Flipped Out (12 page)

Brandon nodded. “I’ll go door to door in a little bit.”

“Any word on my tools?” Derek wanted to know.

“Not that I’ve heard. Ramona is contacting pawnshops. It’s probably too early to find them—whoever grabbed them last night may not have had time to do anything with them yet—but since they were marked, we can put the store owners on alert, just in case they do come in.”

“Makes sense,” Derek agreed. “Is there anything we can do for you?”

Brandon shook his head. “I’m just gonna finish up here, take the stuff down to the station, go over Tony’s car—I doubt there’s anything of interest there—and then I’ll run out to the Waymouth Tavern.”

“We’ll see you later,” Derek said, putting an arm around my shoulder.

“I know where to find you,” Brandon answered, which—frankly—sounded just a little bit ominous.

The Waterfield Inn isn’t far from Cabot Street, so it was just a few minutes before we pulled to a stop in the driveway. The white TV van was there, and so was Wayne’s squad car. Kate’s station wagon, too. Plus a small, blue Honda with Maine license plates.

“Looks like Josh is visiting,” I remarked when Derek came around the truck to lift me down from the seat. It isn’t like I can’t get out on my own, but I enjoy the help, and he seems to enjoy giving it—at least most of the time—so I wasn’t about to complain.

He nodded, sparing the Honda a glance while he slipped his hands around my waist and lifted me down. “Guess he’s keeping Shannon company. Or maybe he’s doing something for his dad. Checking someone’s laptop or something.”

Josh is by way of being a computer genius, or at least a very good student of computer technology. Since the Waterfield PD is so small and doesn’t have a technology department any more than it has a forensics department for Brandon Thomas to head up, Josh sometimes pitches in when his dad needs someone’s computer looked at or certain databases searched. Like a lot of people of his generation, Wayne didn’t grow up surrounded by computers, and as a result, he doesn’t feel terribly comfortable around them.

Josh, on the other hand, is practically hardwired into his PC. Although helping his dad wasn’t what he was doing today. When we walked into the kitchen, he was sitting at the table sharing a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies with—I blinked—Fae.

True, Shannon was there, too, but the conversation flowed mostly between Josh, on one side of the table, and Fae opposite, while Shannon sat mutely off to the side, listening. She looked perfectly calm, with a tiny smile curving her lips, but her eyes were intent as they looked from Josh to Fae and back.

Josh was talking animatedly, hands waving in the air, reaching to push his glasses up his nose every few seconds. He was grinning, and the brown eyes behind the lenses were sparkling with excitement. He and Fae had obviously found common ground, or maybe he’d just decided he’d waited long enough for Shannon to sit up and take notice, and now it was time to move on.

Fae seemed equally fascinated, if more subdued. She sat with her chin in her hand and her eyes fastened on Josh’s face, unblinking. Every once in a while, she’d smile and nod, or contribute a word or two to push him off on a new tangent.

All three of them turned when we pushed through the kitchen door.

“Oh,” Josh said after a second, “hi.” He blushed. “I came by to see if I could give Shannon a ride over to the house, since I was supposed to start helping you guys today, but when I got here, Kate told me what had happened.”

“Where is she?” Derek looked around the obviously empty kitchen.

“Upstairs,” Shannon said. “In the suite. Nina’s a little upset.”

Fae grimaced, and I got the impression that calling Nina a
little
upset might have been understating the point considerably.

Derek headed for the coffeemaker. He opened the cabinet above the counter, got out two mugs, filled them, and added cream and sugar before handing one to me. Fae watched him make himself at home.

“Did anything else happen?” I asked, taking my coffee with a smile. “To make Nina upset, I mean?”

Fae shrugged. “No idea. When we got here, Chief Rasmussen made us all go into our rooms and wait. He said he’d talk to us one by one. After he finished with Nina, he came downstairs to ask Kate to make some hot tea with lots of sugar and take it up to her.”

