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Ten minutes later, we were back in Luna’s car and following the others to downtown Whitby.
“Hope you don’t mind,” said Luna. “I just felt bad that there aren’t more people here.”
I said, “No, I agree. I just hate for them to have to pay for my lunch, especially from what Kyle was saying.”
“But they’ve already ordered the food and it’s going to be out there whether you’re in attendance or not. Besides, we haven’t had time to eat, ourselves,” said Luna reasonably.
We parked the car and followed everyone inside and to the back room of the small café where there were tables and chairs and a buffet with a variety of sandwiches, potato salad, fruit, chips, and drinks.
We filled our plates and then sat down at one of the tables. Felicity spotted us and sat down with us as Kyle looked disappointed about missing his opportunity.
She gave us a smile and said in a low voice, “It’s nice of you two to be here. I don’t think Scott knew many people here and of course his family’s friends live out of town. I’m glad they let you leave work for his service.”
Luna said, “We wanted to come.” She glanced at me. “I didn’t think about it before, but maybe this is a little bit of closure for us, in a way.”
I didn’t think there would really be any closure until Scott’s murderer was caught and the police wrapped up the investigation. Technically, we were all suspects. I didn’t think Burton seriously considered Luna or me to be viable candidates for Scott’s murder, but we had to be suspects, just the same.
Felicity nodded. “I know what you mean. What a weekend.” She blew out a sigh, looked down at her plate of food and pushed it slightly away. “I don’t think I can even eat a bite. I’m not sure why I even got food. My stomach has been in knots since I left Grace’s house. I don’t know what Grace was thinking, putting that particular group together. It was a recipe for disaster.”
I said, “She must have originally thought she was doing the right thing. After all, Kelly would have wanted Scott to be there. And she seemed to think it would be nice for your group to catch up with each other.”
“Was it, though?” asked Felicity wryly. “It didn’t work at all.”
“You were all close growing up, though, weren’t you?” I asked.
“Well, sure. But it’s a different time, isn’t it? And here in Whitby, you have a very limited body of people to choose to be friends with. If we’d all gone to school in a bigger town, maybe we’d never have even chosen each other as company. Besides, I don’t think we needed a reunion. I mean, it was nice to see Grace. She’s the one we haven’t seen for a while. But it wasn’t as if we had this lovely, idyllic time when we were in high school.” She grimaced.
I asked, “Is Grace the same as she was in high school? She’s just so confident now and it’s hard to imagine high schoolers being that self-assured.”
Felicity shook her head. Lowering her voice she said, “Money can do that for you. Grace was a very different person in high school. Very socially awkward. Quiet. She followed our group around and just kind of inserted herself. And she seemed to have the biggest crush on Scott. Whenever he was around, she’d just gape at him.”
Lula snorted. “I’m sure he ate that up. He had the ego for it.”
“He did. He wasn’t going out with anyone at the time, but he clearly wasn’t interested in Grace, although he’d joke around with her some. It was an unrequited love,” said Felicity.
Luna said, “Scott was a mess, but I feel bad for him. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
Felicity said, “That’s the second time I’ve known someone who’s drowned. I may never swim again. And I do feel badly . . . especially for Scott’s mother and brother. This must have been a devastating shock for them.”
I noticed Felicity didn’t seem to suffer from the heavy sense of guilt some of the other guests had felt. I wanted to find out what she was doing around the time Scott died so I offered my own alibi. “I just wish I could have done something to help. It gives me this sort of helpless feeling to know I wasn’t far away and could have maybe stopped this. Instead, I fell into a really sound sleep. Too much sun and too much wine, I suppose.”
Luna glanced over at me and I could tell she understood what I was trying to do. She stayed quiet and Felicity said, “I know what you mean. Part of me knows Scott was on a path of self-destruction that night, but somebody decided to help him on his way. I wasn’t any help at all, of course. I could hear loud music still playing in the pool area all the way in my room. I thought about going down there and asking everyone to turn the music down, but I didn’t want to deal with Scott again so I just plugged my ears up with my earbuds and played some soft music. Then I didn’t hear a thing from downstairs.”
Luna blurted out, “So what do you think, Felicity?” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Who did this? The police think it was someone at the party.”
Felicity shook her head. “I’m totally in the dark. I can’t believe any of us could have done it. But let’s face it—he made everybody mad. Well, not the two of you, although his attitude probably annoyed you to death. But everybody else was totally done with him. Technically, any one of us could have done it. The only way I can make sense of it all is that it must have been completely unplanned. Someone got fed up, lashed out impetuously at Scott in anger, and then were probably shocked at what they did and are lying to cover it up.”
I said hesitantly, “There was one thing I wanted to ask you about, Felicity. I overheard Scott and Kelly at one point over the weekend and Scott was saying there was something he needed to talk to you about.”
Felicity nodded. “He asked me for the name of a good tax lawyer. He figured I might be connected to some through my job or at least have heard of some.”
Luna made a face. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Felicity shrugged. “It sounded like he needed some help with his business. I told him I’d send him the name of someone, but then . . . well, I didn’t end up needing to.”
She stopped as Kyle pulled up a chair and sat down with them.
Felicity said, “How is Scott’s family holding up? I saw you’ve been speaking with them.”
Kyle shook his head. “They’re really shaken. I feel awful for them. They did ask me if I could lend them a hand with Scott’s things. I told them of course I’d help out.”
“That’s nice of you,” said Luna. “I didn’t even think about that. It would be tough for them, especially living in another state.”
Kyle nodded. “I feel like I should be able to help them more, but at least this is a start.”
He turned and said to me, “By the way, thanks again, Ann, for the book club information. I’m hoping to make the next meeting.”
Felicity raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t realize you were interested in the book club. I could have filled you in, myself. Ann gave me all kinds of information on it.”
Kyle flushed a little. “Oh, I overheard you and Ann talking about it last weekend and thought I might want to check it out.”
“I’d gotten the impression you were a big reader already,” said Felicity. “I’m surprised you can find time to fit it in.”
Kyle’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “I’m a big reader, for sure. The problem is that I always find myself picking out the same types of books. I’ve been thinking about joining a book club for a while, hoping I could broaden my list and fit in some other genres. I don’t read a lot of nonfiction. This club sounded right up my alley.”
The rest of the lunch was spent talking amiably about books and other things before Luna and I once again spoke to the family, and spent the rest of our day busily engaged at the library.
That night, I was curled up in bed sleeping awith Fitz snuggled against me when my phone rang. There’s nothing quite as jarring as an incoming phone call at 3:30 a.m.
I answered it, my voice hoarse and alarmed.
It was Luna. “Ann, it’s me. Roz is dead.”