“’Cause.”
“But you go through my phone all the time!”
“That’s different.”
“How is it different?”
“It just is,” Freddie said. “End of story. I’m going back to the bonfire.”
“Um, we are in the middle of a discussion here.”
He took a step back. “I think we’ve pretty much covered everything.”
“We’ve covered nothing,” I said a little too loudly. A few heads turned.
“Well, I’m going back.” Freddie took another couple of steps.
“I see what you’re doing,” I said, matching his steps. “You think if you make it back into the crowd, you’ll be safe. That I’ll let this drop. But I’m not dropping it, Freddie. Our friendship—”
“Is starting to scare me.” He shot me a smile before turning to head back towards the bonfire. “Love you.”
I trotted over to catch up to him. “I’m getting that phone,” I whispered. “Whether you like it or not. Hey, maybe I’ll even change your ringtone while I’m at it.”
He chuckled again. “Oh, okay.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I hissed.
“You outsmart me? I think we all know who is the Road Runner is this relationship and who is Wile E. Coyote.” Freddie then held up a hand and waved at the group as we returned to our seats. “Now hush.”
Now hush?
Hush?
I dropped to my seat and blinked at the fire, not really seeing it.
He … he had gone too far.
My eyes dropped to the phone clutched in Freddie’s hand, then I raised them up to his face. He was completely ignoring me. There was no way he was going to put it down, but maybe if I just hit the underside of his hand, the phone would pop in the air, and I could grab it. If I did it just right, no one would even notice. Then what could he do? He wouldn’t make a scene in front of all these people.
I’d show him who was the Road Runner in this duo.
I reached my hand underneath Freddie’s and—
Just then he looked at me. “What are you—?”
I hit his hand and the phone spun into the air. It landed in the dirt a couple of feet away.
Well, that got everybody’s attention.
“Sorry. Sorry,” I said getting to my feet. “Not sure what happened there. I’ll just—”
But Freddie was already on his feet. “I got it.”
“No, I’ll get it.”
“I said, I’ll—” In his haste, just as Freddie was reaching for the phone, his foot kicked it even farther away. And before I even realized what was happening, he had the phone and—
—we were running duck, duck, goose style around the fire.
“Erica! Freddie! What are you doing?” my mother shouted from … somewhere? “Stop it this instant!”
When I turned to look at her, my bangs flopped into my face. Unfortunately I hadn’t stopped running though, and I didn’t see the little bit of stump sticking up in the dirt. I pitched forward and smashed into Freddie.
“Watch the fire!” my mother screamed, even though Freddie was really nowhere near it as he flew Superman-style into the air before landing belly-first on the hard-packed dirt. The impact sent his phone flying from his hand.
I scrambled over the top of him and snatched it up.
“Aha!” I shouted a moment later. “Now we’ll see who’s the Road…”
Oh … wow.
Would you look at all those people staring at me with … horror. I had forgotten all about them in my moment of victory.
I rose to my feet.
Well … that had escalated quickly.
And now everything was going so slow.
“We broke up, okay?” Freddie finally said, yanking me back into the moment. “Sean and I broke up. Are you happy now?”
He got to his feet and brushed the dirt from his front.
“Freddie, I…”
Suddenly it was very quiet.
Yup … nothing but the crackling of the bonfire.
“Right,” my mother said, fluttering to stand by Zaki, eyes very wide. “I think what Freddie and Erica have demonstrated for us just now is … the bravery it takes to really get in touch with one’s feelings. Isn’t that right, Zaki?”
He didn’t answer. He looked a little stunned, actually.
“Also … conflict resolution! They have found a way to resolve their differences in a healthy—”
Zaki quickly shook his head.
“No, that wasn’t very healthy, was it?” my mother said, furrowing her eyebrows into two worried little peaks.
“Marshmallows!” she shouted. “Who would like more vegan marshmallows?”
Freddie and I remained frozen as the rest of the crowd recoiled away from us toward the picnic tables.
Once they were gone, Freddie looked at me and said, “Well, I hope you’re proud of yourself.”
“I … I am so sorry.” I was too. I had just been so hurt that Freddie was freezing me out that—“I went too far. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve just been so worried about you and—”
“Whatever, Summer.”
My jaw dropped again.
Had he just compared me to my mother?
“You know,” he went on, “given everything that has happened, I think, perhaps, we should consider spending some time apart.” He nodded. “A friend break.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Yup. I am.”
“Freddie…”
“I think maybe I should focus on replanning the wedding, seeing as you were so unhappy with that. And you can handle the investigation.”
What … was happening here? I took a step toward him, but he stepped right back. “But … you love murder investigations.”
“Yes, but we all know you are more comfortable with murders than weddings, so this just makes the most sense.”
I stared at him a moment. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Freddie and I were like two peas in a pod. We were like nitro and glycerin. We were like … like … maybe I didn’t know what we were like anymore. “Okay. If that’s what you want. Fine.”
“Good. I’m glad that’s settled.”
