“I have no idea, but you’re probably right. Devan, you knew Patterson well enough. Who do you think would do something like this?”
Her lips twist as she glances out at the crowd strolling by.
A shallow part of me is hoping she’ll pin it all on Hadley. Let’s see how many steamy romances she can pen in prison.
Fish gives a pat on my chest. You’re rooting for Lady Haddie, aren’t you, Bizzy? Don’t worry. I won’t think less of you. I’m rooting for Clyde.
I make a face at the furry cutie.
“I don’t know.” Devan sighs. “Liv was upset that night, but she’s a basket case in general. Hadley was always stomping her foot about something. But if I had to place a wager, my money would be on James Foreman.” Devan nods with certainty.
“Who?” both Fish and I say in unison. Although to be fair, it was technically just me.
“His business manager, or communications whatever, I can’t remember the title. Anyway, he was there that night. His old basketball buddy that he took on as an employee at Higgins House. They were arguing over something business-related. Maybe he wanted him dead?”
My mind plays back that night, and I distinctly remember a tall, lanky man in a sweater having it out with Patterson. I bet that was him.
“Sounds plausible.” I shrug her way. “It was great seeing you again.”
“Likewise. Swing by the library next Friday night,” she says as she takes off with a wave. “And watch out for flying books!”
“Good thinking,” I say as I step outside of the tent and migrate across the street toward Bombalicious Burgers where I spot Juni reunited with Georgie and they’re shaking one another by the arms. I bet they’re arguing over who gets to order a burger first.
Clyde is happily lounging on Sherlock’s back while a little girl pets the two of them and I’m thankful everyone is back in one piece, but if I don’t act fast I’m afraid Juni and Georgie might just shake one another’s heads right off.
I head in their direction just as Juni holds a hand out my way, and soon enough Georgie looks my way with a look of shock.
“You can’t come this way,” Georgie says, darting in my direction with her hands out as if she were about to physically stop me. “I’m going to handle this for you. You’re too young to do time. Besides, I’ve still got a felony or two left in me.”
“What?”
Sherlock barks. Don’t look, Bizzy! I just saw it myself! Quick, Fish! Turn her around. Oh, this is terrible! We’ve got to stop Georgie. If she heads to prison, who will feed me a steady diet of bacon? This is all Jasper’s fault.
“Jasper?” My head ticks toward the burger place and I spot his shock of dark hair, and seated across from him is a woman—a redhead who thinks of herself as a lady.
It looks as if that lunch date is still on.
“Oh no, you don’t,” I say, barreling my way over.
Bizzy? Fish yowls as she cranes her head in that direction and a hiss escapes her as soon as she sees the malfeasance.
“Jasper Wilder.” His name rips from me as I come upon them in a blind rage.
“Bizzy?” He scoots his seat back a notch, confusion taking over his handsome face.
“How dare you step out on me with this hussy!” I say, picking up the glass of water set in front of him and dousing him in the face.
And before he can jump out of his seat, I repeat the effort with Lady Haddie’s glass. Her hair flattens as she gasps and sputters, spiking out of her seat and watching me with abject horror.
“How could you?” she shrieks.
“How could you?” I shoot back.
“Jasper.” Hadley’s chest heaves and ripples and that low-cut skin-hugging dress isn’t lost on me. Unfortunately, it probably wasn’t lost on Jasper either. I guess that kiss we shared this morning didn’t mean much to him. What I thought was a we’re-going-to-make-it-kiss was obviously a very lingual goodbye.
“Jasper, do something about this,” she shrieks, grabbing the glass of soda and looking my way with a threat in her eyes.
I’ll handle this, Fish screeches and hops out of the carrier and onto Hadley’s face.
Sherlock runs over barking at the top of his lungs while Clyde rawrs as if she has suddenly morphed into a lioness.
“Bizzy”—Jasper pulls me over—“I can explain.”
“Can you?” I shout. “I don’t think I need you to draw me a road map of where this was going. She was clearly trying to seduce you!”
A gasp circles us, and it’s only then I note everyone here has their eyes glued our way.
