They climbed in and buckled up. Cassie concentrated on driving, giving Lily space for whatever had overcome her. She backed out and started down the road, wondering where she should be going.
"Lily, where should I..." Cassie started and stopped. Lily was sobbing into her hands. "Here," she said, grabbing some napkins that were lying on the console and handing them to Lily. "That should help you until we get home."
With that, Cassie headed for Lily's house. She wanted to just take her to her apartment, but knew that once Lily was cried out, they would need to start out to find Grace, and all of their bags and equipment were already loaded up and stashed at Lily's house.
She felt self-conscious about intruding on Lily's grief, and tried to keep herself quiet. It was very difficult, particularly since she wanted to wrap Lily in her arms and hold her until the tears were gone. She was also desparate to know what Lily had found behind the frame to upset her so deeply.
As they left the center of town and started down the road toward Ocean Point, Lily blew her nose, and started to pull herself together. Cassie bit her tongue, hard as that proved, and let Lily be. Lily finally looked up, stared out the window at the road unfurling before them, and sighed deeply.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that," she said at long last. She was still breathing deeply, trying to capture her breath and calm herself. Cassie saw an opening, but had no idea what to say.
Lily went on after a moment. "Grace left... a note inside the frame of that photo, between the backing and actual photo." She fought to catch her breath. She wanted to admit the note was for her, but it felt selfish and egotistical to say it. But it was true. Lily thought of Grace, and what she would do in this situation, and knew that she would agree with Lily, that she would act just as Lily had. And for the first time that she could remember, that bothered her.
Lily had long understood that she and Grace were very much alike, and that had always consoled her. It had always felt right in an unspoken way. Now, she was behaving just as Grace would, and not feeling right about it. Grace was missing, Carter might be as well, someone was wrecking her house and chasing after a project from 45 years ago. How much of the trouble they had right now could have been avoided.
Maybe none, she realized, but one thing was certain. If Grace had been open about her past, about all the details she and Cassie had suspected and asked about... It was time to make a change. Grace seemed to have understood it in the note she left, now it was up to Lily to make the same effort before it was too late, instead of after.
"The note was to me," Lily admitted. She felt relief that started inside her chest. How should she tell Cassie everything she was thinking. The sense of being overwhelmed again began to grow. "You can read the note when we get home, I took a picture. If its ok with you, I can summarize while we drive."
"Lil, you were so taken... I've been dying to know..." Cassie stammered, trying to express too many conflicting emotions at one time. She took a deep breath. "I'd like that, Lily."
"She apologized for keeping things from us. All the stuff we suspected about her and Carter, all the things we asked about..." Lily began then stopped herself. She could sense the anger and bitterness resurging, and there was no time for that now. "She was quite frank. They were an item in the beginning, and Dalton had them working with him on the project like Detective Richards said. Basically, when she came here, it went off the rails. She was grieving, Dalton was desperate to publish, and Carter was distant.
"Dalton ended up dying from AIDS, most likely, but he'd driven Grace so far away that she didn't care to finish anymore. Carter turned out to be a jerk, and they stopped speaking. That's the gist of it, at least." Lily let that last line taper off as she said it, and stared out the window.
