Connor immediately set about protecting me from the paparazzi. One morning the following week, as he was about to leave for the city, he asked me to join him in the library.
“What’s this about?” I asked, as we made our way down the sweeping staircase.
I was dressed in dark leggings and a knit hat for my morning walk on the beach. Connor wore a beautifully tailored dark suit with a gold tie that brought out the color of his eyes. He was so handsome that he gave me butterflies, and I still couldn’t get over that he belonged to me.
“This is about your safety, my love. The paparazzi harassed Nina constantly, and I’m not going to let that happen to you. I called in an expert to handle the situation. He’s here to brief us.”
“A publicist?”
“A security consultant.”
We hurried through the east wing parlors, our footsteps echoing on the parquet floors. Windswept was like a museum, its high-ceilinged rooms full of exquisite furniture and artwork. After two weeks here, I was still overawed by the place, to the point that I was afraid to touch things for fear of damaging some priceless object.
As Connor pushed open the library door, the man who’d been sitting on the sofa sprang to his feet. He was tall and brawny, with a smashed nose and colorless eyes. It was the guy who’d caught me trying to sneak into Windswept the night Nina died, the one who’d fought with Derek and called the police on us. I watched his eyes flicker as he tried to place me, feeling like someone had walked across my grave.
The man turned to Connor.
“Steve, great to see you. Thanks so much for coming by,” Connor said, pumping his hand. “Darling, this is Steve Kovacs. He’s a top-notch security consultant. Steve, my wife, Tabitha.”
“Mrs. Ford, pleasure,” Kovacs said.
“H-hello,” I said, my throat dry.
My hand sweated as we shook. His powerful grip brought back the feeling of his hand on my arm as he walked me to the police cruiser that night. How was it possible that he didn’t recognize me? Was I saved by my ponytail, my long blond hair hidden under a cap? That reprieve couldn’t last. I should say something before Kovacs did. People survived in this dog-eat-dog world by getting out ahead of the story and spinning it to their advantage. But there was no good spin here. I’d been at Windswept the night Nina died, accompanied by my drug-dealer ex who was now in prison for assaulting this security guard. How do you make that sound better? I could tell the truth, give the innocent explanation, but who would believe it?
“Please, have a seat,” Connor said.
Kovacs and Connor sat down on the couch side by side. I sank into an overstuffed chair, limp with the fear that he’d recognize me any minute now. But his face was perfectly blank.
“I hear you’ve got a nasty paparazzi problem,” he said.
“Yeah, some asshole from ChitChat snuck up on her at Le Bernardin last week when we were there for a Levitt Global dinner. I don’t know whether it was dumb luck, or if somebody tipped him off. But now they’re interested in her, and I’m worried she’ll be targeted wherever she goes. With this lawsuit nonsense, it’s a sensitive time. We don’t need the scrutiny.”
“Absolutely. I understand.”
“What can we do to protect her, so she’s not hounded? And protect me, too, of course.”
“Sure. Well, first, thank you for the opportunity to discuss your security profile. I always believed Mrs. Levitt’s risk management was not as robust as it should be given her high net worth and public presence. I think it’s wise for you to reassess. My advice is to bring your considerable resources to bear on the problem. In other words, you get what you pay for. Let’s be real. People are out to get you. The press, the woman who brought the lawsuit, her investigators, who knows what other bad actors are out there every day, thinking about you, and how they’re gonna bring you down. Let me think about how to stop them. How to frustrate their access to you, and how to set up a muscular program of counterintelligence.”
“Go on.”
“At a minimum, you need daily personal security, a complete overhaul of on-site security here at Windswept, and an investigative capability aimed at neutralizing threats before they arise.”
Kovacs proceeded to outline a series of measures, including the installation of multiple security cameras on Windswept’s grounds, a twenty-four-seven security team including live-in bodyguards, guards to accompany us whenever we left the house, and investigators who could dig up dirt on Connor’s adversaries. When Kovacs said it would cost thousands of dollars a week on an ongoing basis, Connor didn’t bat an eye. He agreed to everything.
If Kovacs became a regular presence in my life, I’d live in constant fear of the moment he remembered me. I protested based on the expense and the intrusion, but Connor wouldn’t hear it.
“Let me handle this, okay, babe? You’re new to this lifestyle. You’re just not in a position to make an assessment of our security needs the way I am.”