“I see.” Surprising that Fae wasn’t upstairs with her. Granted, being a nursemaid to Nina’s nervous breakdowns may not have been part of Fae’s job description, but she was supposed to make life easier for her boss, wasn’t she?

“She said she was fine,” Fae said, reading my mind. “I went up there with Kate and asked if there was anything Nina needed me to do. She said no, that I should take care of myself instead. And Chief Rasmussen told us to stay by ourselves until he’d spoken to us individually.”

Derek pushed off from the refrigerator. “I’ll go up. See if there’s anything Kate needs. Or Wayne.”

His eyes crossed mine briefly as he headed for the door.

“Did Nina say anything?” I wanted to know. “About last night? Going to dinner with Tony? Anything?”

Fae shrugged. “No idea. I wasn’t there.”

“Right.” I glanced at the door. Put down my cup of coffee. “Excuse me. I’ll just . . .”

“See you later, Avery,” Josh said, his attention already completely focused on Fae again. “So, Fae, if you’re not working tonight, maybe you’d like to come down to Guido’s for a couple hours? With me? Have some pizza? Meet some people?”

He had his back to me, so I couldn’t see the expression on his face, but I could see Fae’s. It looked like she wanted to say yes, but I caught the sideways glance at Shannon out of the corner of her eye. “I’m not sure . . .”

Josh must have caught it, too. “Shannon doesn’t care,” he said. “Right, Shan?”

We all turned to Shannon. It took her a second to find her voice. “Oh, sure.” She smiled, but it lacked her usual brilliance. I’m not sure Fae realized it, but I did. I’m sure Josh would have, too, had he bothered to look at her. He didn’t.

“See?” he told Fae. “Shannon doesn’t care. So whaddaya say?”

Fae smiled, and if Shannon’s smile lacked brilliance, Fae’s didn’t. “I’d love to go out with you. Thanks.”

“My pleasure,” Josh said, and sounded like he meant it. I kept my eyes on Shannon, who looked up and met my gaze for a second before looking away again. The expression on her face was that of a little girl who has just realized there is no Santa Claus. I felt horrible as I slipped through the butler door and out into the dining room.

8

I found Kate and Wayne on the top-floor landing, conversing in low voices. They heard me coming up the stairs, of course, and stopped talking, so I had no idea what the conversation had been about.

“Derek’s inside,” Kate said, gesturing toward the closed door. “He’s checking to make sure Nina doesn’t need to go see Dr. Ben. This has been hard on everyone.”

I nodded. “Interesting exchange downstairs just now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Josh and Shannon and Fae are in the kitchen. He just asked her out.”

“Josh asked Fae out?” Wayne said. “With Shannon there?”

“How did that go?” Kate wanted to know, a wrinkle between her brows. Like everyone else, they’re obviously well aware that his son is hung up on her daughter.

“Depends. Fae said yes, so I imagine Josh is happy. Fae probably is, too. Shannon . . . maybe not so much.”

“And you base that on . . . ?”

“He asked her if she minded. Right in front of Fae. Since Fae had obviously noticed that something was going on, you know? And there wasn’t anything Shannon could say, really, except no. I don’t think she was happy about it, though.”

“It’s her own fault,” Wayne said bluntly. “He’s been pining after her for years. I guess she’s probably gotten used to it, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t gonna move on eventually, if she never gives him any encouragement.”

Kate nodded, although she looked worried. “I’ll go see what’s going on.” She headed down the stairs.

“How’s Nina?” I asked Wayne before he could follow.

He turned back to me after watching Kate’s bright coppery curls disappear from view. “Shook up. Upset. Nervous, I guess.”

I lowered my voice. “D’you think she did it?”

Wayne lowered his, as well. “Killed him? She says she didn’t.”

“But that’s what she’d say anyway, isn’t it?”

Wayne shrugged.

I tried a different tack. “Did they really go to dinner last night?”

“Seems so. Brandon’s heading out to the Tavern when they open to see if anyone noticed anything of interest. According to Nina, she and Tony ate, they talked, and he had her back here by ten thirty.”

