“How did Elizabeth contact Trudy?” Gabriel asked.
“Elizabeth called her out of the blue,” I said. “She’s the granddaughter of an old friend of Trudy’s. I guess that part’s true enough, although we should probably double-check. Elizabeth told Trudy that she’d seen something about the cave discovery in her local paper, and she asked Trudy if she wouldn’t mind having a visitor for a week. Trudy was thrilled.”
“Sounds reasonable so far,” Gabriel said.
I glanced at Derek. “By the way, it was during that same visit with Trudy that she gave me the letter that I wanted translated. I contacted my online group that night.”
“Busy day,” Derek said.
“And for the next three or four days, we were preparing for the photo exhibit. Robin and I were in and out of the caves, taking pictures, while Mom was setting up volunteers and such.”
“Can you pin down the number of times you and Robin were there?”
I thought about it. “Okay, twice on that Thursday, once on Friday for four hours, and once on Saturday, but just for about a half hour.”
Gabriel checked off a number of items on his sheet. “Okay, got ’em. Except there’s another entry on Saturday afternoon.”
“That was the tour I gave the French families,” Derek noted.
“When did Elizabeth arrive in town?” Gabriel asked.
“The following Wednesday.” I frowned, remembering something else. “Now that I think about it, Trudy waited until Amelia was out of the room before she told us about Elizabeth’s visit. I wonder if Amelia was suspicious of Elizabeth from the very start.”
“Interesting,” Gabriel murmured.
“On the other hand,” I said with a shrug, “Amelia never liked having anyone around, so maybe Trudy just waited until she was out of earshot to save herself the aggravation of an argument.”
“That’s the more likely scenario,” Derek admitted, having met Amelia himself.
“I guess so.” I checked my notes. “But wait. Before Elizabeth arrived, the horrible Noland Garrity showed up. He came on Monday, two days before the exhibit opened.”
“What day did you go to lunch with Elizabeth?” Derek asked.
“That was Thursday, the day after the exhibit opened.”
Gabriel leaned forward in his chair. “Were you able to learn anything about her?”
“She told me she lives in some dinky town in Wisconsin. No, sorry. It’s in Michigan. She didn’t give me the name of the town, but it’s somewhere on the Upper Peninsula. She was lamenting that there aren’t any good Mexican restaurants in the area. She’s a navy brat. Spent some time in Sicily. None of this is helpful, is it?”
Derek chuckled. “It’s a start, love.”
“You’d be surprised what we can find out from that little bit of intel,” Gabriel said, winking at me.
I was smiling back at him when I suddenly realized something and jumped from my chair. “Oh my God,” I cried, pacing the floor. “Oh my God, I completely forgot to tell you this part.” I stopped and pressed my palms against my forehead. “How could I have forgotten?”
Derek stood and put his arms around me. “What part, love?” He clearly thought I needed comforting, and maybe I did.
“I’m so sorry. I think this might be significant, but I have no idea why.” My head was starting to spin from the exertion. Derek helped me back into the chair as though I were an invalid.
“I feel so silly forgetting to tell you, but there’s been a lot going on.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Derek said, taking another moment to rub my back.
“Sorry to be such a drama queen,” I said, feeling even dumber for causing that little scene, “and it’s probably not even important.”
“Tell us and we’ll help you figure out what it means,” Gabriel said.
“Okay. After we had lunch, I took Elizabeth over to the town hall to show her the photograph exhibit. Her attention was immediately drawn to the alleged Renoir painting. She forgot all about me and just stood there staring at that photograph. So I wandered around for a while, ran into the odious Mr. Garrity and exchanged a few insults, and after he left, I saw Robin. She was there to show off her photos to Austin and Jackson.”
“I’m with you so far,” Gabriel said.
“So I stopped to talk to those guys, and then Robin and Austin walked away to check out the exhibit. Jackson stayed with me, and I invited him to dinner the next night at Savannah’s restaurant. I wanted to introduce a bunch of people to Elizabeth because Trudy’s hoping if she makes enough friends, maybe she’ll move here.”
“That’s the dinner I had to turn down,” Gabriel said. “Sorry about that.”
“I know you were busy,” I said, smiling. “We’ll do it again sometime.” I frowned. “If Elizabeth doesn’t turn out to be a psychopathic killer.”