Page 25 of The Newcomer
Zoey managed to get us a photo of the detective.
Tell her I owe her one. Xoxo L.
She shouldn’t have been shocked that Evan had hired a detective.Tanya had warned her, as recently as the week before her death, that her dealings with her ex had taken an ominous turn.
“He thinks he’s so smart,” Tanya said, while they were sharing take-out sushi. “I know all his dirty little secrets. And if he keeps messing with me, trying to take Maya from me, I told him, I’ll go public. And he’ll go to jail.”
Letty had begged Tanya not to threaten Evan, but Tanya was beyond reason.
“Did I tell you about his new arm candy? Her name is—get this—Juliette. After Maya got back from the weekend with them it was all JuJu this and JuJu that.”
“So? You know he’s always got a new chick on the string. You’re over him, so why do you care?” Letty asked.
“Because this chick is different. He let her move in. It’s the first time he’s done that since I left.” Tanya scowled. “Of course, Maya’s in looooove with her JuJu. She’s totally buying my daughter off with fancy toys and clothes. Who gives a four-year-old her own goddamn iPad?”
“Tanya, listen to what the mediator is telling you,” Letty said. “Stop picking fights with Evan. If you stop threatening him, he’ll settle. If you do that, you can move on and put all this crap behind you.”
“I’m moving on all right, all the way to California,” Tanya retorted. “I’m taking Maya with me, and there’s not a damned thing Evan Wingfield can do to stop me. Not if he wants to stay out of prison.”
Letty could feel her anxiety spiraling. Tanya’s prediction had been devastatingly accurate. Evan Wingfield had killed her sister, she was sure. And now he was after her. Her first instinct was to run—to pack up this child, asleep in the bed beside her, and flee into the darkness.
Maya sighed softly and burrowed into Letty’s side, flinging an arm across her chest. Letty inhaled the sweet smell of baby shampoo and brushed a damp curl off the child’s forehead.
Now was not the time to run, she decided. Maya needed to feel safe. She needed time to forget the trauma of whatever she had witnessed. And Letty needed time. To think, and plan. To figure out what their future would look like and yes, to find out what Tanya’s attachment was to the Murmuring Surf.
This morning, Maya was bright-eyed and cheerful, as though nothing had happened at the beach on Sunday, but Letty was what Mimi would have called “a hot mess.”
She donned the pink polo shirt with the Murmuring Surf embroidered logo, dabbed some concealer onto the dark circles under her eyes, and pulled her hair into a ponytail. “Okay, let’s go to work,” she told her niece.
“You’reearly,” Ava exclaimed, as Letty and Maya entered the Murmuring Surf office.
“Gotta make a good impression on my first day,” Letty said.
“How are you this morning, Miss Maya?” Ava asked, kneeling down so that she was at eye level with the little girl.
“I got all my stuff in here,” Maya said proudly, holding out herFrozenpocketbook for inspection.
Ava dutifully looked inside the purse, holding up each item for examination. “Mmm-hmm. Lipstick, comb, granola bar, jewelry box…”
“What?” Letty grabbed the black velvet box, her heart pounding. “Maya, you’re not supposed to have this.”
The little girl’s upper lip began to quiver. “Mommy said it was for me. I want it.”
Letty didn’t dare open the box in front of Ava, but as she tucked it in her pocket she could feel something rattling inside the box. Maya had always loved playing with the contents of Tanya’s jewelry box, draping her neck and wrists with ropes of fake pearls, gaudy colored beads and gold chains. Before Tanya split with Evan, when she stillwore the push present diamond ring, she’d sometimes allow Maya to slip the ring onto her thumb to admire it.
“It is for you, sweetie, but not until you’re more grown-up,” Letty said gently, hoping to forestall another temper tantrum. She had no idea how or when Maya had managed to find Tanya’s tote bag when she’d gone to such pains to hide it in their room, but the first chance she got she would check to make sure Maya hadn’t appropriated anything else—like cash. And she would find a new hiding place for the go-bag.
“Here,” Ava said impulsively, removing the jeweled pink flamingo brooch she wore pinned to her blouse. “Why don’t you wear this today, since it’s your first day on staff.”
“Oh no,” Letty protested. “That’s not necessary.”
“I want her to have it,” Ava said. “It’s just junk jewelry. I went through a flamingo phase a few years ago and I’ve got more flamingo coffee mugs and napkin holders and pins and earrings than I know what to do with. I probably have three or four more of those pins the kids gave me for Mother’s Day or my birthday.”
Maya looked down at the flamingo’s glittering pink stones and grinned. “Mine.”
“Now that we’ve got that settled, you two, come around back here,” Ava said, beckoning to the reception desk.
A red plastic child-size table and chair stood behind the counter, with a small box of crayons and a pad of paper. “That was my Isabelle’s when she was your age,” Ava told Maya, who promptly seated herself at the table and began sorting the crayons. “Good thing I decided to hang on to it for those grandchildren Joe still hasn’t given me.”
