Damn it, she needed Tyler to find out what he could about this Derek Allen character, but he’d dropped off the radar. Aubrey knew there was a good chance he was holed up with a bag and a syringe, and would emerge sometime soon needing money, or bail. So she was left to figure out the secrets alone.
She handed the ticket to the valet. He ran off to retrieve her car, and she thought about Daisy, lying in the bed upstairs, convinced Chase was her long-dead son. It was interesting that she’d seen the resemblance between Josh and Chase, too. At least Aubrey knew she wasn’t losing her mind entirely. Meghan couldn’t see it at all. Meghan was too rational, too fixed. Too focused on helping Aubrey move past her tragedy and start living again.
Meghan.
Perfect.
Aubrey glanced at her watch. Meghan had insisted Aubrey take a few days off from the store to deal with the Daisy situation, so they hadn’t talked outside of scheduling walks for Winston. She would still be at work.
The valet returned with the Audi, and she headed toward Frothy Joe’s.
Spring had absolutely rioted overnight. Buttery daffodils bloomed across the Vanderbilt campus, and the trees had greened up. The suddenness of the seasons in Nashville sometimes caught Aubrey off guard. One day it would be frigid, and the next the forsythia would scramble out, desperate to be seen by all passersby, the sun would linger in the evening sky, and a hint of warmth would pulsate in the breeze. The bank sign said it was seventy degrees—a certain harbinger of the impending weather shift. They went winter to summer many years, without a discernible spring.
But this year was different. This year, they were having the lost season.
Traffic was light, and she arrived at the coffee shop in less than ten minutes. Meghan was setting up for another poetry slam when Aubrey arrived.
“Heya, kid. How’re you doing? How’s Daisy?”
Aubrey gave Meghan a quick hug. “They finally took her off the ventilator. She immediately started asking for Josh. She thinks Chase is Josh.”
“Looney tunes.” Meghan smiled at Aubrey. “Chase is back in town tomorrow?”
“Yes.” Aubrey couldn’t help but smile back.
“Slut.”
“I’m not.” But she had to admit, she enjoyed the teasing. Who would have thought?
“Are you going to stick around tonight? We have another event, and I could use the help.”
Aubrey considered for a moment. Linda was going to walk Winston at nine—she’d have time to get home before then. “All right. I was hoping to have some quiet time, but mercenary that I am, I could use the money. And you and I can talk—I have a favor to ask.”
“Deal. Now get crackin’, sister. This place won’t set itself up.”
Aubrey stuck out her tongue at her best friend and got to it. She went in the back and started bringing out chairs. The extra help made things go quicker. The whole room was set in five minutes. The event began at seven. When she’d done the author introduction, Meghan signaled to Aubrey and they went to the front of the store. There were a few students, headphones in, heads bobbing to an invisible beat. Private enough.
Meghan grabbed them each a cup of coffee, and they settled themselves on the stools at the counter.
“So . . . ?” she said, watching Aubrey carefully.
“I need your help. But you have to promise to hear me out, okay? Don’t interrupt. Let me tell you the whole story, and then you can make a decision.”
Meghan gave her that cocked-head “are you off your rocker again?” look.
“Seriously, Meghan. This is important.”
“Okay, okay. I will sit and sip my coffee and let you spin me a tale.”
“Good. Thank you. A man approached me at the hospital last night. He implied that Josh was alive, and if I wanted answers to call him. He gave me his card, but I spilled coffee on it, so I can’t see the number. He seemed really familiar, but I can’t place him.”
“Let me see the card.”
Aubrey handed it over. Meghan glanced at it, and Aubrey could have sworn her face paled. She set it down carefully on the counter.
“Go on.”
“All right. You know how when I saw Chase for the first time, I thought he was Josh? So did Daisy. She was so convinced it was him, she drove into my house. She got excited, her foot jammed on the gas. She—”
“Was drunk off her ass. Didn’t you say her blood alcohol level was .23?”
“Meghan. Interruption.”
“Oh, forgive me. Please, by all means, continueth.” She grinned contritely, and Aubrey shook her head.
“As I was saying. She was so convinced he was Josh that she slammed into the house. When she got the tube out, the first thing she said was ‘Where is Josh?’ I figured she’d just forgotten he was dead, but when we talked, she just didn’t believe me. She thinks I’m holding him back.
“And when Tyler showed up, he told me he spent a night in holding with a guy who claimed he was running drugs with a med student out of Vandy.”
Meghan sat there for a moment, then said, “Oh, I’m allowed to speak now?”
“Yes. I need to find out if the med student he was talking about was Josh.”