The diner was busy, it always was, the strong smells of coffee and grease permeating everything. Somehow Andy knew he’d find them all here. Location is everything, and this one was right next to the precinct. The atmosphere was perfect for what he had in mind. A nice casual conversation where everyone felt relaxed enough to say whatever came into their heads. Sometimes it was the best strategy. Put them totally at ease and see what happens. Though he didn’t think Chris could relax under any circumstance, it was worth a shot.
“Mind if I join you?” Andy posed the question, and then sat without waiting for a reply, forcing Mark, Julie, Jen, Bill and Chris to slide over inside the large circular booth.
“Why no, please do,” Chris muttered.
“The usual, Karen,” Andy looked up as their server came over. Obviously a regular, Chris thought. He wasn’t happy with this guy. Keeping Chris from Annie seemed pretty cruel and unwarranted. And he needed someone to direct his anger and frustration on. This cop seemed as good a target as any.
Once the food arrived, the conversation ceased for a bit. Andy waited for just the right moment.
“I read your book, you know,” Andy began without looking at Chris for a response.
Andy put his cheeseburger down, and wiped his fingers carefully on a napkin, deliberately stalling. “Your book’s victim, Gwen, right? Correct me if I’m wrong, but just working through all this, Gwen I’m guessing is based really loosely, on Martha,” Andy went on without waiting for a response. “Which says to me that maybe you don’t think Martha’s death was an accidental overdose, or a suicide for that matter. Maybe deep down you think someone killed her.”
“To be honest, I guess there was always a doubt in my mind,” Chris acknowledged grudgingly.
“Just thinking out loud here, but,” Andy paused as if in thought, “is it possible that someone thinks Annie knows what happened? After all, in the book, your reporter character, Jade, is based on Annie, right? And Jade suspects something.”
“That’s nuts!” Chris blurted out. “I’m the one who wrote the book so I would be the one who knows what happened.”
“But Chris, nobody knows you wrote the book, right? So you’d have to agree it’s possible someone thinks Annie wrote the book.”
“I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Who’s Martha?” Julie interrupted, suddenly very interested.
“Sam’s girlfriend back in college,” Chris replied.
“Oh, good, I thought maybe she was yours,” Julie looked relieved. Chris shot her a look that clearly said she was mistaken.
“OK,” Andy began again. “Hear me out. Let’s just say, for arguments sake, that someone wanted Martha out of the way all those years ago. Who’s the most likely suspect?” No one said anything for a moment.
“The boyfriend?” Jen spoke up this time, her attention wholly captured.
“Maybe,” said Andy. “Now, motive?”
“She dumped him?” Julie instinctively replied.
“Not likely,” Chris jumped in. “She worshipped him. If anything, he tried to dump her and couldn’t.” He frowned as he realized what he’d said. “Not that Sam would ever have done anything like that. No, he wouldn’t have.”
“You did say he wanted to date Annie, Chris, and that she refused because of Martha.”
“Yeah but it’s a huge leap from wanting to date someone to murder!”
“I don’t know, Chris,” Mark jumped in. “It depends on how Sam really felt about Annie. Think about it. Wasn’t it Sam who told you Annie wasn’t interested in you? And if he wanted Annie badly enough, and thought Martha was in the way…”
“This is absurd,” Chris said loudly. “Sam and I have known each other practically our whole lives. You want me to believe he wanted Annie so badly he’d murder for her? Remember I told you he didn’t actually give a damn that she turned him down?” Chris shook his head, realization dawning.
Andy decided to change direction. “Who knows about your cabin, Chris?”
“You mean does Sam know, don’t you? Yeah, he helped build it.”
“So he’d know the area pretty well, then?”
“I suppose. Look, this is crazy. You want me to believe Sam ran Annie off the road? No way. And whoever did was following her for a while, right? So they’re not necessarily from around the lake area. Look, you can speak to Sam yourself. You’ll see. He’s just not the type.”
“Care to test the theory?” Andy looked around the table.
No one spoke up, so Andy continued. “The closer Annie gets to you, the more desperate they appear to be. So let’s make whoever it is think you’re together. I’ll set it up to appear you and Annie are headed to the cabin. We’ll see who turns up.”
“You want to use Annie as bait? Uh uh. Not a chance,” Chris responded adamantly.
“Annie won’t be in any danger, I promise. Neither will you. It’s the only way. If in fact it is your buddy Sam, we’ll know soon enough. If not, we’ll know that too.”
