The Cottage on Nantucket

by Jessie Newton

  Gregory Clarke’s daughter.

  Ryan Harper’s.

  Milford’s girlfriend.

  The perfect saleswoman.

  Tessa’s sister.

  Sean Masterson’s “special friend.”

  She didn’t know who Janey Forsythe was, and she was tired of the other labels put on her.

  The only one she was willing to keep at the moment was Tessa’s sister. She knew that deep down inside her soul, and nothing that had happened over the past few weeks had or could change that.

  Everything else was up in the air, and Janey needed time to let all the balls come down so she could examine them and make sense of them.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, her voice breaking. “Maybe when I have things sorted, I’ll be in a better place to be the girlfriend you deserve.”

  “Janey, you’re a great girlfriend.” Milford sounded frustrated, as he should be. He and Janey had been dating for about ten months now, and while it hadn’t always been exclusive, they had gotten along really well.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I just need some time.”

  “Take the time you need.”

  When the call ended, Janey let her hand fall to her side, and she allowed the wind to push and pull her caftan-style cover-up around her arms and legs. She took in a long, deep breath, closed her eyes, and held it. Blowing it out slowly, she tried to clear her mind as well.

  With twenty minutes of meditation behind her, Janey turned back to the cottage. Dale and Joan had left yesterday afternoon after visiting for a few days, and Sean had stayed away and given the four of them time to talk, get answers, and make sure everything was clear between them.

  She saw the lawyer walking toward her now, his head bent against the breeze as he came closer and closer. He wore a pair of black slacks despite the summer temperatures, and a pale blue shirt open at the throat. No tie right now, but he’d likely put one on before they arrived at Viola’s house.

  Janey started toward him, glad he’d agreed to accompany her to Viola’s house. He sometimes heard things she didn’t, and he thought of questions that didn’t even cross her mind. Plus, she simply didn’t want to go alone, and Tessa had gone to Long Island to talk to Esme and find out more about what Mom had done when she’d visited the pale green house on Shoreline Way.

  Janey too had spent plenty of time on the Internet and in the genealogical archives of both Massachusetts and New York to learn more about Ryan Harper. His name was quite generic, but having a location so specific had helped her find out more about him.

  The man was still married to the same woman he had been for the past fifty-two years, and he had three children—two daughters and a son.

  His eldest daughter, Julia, was only six months older than Janey. He would’ve known his wife was pregnant with their first child when he slept with Mom, and she’d have known it too. Could that have been the reason why she hadn’t told him? She didn’t want to disrupt his life?

  Mom had kept a lot of secrets, worried as she was about making sure everyone lived a peaceful, easy existence.

  Janey actually disliked that about her, and she’d spent a couple of hours ranting at her mother as she walked up and down the sand out here at Nantucket Point Beach.

  “Hey,” she called as she got closer to Sean.

  He lifted his head, a smile spreading across his handsome face. “Glad you’re coming in,” he said. “You said Viola hates it when people are late, and we’re right on the cusp of about-to-be-late.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’m coming.” She smiled at him as she approached, and while she would’ve normally taken his hand, today, she didn’t. She did like Sean, and she could see herself dating him easily. But she’d told Milford the truth, and she wasn’t looking to hitch herself to another man right now.

  They drove over to Viola’s neighborhood in relative silence, and Janey wanted to ask Sean what he was thinking. He’d known her mother well, and she thought he might actually have some insight into Mom’s life that Janey didn’t.

  She hadn’t asked him yet, but it was definitely on her to-do list.

  First, she needed to talk to Viola, and she glanced over to the garage where the boat had been before. A scar sat on the land where it had been parked, and Janey couldn’t even imagine the scene that had gone down when Riggs and Bobbie had shown up to steal it.

  “Come on, Janey,” Sean said softly, and she tore her eyes from the detached garage. She let Sean guide her up the steps to the front door, where she rang the doorbell.

  She wasn’t sure who she expected to answer it, but it wasn’t Miles, the man who the police had found unconscious on the ground. Her emotions surged as she took in the healing scrapes and cuts on his face.

  “Miles,” she said, throwing herself into his arms. “My goodness, how are you?” She grabbed onto his shoulders, seeing her own son and feeling all sorts of maternal overprotectiveness of him. “Are you okay? Tell me what happened.”

  Miles searched her face, a smile forming on his. “I’m okay, Miss Forsythe. They only kept me in the hospital for one day to make sure my vitals were strong. They are, and I’m healing up well.” His accent was as elegant and strong as ever, and he stepped back to let them in.

  “This is my friend, Sean Masterson,” Janey said. “I said he was coming with me.”

  “Of course.” Miles shook his hand and indicated the library where Janey had met Viola before. “She’s waiting with tea. Can I get you anything from the kitchen before we begin?”

  Chapter Sixty

  Janey couldn’t let go of Viola Martin. They wept together, and the images of Viola’s black eye and bruised face would haunt Janey forever.

  They finally separated, and Janey settled into the same chair she’d eaten lunch in previously.

  “Start at the beginning,” Janey said.

