The Opposite of Dark by Debra Purdy Kong

she’d only got home from Victoria forty-five minutes ago and had just finished sending a carefully worded email to Mother. Casey had thought about calling her, but she wasn’t ready to hear Mother’s voice again.
    â€œSince Darcy now has the Summer seal of approval, he’ll be moving in tomorrow,” Rhonda said.
    â€œGreat.” Rhonda never rented a room unless Summer approved of the applicant.
    â€œDarcy’s an electrician,” Rhonda said, “but he had knee surgery a few weeks ago.”
    â€œThe doc says I can go back to work in a few days.”
    â€œI think you’ll like it here,” Rhonda smiled at him.
    â€œThanks, Mrs. Stubbs.”
    â€œWhoa.” Casey laughed. “If you don’t want to be evicted before you move in, call her Rhonda.”
    â€œYeah, sure.” He smiled. “I’d better go pack.” Leaning on the rail, Darcy started down the steps. “If I ever get on skis again, shoot me. It’s not as much fun as everyone says.”
    â€œDon’t talk to me about fun.” Rhonda snorted. “My last date’s idea of fun was to let his parakeet hang upside down in his hair and peck the mole on his cheek.”
    Darcy called over his shoulder. “I hate birds.”
    â€œSomething else in common.” Rhonda stepped inside Casey’s apartment and shut the door. “He’ll make a fun foursome.”
    â€œFoursome?”
    â€œYou and Lou, Darcy and me.”
    â€œAren’t you moving a little fast? You don’t even know if he’s attached.”
    â€œHe isn’t, I asked.”
    â€œAnyway, Lou and I are not a couple.” She sipped the Coors.
    â€œBut you hang out together. So why don’t the four of us go to the neighborhood pub this weekend.”
    â€œHow do you know Darcy doesn’t have other plans?”
    Rhonda spotted the blue notebook Casey had left on the coffee table and changed the subject. “That looks familiar.” She unzipped the book and flipped through the pages. “Oh my god, it’s Marcus’s address book.” She looked at Casey. “He used to keep this with him all the time. Where did you get it?” Casey had hoped a brief answer would work, but one question led to another, and before long Rhonda knew about the meeting with Simone Archambault and Dad’s import business.
    â€œI didn’t know about any import sideline,” Rhonda said, scanning the book. “Almost none of these names are familiar.”
    â€œWhat about Theo Ziegler on the last page?” When she and Lalonde were talking about him at Dad’s house, Rhonda had wandered off and hadn’t heard his name mentioned.
    â€œNo idea,” Rhonda replied, staring at the name.
    â€œWhile I was on the ferry, I tried calling the handful of Canadian and American phone numbers in the book, but the numbers were either out of service or the person I wanted had changed companies. I’ll try emailing people later.” She’d also see if Ziegler’s name popped up on the Internet.
    â€œThe notebook’s old and could be a gigantic waste of time. Besides, isn’t fact finding Lalonde’s job?”
    â€œThis is family history research, not a murder investigation.”
    Rhonda sat on the sofa. “If Marcus had wanted us to know about his other life, don’t you think he would have told us?”
    â€œNot if circumstances forced him underground.”
    â€œCircumstances that could have got him killed.”
    Watching Rhonda turn the pages, Casey wondered if that book was the reason someone had broken into the house on Marine Drive. Was it possible that the locker break-ins at work were also connected? Probably not. After all, several were opened and cash was stolen. Or was that what the perp wanted people to think? Was the key to an expensive home the reason for the book’s value, or the names in that book?
    â€œVincent Wilkes and