Georgie and Juni break out into spontaneous applause just as Fish hops off the wench in question and the entire lot of us storms back out onto the sidewalk.
“Bizzy, wait”—Jasper catches me by the hand and spins me toward him—“we’re taking care of this right now.”
Hadley strides up, her face a little pink but not a scratch on her. I didn’t think Fish would hurt her. She finds much more pleasure in humility.
Although I’m the one who’s feeling humiliated right about now.
Hadley pants out a wry smile. “I suppose you’re going to tell her.” She gives a quick look to Jasper. “Go ahead.” She tightens a smile my way. “I’ll accept your apology in advance, Bizzy, and you don’t even have to give it. I would have done the same.” She softens. “He’s the perfect catch.” She darts into the crowd, and soon Juni and Georgie scuttle up as the three of us look to Jasper for an explanation.
He closes his eyes a moment before looking to Juni and Georgie. “Would you mind taking our menagerie and giving us a minute?”
Sherlock barks. No fair!
Fish growls, I don’t want to miss the good part, Bizzy.
I nod up at Jasper. “Whatever you have to say to me you might as well say in front of everyone. You’ll just save me the trouble from having to relay it.”
Georgie leans in. “And me the trouble of listening in by way of your bedroom window. That whole glass to the ear thing doesn’t really work.”
Juni smacks her. “You’re stuck in the Dark Ages. I’ve been using a stethoscope for years.”
“Good thinking.” Georgie smacks her back.
Jasper takes a breath and his chest expands the size of a wall. “Years ago, Hadley took off in the night, and after a few weeks of trying to get in touch with her, she let me know she moved on and that so should I. So, when I saw her the other night and asked her what that was about, she gave me some shocking news. I’m sorry, Bizzy. She caught me off guard—and then that man dropped dead. My head was spinning. And then last night, I was exhausted. And the words—they just wouldn’t come.”
Georgie juts her head forward. “What did she say that got you so shook up?”
Juni leans her ear his way. “She shook ya down for money, didn’t she?”
Jasper looks at me with those clear gray eyes of his. “She told me that I was a father—and that she lost my baby.”
Chapter 9
Georgie and Juni offer to take my car and the furry among us back to the inn while Jasper takes me by the hand and we find a bench under a willow tree not far from the festive melee breaking out around us.
“I’m sorry, Jasper,” I say as I pull his face toward mine and run my fingers through the scruff on his cheeks. “I can’t imagine how painful that was to hear.”
“And for you,” he says as he pulls me onto his lap. “I’ll be okay. She just managed to knock me down.” His eyes close a moment too long. “It got me thinking. I lost a child. I mean, I know I didn’t know them or even know about them, but they existed for a moment in time, still do,” he says as he looks to the sky. “And I brought that to being.”
“Along with Hadley.” I blow out a breath. “I feel terrible about how I behaved.”
“Don’t. I’m the one who feels terrible. I should never have left you in the dark.”
“But Patterson died and you went straight to work. You’re right, you didn’t have enough time to p
rocess any of it. And on top of it all, you had a jealous wife ready to blow a hole in your chest.”
He grunts as he dishes up a lopsided grin. “It’s times like this I’m glad you didn’t take me up on that offer to buy you a gun.”
“I can feel yours on my hip. I’m a quick draw, you know.”
A laugh gurgles through him. “Is that a threat?”
“I’ve met my limit on making good on all my threats today. The only weapon left in my arsenal is my lips. Are you still accepting kisses from them?”
“An unlimited amount.” He tucks his finger under my chin and pulls me close until we share a searing kiss.
Tears come to my eyes and I blink them back. “Do you want to talk about it?”
His chest depresses as he blows out a breath. “I was thinking last night. He or she would have been about ten. Baseball, dance classes, I don’t know. It all seemed impossible to imagine. Hadley says she left as soon as she found out she was expecting. She wanted to get her bearings before she told me. But a few days afterward she ended up losing it, and that’s when she decided we should both move on. It was a rather abrupt exit. I guess that’s why I said what I did all those years ago—to Leo. I never said those words to Camila, but she overhead them. Anyway, it’s all in the past. I’ve made peace with it. None of that was meant to be. Even though I would have gladly welcomed my child, I’m glad I didn’t end up with Hadley or I wouldn’t be lucky enough to have a hot brunette sitting on my lap right now.”