  “Oh, that awful man showed up,” Viola said, and none of her sass had been taken from her. She reached up to pat her hair, which looked as if she’d just gotten it set, and pursed her lips. “He wanted my boat, and I said no. This time, he had his terrible wife with him, and she told me if I didn’t give her the key to her boat, she’d make sure I regretted it.”

  “She refused,” Miles said. “Before I knew it, the blonde woman had plunged a needle into Miss Martin’s neck, and she was falling to the ground. I rushed toward her, but I was too far away.”

  “Wow,” Sean said, checking his phone, which he’d set on the table between them. He’d asked to record the conversation, and to Janey’s surprise Viola had said yes.

  “They made me carry her to the boat, and then they demanded the key.” Miles wrung his hands. “I wasn’t sure what to do, but the garage has a phone in it. I told them the key was in there, and I went to get it. Really, I was going to call the police. They attacked me from behind, and the last thing I remember hearing was Riggs saying he’d find the key and they’d be gone in minutes.”

  “Do you remember anything from the boat?” Sean asked, looking at Viola.

  “Hardly anything,” she said. “I was in an out of consciousness, and every time I woke, it seemed to be dark.”

  Janey wasn’t going to get much information from her, but she didn’t mind. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said, reaching over to pat her hand. “Did you ever meet someone named Ryan Harper?”

  “Harper?” Viola’s sharp eyes hooked into Janey’s. “I don’t think so, not with your family.”

  Janey had told Sean about the conversation with Dale and Joan, and he’d been helping her learn more about her father’s family. “We found a record that said he lived here for a little while,” she said. “Six or eight months.”

  “Where? In Wainscott?” she demanded, as if such a thing was absolutely preposterous. As if she knew every single person who’d ever lived in this old neighborhood for the past eighty years.

  “Actually over on the west end of the island,” Sean said easily.

  “Oh, well, I don’t know,” Viola
said.

  Janey and Sean stayed to visit for a few more minutes, and then she and Sean left. On the way back to the cottage, Janey rolled down her window and let the summer air play with her hair. “I think Mom continued her relationship with Ryan Harper,” she said. “That’s why she had a house on Long Island. Did I tell you that the Harpers live only six blocks from the house she had there?”

  “You didn’t say that,” Sean said, glancing at her. “What are you going to do? Are you going to go talk to him?”

  Janey had been thinking about it for a couple of days, and she still wasn’t sure. She lifted one shoulder in a shrug and extended her hand out the window to try to catch the air. She’d done this so often as a child, and she loved doing it while her daddy drove fast. Then the air would send her hand up and down, and she’d pretend she was an inchworm racing through the universe.

  “Are you going to town today?” Sean asked.

  “Yes,” Janey said. “I need to get something for dinner tomorrow. Tessa will be back from Long Island, and we’re having a big meal before I have to go back to Jersey for a little bit.”

  “Want to join me for dinner tonight after you get your groceries?”

  “Sure,” Janey said, smiling at him. Her chest squeezed slightly, as she hadn’t told Sean about the money in the trunk of the car. She or Tessa had been driving to town every day to deposit more and more of the money, and the envelope in the trunk of the car was almost empty now.

  The garden map still perplexed Janey, but she hadn’t told Sean about it either.

  Sean pulled up to the cottage and put his fancy car in park. Janey looked at him. “Sean,” she said. “I have to tell you something.”

  He actually looked a little tired, but he said, “Okay.”

  “I’m not going to take the promotion at work. I actually put in my notice that I’m quitting.”

  Sean’s eyes widened. “I don’t…know what to say.”

  Janey smiled at him. She and Tessa had almost half a million dollars in the bank now, and Janey needed the time she’d spoken of to figure out what her next steps would be.

  “I’m going to move to the island,” she said. “Live in the cottage and see what life brings me next.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I’m not.” She looked out her window, and she could see the top of The Lighthouse Inn. “That inn right over there needs new caretakers, and I actually thought about applying.”

  “My secretary just told me he’s moving with his wife to Boston.”

  Janey whipped her attention back to Sean. “Really?”

  “You’d be an amazing addition to my office,” he said.

  Janey’s heart pounded in excited anticipation, and while she’d never been terribly religious, this felt like God himself had opened a door and was beckoning for her to walk through it.

  “Let’s talk more about it tonight,” she said, reaching for the door handle. “Travola’s at seven?”

  “I’ll call and get a table right now,” he said, tapping on the screen in his car.

  Janey spent an hour that afternoon looking through the pictures Tessa had sorted. She got the map out and studied it, trying to see something on it that would tell her anything. There had to be something there, or why would Mom put it in an envelope in that cigar box?

  She wouldn’t be able to access it very quickly—certainly not as fast as simply tossing a bag in the back of the car and somehow sliding several stacks of cash into it before she boarded the ferry and left Nantucket.

  The map showed the cottage, complete with the porch that went around two sides of it. The detached garage behind it. The flowerbeds along the back of the house, as well as the front. She’d bordered the sidewalk with beds too, and she’d drawn in circles for plants and bushes, almost all of which were gone now.

  She’d planted three trees—two in the front yard and one in the back, besides the ones that were already there. Those were still there, with circular beds around the bases.