Annie looked down at the tray of food and frowned. She’d heard hospital food was bad, but this was ridiculous. There was the main plate, with some sort of unidentifiable meat surrounded by lumpy grayish white stuff she assumed was potatoes. There were some green beans, though they were a brownish color now, and just a tad shriveled. The cup of applesauce didn’t look too bad, but she’d kill for a cheeseburger right about now.
“Looks like I’m just in time!”
Annie looked up in surprise, and smiled when she saw Luce in the doorway. She looked a bit frazzled, but Annie was more concerned with the takeout bag she was holding. The smell reached her immediately, causing her stomach to growl.
“Tell me that’s a cheeseburger and I’ll owe you forever, sis,” Annie called out.
Luce grinned as the relief washed over her. Annie was ok. That’s all that mattered.
“Yep, with everything. The guy who brought me here from the airport wasn’t too thrilled about the detour, but, hey, nothing’s too good for my sister!” Luce laughed and strode over to the bed. Seeing the tubes suddenly sobered her, but she quickly recovered. She knew better than to let Annie see her distressed.
Luce grabbed the plate of questionable food from Annie’s tray, and replaced it with the takeout burger and fries. Pulling up the chair by the wall, she sat down next to the bed and took Annie’s hand.
“You’re ok?” she asked softly.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. At least that’s what my doctor the hunk says.”
“Hunk?” Luce asked innocently, though Annie could see the wheels churning in her head. Nothing tempted Luce more than a smart, rich, guy and doctors were always on her A list.
“Yep, hunk. You’ll see. So I’m guessing word’s out on my adventure?”
“Yeah, big time. You’ll have to fill me in on most of it. All I know is I got up in the middle of the night and you were gone. I freaked, called Andy, I mean Detective Holman. You remember him, don’t you?”
“No brain damage, Luce, my memory is intact.”
“Good. That’s a relief. Anyway, I demanded he find you, which I have to say he wasn’t all that cooperative about it. That man can be so bullheaded. Typical cop.”
Annie smiled at her sister, knowing that there was more here between those two. Wisely, she said nothing.
“So I guess at some point you must have had someone call him. The next thing I know I’m here! Very weird, sis, he arranged everything. Down to the plane ticket. Not that I don’t appreciate it, but it was a bit on the bizarre side.”
“Hey. At least you’re here. Now, enough about you. I’ll tell you what happened, but only if you agree to help me.”
“Help you what?”
“See Chris.”
“Uh uh, no way. Is that what you were up to? He’s not even here, you know. He’s in New York. He was on his way there when Andy shipped me off. Didn’t even let me hang around long enough to see the guy!”
“He’s in New York? That figures. I drove 500 freaking miles, got run off the road, all for nothing.”
“Actually, he was either here, or somewhere else, but when he heard you were missing, he hopped the next plane.”
“How did he know I was gone?” Annie was surprised.
Luce grinned slyly, “Well, as soon as I hung up with Andy, I mean the detective, I called Jen, who called Mark, who called Chris.”
Annie looked away for a moment, a smile on her face. He must care about me, she thought with satisfaction. Well, that’s a start. She stiffened suddenly, and looked at Luce wide eyed. “He knows, doesn’t he. That I drove out here. In fact everyone knows. I’m going to have to go into hiding now. This is too embarrassing, even for me!” her voice was panicky.
“I don’t know what he knows, Annie, but don’t worry about it now. It’s small potatoes compared to the trouble you’ve been in. Someone’s trying to hurt you if you recall, and whether or not Chris knows about this crush of yours is pretty unimportant at this point. Now spill it!”
Annie sighed, resigning herself to the fact that her deepest secrets, her unrequited love, was now common knowledge. “OK. Long story short, Luce, here it is. I was trying to figure out where Chris could be, and I remembered how often he spoke of someday building a place on this lake. He told me at the party he’d finally built his cabin. So, I figured I’d come here and find him. Rented a car and just took off.”
“Well that worked out well.”
“Maybe not, but I waited half my life for a legit date with Chris, and then when I’m finally going to get it, all this happens. So forgive me if I decided to take things into my own hands for once.”
A light tap at the door caught their attention.
“Can I come in?” Sue Cantoni smiled as she entered, not waiting for an answer.
“I guess since you’re here,” Annie said, sighing for effect. She really did like Sue. And she’d been sticking close by her through this.
