"How fortunate for you to have the inside track," said Tess coldly.

Ken sighed. "I don't know how fortunate it is. I didn't want to come at first. I haven't been back here in years. Since my daughter, Lisa, died. I wasn't sure I was...ready to make the trip. You know."

"But, now that you're here, why not exploit your advantage, right?" said Tess.

Dawn glared at her daughter. "Ken did not come here to exploit anyone."

"How come you were in our parking area last night?" Tess demanded.

"Tess, your tone," said Dawn sharply.

"I recognized your mother, of course, and I wanted to talk to her, but I...didn't want to intrude."

But somehow, you brought yourself to do just that, Tess thought.

"You should have come in last night," said Dawn. "You did look familiar to me. I just couldn't place you. I'm really so glad to see you again."

"I've been trying to work up my nerve. The idea of walking through that door again..." he said.

Dawn reached out her hand and placed it over his on the table. "I'm glad you finally did. This was your home through good times, too, Ken. It wasn't all bad. You have to remember that."

Ken shuddered and then he nodded.

"How's Mrs. Phalen?" said Tess.

Dawn gave her a warning look.

Ken looked up at Tess. "We're divorced now. She...had a very rough time after Lisa died. She became an alcoholic. Refused to get any treatment."

"That's too bad," said Tess.

Ken nodded. "I could understand it. I just couldn't live with it anymore." He took a sip of his tea, then set the cup down carefully in front of him. "So your mother says that at long last," he said, "it looks as if they've got the real killer?"

Dawn looked proudly at her daughter. "It was Tess who figured it out," she said.

"Really?" said Ken. "How did that happen, Tess?"

"I'm not really in the mood for an interview," said Tess. She turned to Dawn. "Is Erny back?"

"In your room," said Dawn.

Tess turned and left the kitchen. She went out into the main hallway and then around to her room. She was still fuming at Ken Phalen's question. Forget it, she thought. Another opportunist. Tess took a deep breath, tapped on the door, and walked in.

Erny was sprawled on the bed, working on the puzzle book.

Tess came and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Hey," she said. "How was the walk with Leo?"

Erny shrugged. "Good."

"How's the head feel?"

Erny nodded. "Good. Can I go fishing tomorrow with Uncle Jake?"

"No," said Tess, too sharply. Then she reached out and rubbed his messy hair. "But maybe tomorrow you and I can do something fun."

"Maybe," he said, frowning, and pulled away from her touch. "I'm hungry," he said, sliding off the bed. "I'm going to the kitchen."

"Don't eat too many snacks," said Tess. "It's almost dinnertime."

Tess followed him out into the hallway and closed the door behind her. Dawn ruffled Erny's hair as she pa.s.sed him in the hallway.

Tess looked up at her mother. "Erny wants a snack."

"He knows where everything is," said Dawn.

"Where's Kenneth?" Tess asked.

"He left. I'm sure he didn't feel very welcome here. What was the meaning of that behavior anyway?" Dawn demanded. "Kenneth was my guest."

Tess frowned. "Your so-called guest is a journalist, Mother. You're offering him the kind of access every one of those vultures waiting around outside the inn wants."

Dawn shook her head. "We were talking, Tess. Kenneth and Annette helped us in a very difficult time. I'll always be grateful to them."

"Don't worry. You're paying him back now," said Tess.

"I don't understand you. You were rude to him the minute you saw him."

"I've seen him lurking around this house for days," Tess exclaimed.

"He was trying to get up the courage to face the past," said Dawn. "Is that so hard for you to understand?"

Tess folded her arms over her chest. "I don't like it. Now suddenly he finds the courage to come back? Now, when there's a story in it, that will probably earn him a bundle of money?"

"Oh Tess," said Dawn, shaking her head. "It's not that simple. He's suffered a great deal. He knows that I, of all people, can understand it."

"In other words, you're an easy mark, Mother."

Dawn shook her head. "Tess, you've got to have a little faith in people."

Tess thought of Ben Ramsey, acting concerned and brainstorming with her about Phoebe's killer. Calling her about Erny. Seeking her out. Flirting with her, in his own careful way. And now the handsome attorney, who had begun to invade her daydreams, was busy searching for a loophole. An excuse to get Nelson Abbott exonerated. The thought of his betrayal caused tears to spring to her eyes. But she willed them away. She couldn't call it a betrayal when he had not promised her any loyalty. h.e.l.l, he hadn't even asked her out. She had blamed his reticence on his bereavement, not his lack of interest. Now, she berated herself for imagining that he felt the same attraction which she felt. It had all been a fantasy. As painful as it was to admit, she had not really seen him for the man he was. "Everybody suffers, Mother," said Tess. "That doesn't mean they deserve your trust."

CHAPTER 20.

The next morning, the sky was a clear blue-gray and the air was cold. When Tess woke up, Erny was already gone from the room. The first thing Tess saw when she reached the hallway outside the dining room was a neat pile of newspapers sitting on the sideboard, topped by the Stone Hill Record. The headline read, "Nelson and Lazarus Abbott-Victim's Sister Alleges: They Did It Together." Tess's cheeks flamed as she realized that Chan Morris, no lightweight after all, had taken advantage of her unguarded remarks. She scanned the story beneath the headline, quoting the accusation she had made so irresponsibly to the publisher. Then she set the newspaper back down, hesitating, considering the possibility of hiding the entire pile of papers. She sighed and realized it was no use. She had said it and now she had to live with the result. Tess found her mother sitting with Erny, finishing breakfast. Dawn looked up at her wearily.

"h.e.l.lo, darling," Dawn said.

"Did you see the paper?" Tess asked.

Dawn nodded.

