The Body in the Kelp by Katherine Hall Page Page B

happy to see her sister, and Quentin was growing on her. He was so intense and well organized under a carefully composed surface calm that he made her feel incurably frivolous—suspecting, no doubt, she hadn’t firmed up her plans for the next twenty years or so. He was the only person Faith knew whose Plan To Do Today list was the same as his Did Today one. She was sure they weren’t getting married yet because Quentin hadn’t planned to until he was thirty and had made X amount of money. And Hope loved it. Faith folded the letter, put it in her pocket, and resolved firmly that this visit she would finally tell her sister she hated being called Fay.
    Pix didn’t get back until after five o’clock, and she rushed straight over to Faith’s. Faith and Benjamin were eating spaghetti alla carbonara in the kitchen. Pix had paled under the color the summer sun had given her and slumped into a chair. Faith made her a drink, and after a few sips she started to cry.
    â€œI I can’t understand it, Faith! How could he have drowned? He was in great shape, and I think I heard he swam in college. It was wonderful having them this summer. We had all become so close. Samantha doesn’t even want to talk about it. She’s up in her room and I can’t reach Sam.”
    Faith had called Tom earlier and had been lucky enough to catch him between events. He offered to come up the next weekend, but she said she was fine. She just wanted to hear his voice.
    Pix finished her drink and ate some spaghetti. Faith had discovered earlier that she was starving, and Pix seemed to be too.
    â€œI’m sure he’ll be buried here. He wasn’t close to his family.”
    â€œThat’s what Jill said.”
    â€œI don’t know what Eric will do without him. Roger was like
the rudder. He kept the business, and actually their lives, on course. He was the one who pushed to move up here. Jill told me once that Eric had been close to a breakdown and had to get away.”
    Bright lights, big city, Faith thought, and remembered her conversation with Eric. It sounded like he not only wanted to be away from the city, but needed to be. An artist friend of hers had once shown her his engagement book. It was crammed with openings, cocktail parties, private showings. She had wondered how he ever found the time, or energy, to paint.
    â€œEric had been afraid that they would lose their customers and contacts up here, but Roger convinced him that they had built up a solid-enough reputation to make a move. And if anything they have become more well known in the last years. Living on an island gave a certain aura of inaccessibility to their work, having to be tracked down and persuaded, although of course it is all much more businesslike than that.”
    â€œMaybe Eric will marry Jill now,” Faith mused out loud.
    â€œI wouldn’t be surprised. It’s going to be terribly lonely for him without Roger. And the island is no place to be alone.” Tears were running down Pix’s face, and Faith knew she was mentally getting her guest room ready for a long visit from Eric.
    â€œI’ve got to get back to Samantha and try Sam some more,” Pix continued as she got up and brought her plate to the sink.
    â€œLeave that, Pix, and call me if I can do anything,” Faith said, thinking that she had already done enough. In some perverse form of logic she reasoned if she hadn’t found the body, Roger would still be alive. Or it would be yesterday and she could tell him not to go for a swim.
    â€œThanks, Faith. I keep forgetting what an awful time you’ve had. Do you want to spend the night?”
    â€œNo, but if I change my mind I’ll come knocking at your door. It’s funny, but I’m beginning to think of this as my house and my own little bed. It feels very comforting.”
    Ben had been miraculously quiet, playing with a wooden train Faith had bought at H.O.M.E. in