find it hard to believe that a dying woman would have hosted a dinner party.”

“More like a house party,” Lizzie said. “We all spent the night.”

“And why would she have invited a bunch of strangers to a house party?” Dorcas asked.

Lizzie gestured around the library. “She was going to leave—”

“She was feeling nostalgic,” Brooke said, deliberately cutting Lizzie off. At this point, there was no need to let the cousins know of Josephine’s intent to create a trust to protect Talisa. She would let Gabe Wynant deal with all that. Maybe there was still hope that he would find some loophole to prevent the dreaded Ds from inheriting.

“We should have been notified that she was sick,” Dorcas said. “We would have come immediately. We were her only living family, you know.”

Brooke shrugged. “No offense, but I think Josephine would have contacted you herself if she’d wanted to see you. She was by no means a shut-in. She was making regular visits to her doctors in Jacksonville, and she knew the cancer diagnosis was terminal. That’s why she reached out and asked me to gather these women together. She wanted to meet them and make amends.”

“So you say,” Delphine said.

“Amends for what?” Dorcas asked. She glanced down at Lizzie’s work space, with the scattered file folders, yellowing newspaper clippings, and stacks of old correspondence. Brooke realized that Lizzie, the journalist, had begun digging into Josephine’s past, delving into the secrets she’d been so reluctant to share.

“Old slights. Fractured friendships. It was Josephine’s story to tell, not mine,” Brooke said.

“Very touching,” Dorcas said. “But none of that explains what this woman”—she pointed at Lizzie—“is doing here, trespassing in our family’s home, meddling with our cousin’s private papers.”

“Just some genealogy work,” Lizzie said with an impish grin. “I’m harmless, really.”

“By whose authority?” Delphine asked.

“Mine, actually,” a man’s voice said.

Gabe was standing in the doorway, with Louette and Felicia right behind him.

Gabe was dressed in a somber gray business suit. “Gabe Wynant,” he said, extending a business card to each of the cousins. “I’m the court-appointed administrator of Josephine Warrick’s estate. Mrs. Warrick had mentioned that she had some distant cousins, but we had no names or addresses, since it seems you were estranged. I asked Lizzie here to search Mrs. Warrick’s papers for your contact information.”

“We certainly were not estranged,” Dorcas said, bristling.

“Never mind,” Delphine said, reading the business card. “Mr. Wynant, is it?”

“That’s right,” Gabe said.

“My cousin and I have hired a lawyer to see that our rights as Josephine’s closest heirs are protected. He’ll be in contact with you.”

“I look forward to speaking to him,” Gabe said. “Anything else I can do for you ladies today? No? Shug is outside with his truck, and he’ll be happy to take you back to the ferry if you’d like.”

* * *

Lizzie waited until the women were out of earshot before offering Gabe a high five.

“Well done, sir.” She laughed. “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry? And not even offering to have Shug take them back to the mainland instead of waiting on the ferry? I call that cold!”

“Shug has other work to attend to,” Gabe said. “I’ve asked him to stay on here and take over the outside maintenance again.”

“Thank you, Jesus,” Louette said fervently. “That grass was getting so high I was afraid what might be hiding in it.”

Gabe reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and brought out an envelope. “I’ve brought both your paychecks too,” he said. “And I hope the past few days haven’t been too stressful for you.”

Louette tucked the envelope in the pocket of her slacks. For the first time, Brooke realized that with the death of her former employer, Louette had stopped wearing the white uniform and switched to more casual clothing.

“Thanks for coming over so quickly,” Brooke said to Gabe. “Things were getting pretty sticky with those two.”

“Yeah, they look like they’re gonna be major pains in the ass,” Lizzie said. “I think they thought I was going to put a match to Josephine’s papers.”

Gabe frowned. “I hate to say it, Lizzie, and I didn’t want to mention it in front of the cousins, but it is somewhat problematic for you to be riffling through Josephine’s personal effects.”

“Why?” Lizzie asked. “I’m just doing research for my magazine article, that’s all. And I’m actually doing you a favor, organizing and indexing everything I find.” She gestured at the cardboard file boxes surrounding the card table. “Besides, maybe I’ll find a clue to who actually killed Russell Strickland and where he’s buried.”

“If they do get a lawyer involved, he may raise an objection with the court,” Gabe said.

“You’re now the administrator of the estate, right? You could counter that by pointing out that Lizzie’s research is necessary to make sure Josephine’s papers are in order,” Brooke said. She pointed to the secretary. “Josephine was a total pack rat. That thing is full to overflowing with old letters, cards, correspondence, and who knows what? Josephine had me going through it on one of my first visits here, to try to track down Ruth’s and Varina’s families, and I barely scratched the surface of what’s in there. Maybe there actually are other living heirs that need to be notified of her death. Maybe she’ll find something that will either prove or disprove C. D.’s claim that he’s Josephine’s son.”

“Doubtful,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, but this is just not a good idea.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes but said nothing.

“Look, Gabe. Just let her finish cataloging the contents of the secretary and whatever else is in the room. Okay? If some judge asks questions, you can say you hired her to provide archival services.”