Thursday, December 31: nine days after the murder
10:30 p.m.
“Jail,” I said miserably, swirling my drink around in my glass. “He was in jail. In Virginia. For assault and battery. He went to Boston, ended up in Virginia, and went to jail. Can you believe it?”
Val, Ethan, Becky, and I had gone out to celebrate the new year, even though I didn’t feel like I had much to celebrate. I still hadn’t found Virgil’s real killer, Katrina was still facing a murder charge and had gone home to be alone, and now I find out that my kind-of boyfriend had been in jail. This wasn’t the way I wanted to ring in the new year, although I was happy to put this year in the rearview mirror. Aside from moving home and opening the cat café, things had been mostly crappy to say the least.
We were at Jade Moon, where basically the only good party on the island was happening. Since, you know, most of the island was deserted at this time of year. Which was awkward, since I knew Craig and Jade were having problems. And I couldn’t help but feel like she blamed me. I’d caught her sneaking glances at our table, but she hadn’t come over to say hi yet. Although she could just be busy and I was crazy. Which was becoming more and more possible given the circumstances.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Val said. “There has to be a reason. Maybe he caught some guy abusing a woman and stepped in, and the cops got called and he was hauled away. It was a misunderstanding! Had to be.” She looked at me, waiting for me to perk up at this possibility. “Craig couldn’t find out anything else?”
Ethan nodded. “It’s not a crazy idea. We’d need the details to really get a good picture of this.”
Becky and I just stared at them.
“What?” Val asked indignantly.
“Nothing,” I said. “I would just love to know when you became such a romantic.”
“Or a fiction writer,” Becky added.
“Oh come on! Lucas isn’t a criminal. I’m not buying that.” Val sat back and crossed her arms. “And by the way, you’d know the story if you gave the guy five minutes to explain it. Then you wouldn’t be over here making up your own fiction about how he’s suddenly become a”—she cast around for a fitting crime—“rapist or drug dealer or something.”
She kind of had a point, but I didn’t want to have this conversation again.
“So get this,” I said, desperate to change the subject. “Jade and Craig aren’t seeing each other anymore, apparently.”
Val’s eyes widened. “Really? Why?”
“I have no idea. I asked him about her and he just said they weren’t seeing each other at the moment. Or something like that.”
“That’s too bad,” Ethan said. “I wondered why he wasn’t here tonight. Unless he’s working, of course.”
“At the moment. What does that mean?” Becky asked.
I shrugged. “But he was telling me about it when Lucas came around the corner. I could tell he thought he’d interrupted something.” I smiled. “Good.”
Val pressed her lips together but didn’t say anything about that. Instead she said, “That’s too bad. I kind of thought they were good together.”
I gave her a funny look. “You’ve been thinking about Craig’s love life?”
Val shrugged and kissed Ethan’s cheek. “My own is going so well, and you don’t want to talk about yours, so…” She winked.
“Not funny. And I have no love life.” I crossed my arms over my chest in defense.
Val just looked at me.
“What?”
“You could,” she said.
And suddenly, we were talking about this again. I looked at Becky for help, but she had none to offer. She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “She’s kind of right, much as I hate to say it.”
I looked at Ethan. He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not saying anything.”
I glared at all of them and tipped my glass back, swallowing the rest of my special New Year’s Eve martini, the name of which I couldn’t remember at the moment. I put my glass down and held up my finger. “No more talking if that’s all you can talk about. I’m getting another drink. Who wants another drink?”
“Me,” Becky said, amused.
“Me too,” Val said, looking less amused.
“Here.” Ethan handed me some bills. “Me too but I’m buying.”
I plucked the bills out of his hand. I never turn down a free drink. “I’ll be right back.” I was feeling just tipsy enough that going up to talk to Jade seemed like a good idea. I scoped out the bar and found one lone seat near the end, so I hopped on the chair and waited for her to notice me.
It took her a long time. Although in fairness, it was pretty busy. One of the other bartenders came over, but I said I was waiting for Jade. He shrugged and walked away, tapping her on the shoulder and pointing at me.
Jade took her time coming over. When she did, she nodded, but didn’t smile. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I said.
“What can I get you?”
I rattled off the drinks, then leaned over to grab her arm when she nodded and prepared to walk away. “Wait.”
She paused, glancing down at my arm, then back at me.
“I actually wanted to talk to you.”
“I’m a little busy,” she said dryly, waving her hand at the crowd. “Talk to me about what?”
“Craig.”
Jade’s jaw set. “What about him?”
“I heard you guys weren’t really seeing each other anymore.”
“And?” Jade pulled the cloth from her back pocket and flicked it at a nonexistent spot on the bar.
“And I … was sad to hear that,” I said. I was starting to feel a little stupid. Also, she wasn’t totally receptive to this conversation. I wasn’t sure why I’d thought she would be—maybe I’d assumed it would be like two friends dishing about guy troubles—but clearly she didn’t see me that way. And why should she? We were acquaintances at best. I liked Jade, but that didn’t mean we’d gotten tight.
Maybe making this decision based on two drinks hadn’t been the best idea.
“Really,” she said, sounding unimpressed.
“Yeah. Really.”
“I figured you’d be delighted,” she said. “Now you get another chance.”
I stared at her. “Why would I be delighted? And what do you mean, ‘another chance’?”
“Oh, come on, Maddie,” Jade said. “Look, I have work to do. And I’m sure you want your drinks.” She turned to walk away.
“Jade. What happened with you two?” I blurted out. “Because I hope it’s not that you think he has a thing for me or something. Or that I was trying to get him back. Look, it was a long time ago. When we dated. We’ve stayed friends, that’s all. My parents have known him all his life, and he worked for my grandfather, so he’s like family. That’s it. Honestly.” I was babbling, but I couldn’t help myself. I don’t know what it was about Jade, but I always felt a little awkward when I talked to her.
She watched my impassioned speech without a word, making me feel like I needed to keep filling the space with my voice. Which kept getting louder to try to rise above the noise level in the bar, which was also getting louder as the night went on.
Jade worked pretty hard to keep the I couldn’t care less look on her face, but I could see her eyes were sad. “I don’t really think it’s any of your business,” she said. “And if there’s nothing between you two, why do you care? I’m not in the market for a relationship coach.”
“Of course I care. Because he’s my friend, and I hope you are too,” I said. “And I want him to be happy. He’s done nothing but help my family, and I’m just trying to help him. If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, fine. But I had to say it.”
Her face softened a bit and she looked like she might be about to drop the attitude and say something genuine, but at that moment a group of four rowdy guys sauntered up to the bar, laughing and talking loudly. Jade’s eyes narrowed. “Great,” she muttered. “Like I need this kind of trouble.”
I glanced over at the guys and then did a double take.
One of them was Trey Barnes.