“I just got off the phone with Detective Holman. Are you up for a few more questions?”
“Of course.”
“First I have a message for you. Your date is still on,” Sue smiled as she said it. Sometimes being the bearer of good news could really outweigh the bad.
Annie actually grinned hearing that. “As if I’d let him back out now!”
“OK, now, I’ll try to keep this short, ok? And please don’t jump to any conclusions,” Sue cautioned, then looked over at Luce. She knew it was Annie’s sister, as she’d given clearance for her to visit.
Luce reached out one arm and smiled.
“Luce Porter, nice to meet you. You’re the one who found her, right?”
“Yes, good to meet you Luce, I’m Deputy Sue Cantoni.”
“Well I really want to thank you. You saved her life I’m sure and I can see you’ve taken good care of her. I really appreciate it. It’s just us, you know. Our parents are gone. So, well, anyway, thanks.” Luce wasn’t big on being grateful or expressing it for that matter. But this woman had taken care of Annie when she couldn’t, and it just seemed a bit humbling.
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Sue responded gently. There was obviously more to this story but now just wasn’t the time.
“OK,” Annie broke in. “Fire away with those questions before I hit the panic button again!” Annie looked at her medicine dispenser unit wistfully, then settled back into the stack of pillows behind her, trying to get comfortable. She was still sore, especially in her ribs, and even the meds did nothing more than take the edge off the pain. She suspected they’d lowered the dose just a bit.
“OK. We think whatever is happening now is directly related to something that happened years ago, and of course, that book. Which is why I’m going to ask these questions. First, when was the last time you saw or spoke with Sam Peckett?
“Sam?” Annie thought for a moment. “You don’t think it’s Sam do you?”
“No conclusions, remember?” Sue reminded her.
“Oops. Sorry. OK. Sam Peckett. Let’s see, about 6 years ago maybe. I came back here for a wedding, and ran into him at a bar we’d all gone to after the reception. He was with Nora. I don’t suppose you’ve heard of her. I spoke to them for maybe a few minutes then ran like hell out the door.”
“Nora. I know a bit about her, what the detective shared.”
“Well, not my favorite person. Which is why I didn’t stand around and chat for too long.” Annie shivered for emphasis. “She gives me the creeps.”
Sue nodded. “OK. Let me ask you this. Sam’s girlfriend, Martha. She OD’d, correct?”
“That’s what they said. But somehow, I don’t think so. Martha was pretty nuts, you know, wild, but she was also careful. She never took more than she could handle. It never made sense to me. I think the drugs were bad, is what I think.” Annie thought for a moment. “They tried to say it was probably deliberate, but that’s just not Martha. She never would have done it on purpose.”
“Was Sam involved with anyone other than Martha?”
“If I’m not mistaken, and I rarely am,” Annie said wryly, smiling as Luce made a face, “I’m guessing Sam and Nora were together more than a time or two. Nora would jump in bed with anything as long as it was breathing.”
“Tell me more about Nora, if you’re up to it. Whatever you can.”
She shook her head as she silently remembered. They’d been friends once, Annie recalled. It all began at the most awkward time for any girl. 13. 13, and discovering all kinds of inconvenient things about her body. Her hormones. Feelings. That’s just about the time she met Nora.
She sighed as she looked over at Sue.
“Nora was new in school, just moved to town. Super friendly if not a little loud. I met her at lunch one day and it was like we were instant friends. Or so I thought.”
“With friends like that,” Luce interrupted, but didn’t finish her sentence.
Annie darted a look over at Luce, silently telling her to shut up please.
“We had sleepovers and on the weekends we’d go exploring in the woods or played campout in the basement. And we told each other our deepest darkest secrets. Which is how it all exploded.”
Annie closed her eyes and grimaced as she thought back. “Danny. That was my secret.”
Her big crush. Danny was a year older, and had a killer smile. Oh he wasn’t the best-looking boy in school, or the smartest, or the most talented. But he was Annie’s crush. And she told Nora in secrecy and Nora swore not to tell. Well, she kept her secret. But had one of her own.
“So, I told Nora I was crushing on Danny. And then came the weekend. Everybody was going to the waterpark. Everybody. Nora was meeting us there.” Annie’s frown grew.
“When we got there, Luce and I scoped out the sandy beach area for a good place to see and be seen and I found the perfect spot and grabbed Luce’s arm. I remember being soooo excited, I was practically shouting. ‘There, it’s perfect! Quick let’s grab it!’ Or something like that,” Annie added.
