by Eryn Scott
Paul nodded, but Hadley’s point didn’t seem to alleviate his fatigue. In fact, it only seemed to intensify the slump to his shoulders. Feeling responsible, Hadley waved Derek, their waiter, over and ordered her brother a beer, plus one for Suzanne, who would be there soon.
Just as Derek returned with the two microbrews, Suze walked in, finding them on the deck and waving off Kelsey to tell her she’d found her party.
“Hey!” Suze shimmied down into the seat next to Hadley excitedly, taking a long sip of her beer before saying anything more. “Boy, that’s good.”
“Hard day for you too?” Hadley asked.
Suze’s lip curled up, and she let out a short grunt. “Meh. Just not super creative today.” She sighed. “Alas, my muse is a jealous one.”
“Who’s it jealous of?” Paul asked with a smirk.
“This case,” Suze whispered, leaning forward. “I couldn’t seem to think about anything else all day. And by the time I realized that and switched to my other design orders, I’d already wasted half of my work hours today.”
“What happened to don’t get involved?” Paul asked, focusing on Hadley.
“You might want to reconsider that order once you hear what we found out.” Hadley motioned to Suzanne to fill him in.
Suze told Paul everything they’d learned about Robert Smith being let out of prison just last week and how he’d been staying with Hazel. She only paused to order some stuffed mushrooms and nachos for the table.
“So?” Hadley asked as Suze sat back. The women watched Paul take in the information.
“I hadn’t heard he was out.” He shook his head. “I mean, his sentence was for a year, but I should’ve figured they’d let him out for good behavior. Who’d you hear this from?”
“Mick came and talked to us during a coffee break. We invited her here tonight, but she said she couldn’t, had to get a cake ready for Hazel’s party tonight. A coming home celebration for Robert.”
Paul took another sip of his beer. “Interesting. Okay, plus what we know already, that makes for three strong suspects.”
“Isn’t it four?” Suze asked. “Louise, Hazel, Robert, and Dirk?” She listed them out.
“Hazel’s out,” Paul said. “She has an alibi. Was at work and stayed there for lunch, so she had no opportunity. That’s already been corroborated by multiple employees at the pharmacy.”
“Oh. Got it. Three.” Suze refrained from saying any more names as their waiter dropped off their appetizers, but Hadley noticed the relief evident in her friend’s posture. Suze loved Hazel like a mother and would be glad to have her off the suspect list.
After digging into the food for a silent couple of minutes, Hadley said, “So what should we do next?”
“We?” Paul leveled an incredulous stare at his twin.
“Yes, we can obviously help you ask questions around town. As we’ve shown today,” Hadley said.
Suze nodded.
Paul sighed. “Okay, but only questions. I don’t want you two putting yourselves in danger. Right now, no one except for you two, Kevin, McKay, and I know it was murder.” He kept his voice down and his eyes on the neighboring tables. “But knowing Stoneybrook, that won’t last long. The elements of surprise and ignorance are on our side in this case. If the person responsible for her death still thinks we’re ruling it death from natural causes, they won’t be as defensive, so we need to start asking questions before it gets out.”
Hadley and Suze agreed.
“Divide and conquer, then?” Suze asked.
“Sounds like the best use of our time and resources, since we want to be quick about this,” Paul said reluctantly.
“I call Rob.” Suze touched her finger to the tip of her nose.
Having lived next to Hazel her whole life, Suze’s relationship with the woman was the strongest. Robert had also had a giant crush on Suzanne during the entirety of middle school, so Hadley was sure if anyone could get information out of the man, it was her.
“Good. I’ll take Dirk, for obvious reasons,” Paul said.
Dirk Croft was an unapologetic misogynist and probably wouldn’t give either Suze or Hadley the time of day, let alone answer any questions about where he had been on Friday.
“That leaves Louise,” Hadley said with a sigh. “Well, I suppose she’s better than Dirk, at least.”