They agreed that Kovacs would implement a large-scale security program at Windswept as quickly as possible. In the meantime, it would be best if I didn’t leave the grounds, not even to walk on the beach.
“Is that really necessary?”
“It’s a public beach. Anybody could be out there, and I can’t protect you until we’re on site,” Kovacs said.
“Please, Tabby. For my peace of mind,” Connor said.
“If you really think so.”
“I do. And now I’ve got to get into the city. Steve, I’d appreciate it if you could forward the contract and put your team in place as soon as possible.”
“Absolutely, sir.”
They left, and I sat on the window seat with my chin in my hand, looking out at the bright, blustery day. Down on the beach, whitecaps crested jauntily as gulls swooped across the sky, but I was a prisoner here because some stranger had taken my picture. Surely, an overreaction. Right? If Nina had committed suicide, Connor should have nothing to worry about. There wouldn’t be evidence proving him guilty if he wasn’t, so there shouldn’t be a way to pin her death on him. Unless there was evidence. Unless he was behind it.
If I let myself doubt him even for a minute, I’d go down a rabbit hole and never get out. Connor stood to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from Nina’s death. It would be so easy to believe he was guilty, but then I’d have no one, and nothing. I had to have faith. Yes, there was a lot of money at stake, but that didn’t make him guilty. You could say I had that same motive, and I was innocent.
You could say I had the same motive. That train of thought continued, bringing me to an uncomfortable truth. I was as good a suspect for Nina’s murder as Connor was. Better, actually. Connor had access to Nina’s money while she was alive. I didn’t. I was struggling to make ends meet, with a baby on the way. The only way I could get my hands on Nina’s money would be through her husband, and for that, she had to die. Not only did I have the most compelling motive, I had the opportunity to kill her. I was at Windswept the night she died. Kovacs knew that. He just hadn’t recognized me yet. All it would take was that lightbulb going off in his head, and I could find myself accused of Nina’s murder.
I ought to tell Connor the truth, tonight. The whole truth. Or else Kovacs could end up telling him first.
As if conjured by my thoughts, Kovacs strolled out onto the terrace and down the steps to the beach. He was talking on his phone, heading west, away from Windswept. He walked down the beach until he became a tiny dot and disappeared. I picked up the binoculars that sat on the windowsill to see him better. Almost immediately, he turned around and headed back, taking up position on the stretch of beach in front of Windswept. Putting up the collar of his jacket against the wind, he checked his watch as if he was waiting for something.
A few minutes later, Juliet emerged from the house and walked down to meet him. It didn’t appear to be a chance encounter. There was no look of surprise, not even any greeting. They spoke several minutes, intently. At one point, Kovacs turned and gestured toward the house. Juliet looked up and nodded. The feeling that they were talking about me was so strong that the back of my neck prickled. After a few more minutes, Juliet went back into the house, and Kovacs strode off toward the brick path that led past the garage and up to the front gate. I crossed my fingers that walking on the path where Derek had attacked him wouldn’t jog his memory. To me, it evoked memories uncomfortable enough that I’d avoided it since my return, just as I’d avoided visiting the swimming pool where Nina had drowned. To me, they were haunted places.
I heard a noise behind me and turned with a start. But it was just Gloria, coming to dust the room.
“Good morning, Mrs. Ford,” she said, nodding unsmilingly, her black hair and dark eyes making her seem even more somber.
“Good morning, Gloria.”
“Okay if I tidy up in here now?”
“Sure thing. Go right ahead.”
She made her way around the room on soft-soled shoes, flicking a feather duster, straightening the knickknacks. Juliet had referred to Gloria as a fixture at Windswept. The term was apt—she moved so soundlessly that, at times, she seemed to blend in with the furniture. More than once, I’d turned a corner in the immense house and been startled to stumble across Gloria going about her work. I wondered if Nina had insisted on that level of discretion, if she’d been the type who hated to see or hear her staff. Personally, I found Gloria’s silence disconcerting. She could be watching me, and I would never know.
“How long have you worked at Windswept, Gloria?”
“A long time.”
“Did Mrs. Levitt hire you?”
She stopped dusting for a moment, averting her eyes, as if deciding whether to reply.
“No. He did. He brought me here.”
