Nantucket Nights by Elin Hilderbrand Page B

said. “They told me that at the location agency.”
    “Giving you up broke her heart,” Kayla said. “Now she lives in the woods by herself.”
    “Sounds lonely,” Lindsey said.
    Kayla took a swallow of iced tea, added two Sweet’N Low packets, and stirred them in with her straw. The sweetener kicked up in the bottom of the glass like dust, and it reminded her of the dirt in Antoinette’s driveway as Raoul smoothed it with the edge of his work boot. In Kayla’s memory, Raoul was careful about this task. The detective had accused him of destroying evidence, and in her mind Kayla could see that Raoul was erasing something— footprints, tire tracks. While they were in Antoinette’s house, he’d cleared the whole area in front of the house. What was he clearing? His footprints? His tire tracks? Before coming out to Great Point, had he stopped at Antoinette’s and torn the place apart, removing any signs that he’d been her lover? Clothing, tools he might have left behind; maybe he’d even been hunting for the pregnancy test. Kayla spit a chunk of red pepper into her napkin. She was making herself crazy.
    “She was lonely,” Kayla said. “Is lonely.” Except that Antoinette was having an affair, an affair even more secret than Val’s. Kayla wondered if that was why Antoinette danced away when Kayla accused her of sleeping with Raoul. She was caught! And pregnant by him, no less. That would have been quite a confession. Kayla pushed her plate and bowl to the side. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to use the phone.”
    Heather Tsoulakis approached the table. “Are you ladies finished?”
    Kayla brushed by her and bolted for the pay phone in the entryway, fumbling for thirty-five cents from her change purse. She wanted to take another Ativan while she was at it, but she couldn’t find the bottle of pills. The ceiling in The Brotherhood was low and die floors slanted. Kayla felt the restaurant closing in on her. Her stomach churned; her mind screamed out, You fool! You idiot! You stupid, blind woman!
    No one answered at home, and the worst came to Kayla’s mind. Raoul running away to meet Antoinette, taking Luke and Cassidy B. with him. And possibly Jennifer and Theo. Whisking them away to live elsewhere with a new mother, and their new brother or sister.
    Kayla didn’t leave a message. When she turned around, she saw Lindsey plunk some bills down on the table and stand up. She came toward Kayla, a concerned look on her face.
    “Are you all right?” Lindsey asked.
    “Let’s go to Antoinette’s house,” Kayla said. “So you can see for yourself.”
    On the way from the restaurant to Polpis Road, Kayla was too frantic for conversation. She turned on the radio for distraction—her semi-oldies station was playing the top three hundred songs “of all time” as a special thing for Labor Day. “Got to Get You into My Life,” by The Beatles; “Show Me the Way,” by Peter Frampton. Lindsey put her window down, and a warm wind filled the car. It was a gorgeous day, and Kayla had never felt worse. Her head was throbbing, her stomach engorged from too much food too quickly, and she reeled with her new theory, puzzle pieces that she feared would fit if she found the courage to put them together.
    Kayla accused Antoinette of sleeping with Raoul. Antoinette disappeared. Kayla called Raoul and told him Antoinette was missing. He drove out to Great Point. Kayla racked her brain: Did he have enough time to stop by Antoinette’s house and tear the place apart? Someone had been there between the time they picked Antoinette up and the time they returned, and it wasn’t a house found by people who didn’t know of its existence. So, Kayla reasoned, it could have been Antoinette herself, or it could have been Raoul.
    Once at Antoinette’s, Raoul had stayed in the driveway and systematically wiped away all the evidence of footprints and tire tracks, except for what they’d left themselves. Pretending it was a nervous