Louise, in addition to her crude comments after Edith’s death, was also one of the more vocal dividers in Hadley and Tyler’s divorce. She had even tried to organize a boycott of the jam shop before she realized the townspeople were not going to be denied their jam, no matter how mad they were about their favorite couple breaking up.
At Hadley’s hesitation, Paul and Suzanne glanced at each other for a quick second. It was the same knowing look they’d shared thousands of times over the years, the one that said they were both slightly worried about Hadley. It was also the same look that had made Hadley wonder, hope, and wish the two of them would someday get together. Her two best friends in love? What could be better?
It had taken her probably too many years to realize it was never going to happen. Suzanne and Paul were just great friends, and always would be. Sometimes you just had to accept that some relationships would never change.
Like Luke and me, Hadley thought.
As much as she wished they could get back to their easy friendship, it didn’t seem in the cards for them.
“Speak of the devil,” she muttered as Luke Fenton strutted out onto the patio. He stopped to chat at a few tables before glancing over in their direction.
“Who?” Suze asked.
Hadley gestured over to Luke with a quick jerk of her head. “Golden boy.”
“We weren’t speaking about him,” Suze said, nose wrinkling in confusion.
“I was—in my head,” Hadley said. “Complaining, mostly.”
Paul chuckled, but then turned and held up a hand, waving Luke over to their table.
Suze and Hadley groaned in unison.
He turned back to them. “Come on. You wouldn’t deny a guy a seat.”
“He’s Luke Fenton. The guy could sit at any table here.” Suze gestured to the patio.
At that point in the evening, the tables had filled in and almost the whole of Stoneybrook was there. That had been the owners’ dream when they built the expansive restaurant; they wanted the place to be the hub of the town, and they’d succeeded. Principal Murray was at a table with his wife and three young kids, the Cascade High softball team was celebrating their third win in a row, and the local fire station was having a retirement party inside for Bob Shut.
“Yeah, it’s packed tonight,” Hadley said, blinking at her brother. “So why impose Luke on us?”
Paul shrugged and winked at her. “He’s been gone for a long time. Give him a chance.”
Luke strutted over to the table, a wide smile on his smug face. “Hey, it’s the James triplets.”
Suze often got lumped in with the twins, even by Hadley and Paul’s parents. Suze, who’d been raised by her grandmother, loved being included, however, so she’d never minded the nickname.
“Sorry, but we were just about to leave.” Hadley feigned an apologetic expression then signaled their waiter, hoping for the quickest check in history.
Luke surveyed the table, his gaze lingering on the few mushrooms left over and the completely empty plate of nachos. “Uh, looks like you’ve just gotten through appetizers. The Hadley James I know would never leave this place without either having a BLT or a burger.”
Hadley’s mouth parted in surprise. He was right, annoyingly. She rarely left without ordering at least one of those, but she didn’t want him to win.
“You’ve been gone for a long time, Luke. Things change.”
He winked at her. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
10
The rush of the river almost made it impossible to hear the waiter as he stopped next to the table to see why they had called him over. Before Hadley could even make a check ge
sture with her finger, Luke said, “We’ll take two burgers, a French dip, and …” He narrowed his eyes at Hadley for a second before finishing with, “a BLT. Let’s also do a pitcher of the blonde for the table.”
The fact that he’d correctly ordered for the entire table made Hadley want to scream.
“Look, Luke—”
“So what are we chatting about? You all seemed pretty serious when I walked in here,” he said, sitting next to Paul.
The three of them remained silent, except for Paul clearing his throat.
Luke clicked his tongue. “That’s okay. I may have been gone for a few years, but I bet I can still read you three like newspaper headlines.”
Hadley scowled, but pulled her light cardigan closer around her, feeling exposed. “Well, apparently we can’t read you, so tell us what you’ve been up to. Why are you back here?”
Just like his normal, way-too-laid-back self, Luke sat back and sighed. “What’s to tell? Went to school in Seattle, worked for a company I hated for four years and learned everything I wanted to do differently, and then started my own business.”
