Borrowed Time

by Elizabeth Spann Craig

  Burton said, “And Grace?”

  I considered this. “That’s something I don’t know much about. But there’s something there. I was waking up from a nap on the boat at the time.”

  Burton’s eyebrows flew up again. “Boat?”

  “It was more of a yacht. But Grace rented it.”

  Burton gave a low whistle. “She doesn’t seem to have a cash flow problem. But go ahead, I’m sorry. You were saying you were waking up from a nap on the boat.”

  “That’s right. I had these mirrored sunglasses on so I opened my eyes but no one would be able to see I was awake. Scott and Grace were arguing. Well, it was more that Grace was arguing with Scott and Scott was acting self-satisfied.”

  “Could you make out what they were saying?”

  “From what I could gather, Scott was saying that he knew some sort of information about Grace. He seemed to be threatening to disclose it at the party if she didn’t do something.”

  Burton nodded. “Maybe he wanted her to pay him money. And why wouldn’t he? He could easily see how well-off she was. Maybe that tempted him to try to blackmail her over whatever he knew about her.”

  I shrugged. “Who knows what he knew? Maybe it was even something from way back when they were teenagers or something. But Grace has her image now to think of. She wouldn’t want to have that blown right when she moves back to her hometown.”

  “How did Grace respond to his threats?”

  I said, “She was really cold to him. But she said she’d ‘get it’ for him, whatever ‘it’ was.”

  Burton nodded again. “She was planning on going through with it, then. Or maybe she thought it would be easier just to get rid of him. Blackmail is hard to get out from under.”

  “The thing is that everything I’ve heard about Scott makes it sound like he was a pretty successful guy. I mean, he had his own business and everything. I can’t really understand what would make him want to blackmail Grace.”

  “Maybe his business has taken a hit lately,” said Burton. “That’s something we’ll be looking into, for sure.”

  We heard a lot of noise from the direction of the front door. Then we could hear the sound of sobbing.

  Burton sighed. “That must be the girlfriend. We had an officer run over there to give her the news. We were going to go to her for an interview, but I guess she decided she wanted to come here, instead.”

  “They parted on such bad terms that maybe it makes her feel better to be here,” I said. “Are you going to speak with her now?”

  Burton shook his head. “Not while she’s in that state. I’ll speak to her after she’s calmed down a little.”

  He stood up and I did, too.

  “Thanks for all your help, Ann. This really helps me to ask better questions.”

  I winced a little. “I guess everyone will figure out that I was the one who helped you direct the questions better.”

  He chuckled. “You just gave me better perspective, that’s all.”

  I hesitated. “I have a feeling I’m going to be grilled once I set foot out of the study. Is there anything I shouldn’t say? Are you planning on revealing to everyone that it’s murder?”

  “Definitely. But I want to see everyone’s reaction and that won’t happen if everybody leaves the study and fills the others in. So how about if I announce it to the group now and you help me to see how everybody reacts?”

  I followed him out the study door and he cleared his throat. Everyone abruptly stopped their conversations.

  Burton said, “Thanks for your patience as I conduct these interviews. Since you’re all here, I wanted to inform the group that we’re treating Scott Haynsworth’s death as a murder.”

  There were gasps around the room.

  “But how?” stammered Grace. “We thought it looked as if he stumbled and hit his head on the way into the pool.”

  “It could have happened that way and I can understand your thinking that. But our team found a bloody champagne bottle that appears to be the murder weapon.”

  Luna gave a small shriek before covering her mouth apologetically.

  Chapter Seven

  Everyone was stunned into silence this time. I saw Kelly looking blankly at Burton as if she couldn’t understand what he’d said. Grace looked shattered, but she’d been looking shattered since we’d found Scott. Felicity’s eyes were huge and she covered her mouth with her hand. Roz slipped an arm around Kelly to comfort her. And Kyle looked almost as blank as Kelly, as if he were trying to process what Burton just said. A tear slipped down Luna’s cheek.

