information on how to make a safety plan, stories of other abused women. I sat there and read every word.”
“How long before you went to a shelter?”
“A month. Abuse—it does things to your head.”
“But you did it,” O’Malley said.
She ran the toe of her sandal over a hunk of slimy seaweed. “My life was as big a wreck as this place was when I bought it. But I was living a violent-free life. That gave me such hope, such energy. It still does. I’m taking care of myself for the first time in a very long time. That matters.”
“It matters a lot.”
“I’d always dreamed of opening a bed-and-breakfast on the coast. I love it out here. I live in the guest house—it’s perfect for me—and have the house for guests. That might change one day, or it might not. I’m just enjoying the moment. And I’ve done exactly what I want with the place.” She let her arms fall to her sides. “I decided—I like pink. Raspberry, watermelon, orange-pink, petal pink. I didn’t have to explain it to anyone or excuse it or pretend I liked chartreuse or rust when I like pink.”
O’Malley smiled at her. “I’m not as big on pink as you are.”
She laughed. “I appreciate your honesty. Anyway, I don’t mean to bore you—”
“You’re not boring me,” he said sincerely.
She angled a look at him. “That’s why you do police work, isn’t it? Because you like people, you like to figure them out?”
“My father was a cop. I knew the work suited me.”
“Jessica? She says she was a police officer, too.”
“For a few years.”
“Her father—”
“Investment banker. Very white bread. Her mother is a volunteer for a bunch of different charities. They almost had a heart attack when she got accepted to the police academy.”
“But they supported her decision? They didn’t try to stop her?”
“They were the proudest parents at her graduation.”
“Good for them.”
O’Malley knew Marianne hadn’t joined him at the tide pool to chitchat. “Look—”
“I think someone’s snooping on me,” she blurted.
“What do you mean, snooping? Spying? Stalking you?”
She shook her head. “Nothing that overt. There’ve been these odd incidents.” She took a breath, not going on.
“Like what?” he prodded.
She squatted down, dipping a hand into the cold water, her back to him. “I don’t imagine things. I don’t make things out to be worse than they are. The fears I have—they’re real fears.”
“You think your ex-husband is in the area?”
“Let’s say I fear it.”
But she didn’t go on, seemed unable to. O’Malley walked around to the other side of the tide pool and squatted down, noticing that she had grabbed something from the bottom of the pool. “What do you have?”
“Starfish,” she said, and smiled as she lifted it out of the water and showed it to him. “I used to love to collect things from tide pools when I was a little girl. I’d put everything back, of course. Once—once I forgot, and I was mortified for days.”
A sensitive soul. “I understand.”
Her eyes met his, just for an instant, and she replaced the starfish back in the water. “When I got up this morning, before you and Jessica arrived, I was positive someone had been through the Saratoga trunk in the living room during the night. It’s an antique, from my great-grandmother.”
“The living room’s open to guests?”
She nodded. “But no one—it was just John Summers here last night. And he wouldn’t be interested in the contents of an old trunk. He’s a hiker. He goes out every day for hours. He pays me extra to load up his daypack with lunch and snacks.”
“What’s in the trunk?”
“Nothing of any value to anyone but me. Family photo albums and scrapbooks of my life before I married.” She spoke clearly, directly, without any hint of trying to hide something. “Some old books and diaries.”
“Your diaries?”
“Oh, no. My great-grandmother’s. She and my great-grandfather came to Nova Scotia from Scotland.”
“Have you read her diary?”
“Bits and pieces. It feels like prying, frankly.”
O’Malley shrugged. “That’s half of what I do for a living. What made you think someone had been in the trunk? Was the latch open, something like that?”
“It was moved and—” She thought a moment as she got to her feet. “I’d draped a throw over it last night. It was on the couch this morning.”
“Maybe Summers couldn’t sleep and came downstairs to read for a while, get a change of scenery, and used the throw to keep his feet warm.”
“It’s possible.” She smiled. “I like that theory.”
“Any other incidents?”
“A few more like that.”
“All with personal items?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing that’d tempt you to call the police?”
“No, not yet. I just feel—I don’t know how to describe it. Like somebody’s looking for something, prying into my life, or if not my life, my family’s past. It’s a very strange feeling.”
“Anything exciting about your family’s past?”
She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Was one of your ancestors secretly married to the Prince of Wales or something?”
“Oh, no, no, nothing like that.”
“But like something else?”
“Well—” She shook her head, laughing a little. “My great-grandmother lived in this area during a famous, tragic incident when a Halifax heiress ran off with a no-account foreign sailor. Irish, I think. Their boat went down in a storm just beyond the cove here.”
“They were killed?”
“Drowned.”
“Bodies recovered?”
Marianne nodded sadly. “There are rumors the heiress had taken gold coins and jewels with her, as a nest egg for her new life.”
O’Malley watched her expression and, from long experience, knew there was more to the story. “No sign of them?”
“It depends on whom you believe.”
Vague answer, but he didn’t push.
“None of this is like my ex-husband. He’s more the type to take a baseball bat to the kitchen because I left a coffee filter in the sink. But I haven’t seen him in two years. I don’t know—” She left it at that, then said abruptly, “I’ll walk back to the house with you. Would you and Jessica care for some blueberry wine? It’s made by a local winery. It’s quite good.”
O’Malley winked at her. “So long as it’s not raspberry wine.”
She laughed again, seeming more relaxed now that she’d told someone about her snooper. He wanted to know what she was holding back, but he doubted he’d get it out of her tonight. Marianne Wells was a direct, strong,