“Me too.” I flicked my head to get my bangs out of my eyes and stomped toward the lodge.
I heard Freddie groan. “But while we’re apart would you just get someone to cut your bang—”
“Break started,” I called back over my shoulder.
“But you are going to seriously hurt some—”
“Break! Started!”
Chapter Eleven
I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. A big, big part of me was holding on to the hope that what had happened at the campfire the night before was just a bad dream, but I knew that wasn’t the case.
I, a grown woman, had chased my best friend around a campfire in front of a whole bunch of strangers so that I could go through his phone without his permission.
Oh no … and don’t tell me I …
I sat up in bed and looked at my reflection in the mirror over my dresser. Yup … that wasn’t a dream either … I had angry-cut my own bangs. That fourteen-year-old girl on YouTube said it was like totally no problem to do it yourself, but she was wrong.
I flopped back onto my bed.
This … this …
… was not my fault!
Okay, maybe the bangs were my fault … and maybe I hadn’t exactly been on my best behavior, but I had been driven to it! All of it. I wasn’t sure that I believed that even as I was thinking it, but I thought it was worth hearing myself out. Fine, okay, yes, I never should have demanded Freddie give me his phone, but a person could only take so much! He had been miserable for days and wouldn’t tell me why. He had started this whole thing. I … had just finished it.
And I was going to finish this investigation too.
Oh, I knew what Freddie was thinking. He was thinking that there was no way I could find out who killed L
yssa without his help, but he was wrong, wrong, wrong. I didn’t need him. At least not the way he needed me. I mean, good luck, Mr. Ng, planning Candace’s wedding all by yourself.
I rolled out of bed. I needed to get out of here. Yes, I was fully aware that I should apologize to my mother, Zaki, and, well, everyone at the campfire last night, but I just couldn’t. Not yet. I should have known that going to the retreat was a bad idea. I mean, Why are you still single? I think the answer was pretty obvious. I chased people around campfires!
I needed to get out of here. Soon all the retreat guests would be up and wandering around staring at me … from safe distances … probably wondering what happened to my hair, and if I was still in the possession of sharp scissors. I didn’t need all that. And it’s like I always say, there’s no better distraction than solving a murder. Okay, I had never said that, but the scary part was I could, and it would apply to my life.
I jumped out of bed, threw some clothes on, and grabbed a baseball hat. This time I was going to be smarter exiting the retreat. No leaving through the front door for me. Nope, I would climb through my window. Just in case Zaki was meditating out front again. I couldn’t face him today. I could still see the look of horror on his face.
Fifteen minutes later I was zipping across the lake.
Yup, forget the town. It was time to rack up some wins for Erica.
And I knew just where to start.
Tommy Forrester.
I slipped the boat into neutral and drifted toward Tommy’s dock. Not too long ago Tommy had had two docks and two boats. That’s when he’d been involved with the shady business with MRG incentivizing seniors living on the lake to sell sooner than they may have been originally thinking. But I guess a lot had changed since then. He was back to just one boat, and it was in pretty rough shape—along with the rest of his property.
I took my time tying my mother’s boat off. I was hoping that Tommy had heard me coming and was awake. Not only was there a very good chance Tommy was sleeping one off, but I didn’t really know how Tommy was doing these days. And Mrs. Roy had made it sound like he wasn’t doing too well.
I walked the length of Tommy’s dock to the front lawn of his cottage. It could have easily been mistaken for a junkyard though. Rusted-out box spring on the front lawn. Beer bottles—lots of beer bottles—everywhere. Seat of a toilet lying across the front path. Nice. Nice.
Now, Tommy’s place hadn’t been in great shape the last I’d visited him. Actually, some people might have called it a break and enter. I prefer the term look-see. But it was nothing like this.
Suddenly my toe hit a large rusted-out steel drum, making a loud clang.
I was really starting to think that Tommy needed some help from, like, a family member or someone to turn things around. A cousin perhaps. Too bad his only one seemed beholden to nobody and nothing—except for his desire to get his relaxation on.
That had actually been one of the worst parts about last night—resisting the urge to call Grady. Even though we were in the place we were … and he was in the place he was, which was La La Land apparently … I couldn’t help but think he would understand why I had freaked out the way I did. Well, maybe not understand—that was asking a lot—but at least give me one of those kisses on the forehead that says Hey, you’re still a good person. I still like you. I really needed that right now. Not that that would work through the phone, but … whatever.
I picked my way over the rusted-out mattress spring, hands out to the side for balance.
I totally had this, though.
I mean, yes, I obviously had my failings as a person, but the one thing I did know how to do was question people. Maybe it was even because of those failings that I was so good at it. People felt safe with me. Like I wasn’t judging them.
Generally speaking, people usually liked me.
Just then something white zoomed across my field of vision.
What the…?
I turned to see Tommy standing on his back porch in just boxers holding a bucket in one hand getting ready to whip another golf ball at me with the other.
Yup, generally speaking, people liked me …
… just not maybe Tommy Forrester.