  “Again, thanks for your patience. I’d like to speak with . . .” He glanced down at his notebook. “Kyle Hubbard next.”

  Kyle solemnly rose. I noticed his legs were unsteady underneath him and that he took a slight step back before following Burton to the study.

  Kelly gasped, “I need some air.” She bolted for the front door with Roz in tow. Luna hurried after her and, after a moment’s hesitation, I joined them.

  For a few minutes, we sat on the stone steps outside Grace’s front door while Kelly gulped in the crisp fall morning air. After a little while, Kelly started to calm down a little, although her eyes were swollen with tears.

  “How could this be?” she asked, looking down at the stone steps. “How did it come to this?”

  Roz said quietly, “We’re all so sorry, Kelly. I know what Scott meant to you.”

  “I’ve known him since we were kids! I mean, I know we had our problems, but we have always been there for each other. Who could have done something like this?”

  Roz and I glanced at each other, probably thinking the same thing: that there were plenty of people who likely could have done it.

  Luna, of course, had less of a filter. “He didn’t deserve this, Kelly, but still . . . you know Scott was really acting out this weekend.”

  Kelly shot her a look but then slowly nodded. “Ann, you’re probably totally baffled as to why I would go out with somebody who was acting like that. But you don’t know how wonderful he usually was. When I say that we had our problems, they weren’t anything like the way they were last night.”

  Roz glanced at me again. She apparently disagreed but didn’t want to say anything in front of Kelly.

  Kelly rubbed her eyes. “I’m just trying to figure out who did this. I mean, from what I’m guessing, it had to be somebody at the party, right?”

  “That’s what I understand,” I said. It wasn’t very likely that some stranger from Whitby would break in, bypass all the art and valuables, head right out to the pool room and assault Scott with a champagne bottle.

  Another officer came out of the house. “I’ve just told the others, but I want to tell you as well. Once you’ve given a statement, you can go ahead and pack up your belongings and leave. Anything that you’ve left in the pool area must be picked up at a later date as we’re still working the scene in there.”

  I glanced at Luna. I’d have to wait since Luna was my ride home and Burton hadn’t spoken with her yet.

  An hour later, we finally headed out. I’d hastily packed my bag as soon as Luna had given her statement.

  Luna blew out a sigh. “That was the craziest house party ever. Are you ruined for life now? Will you ever leave your house or the library again?”

  I chuckled. “No, the experience hasn’t ruined me for life, although it wasn’t exactly the restful, pleasant weekend we thought it was going to be.”

  “Well, that’s good. I thought you were going to plan to lock yourself up in the library and throw away the key.”

  “No, I won’t be doing that. Although I think I’m going to hang out at home the rest of the day with Fitz. My next-door neighbor was looking in on him while I was gone.”

  And that was exactly how I spent the rest of the day. I pulled some weeds in the yard for a while. Fitz would swat at insects and watch as I yanked the weeds and put them in a pile. Then we went inside and Fitz curled up with me while I read my book.

>   There was a tap at my door about halfway through the afternoon and I carefully detached myself from Fitz and answered it. My heart beat just a little faster when I saw it was Grayson from down the street. I resisted the urge to fix the hair I knew was sticking up around my head and managed to give him a casual smile. “Oh, hi,” I said.

  He glanced inside and gave an apologetic chuckle. “Sorry, Fitz. Looks like you two were having some quiet time.”

  “Oh no, it’s fine. We were just being lazy. What’s up?” I winced inwardly. That made it sound like I was trying to hurry him off so I could get back to my book. “I mean, do you want to come inside?”

  He shook his head. “Actually, I was just thinking that I wanted to go for a hike and was hoping to have you come with me. I’m trying to work some more exercise into my schedule, but I get really bored with the treadmill. Anyway, it’s easier for me to follow through if I have a walking buddy to go with me.”