Tess poured herself a cup of coffee. "I should have kept my mouth shut."

"There have been a lot of calls. I put them all off."

"Reporters?"

"That. And one from that fellow on your doc.u.mentary team. Wade something. Hoping it wasn't too late to come up here and start filming."

"Maitland," Erny piped up.

"Becca must have had her back turned. Well, the answer is stilll no. Not in a million years," said Tess firmly.

"That's what I told him," said Dawn.

"Thanks, Mom." Neither one of them mentioned their disagreement over Ken Phalen. Tessa sat down next to her son. "How you doing?"

Erny shrugged. "Good."

Dawn got up with her empty plate to take it to the dishwasher in the kitchen and Erny began to follow suit. Tess asked him to sit down a minute. Erny replaced the plate on the table and reluctantly pulled his chair back out.

"What?" he asked.

She gazed at him a minute. In the wee hours of another sleepless night, Tess had thought about her friend Becca's urging her to do something fun with her son while they were in New Hampshire. She thought about Erny wishing he could go fishing with his uncle, even though Jake had abandoned him to fall out of a tree. And this morning, Tess did want to make herself scarce and let justice take its course with Nelson Abbott. Despite Ben Ramsey's best efforts to thwart justice, it was just a matter of waiting now. It was a perfect opportunity to concentrate on her son for a change. She felt as if she had dragged Erny along like an extra suitcase on this trip for all the time she had spent with him since they'd arrived here.

"Erny," said Tess, "I know this trip has been no fun for you. I've been preoccupied over this DNA business and you had that fall from the tree when you were supposed to be having fun with Uncle Jake."

Erny shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

Tess tapped on his forearm. "Yes. Yes, it does. I meant it when I said that I want us to do something fun today. Just you and me."

Erny frowned at her suspiciously. "What?"

"Well, what would you like to do? We could drive to North Conway and go to a movie. They probably have all the latest releases." Tess waved to her mother, who walked back into the dining room carrying a basket of breads toward the breakfast buffet table.

"What are you two plotting?" asked Dawn, stopping beside their table.

"We're going to do something just for fun today," said Tess.

"What about a canoe ride? Like we did with Uncle Jake that time!" Erny exclaimed.

Jake had taken them out on a short river canoe trip several summers ago. They had run into several fast-moving sections of the river and nearly capsized twice. Once their canoe had gotten wedged under a fallen tree branch and it had taken Jake twenty minutes to free them. Erny had loved every minute of it.

"Oh, I don't know, Erny," Tess demurred. "I haven't had that much experience with canoes. I wouldn't be comfortable taking us out there alone."

"We could ask Uncle Jake to come with us," Erny said.

Tess suddenly felt trapped by her own suggestion. She was not about to ask her brother to take them, not after their argument at the hospital. "Honey, there was a big storm the other day. That river will be much too fast."

"You said we could do what I wanted today," Erny protested.

"What about the lake?" Dawn suggested. "They have a canoe rental place down at Mayer's Landing. It's a nice calm day. The lake will be very smooth. You could paddle over to the beach and have a picnic."

One of the inn's guests, a man wearing a jacket with elbow patches who was standing at the buffet, turned and looked at their table. "Excuse me," he said to Dawn. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you have any more granola?"

"Sure do. Just a minute," said Dawn. She walked over to the buffet table, set down the basket of m.u.f.fins, and picked up the empty granola container.

Tess watched her mother, realizing that her suggestion was the best solution, but knowing that she was stalling all the same. She, who had once looked forward all year to the family camping trip, now avoided that lake beach and the surrounding woods. The very thought of going there made her feel exposed and vulnerable. That fear was a legacy from Phoebe's death and she had accepted that she would never be free of it. It was like a handicap that she had learned to live with. "You'll turn him into a sissy," Jake had said. Well, she wasn't about to take her parenting cues from Jake. Still, she knew that it was unfair to infect her son with her fears. "Okay," she said at last. "How about that? We could go out on the lake. Just you and me this time."

"Cool. Can we take our lunch?"

"Sure," said Tess, relieved to see his enthusiasm return.

"Awesome," he said.

"Go get your stuff," said Tess. Erny bolted from the chair and raced out of the dining room. Tess watched him go, trying to calm the apprehension in her own heart. You can do this, she said. For Erny, you can do it.

Tess followed the sign for Mayer's Landing, which led her down a b.u.mpy dirt road to the lake. However, when they finally reached the lakeside clearing, they found the place deserted. A stack of canoes piled on a metal frame was covered with a tarp and the shack where one signed up for rentals had a closed sign over the boarded window.

"Oh no," said Erny.

"I guess the season is over," said Tess. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"We can't go?" Erny said.

Tess looked helplessly around the clearing. Part of her was secretly glad that the place was closed. For her, the woods would be, forevermore, a place where a maniac could easily hide. She already felt uncomfortable being here among the dark, forbidding pines. You tried, she thought. You did your best. But the disappointment in Erny's eyes chastened her, told her she had to try harder. "Hang on a minute," she said.

Set back in the trees was a small house that looked inhabited. There was smoke drifting up from the chimney and an old pickup parked next to it. Tess walked up on the rickety porch and knocked on the door.

A stooped old man in a flannel shirt opened the door, frowning. "Yeah," he said.

"Are these your canoes?" Tess asked.

"We're closed," he said.

"I know. And I'm sorry to bother you. But my son and I are visiting my mother who lives here and we were just hoping..." Tess noted the flicker in his eye when she mentioned that her mother was a local. In a tourist town, that always carried a little bit of weight.

"I don't get too many customers this time of year," he explained gruffly.

"I know. I should have thought of that. I just...is there any chance that you could rent us one for just a couple of hours?" Tess asked.