She gestured at the Warhol of Edward Levitt hanging over the fireplace. A candy-hued silk-screen of a photograph, it was realistic in a way that the ghoulish Lucian Freud of Nina was not. It showed Edward in minute detail, with a pockmarked face and bright blue eyes, wearing a smoking jacket and holding a cigar, a cruel smile playing about his lips. He was probably in his forties when it was done, and he looked commanding and dangerous, like someone who ruled his corner of the world. Like a pirate.
“Everything I’ve read makes him out to be a tyrant. What was he like to work for?” I asked.
She continued dusting. I thought she wasn’t going to answer, but eventually she started talking, in a soft, faraway voice.
“That’s true. He did what he wanted. He didn’t like to hear the word ‘no.’”
“You mean, in business?”
“Everything. But business, sure. Like, years ago, Mr. Levitt came to my town to open a mine. There were protests, but the police arrested everyone. My brother went to jail. He got beat really badly, and he died.”
“My God, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. Your brother died in the protest, yet you still came to work for the Levitts?”
“A lot of people agreed with the police, because the mine brought jobs. My other brothers went to work there. And when Mr. Levitt came back to the U.S., my family sent me with him. It was a chance to send money home. The Levitts paid me good money. I sent my nieces and nephews to school. I bought my mother a house. Maybe I wanted to leave sometimes, but I had reasons to stay.”
“I feel like that myself sometimes, too.”
“You? You can leave whenever you want to.”
“You’re right. I don’t mean to equate our situations. I’m sure what you went through was very difficult. How old were you when you came here?”
“Seventeen. The first Mrs. Levitt was here then. She was a nice lady. Good to me. I was sad when she left.”
“You mean, when Edward divorced her for Nina?”
“Yes.”
“How long did you work for Nina?”
“Long time. Thirty years. Until she died.”
“That must’ve been hard, too.”
“People say Mrs. Levitt was difficult. Not to me, she wasn’t. We got along. We understood each other. It might sound funny, but we went through a lot of the same things.”
I didn’t really understand what she meant by that.
“The papers said you were the one who found her body.”
“Oh, I don’t talk about that,” she said, turning her back abruptly. She took up the feather duster again, moving to the other side of the room.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve realized it would be a sensitive topic.”
“The police told me, don’t talk about it, in case I have to testify.”
“Testify? Isn’t the case closed?” I asked, alarmed.
She shrugged. “That, I don’t know. They don’t tell me much. Just not to talk about it.”
“Got it.”
“So, you say you want to leave. Why don’t you, then?”
“Leave Windswept? I didn’t really mean that. It’s just that I feel alone here sometimes. I imagine you felt the same way when you first came. I was a waitress before, and I’m really not prepared for this life. Connor and I got married fast. I didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into.”
“Because of the baby?”
“What?”
She patted her stomach. “You got married because of the baby.”
“Did Juliet tell you that?” I said, astonished.
She’d promised not to, but then she’d gone and blabbed to Gloria?
“Oh, no. No, she didn’t say anything.”
“Then how did you know?”
“I can see it, in your face, your body.”
Was that true, or was Gloria covering for Juliet’s indiscretion? The pregnancy didn’t show much yet, especially to someone who hadn’t known me before. That raised the troubling prospect that two members of the staff were gossiping about my pregnancy behind my back, and lying about it. Plus, if Juliet had told Gloria, what were the chances she’d also tell Kovacs? Worse, that she already had, during their tête-à-tête on the beach just now?
“Please don’t tell anybody, okay, Gloria? Not until I’m farther along.”
“I won’t. I don’t talk to anyone outside this house,” Gloria said.
“Don’t tell anyone in this house, either.”
“But you just said Juliet already knows.”
“I didn’t tell her. She found out because—well, it doesn’t matter. The point is, I swore her to secrecy.”
Gloria raised her eyebrows skeptically.
“Why are you giving me that look? Did she keep my secret, or not?”
Gloria held her hands up, shaking her head. “She didn’t tell me. I don’t who else she talks to.”
“Well, can I trust her, or not?”
“You have to decide who to trust.”
“I’m asking your opinion.”
“You want my opinion? Fine. You say you want to leave. So, leave. And soon, before the baby comes. Nothing good happens at Windswept, and it’s no place for a baby. But that’s just my two cents, and I’m only the housekeeper. Now, if you’ll excuse me, ma’am, I have things to do in the kitchen.”