“So Luce began heading over there and suddenly she stops dead in her tracks and says ‘No Annie, let’s go over there,’ and points in a completely different direction.”
“I remember Annie was like why? Everyone is over there,” Luce interrupted again. “So I just said ‘trust me you don’t want to go over there.’”
“I remember stopping and looking over at my perfect spot. It was horrifying. There was Nora, looking way too cozy with none other than Danny. Luce was the only other person in the world who knew about Danny. Of course looking back, Nora and Danny were probably just sitting a bit too close, but there was Nora laughing and giggling way too loud.”
It had devastated Annie. “I’m sure you understand, this was violating the sacred oath of friendship. So things were never the same. I vowed I would NEVER be friends with Nora again. I wanted to give her a piece of my mind, but then she saw me.”
Annie was getting upset just thinking about it, Sue could see that, but she needed to understand the dynamics.
“Go on, Annie, what happened then?”
“She starts yelling at me to come over there, she saved us a place and so on. There was nothing we could do but head over there and act like nothing had happened. It was torture. But I lived through it. In fact for the rest of the day, Nora stopped flirting with Danny and acted as if it had never happened. Trying to get me to sit by Danny and flirt. I was young and stupid, and by the end of the day figured her flirting with him was all my overactive imagination. But obviously it would happen again and again after that. So I learned to cope.”
Cope, she thought to herself, yeah right. She avoided Nora when she could and never again told her any of her secrets. It was an odd relationship they had, Nora assuming they were friends, Annie knowing they truly weren’t. The occasional movie or study night to keep the charade going. Never quite having the nerve to confront Nora as she should have. Maybe if she had, she thought, as she felt herself drifting off back to sleep.
“What about you? Did you ever go out with Sam?” Sue tried to bring Annie’s attention back to the present. It’s difficult interviewing a patient on pain meds. Sifting through what’s now and then, their memories generally become pretty tangled up.
Annie snorted. “Not likely. First of all, he wasn’t my type. Not at all. Secondly, I only had eyes for Chris, I guess that’s no secret. Well, maybe it is to you, did our friend the detective fill you in on all this?” Annie cocked her head to the side, wondering just how much Sue knew.
“Yes, what he knows, I know. How’s that?” Sue smiled warmly.
“So then maybe you could tell me if I wasted my time coming up here?”
“What do you mean?”
Annie chewed on her lip. When she spoke, her voice was almost pleading. “OK. Bottom line is Chris didn’t know I was coming. I didn’t know exactly where the cabin was either. And since you now know what’s going on, I think it’s only fair to tell me maybe, if you know, does he have someone? I mean he is single, right? I assume you know. This is like a small town, right?”
Sue laughed softly. “Fair enough question. I’m sure you realize that we need to protect his privacy. He’s been coming up to the lake for years, and it’s our job to see he lives in peace. Keep the crazed fans from stalking him.”
Annie smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, and you’d be right, wouldn’t you. I mean anyone who drives 500 miles in the middle of the night just to see a guy must be a little crazed.”
“Hey, love will do that to you, and yes, for the record, quite single. But, back to Sam.”
“Right. Sam,” Annie continued, “Sam was dating Martha, who happened to be my friend. Unlike Nora, I don’t sleep with my friends’ boyfriends.”
“What about after Martha died?”
“No, for all the same reasons. Ooooh!” Annie winced suddenly as pain shot through her ribcage. Her finger automatically hit the button as she closed her eyes and waited for the medicine to kick in again. No one spoke, as they could see her face contort in pain, then relax again.
“You OK?” asked Luce.
“Yeah, sorry, that was harsh.”
Sue hesitated for a moment. “Just one or two more, okay?” she asked gently.
“Sure. I’m ready.” Annie reply, gritting her teeth as the last spasms of pain dissipated.
“Did Sam try? Ask you out?”
“You know he actually did, once or twice, and I figured he was just lonely. He really wasn’t interested in me. I knew that. But what’s all this leading to? I can’t really figure this out. Of course I’m a bit loopy from this pain stuff, but still…” her voice trailed off as her eyes drooped close. She opened them again with a start, trying to remain awake.
“Look, Annie, that’s enough for now. I’ll stop by tomorrow, and we’ll visit some more.”
Annie closed her eyes and nodded. “mmm hmm…ok…bye…” and was out like a light.