Chapter 28
“Mother has gone to bed,” Taylor said when she greeted them outside. “We can stay out here or go in. It’s up to you.” Her hair was in a ponytail, held together by twine again; it made her face look severe.
“Here’s fine,” Kevin said and leaned against his truck.
Annie stepped around the vehicle and stood next to him. “We’ve been trying to help Fiona Littlefield,” she said, “and your name came up.”
Taylor shifted; her body stiffened. “What about me?”
“Nicole Flanagan had you deliver a honey cake to the Littlefields’ house. She told you to leave it in the kitchen.”
Leveling her gaze on Annie, Taylor said, “True.”
“Can you tell us why you did that?”
Aside from the blinders she’d worn when she’d been married to Mark, Annie was usually good at deciphering body language. But whether it was due to the shadows cast by the sun as it began to dip toward the horizon, or concern for the growing feelings her brother had clearly developed for Taylor, she couldn’t tell if the woman’s rigid stance was caused by a guilty conscience that she’d participated in Fiona’s mishap or by her need to protect her secret about Jonas.
“Fiona always liked honey cake,” was the wooden reply. “It was no big deal.”
“So Nicole just gave you a call in the midst of her daughter’s wedding celebration and asked you to deliver a honey cake to her next-door neighbor?”
“Something like that.”
Annie sighed and glanced over at Kevin, who seemed happy to leave the questioning to her. Maybe he didn’t want to admit he felt duped by Taylor, or uneasy because he’d been duping her, too, by not being forthcoming about his wife. People! he had exclaimed. They’re all a little bit crazy, aren’t they?
“Taylor,” she said, lowering her voice, “did you know the honey cake contained tainted honey? That it was why Fiona became ill and had the seizure?”
A mystified expression washed over the woman’s face.
“What?”
“The honey was poisonous, most likely from the nectar of mountain laurel. It slipped past the beekeeper and wound up in the cake.”
“Seriously?” Her shoulders dropped; she appeared more accessible, which Annie interpreted as a good sign.
“You didn’t know?” Kevin asked.
“Christ, of course I didn’t know! You think I’d knowingly give anyone something poisonous?”
Neither Annie nor Kevin replied.
“If I was going to poison anyone,” she added, “it damn well would be Mother.”
Annie flinched.
“Not because I hate her. But because she’s only eighty-three but can’t do a damn thing except take her pain meds and try to get from the bed to the bathroom without falling on her ass.” She shook her head. “She’d never ask me to do it, but I know she wouldn’t stop me. Put her out of her damn misery, you know? But I can’t. I have a hard enough time shooting vermin. As for Fiona Littlefield, that girl never did anything to me. Why the hell would I want to kill her?”
Annie remained quiet, trying to temper the moment.Then she said, “It’s rare that a human dies from poisoned honey. Animals, yes. Humans, not often. But they can get very sick, like Fiona did. And I suppose if the body is compromised by other issues, death might occur. Fiona might have been more susceptible because she’s so tiny.” Annie had made that part up, but wanted to placate Taylor. Annie felt the woman had been dealt enough blows in her life.
In the distance, the evening crickets had begun to chirp; a bat screeched from within the small forest of trees, a sign that it was starting its nocturnal rounds. Bats were one more species that had frightened Annie in the city, but which she’d come to terms with on Chappaquiddick. After all, it had been their home long before it became hers.
“Well,” Taylor said, “I’m sorry about that. But I had no way of knowing the cake would make her sick. I was only doing Nicole a favor because she was under the gun, trying to keep the kitchen cleared for the caterer, who was already hustling hors d’oeuvres and champagne.”
“So it was after the ceremony?”
“Yes.”
“Were you a wedding guest?”
Taylor hesitated, then said, “No. It wasn’t exactly my crowd, you know?”
Annie couldn’t imagine what it had been like for her to have her son raised by people who weren’t “exactly her crowd.” “Taylor,” she said, “would it surprise you to know that Nicole knew it was poisonous? That she intentionally wanted to make Fiona sick?”
“What?” Taylor asked, though Annie knew perfectly well she had heard her.
“Nicole wanted to make Fiona sick,” Kevin chimed in. “It must have been before she talked to you that she arranged for Roger’s friend to convince Colin to leave the island. We don’t know how she did that, or why he agreed. But we do think she also might have hoped that, because Colin disappeared, Fiona would assume he’d been the one who’d tried to kill her. Which was exactly what ended up happening.”
Then Annie chimed in. “We also don’t know whether or not Roger was in on any of this or if Nicole acted alone. But that’s up to the police to figure out.”
“Sorry,” Taylor interrupted, “but I don’t believe this. It’s true they’re not the most warmhearted people on the planet, but I don’t think either one of them would stoop this low.”
Then Annie told her about Myrna on the boat, and that Nicole had been there. “It’s not as if she planned it in advance, but she sure seized the opportunity. We figure that after Colin went down to the freight deck when the ferry was about to dock, she went back to the trash bin and retrieved the cake that Myrna hadn’t touched. We have no idea if Nicole knew exactly how sick Fiona would get. But again, that’s for the police to determine.”
More crickets chirped as the sky began to morph from soft melon to deep purple.
“But she used me,” Taylor said. “She set me up as the one who’d make sure Fiona saw the cake. What a sucker I’ve become.”
Her comment did not require confirmation.
“Look,” Taylor said. “I know I’m not always likable. Earl often reminds me of that. But we all have our reasons for being who we are, don’t we?”
“Yup,” Kevin replied.
She looked up at the darkening sky, not at them. “For almost twenty-three years, the Flanagans have pretty much owned me. Their grandson, Jonas, is my boy. His father was their son, Derek; he died one day when we were sailing. I don’t think they ever believed it was an accident. But so help me God, it was. He slipped. He fell overboard. Unfortunately, I was pregnant. Nicole pulled some emotional blackmail shit on me: She said if I didn’t follow her instructions she’d make sure I was arrested and convicted of Derek’s death. Roger went along with her conniving bullshit.
“As for me, I couldn’t imagine being accused of Derek’s death. We really loved each other. In fact, that’s why I go see Jaws every Fourth of July. I like to watch it on the big screen. Derek was an extra in the movie. He was only five, but, God, he was cute even back then.” She paused; her face contorted, as if she were about to cry.
Annie reached out and touched her shoulder. “Oh, Taylor. I am so sorry.”
Taylor shrugged off Annie’s touch and continued talking. “They shuttled me off island to Boston, so the neighbors wouldn’t find out I was pregnant. When Jonas was born, I agreed to let them adopt him. What else could I do?
“For starters, I was younger than Jonas is now. I had no way to support myself, let alone a baby. Nicole offered money. For my parents and for me. ‘In perpetuity,’ Nicole said. I remember I had to look that up to find out it meant ‘forever.’ I was, after all, the daughter of a fisherman, you know? Not one of their kind. A common story, the island girl with the rich summer kid. What would you call that in one of your books, Annie?”
“A cliché,” Annie replied. She decided not to ask if the Flanagans still supported Taylor and her mother. That was a private matter between them, not suited for island gossip.
“Anyway,” Taylor said, “my only consolation is that Jonas has had a decent enough life and a good education. Plus, I get to see him every summer. And he’s never known that I’m his mother.”
Silence wrapped around them.
Then Kevin said, “Taylor? Jonas knows.”