For a moment, no one said anything, but Maggie looked at Jo Ellen, that silent communication they always seemed to share ricocheting between the two women.
“I know what we can do,” Maggie said softly.
Jo Ellen nodded. “Yeah.”
Peter and Vivien glanced at each other, lost.
“We’ll have to talk to Frank and Betty,” Maggie said. “They’re the only stone we haven’t turned over.”
“But don’t get your hopes up, Mags,” Jo Ellen warned her. “Frank never talked about that unsavory stuff.”
Maggie lifted a brow. “But Betty talked. At least she did after three glasses of chianti.”
“Then let’s go,” Jo Ellen agreed. “And we’ll take a bottle.”
“I think it’s good to go on a fact-finding mission,” Peter said. “But be careful and subtle.”
“You think it’s dangerous?” Vivien asked, a skitter of fear going up her spine.
“No, but…I wouldn’t want to wake up the FBI any more than we already have. The last thing you need is to have them come sniffing around this house and the profit it represents.”
Maggie paled at the words. “You’re right. But I still want to talk to them. We’ll be subtle.” She threw a look at Jo Ellen. “At least I will be.”
“Yeah, you’re so subtle, Mags,” Jo Ellen said dryly. “As understated as Smurf-blue icing.”
The air of friendship blew through the room again as they offered Peter a piece of cake. He politely declined cake, and after a few minutes, Vivien walked him to the front door.
Stepping outside, she looked up at him. The night air felt heavier now, thick with old secrets and fresh uncertainty.
“You okay?” he asked.
“A little overwhelmed,” she admitted. “It was a lot tonight—feds involved and a baby born and…”
“Losing at mini-golf,” he finished for her.
She laughed. “Yeah, a champ no more.”
He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a light kiss. “You still won my heart.”
“Oh, Peter.” She dropped her head on his shoulder and sighed.
“We’ll figure it out,” he whispered, giving her such a classy way out.
After one more sweet kiss, she watched him walk to his car and drive off.
Vivien stood outside a moment longer, staring out into the dark, wondering as much about the past as the future.
“Don’t you think it’s rude to just show up unannounced and uninvited?” Jo Ellen asked from the passenger seat, one arm around her handbag like it was a baby, the other gripping the door as though Maggie’s driving was going to kill them both. “You always follow social protocol, Mags. Also, would it kill you to use a turn signal?”
“This isn’t a social protocol situation, and I haven’t seen a turn signal since we got on the road,” Maggie replied as she navigated—rather well, in her opinion—the heavy traffic. “I don’t want to stand out as a tourist.”
Jo snorted and let it drop. “But we’re just going to knock on their front door?”
“That’s what Kate and Eli did,” she said, recalling her conversation with her son this morning. “No one had a heart attack. It’s fine if we just arrive.”
Jo Ellen sighed and studied the shops going by. “Kate and Eli. Who’d have ever thought that would be a thing?”
“It’s not athing,” Maggie said quickly. “They’re friends.”