A smile swims on my lips. “Glad to be at your service.” My mood grows somber once again. “But, that doesn’t change the fact you suffered a loss. I’m here for you, Jasper. You can grieve the child you never had the chance to know. It’s okay. I’m grieving it, too.”
His eyes fill with tears as he cinches his lips. “Thank you.” He pulls me close and we hold one another as we watch the crowd drift by, and each child we see acts like a painful reminder of what could have been—and what will one day be for us.
Jasper wraps a lock of my hair around his finger and gives it a light tug.
He dots my nose with a kiss. “Aren’t you going to ask how Patterson Higgins was killed?”
“How was he killed?”
“Death caps—poisonous mushrooms.”
I gasp as I pull him in by the tie. “I know who the killer is.”
“Why do I always miss all the good stuff?” Macy asks as she takes a forkful of Emmie’s lobster pie and shovels it into her mouth.
It’s just a few hours after that street festival fiasco and Georgie quickly relayed the conversation to Macy, my mother, my brother Hux, and Mack by proxy. I dropped by the cottage to feed Fish, Sherlock, and Clyde, and not one of them wanted to come to the shore with me. I take that back. Sherlock wanted to come, but Clyde told him he’d be staying in with her, away from any curly-haired poodles who might want to lure him into a bush.
The warm evening breeze ticks up a notch as we sit under the twinkle lights out on the patio behind the Country Cottage Café enjoying a sampling of the new menu, the lobster pie to be exact. It’s just buttery lobster mixed with heavy cream, sitting in a decadent piecrust with bread crumbles on top. It’s rich, creamy, and dreamy to the point of no return.
I moan through a bite as I point my fork over at my sister. “None of what happened this afternoon was good. And all of you have to swear you won’t say a word to Jasper about it.” I’m not too thrilled Georgie shared the details of his loss to begin with, but I suppose she needed to quantify all that screaming about Jasper not cheating on me once we arrived.
Juni went to close up Two Old Broads and Mom ran out of there like a bat in heat, so I offered her dinner and she took me up on it. Macy and Hux were already here, so we thought we’d stage an impromptu intervention concerning that international boy toy she met on that dicey app geared for seniors, Dating Not Waiting.
As soon as Jasper dropped me off, he went straight back to Seaview. He’s going to track down Devan Abner to have a chat with her, along with seeing about getting a warrant to search her mushroom farm.
A poisonous mushroom.
I can’t believe someone cooked down enough fungi to create a toxin and slipped it to Patterson Higgins that night. Jasper said toxicology was able to pinpoint that it came from a specific mushroom called a death cap.
Funny, I didn’t hear Devan rattling off that name in the roll call of fungi she gave me earlier. It’s probably a part of her private reserve. At least we were able to narrow down the killer relatively quickly this time. And that gets Jordy off the hook. Although I will admit, it all feels anti-climatic at this point. Usually there’s a bit more fanfare when it comes to catching a killer. But that doesn’t mean James Foreman is off the hook. I still need to conduct my due diligence and ask him a few questions.
Behind us the crowd of tourists has steadily grown and so has the line at the outdoor grill. As thrilled as I am to see the café churning out the extra revenue, it pains me to see people waiting in long lines for their dinners. I think I’m going to double my chefs for tomorrow night.
“Go ahead, Huxley.” Mom frowns over at my brother as he fiddles with her phone. “You’re not going to find anything fishy.”
Hux shakes his head. “I said he could be phishing you. Catfishing. It means he’s misrepresenting who he is because he wants something—most likely money.”
Macy bumps her elbow to my mother. “You haven’t given him any money, have you?”
Mom’s eyes widen a notch, and that tells us everything we need know.
The rest of the table groans her way.
