The Guests on South Battery by Karen White Page A

making her guilty by association.”
    I sat back in my seat. “That’s odd.”
    â€œYep. And there’s one more thing I think you might find interesting.” He paused, drumming his fingers on top of the folder as if trying to decide how much he should say.
    â€œTell me everything,” I said. “If she’ll be watching my children, I need to know all of it.”
    â€œTrue.” He took a deep breath. “She’s afraid of the dark. Has to have all the lights on when she sleeps.”
    â€œMany children are. She didn’t outgrow it?”
    After a brief pause, he said, “Apparently not. I got the references from her last two employers sent over, and it’s mentioned in both reports. Which are all glowing, by the way. The first called her ‘Mary Poppins’ and considered having another baby just to keep her with their family now that their other children are too old for a nanny.”
    I perked up. “Which is the important part—that she’s a good nanny. I’m okay with her keeping the lights on in her room all night. That’s pretty minor, really.” I took a long sip of my coffee, thinking. “Anything more specific about those ‘disturbances’?”
    â€œNo, but from everything I read, I’ve gathered that it was regular occurrences of breakages—lamps, dishes, that kind of thing.”
    â€œSo she’s a little clumsy,” I said, feeling relieved. “As long as she’s never dropped a child, of course.”
    â€œNope, nothing like that. As I said, her former employers can’t say enough good things about her. Heck, just reading these reports makes
me
want to have children just so I can hire her.”
    He reached for his wallet to place a generous tip on the table before standing and pulling my chair back for me. “How’s the real estate business these days?”
    â€œHopping, I’m happy to say,” I said as he helped me into my coat. “Made it easy to step back into my job.”
    â€œSo no time to help with any cold cases, huh?”
    I thought for a moment, recalling how happy I’d been in the last year with no spirits staring back at me in a mirror. No disembodied knocks on my door. “How cold?” I asked.
    â€œTwenty years. A nineteen-year-old College of Charleston student was murdered, and the case was never solved. Her sister recently found something that made her think it would make it worthwhile to reopen the case.”
    Despite my reluctance, my curiosity was piqued. “What did she find?”
    â€œHalf of a gold charm—like those old BFF necklaces where each friend gets half. Except this one had the first letter of the dead sister’s sorority, so it looks like the other half had other Greek letters on it. Perhaps spelling out another fraternity or sorority with a coinciding letter, but the other half is missing.”
    â€œWhy would the woman think it’s important?”
    â€œBecause she’d never seen it before. She was moving into her parents’ home and found her sister’s trunk in their attic—the one that had been in her sister’s dorm room at the time of her death. It had never been opened since they brought it home. The woman found the charm in the bottom along with a broken chain. She’s positive it didn’t belong to her sister and could be the lead we needed to finally solve it.”
    â€œEven I have to say that’s a long shot.”
    He looked at me steadily without saying anything, as if waiting for me to fill in the blanks.
    â€œUnless someone can talk to the dead girl,” I said slowly.
    â€œYeah, that’s pretty much what I was thinking.”
    I studied my hands as I slowly pulled on my gloves. “I’ll think about it and let you know. Life’s pretty crazy right now. Maybe after I get this nanny thing sorted out.”
    â€œI understand—thank