  Janey and Tessa had cleared almost everything, because it had all become overgrown in the past few years. She looked to the left of the garage, realizing for the first time that the map continued on that side.

  She peered at it, trying to figure out what the two rectangles on that side of the map could be. “I didn’t even think the property went past the garage.” She looked up from the map and toward the back wall of the house. A large window sat there, showing her the back yard and the garage beyond. “Bobbie and Riggs own that land.”

  At least, she thought they did.

  Taking the map with her, Janey left the cottage and walked around it to the garage. She and Tessa had walked right past these drawn-in rectangles when they’d left the garage to come to the cottage from the beach side.

  Nothing had been there.

  Janey’s pulse pounded into the back of her throat as she approached the corner. Not only was she a bit fearful about what she’d find there, she honestly didn’t think it was their property. She didn’t want to be caught on someone else’s land, even if she didn’t think she’d ever see Riggs or Bobbie again.

  Her breath whooshed out of her body as she reached the corner, and Janey put one hand on the side of the garage before making the turn.

  Nothing but grass, just like she’d remembered.

  She frowned at the ground, scanning to find the property line. Out here, they were usually marked by utility lines, and Janey caught sight of it about fifteen feet from the back of the garage.

  They did own this land, but she and Tessa had not taken care of the grass here. Riggs had been mowing it for who knows how long.

  Janey walked toward the Friedman’s house until she stood parallel with the utility box. She gazed at the side of their house, everything between her and it still and silent. No one would ever suspect that something bad had happened here, or that the cottage behind Janey had held so many secrets for so long.

  Sighing, she turned around and faced the garage again. She blinked, seeing something from this position that she hadn’t from the corner of the building.

  The strip of grass closest to the garage was a different color than the rest of the yard. “It looks newer,” Janey said, striding forward. It wasn’t nearly as long as the rest of the lawn either, and the closer she got, the more it looked like someone had disturbed the land here.

  “Buried treasure,” Janey whispered, her muscles tensing with adrenaline. She looked down at the map, everything coming into focus now. Mom had buried something on this side of the garage and marked it on this map.

  Janey went into the garage and found a shovel and a pair of gloves. Outside, she tried to judge the scale of the drawing to the real-life objects in front of her. The two rectangles definitely sat closer to the driveway end of the garage, not the beach side.

  She started digging, and while she wasn’t in the greatest shape and didn’t regularly dig holes for fun, it didn’t take her long to hit something hard with the blade of her shovel.

  “My goodness,” she whispered, stilling. The moment lengthened, turning more and more surreal by the moment. Her mom had literally buried money in the earth to keep it out of the hands of those she didn’t want to have it.

  She spun when she heard voices, and a scream gathered in the back of her throat when she recognized the first as Bobbie as she argued with Riggs, the second voice in the conversation.

  Janey’s brain commanded her to move, and she took the shovel with her as she darted around the side of the garage and pressed her back into it. She lifted the shovel as if she really possessed the inner strength to swing it at another human being.

  Then she waited as the voices grew louder and louder…

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Tessa paid the driver and quickly got out of the cab. She faced the cottage, annoyance surging through her. “Why won’t you answer your phone?”

  She supposed Janey could be taking a nap—Tessa had been taking one every day since washing up on Cape Cod. Just because
Janey hadn’t spent the night kicking toward shore didn’t mean the ordeal hadn’t been exhausting for her. She’d been on the other end of the abduction, and she’d heard all the same conversations Tessa had.

  She’d just reached the top of the steps when she heard someone yell from the direction of the back yard.

  Her heart leapt into the back of her throat, and she paused for a moment. Maybe two. Her mind screamed at her to move, but in which direction Tessa wasn’t as sure.

  Then a woman’s scream filled the peaceful summer air, and the sound of Janey’s voice got her to move. She flew down the steps and around the cottage, yelling, “Janey? Where are you?”

  The garage door was closed, but someone appeared at the corner of the garage.

  Bobbie Friedman.

  Tessa skidded to a stop, her fear paralyzing her right there in the gravel driveway. She couldn’t breathe, and she couldn’t think.

  “I’m going to call the police.” Tessa reached for her phone in her pocket.

  “Janey said the same thing,” Bobbie said, rolling her eyes. She turned her head. “Riggs, Tessa’s out here.”

  Her husband took a few moments to appear at Bobbie’s side, and his hair was disheveled and his chest heaved with his heavy breaths. He wore a wild look in his eyes, and she didn’t like how it went with Bobbie’s murderous glare.

  “They’ve found the money,” he said.

  “Oh?” Bobbie took a step forward. “And where is it, Tessa?”

  She lifted her chin, because she wasn’t going to tell this woman anything. She pulled her phone out. “You’re trespassing. Get off my property.”

  “It’s going to be our property soon,” Bobbie said. “So I don’t think we’ll go anywhere.”

  “You’ll never be able to just stay here,” Tessa said. “The police in two states are looking for you.”

  Bobbie laughed as if Tessa had just delivered a really funny joke. “Don’t you know we’re not to blame?” She wore a wicked smile on her face. “Those Martin sisters knocked Janey to the ground just to deliver a summons.”