Chloe in Willowmere

The answer to the flower mystery arrived not with grandeur but with an awkward clearing of the throat at Marco's bakery door. Gerald Hooper stepped inside looking as though he might apologize to the floorboards next, and then admitted, haltingly, that the arrangements had been his all along. He had only just moved to Willowmere, he explained, and had mistaken anonymity for gentleness, hoping flowers might do the work that courage had not yet managed. Detective Park's dramatic theory collapsed into embarrassed silence while Marco, still recovering from being accused, found enough breath for a dry joke. Chloe listened past the awkwardness to the intention beneath it and understood that Gerald had not meant to unsettle anyone. He had come carrying the clumsy hope of a man trying to begin again, and Willowmere, with all its strangeness, seemed willing to meet him there.