  That’s me. The buddy. I repressed the sigh that was threatening to blow out and gave him a bright smile. “Sure, that sounds great. Can you give me a couple of minutes to change clothes?”

  “Sure. Maybe you could also recommend a good trail. I haven’t been here long enough to really explore.” He hesitated. “Are you sure you want to come along? I know this wasn’t what you planned for your afternoon.”

  “No, it’s perfect. I need some more exercise too and I’ve had kind of a stressful weekend. I’ll tell you about it in a few minutes.”

  “I’ll wait in the car,” he said with a smile.

  I rushed to the bedroom and managed to brush my wayward hair into some semblance of order in a ponytail. I put on my better quality exercise clothes and put on the lightest amount of makeup . . . not wanting to look like I thought this was a date because it clearly wasn’t. Then I gave Fitz a quick rub, refilled my water bottle, and hurried out to Grayson’s car.

  We talked casually for a few minutes as Grayson set out onto the mountain roads. I asked him what kind of hike he was looking for and mentioned a few options. One of them had a scenic waterfall along the way and he selected that one, which pleased me because it was one of my favorites.

  He pulled off to the side of the road near the trailhead and we hopped out and started up the trail. He asked a few questions along the way about the shrubs and trees along the trail since he wasn’t familiar with them from where he used to live. Then he said, “Hey, I forgot to ask you why you were stressed out.”

  “Sorry?”

  “You know—when I mentioned going for a hike, you said that you’d had a stressful weekend so far,” said Grayson, looking curiously at me. “Were you working this weekend and that’s what made you stressed?”

  I gave a short laugh. “Ironically, no—I was at a house party and trying to relax and that’s what stressed me out.”

  Grayson slowed his pace and frowned. “Wait. You weren’t at that lake party, were you? The one where someone died?”

  I’d somehow forgotten that of course Grayson would know about the house party. He was an editor at the local paper. He’d have covered it. It would probably run in tomorrow’s edition.

  Grayson looked concerned and said in a gentler voice, “Hey, sorry for all the questions. I’m reporting on it, but I had no idea you were there. We’re off the record, no matter what you tell me, I promise. If that’s where you were, no wonder you got stressed. That must have been awful.”

  “It definitely wasn’t what we were all expecting, that’s for sure. And I feel bad for our hostess. She’d put a lot of time and energy into making it a relaxing weekend and it just . . . wasn’t. And then someone died.” I stopped and shrugged wordlessly.

  “My understanding is the person responsible was someone at the party, too,” said Grayson, slowly starting to walk again. “That must have been even worse . . . that it wasn’t like some random stranger coming in.” He looked quickly at me again. “We’re off the record, of course.”

  “It put something of a damper on the party,” I said dryly. “Realizing one of us was a murderer.”

  “Did it seem premeditated?” asked Grayson. He hurriedly added, “Look, if you don’t want to talk about this, I totally get it. You came out on the hike to forget about everything for a while.”

  I’d have thought that I wouldn’t want to talk about it, or at least not today. But surprisingly, I found I was eager to discuss it with Grayson. Maybe talking about Scott’s death a little more with someone who wasn’t at the party at all would help get it all out of my head for the rest of the day.

  I hesitated and Grayson said, “Like I said, everything you tell me will be totally off the record. Although, if you tell me who the guests were at the party, I might approach them individually and see if I can get more information from them.” He added hastily, “I wouldn’t tell them how I knew they were guests there. And I’ll only do it if you tell me it’s okay.”

  I snorted. “We live in Whitby. For one thing, the guests will be telling everybody about the crazy party they went to the second they get back home. Then it’s only a matter of time before the entire town knows.”

  I took a deep breath. “So, to answer your question, it didn’t seem premeditated to me, but that’s all I can tell you. I thought it was something that happened in the heat of the moment.”

  Grayson said, “Burton was able to give me the name of the victim since he’d already notified the family.”

