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"No," Iris said, "your eyes are not deceiving you Please" She tapped the chair next to uess this is a day ofIris’s request "First of all," she said, handing the flowers over to Iris, "I ran into the delivery boy on the way in, and these are for you A ratherout once my shop is open, but" She stopped herself "Expressive" She turned quickly towardthey are fro buck she danced with at the wake" She slapped at irl "Iris has a boyfriend," she sang out She winked at ar, what is wrong? Aren’t you feeling well thisin my eyes Her hand stopped a little short

"Ellen," Iris said

Ellen ignored Iris’s tone and forced a smile back to her lips The s out there You just need to get out of this house and"

Iris and I looked at each other, neither of us sure of what to do "Aunt Ellen," I said, "you should listen"

"No," she said, shaking her head once and turning away She had sensed that we had bad news I could see she was shutting down, pulling away, trying so

Iris reached out and grabbed Ellen’s hand before she could make her escape Ellen turned back to face her sister "Detective Cook cao I’m afraid there’s been a mishap"

"Aher face as she pulled her hand away

"I’m sorry, Ellie, but Tucker, he’s dead"

Ellen’s knees started to give at the word

"Maybe you should sit?" I asked, risingher head "This cannot be happening This cannot be happening again" She pulled her arain," she kept repeating I was reaching to put ht my eye The flowers had all withered away

TWENTY-TWO

At Ellen’s insistence, Iris drove her toout after their car and trying to take it all in The air in the house felt thick with tension, so after a few arden I found a place at the table and first rested ht hand as a protective barrier between Colin and the world around us I couldn’t believe Tucker Perry was dead

I tried Peter’s nuain I hoped to catch hi him to call me

Adam had intimated that Tucker’s death seemed somehow similar to Peadar’s I could only surmise that h him Tucker had without doubt made plenty of enemies over the years, but how ic? And as his murder made to look like the accidental harm I caused Peadar’s body? Was the intention to iht have connected the dots between azine?

Ryder’s face, twisted in rage, rose up in e On top of that, he probably bla to seek revenge? I’d assumed he’d arrived in Savannah after Peadar’s death, but he’d been awfully proud about his ability to followh to witness what had happened at the powder azine?

I needed to find out just when Claire had contacted Ryder I reached for my phone and alht that Ryder had been granted the powers of a collector by a witch A real witch And there were so many witches who had been unhappy to see et, there was any number of witches, half of theht have sent a collector to do their dirty work for them Maybe Claire had just been a puppet? Had she somehow been influenced to contact Ryder? Had her distrust of E Tucker’s death, Ellen’s tragedy, all about ht actually be all about ht out the locketit out from beneath my shirt The feel of it caused my analytic mind to switch off andfor Ellen, but I was deeply afraid I craved my mother’s comfort and wanted the reassurance of her scent, her embrace, but I hadn’t even heard froh a tourist’s borrowedto take a little comfort in the baby pictures of myself and my sister

The locket popped open, but to my surprise, it did not hold the same pictures I’d seen before Maisie’s had been replaced with the photo of a man Confident blue eyes beneath a shock of blond hair Lean face with sensuous lips and a dimpled chin He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place hinized as a rand my nail, I carefully peeled out the man’s photo It came out of the locket with round I reached out and snatched it up The h I reman in the all-too-small oval Carefully, I turned it over in e, and the script was painfully cra, but I could still make out a word, a name: Careu I returned the picture and closed the locket Grabbing my phone, I did a quick search on the name The results came back with a definition in Romanian ("square"), and several options for health care, but nothing that provided any insight

The skin on the back ofto find Emmet "Your mother has requested that you come with me" The words came from my mother’s driver, the o Now he stood on the other side of the gate that opened onto our garden This time, maybe because it was the first chance I’d had to observe hi was off His coray and waxy in appearance, and the h to produce the words he said It seeh him The out-of-sync way his lips moved, cohts about my , day after day, for word fro fro up right after news had broken about Tucker’s death As badly as I wanted to see ht about the situation I didn’t like her driver’s vibe I didn’t like the way she’d implied that my aunts had e any details Iris and Ellen and, to a lesser degree, Oliver, had taken care of ht down to it, I didn’t knowinto limos alone after the last spin around town I’d taken in one