“And?” Suze finished off the last sip of her beer. “That doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
Suzanne, being the one who’d told Hadley, had obviously already heard why, but it was common practice in Stoneybrook to ask questions you already knew the answer to in order to maintain the pretenses that they didn’t operate almost solely on backyard gossip. A ruse, sure, but one that kept the balance between civilized people and The Lord of the Flies in many of their minds.
Luke rubbed at the dark-blond stubble on his chin. “Uh, well. I’ve been telling people it’s to help out my family farm, but to be honest, I just missed it here.”
“That sounds like code for: you got your heart broken.” Suze cocked an eyebrow at Luke.
Obviously caught off guard, Luke took a moment to school his features from surprise back to aloof. “I guess the Stoneybrook gossip mill is working as well as ever.”
Suze smiled. “Aww. You and Hadley are still two peas in a pod, broken hearts and all. See, Had? You and Luke are alike even though you try to deny it.” Her eyes went wide, and she clamped a hand over her mouth as if that could take back the statement.
Hadley pulled in a quick breath at her friend’s blunder. Frustration fought for purchase in her mortified mind. The woman only had one pint of beer, and she’d already jumped to the sinking ships tier of loose lips.
Heat crept up Hadley’s neck and into her face as the embarrassment won out over her anger at Suze. It wasn’t every day that they had dinner with Luke Fenton. Suzanne must’ve forgotten not to mention anything about Tyler around his lifelong best friend, especially having to do with a divorce that was new enough to still need “wet paint” signs in the legal world.
Luke cleared his throat, studying his muddy work boots. The sight made Hadley relax somewhat. Even after all that time in the city, the man still wore flannel shirts cuffed three times and his signature farm shoes.
“What happened in the city?” Paul asked, steering the conversation back to safety.
“Oh, you know.” Luke looked up again. “Thought I knew her, but it turned out I definitely didn’t.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up into a sad smile. Suze’s comment seemed to have created an awkward air that just wouldn’t clear. The moment for sharing had obviously passed.
“So back to a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business, and there are no secrets.” Hadley laughed dryly.
Luke met her gaze and held it for a moment too long. “You know better than most that even the smallest towns still have secrets.”
Hadley had just been cooling off from her embarrassment when another wave of heat hit her, pulsing up her neck. Wait. What was that supposed to mean? Was he talking about Edith’s death or Tyler? Hadley’s attention skirted over to Suze who was watching her wide-eyed, obviously wondering the same thing.
“At least I’ve got the tenant house, though.” Luke continued. “Moving back into my parents’ place at thirty just seemed too sad, even for me.”
“How long are you planning on staying there?” Suze asked.
He shrugged. “The tenant place is great; it’s just small. I won’t need anything bigger for a while.”
“At the market, you mentioned Dirk was coming around Edith’s a lot,” Paul asked nonchalantly, changing the subject.
Luke nodded.
“Did you see him there on Friday?” Paul asked.
“I think so.”
Suze, who had been taking a sip of her water, stopped. She noticed Luke look at her and put her glass down slowly.
Luke’s forehead creased together. “It was weird, though.”
“How so?” Hadley asked.
“Well, he normally parks that stupid BMW in the middle of the easement so I just about have to drive in the field to get around him, but this time he’d pulled off into Edith’s driveway enough that I didn’t have to do that.” Luke blinked.
The waiter came by with the pitcher of beer for the table, and Luke refilled Suze’s before he poured himself a glass.
Paul nodded. Suze took a drink. Hadley picked the last bits of nail polish off her left hand.
“Wait …” Luke put down his pint glass and turned his attention toward Paul. “You don’t think …?” He looked to Suze and Hadley. “Edith didn’t die of natural causes, did she?”
Hadley coughed and focused on her chipped fingernail polish.
“Wha— how’d you …?” Suze drifted off, her cheeks turning a bright shade of pink.
