Marcus dutifully wrote down all of Brynn’s instructions before she left, even though she gave him far too many details that he didn’t need to know: the exact temperature Lucas’s bottle needed to be, the right way to rock Lucas before his nap, the amount of Aquaphor to put on the little scratch on Lucas’s cheek. Marcus knew that these details were Brynn’s way of feeling secure leaving Lucas behind with him and Annie. So, he just nodded and wrote them all down.
“I’m missing something, I know it…” Brynn said. “Umm … Dr. Smith is his pediatrician. There’s a thermometer and other medical stuff in a box under the sink.”
“Brynn,” Marcus said, his voice calm. He put his hand on her shoulder. “We got it. I promise. We’ll take very good care of him.”
“And we’ll call you if we have any questions,” Annie said.
For some reason, Brynn didn’t want to leave Lucas. It was an unfamiliar pull, like a magnetic force. She wanted to hold him now more than ever. To smell his skin and feel the weight of his body in her arms. Normally, she couldn’t wait to be free from the prison of motherhood in which she felt trapped. She’d usually jump at the chance to go somewhere without worrying about the car seat, the diaper bag, the spit-up. But right now, she just wanted to be home with her son. She wanted to be with him and him alone, and to shut out the rest of the world.
“Okay,” Brynn said. “We’ll be quick, I think. Or, I hope. Thank you.”
In the car, her body ached to be back home, in her bubble. She hated it there, and yet she never knew how to exist anymore outside of it.
Ginny drove; Brynn sat in the passenger seat. She rolled her window down. The air outside was cool; it was still early morning. It felt luxurious being driven by someone else, and not being the one responsible for everything. Even if it was just for a moment. She exhaled and let herself have the small indulgence. Then, she started to laugh. Not a real laugh, more like a cross between a laugh and a cry.
“I just can’t believe this is my life, Ginny,” Brynn said. “How did this happen?”
“I don’t know,” Ginny responded. “But you’ll get through it. Now let’s call Jacob.”
Brynn called, and Jacob only answered after she tried him three times. He begrudgingly agreed to meet them on a trail in the state forest off West Tisbury Road.
“Do you feel safe doing this, Brynn? Maybe this is a bad idea,” Ginny said.
Maybe it was stupid of her, but Brynn did feel safe. It was strange, but since she’d had Lucas, she felt like nothing could really scare her—except motherhood itself. Everything else seemed easy in comparison to what she’d been through giving birth, and what she was still going through as a new mom.
“I do,” Brynn said. “I really don’t think Jacob had anything to do with Cecelia’s death. That said … I don’t know if I can trust him. But I’m not afraid of him. And anyway, we have nowhere else to turn. If he can help us, we need to ask.”
“Right,” Ginny said. Then she put her hand on her belly and groaned. “Ah,” she said, grimacing. “Just a cramp. I’m fine.”
“Ginny, maybe you should just go home and rest. This is nuts. You’re about to pop.”
“No,” Ginny said. “I owe this to you. I shouldn’t have talked to Ross behind your back, even if I was trying to protect you.” She paused. “We are figuring this out together.”
Brynn knew that she wouldn’t win the fight with Ginny. Once they reached the entrance to the trail, Ginny parked alongside the road and Brynn got out.
“You still have my location tracking on your phone, right?” Brynn asked.
“Sure do,” said Ginny. “I’ve got eyes on you.”
“Okay. I won’t be long, though.” Brynn turned toward the trail. “Hey, Ginny. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, Brynn.” Ginny smiled at her and then reclined her seat.
Jacob was waiting exactly where he said he’d be. He looked just as he’d looked to Brynn before—like a scared little boy. Brynn felt almost predatorial meeting him alone. She realized that he might be scared of her, and that he probably didn’t trust her at all.
“Hi, Jacob,” she said, and she swore she saw him jump.
“Hi,” he responded.