“Did anyone see her come in?”

Wayne shook his head. “Kate and I were already in the carriage house by then. Shannon locks up at eleven; anyone who’s out after that lets themselves in with a key.”

“Shannon and Fae were watching movies together last night, weren’t they? So if Nina got home by ten thirty . . . ?”

Wayne looked a little frustrated. “They should have heard her come in, but Shannon says she didn’t. Nina says she entered through the front door. She heard the sound of the TV from Shannon’s room, but no one saw her come in, and she saw no one.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Wayne shrugged. “I’m not sure it matters, Avery. At least not until we can figure out exactly when Tony died. Derek guesstimated sometime between ten and two, but it was just a guess. For all we know, Nina killed him at nine forty-five and walked back to the B and B from Cabot Street. It wouldn’t take more than ten minutes.”

“Maybe fifteen, if she was wearing heels. If she did, someone should have seen her. One of the neighbors. Someone walking their dog. Someone jogging. Somewhere along the way.”

“And we’ll be checking for that, believe me.” He folded his arms across his chest and looked down on me. Way down, since he’s more than a foot taller than I am. “Any particular reason you want her to be guilty?”

I shook my head. “It just seems like a huge coincidence that the crew comes here to Waterfield, and Nina knows Tony from before, and then he ends up dead after taking her to dinner. But I don’t want her to be guilty. I like her. As well as I can, after knowing her for less than a day.”

Wayne nodded. “I’m gonna want to hear your impressions of the crew. Some other time. Right now, I have to talk to the rest of them.”

“Hold on just a second.” I told him about going to Melissa’s loft and seeing the two wineglasses in the kitchen. “Maybe Tony stopped by after he dropped Nina off. I mean, if Melissa’s engaged to Tony, it’s not likely that she should be sharing a late-night glass of wine with anyone else, is it?”

“Could be a girlfriend,” Wayne said, “if she has any. Or maybe she just couldn’t find the first glass and poured herself another.”

“I suppose.” It was possible. At least the second suggestion. As far as the first, I had a hard time believing it. Melissa was the kind of woman that other women love to hate, and if she had any close girlfriends, I couldn’t think who they were.

“I’ll look into it,” Wayne said. “Later. Right now, I gotta talk to the rest of the crew.”

“I’ll wait here for Derek to come out. Or maybe I’ll go inside and see how Nina’s doing.” I glanced at the door.

“Go ahead. She keeps saying she’s fine, but she doesn’t look it. Maybe there’s something you can do. I’ll be down on the second floor talking to the men.” He headed down the stairs. I tapped on the door and turned the knob without waiting for an answer.

The Waterfield Inn used to belong to a woman by the name of Helen Ritter. When she lost her husband back in the 1960s or ’70s, she’d turned the three-story Queen Anne mansion into a triplex, the better to keep a roof over her head and her bills paid. When Kate came to town and bought the place, she hired Derek to turn it back into a single family home, and now the entire third-floor apartment was one big suite. The last time I’d been up here was around seven months ago, when my mom and Noel had been in town. It hadn’t changed since then, except for the view and all of Nina’s things. Back in December, the view through the windows had been shades of gray—bare tree branches against the snow, low-hanging clouds, the steel gray of the Atlantic in the distance—while now the trees were green, the sky was blue, and the ocean was blinking in the sunlight. Nina’s junk was everywhere: discarded clothes littering the floor, papers all over the small desk in the alcove next to an open but dark laptop, and a half-empty bottle of scotch and a glass on the table by the sofa. The pair of high-heeled shoes Nina had on when we first met her yesterday morning were lying under the table, and what looked like a dress was draped across the arm of the sofa. Maybe it was the dress she’d worn for dinner yesterday. A saucer with a mound of ashes in it sat on the table next to a disposable lighter, and I wondered if Kate knew that Nina was sneaking cigarettes in her nonsmoking establishment.