But I didn’t have time to think about that right now. I needed to—
Duck!
Chapter Twelve
“What the hell, Tommy?!” I called out from behind the steel drum.
“Get off my property, Erica. Now!”
I jumped as a golf ball smacked into my barricade.
Clang!
“I just wanted to talk to you! Knock it off!” I peeked back over the drum to the leaner version of Grady. Same dark hair. Same blue eyes. But where Grady always looked healthy and robust, there was something wiry about Tommy these days. Almost foxlike. In happier times he had even had the same hint of a smirk. Today, he just had a big ol’ shiner. I hadn’t noticed Tommy’s black eye at first what with all the deadly flying projectiles crowding my vision.
“I said get off my property!” Another golf ball came shooting toward me. Luckily it hit the drum, making another deafening clang! “I fricking hate you!”
“You hate me? Since when?” I shouted, trying to get even lower to the ground.
“Since you ruined my life!”
When would people realize that I was far too busy messing up my own life to put any thought into ruining anyone else’s? “What are you talking about?”
“Things were perfect before you came back to town!”
Clang!
“Then you come home, and Dickie dies—”
Clang!
“MRG hangs me out to dry—”
Clang!
“And Shelley dumps me!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Wow, that was loud.
“Tommy, that is totally unfair! I was not the one who killed Dickie. I did not make you get involved with MRG. And Shelley—”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“You know what?” I shouted, grabbing a golf ball that had landed at my feet. “Let’s see how you like it.” I popped up and whipped the ball back at Tommy.
Crash!
“And now you broke my freaking window!”
I dropped back to the ground. Well … crap. In fairness I had been too scared to take the time to aim.
“I hate you so much!”
“I’m sorry!” I shouted back. “But you started it!”
“You started it when you came back to town!”
Clang! Clang! Clang! Man, his aim was like dead-on.
“Why do you have so many golf balls?!” Not really one of the questions I had come to his place to ask, but it seemed pretty important right now.
“It’s one of the things I do now, Erica,” Tommy shouted back. “Clean up the lost balls around the course in Honey Harbor then sell them back to golfers on the side of the road. That’s where I’m at now. All thanks to you!”
I shook my head. Not that he could see me. “Look, Tommy, you really want me to go?”
That resulted in a barrage of fire. I clutched my head until he was through. I was guessing that was a yes.
“I just want to ask you a couple of questions about the woman you were hanging out with the other night. At the bachelorette party?”
Everything went very quiet.
“Tommy?”
“I know she drowned,” he said in a much more somber voice.
“So the police have been by?”
“Your boyfriend hasn’t been if that’s what you mean.”
“No, I know. He’s pretty busy these days.”
I peeked over the drum. Tommy was looking out toward the lake. He looked kind of dejected actually. “You probably think I did it.”
“No, I…” I was surprised by how upset I was seeing Tommy like this. Again, Tommy had always been a bit of a douchebag, but at least he had been a happy douchebag. Not this gaunt, miserable-looking creature. “Look, I’m just trying to help out Candace. She needs to know what happened
to Lyssa. The town needs to know. People don’t feel safe.”
“She’s a sweet girl,” Tommy said, his expression losing more of its edge. “Candace, I mean.”
I knew Candace had helped out with getting Tommy’s charges reduced to misdemeanors.
“So maybe you could tell me what happened that night?”
He shook his head. “Not much to tell.”
“I was under impression that you two might have hooked up?”
He didn’t say anything.
“At the town gazebo?”
“Yeah,” he said with a huff that was too pathetic sounding to be a laugh. “I’m a romantic like that.”
“What happened afterward?”
“I left.”
“What about Lyssa?”
“Don’t know. She was on her phone. Still at the gazebo.”
“So you left her there? Alone?”
“What do you want me to say, Erica?” Tommy asked, balling his fists. “Yeah, I did. She told me to go because her boyfriend was coming to find her. So I left. I leave and people die.”
I put my hands up. “I didn’t mean it that way.” I never really gave a lot of thought to how Tommy had taken Dickie’s death, but they had been close since kindergarten. It made sense he had guilt over what had happened even though it wasn’t his fault. “I just meant … nobody was around? Were there any cars you didn’t recognize?”
“No. Nothing like that. But what business is it of yours?”
“I told you. I’m just trying to help C—”
“Oh come off it. Like I’m supposed to believe that. You don’t help anyone. You’re not a helper. You’re a ruiner!”
“Tommy, I never meant to ruin your l—”
Whoa. Another golf ball.
“Tommy, I—” I had to hit the ground again.
“Just get out of here, Erica. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
I couldn’t leave yet though. I still needed to ask him about his eye.
“Tommy, if you’d just hear me o—”
A golf ball whizzed right by my ear.
“Okay! Message received.” I started army-crawling my way back to the dock. “No more questions. Sheesh.”
* * *
“So is it just me?” I grabbed another handful of chips resting on the car floor near Rhonda’s feet. “Or has this entire town gone crazy?
Down the Aisle with Murder Page 8
