“You discussed this?” Patricia asked, and the betrayal made her voice weak.

“We’ve been talking for weeks,” Leland said. “James Harris is one of the biggest investors in Gracious Cay. Over the past months he’s put, well, I won’t tell you how much money he’s put in, but it’s a substantial sum, and in that time he’s demonstrated to me that he’s a man of character.”

“You never told me,” Slick said.

“Because it’s none of your business,” he said.

“Don’t be upset with him,” Carter said. “Horse, Leland, James Harris, and I have formed a kind of consortium to invest in Gracious Cay. We’ve had several business meetings and the man we’ve gotten to know is very different from this murderous, drug-dealing predator you describe. I think it’s safe to say that we know him significantly better than you do at this point.”

Patricia thought she’d knitted a sweater, but all she held in her hands was a pile of yarn and everyone was laughing at her, patting her on the head, chuckling at her childishness. She wanted to panic. Instead, she turned to Carter.

“We are your wives. We are the mothers of your children, and we believe there is a real danger here,” she said. “Does that not count for something?”

“No one said it didn’t—” Carter began.

“We’re not asking for much,” Maryellen said. “Just check his mini-storage. If the van’s there, you can get a search warrant and see if it links him to these children.”

“No one’s doing anything of the sort,” Leland said.

“I asked him about that,” Ed said. “He told us he did it because he thought all you Old Village ladies didn’t like his van parked in his front yard, bringing down the tone of the neighborhood. Grace, he told me you said it was killing his grass. So he got the Corsica, and put the van in storage because he couldn’t bear to let it go. He’s spending eighty-five dollars a month because he wants to fit in better with the neighborhood.”

“And for that,” Leland said, “you want to drag his name through the mud and accuse him of being a drug dealer.”

“We are men of standing in this community,” Bennett said. His voice carried extra weight because he hadn’t spoken yet. “Our children go to school here, we have spent our lives building our reputations, and y’all were going to make us laughingstocks because you’re a bunch of crazy housewives with too much time on your hands.”

“We’re just asking you to go look at the mini-storage unit,” Grace said, surprising Patricia. “That’s all. Just because you’ve had some drinks with him at the Yacht Club doesn’t mean he’s hammered from purest gold.”

Bennett fixed his eyes on her. His normally friendly face got red.

“Are you arguing with me?” he asked. “Are you arguing with me in public?”

The rage in his voice sucked the air out of the room.

“I think we need to calm down,” Horse said, unsure of himself. “They’re just worried, you know? Patricia’s been through a lot.”

“We’re worried about the children,” Slick said.

“It’s true, Patricia has had some emotional blows recently,” Carter said. “And they’ve shaken her more than even I realized. You may not know this, but just a few weeks ago she accused James Harris of being a child molester. You women have all got fine minds, and I know how hard it is to find intellectual stimulation in a place like this. Add in the morbid books you read in your book club and it’s a perfect recipe for a kind of group hysteria.”

“A book club?” Leland said. “They’re in a Bible study group.”

The room went silent, and then Carter chuckled.

“Bible study?” he said. “Is that what they call it? No, they meet once a month for book club and read those lurid true crime books full of gory murder photographs you see in drugstores.”

Blood drained from the women’s faces. Slick’s hands twisted in her lap, knuckles white. Leland stared at her from across the room. Horse squeezed Kitty’s hand.

“A covenant has been broken,” Leland said. “Between husband and wife.”

“What’s going on?” Korey said from the living room door.

“I told you to stay upstairs!” Patricia snapped, all the humiliation she felt erupting at her daughter.

“Calm down, Patty,” Carter said, then turned to Korey, playing the gentle father figure. “We’re just having an adult conversation.”

“Why’s Mom crying?” Korey asked.

Patricia noticed Blue peering in from the dining room door.

“I’m not crying. I’m just upset,” she said.

“Wait upstairs, honey,” Carter said. “Blue? Go with your sister. I’ll come explain everything later, okay?”

Korey and Blue retreated into the hall. Patricia heard them go up the stairs, too loudly and obviously, and in her head she counted the steps. They stopped before they reached the top and she knew they were sitting on the landing, listening.

“I think everything’s been said that could possibly be said,” Carter pronounced.

“You can’t stop me from going to the police,” Patricia said.

“I can’t stop you, Patty,” Carter said. “But I can inform them that I believe my wife is not in her right mind. Because the first person they’ll call isn’t a judge to get a search warrant; it’ll be your husband. Ed’s made sure of that.”

“You can’t keep sending the police on wild-goose chases,” Ed said.

Carter checked his watch.

“I think the only thing that remains are apologies.”

Patricia’s spine turned to stone. This was something she could hold on to, this was ground on which she could stand.

“If you think I’m going down to that man’s house and apologizing, you are deeply mistaken,” she said, drawing herself up, speaking as much like Grace as she could. She tried to make eye contact with Grace, but Grace stared miserably into the cold fireplace, not making eye contact with anyone.

“You don’t have to go anywhere,” Carter said as the doorbell rang. “He’s agreed to come here.”

Right on cue, Leland stepped into the hall and came back with James Harris. Unbelievably, he was smiling. James wore a white button-up oxford shirt tucked into a new pair of khaki pants, and brown loafers. He looked like someone who belonged on a boat. He looked like someone from Charleston.

“I’m sorry about all of this, Jim,” Ed said, standing and shaking his hand.

All the men exchanged firm handshakes and Patricia saw their shoulders relax, the tension in their faces dissolve. She saw that they thought of him as one of their own. James Harris turned to the women, studying each of their faces, stopping at Patricia.

“I understand I’ve been the source of a whole lot of fuss and worry,” he said.

“I think the girls have something they want to say,” Leland said.

“I feel terrible to have caused all this commotion,” James said.

“Patricia?” Carter prompted.

She knew he wanted her to go first to set an example for the other women, but she was her own person, and she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to. He’d forced her to apologize once already. Not again.

“I have nothing to say to Mr. Harris,” she said. “I think he’s not who he says he is and I think all anyone would need to do is look inside his mini-storage unit to see I’m right.”

“Patricia—” Carter started.

“I’m willing to let bygones be bygones if Patricia is,” James said, and stepped toward her with one hand outstretched. “Forgive and forget?”

Patricia saw his hand and the whole room behind it blurred and she felt everyone’s eyes on her.

“Mr. Harris,” she said. “If you don’t remove your hand from my face immediately, I’m going to spit on it.”

“Patty!” Carter snapped.

James gave a sheepish grin and pulled his hand back.

“I thought we were friends,” he said. “I’m sorry for whatever I’ve done to offend you.”

“Shake hands with him right this minute like an adult,” Carter said.

“Absolutely not,” she said.

“You are embarrassing yourself and the children,” Carter said. “I am asking you to apologize.”

Then Grace saved the day.

“Mr. Harris,” she said, standing and walking over to him. “Please accept my apologies. It seems our imaginations ran away with us.”

He shook her hand and then, one after the other, each of the women stood and apologized, and shook his hand, and simpered, and curtsied, and kissed his ring, while Patricia sat there, at first simmering with hot rage, then going cold.

“I’d like to ask something, if it’s not too much,” James Harris said.