On the phone, Brynn had told him that they had information on the Nelsons that he might want to know, in exchange for his help with the police report.
“Listen, let me start by saying that I know you didn’t have anything to do with Cecelia’s death. And I’m sorry for your loss. I really am. But I know that my husband is innocent, too. I don’t know who did this to her, or why, but I know that it wasn’t Ross.”
Jacob scoffed and crossed his arms. “How do you know? And why should I trust you?”
“Well, I don’t know, not for sure. Or, at least, I don’t have proof.” Brynn fidgeted with her hands. “But for some reason, I’m deciding to trust you. And I think we can figure this out together. I have a feeling that Cecelia knew things about my family that she shouldn’t have known. And somehow … it got her in trouble. I tried asking your dad about it, but…”
Jacob interrupted. “Don’t bother asking my dad about anything having to do with the Nelsons. He practically is one.”
Brynn felt a shiver across her neck. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Jacob uncrossed his arms and paced around. “The only reason I’m meeting with you is because … I don’t trust the police. Well, no, it’s not that I don’t trust the police. I mean, I am a police officer. I don’t trust my dad.” He licked his lips, as if he’d said too much. “There’s a lot of things about the Nelsons that nobody is supposed to know. But my dad knows all of it.”
“Okay,” Brynn said, “I want you to be able to trust me. And I know you have no reason to. So let me prove it by telling you something that no one else knows. Even though I don’t owe you anything.”
“I’m listening,” Jacob said.
Brynn was bluffing slightly. She didn’t really know anything, except what Ross had whispered to her before being taken away by the police. But she wanted to goad Jacob into telling her anything he knew.
“I think I know what you’re referring to. About the Nelsons,” she said. “Right before he was arrested, Ross told me that Henry had been doing bad things—illegal things—with the company. He said he’d been doing it for years. And I don’t know what the connection is, but he said he knew why he was being arrested for Cecelia’s murder and that it was all related to what Henry had been doing. We need to find out. There must be something big, Jacob, something that Henry did years ago that got swept under the rug. And somehow, it’s why Cecelia is dead.”
Jacob looked off into the distance. Brynn couldn’t tell if he was going to tell her she was crazy, or if he knew exactly what she was talking about.
“You know, at the beginning,” Jacob said, “Cecelia was really excited about the job at the club. She was excited by this whole island. Her college roommate, Clarissa, had been a server there the summer before. She got her the job and convinced her to come. Cecelia had barely ever left Pottsville, Pennsylvania, you know, except for college at Middlebury. Her family had a small printing business, and I think that was all that was expected of her. To stay and work at her family’s Main Street store. This island represented something bigger to her … something aspirational. Freedom. She wanted to impress people here, especially the members of Oyster Watcha. Even you.”
Brynn felt queasy with guilt. She’d never considered herself someone that Cecelia had to impress. Now, when she thought about all of her interactions with Cecelia, she wondered how Cecelia had viewed her. And she realized, then, that she needed Jacob not only to find the police report but to learn about who Cecelia was. It was the question she had barely asked, but maybe it was the most important question of all.
“But that was in the beginning,” Jacob continued. “She came in guns blazing, you know. She really wanted to be Mauricio’s favorite. He’s the one who assigns the girls the best tables, the best shifts, so she knew he had the power. And it worked. I think she was his favorite. But I think she was his favorite because he knew she could keep secrets.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mauricio…” Jacob started to say.
“I knew it,” Brynn interjected. “He did this to her. Where is he, Jacob?”
“No, no,” he said. “You’ve got it wrong. Mauricio isn’t a good guy, but he didn’t do this to her. Or, I really don’t think so, anyway. You see, Mauricio was sleeping with another waitress. Clarissa—Cecelia’s friend. It’s been going on for two summers now. And Cecelia knew all about it.”
“Oh my God,” Brynn said. “Well, maybe he wanted to get rid of Cecelia to keep her quiet. That would make a lot of sense, right?”