  He didn’t say anything else about the party and I felt myself relax again when we got to the waterfalls. It was a beautiful area, surrounded by trees and rhododendron. The sound of the water falling over the mossy rocks was almost deafening and we stood there silently for a minute, taking it all in. Grayson took out his phone again and took pictures, including one of me after waving off my protests and laughing at my unsuccessful attempts to smooth down my hair.

  Then Grayson turned serious and my heart skipped a beat or two. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

  Now my heart sped up and made up for the missing beats. “Of course you can.” I wondered, could this have been a set-up for him to ask me out? To spend some casual time together and feel out how I might view that?

  “Thanks,” he said, looking at me warmly. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while, honestly. But I wasn’t sure what you’d think. I know how busy you are at the library.”

  Was I giving off the impression that the library didn’t leave me time to date? No wonder I wasn’t getting any dates. I hastily said, “Not that busy. As a matter of fact, Luna and I were just talking about how it would be good for me to spend more time out of the library. I love it there, of course, but it tends to consume a lot of my life.” I stopped short, realizing I was rambling and pressed my lips together before more words could slip out.

  He grinned. “I know what you mean. It’s like my job—I love the newspaper. I mean, I even love the smell of the place . . . the old papers and photographs. It makes me happy. But I can’t hang out there all the time because then I wouldn’t be able to follow up on leads or have information for articles. Anyway, what I wanted to ask was this: would you be interested in writing a column for the paper? On a regular basis, I mean?”

  Chapter Eight

  I felt my face fall and then quickly regained control.

  Apparently not quickly enough, however, because his expression clearly reflected his concern. “Sorry . . . you don’t want to, do you? Don’t worry about telling me no. Believe me, I know how much you have going on at the library and the fact you’re already writing a column for them: ‘Ask Fitz’, right? Plus you’re running programs there and doing research and running away from our homeowner association president.”

  I gave him a weak smile. Zelda Smith was often in pursuit of Grayson and me. She was always trying to recruit new blood to the HOA leadership.

  “I’d love to do it,” I said, managing a better smile this time. And I was surprised that I meant it. Who knew—maybe it would give me more excuses for conversations with
Grayson? Maybe this could be a common interest of ours. Maybe . . . it could lead to something else.

  He beamed at me. “Really? That’s great. I noticed the paper needed better regular content and I think this will work out perfectly for what I was thinking.”

  I asked, “What kind of content were you thinking about?”

  He said, “That’s why I was hoping you’d be able to fit this in. Because all I want you to cover is what’s easiest for you to write. So that could be book recommendations for different genres, maybe a paragraph about upcoming events at the library, library services people might not know about, that kind of thing. I was hoping it wouldn’t take too much time for you to write up.”

  It was honestly the kind of thing I could probably write in my sleep. All I did most of the day was to help patrons find good books, talk up events, and push library services.

  “And if you had a time when you really couldn’t think of anything, you could always just post a picture of Fitz,” said Grayson with a grin.

  I snorted. “That’s exactly what we do on the library’s social media accounts when we’re at a loss. The sad thing is that a picture of Fitz lying on his back gets more engagement online than the posts we put a lot of time and thought into creating.” I paused. “Since it sounds like I might be representing the library, I’m going to run this by my director, Wilson. But it’s exactly the kind of thing he loves—more exposure for the library—so I’m pretty sure he’ll want me to do it.”

  “That’s great.” There was a wooden bench a few yards away and Grayson settled on it and took his daypack off. He glanced up at me and smiled a little shyly. “I put a couple of sandwiches and some snacks in here just in case you said you’d come along on the hike. Would you like one? They’re nothing fancy, just ham and cheese.”

  He pulled out a little cooler bag from the daypack and I nodded, sitting down next to him. I got out my water bottle and we sat there for a few minutes, eating and watching the water. Watching a waterfall for me was almost like sitting on the beach and watching the ocean waves—super lulling and relaxing and somehow ever-changing. I could have sat there all day . . . especially with Grayson, even with our ‘just friends’ status.