“I need more ice chips.” Mackenzie rattles her glass and Emmie is quick to comply. “And why is there so much seafood here tonight?” She covers her mouth with her hand and Emmie helps her to the next table over where Mackenzie sinks her head between her legs.
With the naked eye you can hardly tell that Mackenzie is knocked up, but her never-ending nausea serves as a reminder to all, especially her.
“I’m never sleeping with you again,” Mackenzie shouts at my brother as she groans hard. “You stay away from me with that power stick.”
“Power stick?” Georgie barks out a laugh. “Hear that, Ree? That’s what the kids are calling it these days.”
Macy leans toward my mother. “As much as I very much look forward to driving a stick shift tonight, let’s get back to that whole money thing. Mom, you didn’t hand this guy my inheritance, did you?”
Mom balks at the thought. “You kids really think I have the word gullible printed on my forehead, don’t you?”
“Nah.” Georgie sinks her fork back into her lobster pie. “They just think you’re randy and anxious to give it all away to the first good-looking set of abs that comes along.”
Mom bounces with a silent laugh. “Worse yet, they don’t even think he exists!”
“How much did you give him?” Hux asks, wagging her pink glitzy phone case over at her.
“None of your beeswax,” she’s quick to counter. “And give me that.” She starts to swipe her phone and he pulls it out of her reach.
“Come on, Mom,” Hux says. “Just give me your password into the dating app so I can read these exchanges you claim are innocent and we’ll all go away.”
Mom glowers over at her only son. “I’m certainly not letting my children read the private conversations I’ve had with my boyfriend. Don’t the three of you have love lives? You wouldn’t want me nosying around in your text messages, would you?”
“You could read mine with Jasper,” I volunteer.
Georgie rolls her eyes. “Ree, let the kid into your account. It’s clear you need to do a little modeling. The girl is having G-rated conversations with her husband.”
Mom scoffs with a laugh. “Hand over your own phone, Toots. Mine is off-limits.” She takes a breath as she surveys us all. “And if you must know, I simply loaned him six hundred dollars. It was all done on the up and up on that Venmo, or Bevmo app you kids use. His wallet was
stolen while he was at the beach, and he needed the money for food and incidentals. And before you start—he didn’t ask for the money, I insisted.”
We give another collective moan, although with a little more oomph this time.
Hux shakes his head. “Mom, you’re a conman’s dream. I forbid you to give him another dime.”
“Or what?” she muses.
“Or I’m going to tell Dad,” Hux says with a stern look and Mom laughs right in his face.
“Your father and I have been divorced almost as long as we were married. You won’t have to tell him. I’m having lunch with him and Gwyneth tomorrow, I’ll tell him myself.”
Gwyneth would be Jasper’s mother. Yes, I know. It’s odd to have my mother-in-law also play the part of my stepmother, but what will really be awkward will be the divorce. With every subsequent marriage my father has, it seems his tolerance for the union only grows shorter. Jasper and I are not looking forward to the fallout.
Mom looks my way with a short-lived smile. “So who’s next on your hit list, Bizzy? Got any suspects you’d like me to track down? Where’s the investigation taking you next? Edison? Bar Harbor?”
“France?” Macy gives a greedy grin to my mother because she just bested her at her own game. “Changing the subject won’t work.”
Mom nods at her oldest daughter as if the game was on. “Where to, Biz?”
“I don’t know. I’m hunting down a man by the name of James Foreman. He’s tall, dark hair, used to play basketball in college, I’m assuming, and he works at the deceased’s publishing house.”
A lusty moan comes from Macy. “I’m in. I say we hunt this man down tonight.” She wastes no time in clicking at her phone and Mom chuckles.
“I’m a pro,” Mom says, winking over at Georgie.
“So am I.” Hux lets out another hard groan as he holds my mother’s phone an arm’s length away. “You sent him nudie pictures?”
“Give me that!” Mom snatches her phone back with ease, but only because Hux all but surrendered it. “Those are tasteful pictures from the waist up—and there might be a few of my backside.”
Lock, Stock, and Feral Page 8