“Maybe,” Jacob said. “Except that Mauricio was with Clarissa that night. Everyone knows it. Well, everyone knew it, except Mauricio’s wife. And now she definitely knows.”
Brynn deflated. “So, Mauricio couldn’t have hurt Cecelia that night. He wasn’t anywhere near her, is what you’re saying?”
“Yup,” said Jacob.
“It still feels weird that he disappeared right after she was found,” Brynn said. “Why would he have done that?”
“I don’t know,” Jacob said. “But … for better or for worse, Mauricio liked Cecelia. He respected her work ethic. I mean, he’s a slimeball, but he didn’t treat Cecelia badly, at least as her boss.” He paused. “After a while, Cecelia became … obsessed with the wealth on the island. She’d never seen anything like it before. You and I … we’re not part of it, but we’ve lived in it, or beside it, our whole lives, so we’re used to it. I think she got, like, spellbound by it.”
“Well, so? I can understand that,” Brynn said.
“It eventually made her angry, though,” Jacob said. “The whole reason she took the job at the club was because she hoped it would get her connections, a career opportunity, something to get her foot in the door. It’s not like the staff at the club are making money in tips. They’re not allowed to accept tips—you know that. It’s not about that. It’s about the potential relationships they can make there. A babysitting job for a family with a seat on the board of whatever museum, things like that.”
“But three summers went by and nothing came about, right?” Brynn asked.
“Exactly. By the third summer, when we were dating, she was pretty jaded about it all. She didn’t make the same effort as before. I know that Mauricio still had high expectations for her, and assumed she’d be available to work all the time, doing a better job than anyone, but she just didn’t care as much.” Jacob sighed. “The only person who seemed to have a real interest in her was Henry.”
Brynn paused, unsure of what to say. But she had to say the truth. “I think he genuinely cared about her, Jacob. I do. He spoke so highly of her. I guess it was weird, but he seemed to truly enjoy her company.”
“I know,” Jacob said. “I believe that. But that’s the problem. I think she resented him, in a way. Once she realized that Henry wasn’t from New York or whatever, that he was a local guy who worked in a blue-collar industry, she didn’t see what he could offer her. I mean, he’s wealthy, sure, but he’s not part of the world that she wanted to be in. Even if he thinks he is.”
Brynn nodded. Jacob had Henry pegged. Henry and Margaux both were somewhat anomalous on the Vineyard. They could keep up with the summer folks, but they weren’t summer folks themselves. They were members of the same clubs and supported the same charities, but they hadn’t attended Ivy League colleges—or any colleges. Their paths to success had been earned through grit and scrappiness, not through pedigrees. And somewhere deep down, Brynn heard her mother’s voice in her head—They think they’re better than us. They’re ashamed to be locals. Maybe she had been right.
“So why did Cecelia keep making such an effort with Henry, then? She always went out of her way with him. It seemed so sincere,” Brynn said.
Jacob looked down at his feet. “I’m not proud to say this. It was wrong. But she was in a dark place, I think, by the end.” Jacob looked back up at Brynn. “Henry started telling her all this stuff … confessing stuff. Bad things he’d done, crimes he’d committed. He said he felt pressured to make more and more money for his family. He didn’t know how to stop.” He paused. “She told me all of this.”
“And you didn’t do anything about it? Even though you’re a police officer?” Brynn started to question whether or not she could trust Jacob after all.
“No, I did. Of course I did. Or, I tried, anyway. I went straight to my father. But he shot me down. Told me I didn’t know what I was talking about. That I had no proof. That I was wasting my time. And he told me never to mention this to anyone again. Ever.”
Brynn didn’t know yet whether Jacob had any awareness of the police report. She started to open her mouth to ask, but Jacob kept talking.
“So, I was going to go around him. I swear I was. But then … right before Cecelia died … she said that Henry had told her something else. Something far worse than the other things. Something that really scared her. But she wouldn’t tell me what.”