Hadley felt awful for Paul. From the way she and Suze had reacted, it was clear Luke had called the situation correctly. Paul, however, seemed nonplussed.
“Why do you think that?” He focused on Luke, who was smiling as Hadley and Suzanne squirmed on the other side of the table.
He chuckled. “Sorry. I ran into Mickie, and she asked if I knew what was up with these two musketeers.” Luke gestured to Suze and Hadley. “Said she just mentioned making a cake for Robert because he was back in town, and you two clammed up faster than an East Coast cookout. I put the rest together.”
Paul sighed. “Do you know if Mick said anything to anyone else?”
“She didn’t even know that she’d given me a clue. When she left, she was still lost as to why these two were acting funny, thought maybe Suze had finally developed feelings for Robert now that he was a bad boy, out of prison and all.” Luke put his hands up.
“Ugh. Yeah, right.” Suze shook her head.
“And you didn’t tell anyone your theory?” Paul asked, his deep voice lowering into that serious, you’d better tell me the truth, cop register.
“No. I swear.” Luke’s blue eyes were starting to tighten with worry. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was such a secret.”
“It’s not, really,” Paul said. “We just want to get a jump on the questioning before people are cagey and have time to lie.”
“Makes sense,” Luke said.
Hadley wondered for a fraction of a second if Paul was smart to trust Luke. In fact, was it possible that the reason the man knew about Edith’s death being a murder was because he was the killer? No. She shook the thought right out of her head.
She and Luke may have had a mostly combative relationship since high school, and she may despise his best friend, but Luke Fenton was not a murderer. Plus, he had absolutely no reason to want Edith dead.
Settling her shoulders a few inches, Hadley focused on getting as much information as they could out of Luke while they had him here.
“What time did you drive by and see Dirk’s car—or whomever it was—parked there?” Hadley asked him.
He blinked. “Around ten. Right after I’d finished my morning chores with the livestock.”
“And you didn’t see anyone else around anytime before or after that?” Suze asked, obviously not dropping the fact that Robert’s motive and opportunity seemed much more realistic than Dir
k’s.
“But the tenant house is behind trees,” Luke added, “so once I drive down the driveway, I can only hear, not see them.”
“Did you hear anything that morning?” Paul asked.
Luke shook his head. “So you think it’s either Robert or Dirk, then?”
Paul wasn’t going to give away everything it seemed, because he didn’t mention Louise.
“If you do, you’d be wrong,” Luke said.
Hadley coughed again, almost choking, having been taking a sip at the same time.
Luke scanned the table. “If you think someone killed Edith Butler, it has to be Louise.”
Everyone at the table but Luke said, “Why?” simultaneously.
“I thought you just said Dirk was there that morning,” Hadley added.
“I said I saw a silver car. It could’ve been Dirk’s, but it was also parked differently than normal. Plus,” Luke said and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, “when I was talking with Mickie in town, she said they had the reading of the will today. Edith left her house and land to her sister, but she left the business to Louise. I think that’s a way better motive for murder than a golf course. Plus, if Dirk killed Edith to get her land, he couldn’t have known if her sister would sell or not. That’s a big gamble to murder someone over.”
Hadley let her eyebrows rise with interest. Huh, the man had a point, she thought, tapping her fingers on the tabletop.
“And everyone knew Louise had been trying to buy that place from Edith for years. Maybe she figured this was the only way she was going to get it.” Suze tilted her head as she seemed to ponder the idea.
Paul snapped his fingers, causing everyone to jump in their seats a few inches. “Louise also drives a silver sedan. Her car looks a lot like Dirk’s, just not quite as fancy.”
Sucking in a breath, Hadley said, “Maybe it was Louise and not Dirk, after all.” The realization, along with the knowledge of Edith’s last will and testament, made this information all the more suspect.
“Could’ve been, now that I think about it.” Luke nodded.
“Maybe I should be the one to go talk with Louise, tomorrow then, Hadley.” Paul crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at his sister.