“And you have no idea?”
“No,” Jacob said. “But she made me promise not to look into it or go to the state police or the FBI. She made me promise to do nothing about it. To just forget about it. That’s what she asked me to do.”
“Wait,” Brynn said. “I need to know something first. Whatever this thing was, did she ever say that Ross was involved? As far as she knew?”
“No,” said Jacob. “And I have to say, I wish I had a different answer. Things would be a lot easier if the answer was yes. I wish that Cecelia had told me bad things about Ross. Then I wouldn’t be conflicted. I wouldn’t be talking to you at all about this. But in all my research and in everything that she told me, I never found anything that directly implicated Ross in any wrongdoing. It was all Henry.”
Brynn let this sink in. She wasn’t crazy. She still didn’t have all the answers, but she at least had one other person now who agreed with her. Mostly.
“But,” Jacob continued, “the thing is, how could Ross not have known? How could he not have been a part of it? He was going to take over the company, right? And what about his brother, Sawyer. How could neither of them really not know about any of it?”
“Well,” Brynn said, “this might be why Ross is being blamed for Cecelia’s murder. He did know, Jacob. At least, he had just learned about it. He hadn’t been part of it, but he discovered it. And I know for sure that he was trying to make it right. He was going to make Henry come clean.”
Jacob looked skeptical. “What about Sawyer, then?”
“Sawyer is involved in the business much less than Ross,” she said. “Everyone always knew that Ross would be Henry’s successor, not Sawyer. I really don’t think he knows anything. Plus,” she continued, “I think both Ross and Sawyer really trusted their father. Ross did, anyway, until he found out what had been going on.”
It was clear that Jacob didn’t totally believe her yet, and Brynn could understand why. “Jacob,” she said, “you know there’s a police report filed against Henry twenty years ago. In Edgartown. It just got … blacked out, or something. Do you know about this?”
Jacob laughed. “Of course I know,” he said. “Obviously, I looked into the report myself. But my dad was the one who blacked that out. Don’t you get it?” He stared at Brynn. “They were in on it together. Pete and Henry. For years.”
Brynn remembered the way Henry had screamed at Pete when they came to arrest Ross. Henry’s response had been so fierce, so visceral. It had seemed like the only appropriate response from a father who loved his son and wanted to protect him. A father who knew his son was innocent. And, perhaps, now in retrospect, a father who was guilty himself. Whatever Pete and Henry had been doing together, it didn’t seem like arresting Ross had been part of the plan.
“So,” Brynn said, “how do you know your father didn’t…”
“Kill Cecelia?” Jacob asked, bluntly. “Unfortunately, I know that he didn’t. I don’t love to admit this to everyone, but I still live with my parents. Not sure if you’re aware of real estate prices on the island lately, but I don’t really have a better option at the moment. I know my dad was home that whole evening. There’s no way.”
“But you must know what evidence they have against Ross. Or what evidence they say they have, right? Something about … security camera footage?” Brynn thought that her conversation with Jacob was going to help clarify everything, but she was starting to feel more confused than before.
“I don’t. Honestly,” he said. “But whatever they have, it’s not good. Whether it’s true or not.”
Brynn checked the time. She had to get down to the station to meet Izzy and prep for questioning.
“Jacob,” she said. “Thank you for meeting me. I … Just one question. This might seem really out of the blue, but does the orange sun mean anything to you?”
“Huh?” Jacob gave her a confused look. “No, sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah,” Brynn said. “Me neither. I have to go. But … let’s keep in touch. There has to be a way to find out what that police report is about. And what Henry told Cecelia.”
“Hey, by the way,” Jacob said, eyeing her, “no one’s actually accounted for Henry’s whereabouts that night yet, you know.”
“Margaux has,” Brynn said.
Jacob raised his eyebrows at her.
“All in the family,” he said.