Unless she gives you up for being the meddlesome boyfriend you are,” Lindsey said.
Robbie grinned. “She’d never. She’s too smitten.”
Lindsey rolled her eyes. “Okay, spill it. What did you hear?”
Robbie leaned forward and set his cup on the desk, then he rubbed his hands together as if he were trying to get warm.
“All right, so there I was, perusing the titles in the library—quite the eclectic reading taste, I might add,” he began. Lindsey rolled her hand at him to indicate he should move it along, and he sighed. “Fine. Once I heard them talking and noticed that their voices were heated, I began to back out of the room, but then I heard one of them say, ‘If you go through with this, you’ll be dead to me.’”
Robbie’s imitation of the American accent was spot-on, and Lindsey was enthralled. She could just imagine overhearing such a conversation, and she didn’t fault Robbie a bit for loitering. She sipped her tea while he continued.
“Naturally, I froze. I wondered what might happen if the two came to blows. I didn’t want to just walk away.”
“Could you tell which brother said, ‘You’ll be dead to me’?” she asked.
Robbie shook his head. “No, blast it. Emma asked me the same thing.”
“What do you suppose they were talking about?” Lindsey asked.
“Not what. Who,” Robbie said. “After that dramatic declarative statement, the conversation continued, and it became clear that the Briggs brothers were arguing over a woman.”
“Whoa,” Lindsey said. She sank back in her seat. That was the very last thing she’d expected. “Are you sure? What did they say? Who is the woman?”
“Well, if I knew that, I’d have told Emma, wouldn’t I? And she’d be questioning her,” he said. “But they never mentioned a name.”
Lindsey tapped her chin with her forefinger. Judging by Jamie’s reaction to the news of Steve’s death, she had the feeling that there wasn’t a lot of love between the two. Perhaps it was just on Jamie’s side, but it was hard for her to imagine the wealthy Jamie, who didn’t like Briar Creek, having an affair with local boy Nate.
Besides, everyone knew that Nate was crazy about his wife, Naomi. They were high school sweethearts, both born and raised in Briar Creek, and they had five adorable daughters. No, Lindsey couldn’t see Nate cheating on his wife.
“What about the woman in black?” Lindsey asked. It occurred to her that whomever Molly had seen dressed in disguise might be the woman in question.
“Woman in black?” Robbie asked. “I think you’ve got your mystery novels mixed up. It’s The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, and what does that book have to do with anything?”
“No, I’m not talking about a novel,” Lindsey said. She waved her hand at him. “Molly at the police station told Sully and me that she bumped into a woman dressed all in black, including a heavy black veil, when she was upstairs using the restroom. Don’t you think it’s likely that she was the woman they were fighting about?”
“Do you suppose they were having an affair with the same woman?” Robbie asked. “The scandal!”
“No, I don’t see Nate cheating,” Lindsey said. On this she was absolute. “What else did they say? Try to remember it exactly.”
“One of them said, ‘She’s not yours,’ and the other said, ‘She is for the right price,’ and that’s when one of them made the death declaration, perhaps meaning it literally.”
Lindsey stared down into her teacup.
“I’ll admit it sounds bad,” she said, “but there are certain realities in this conversation.”
“Such as?”
“Well, for one thing, only one of the brothers has money,” she said. “So that would indicate that whoever said, ‘she is for the right price’ had the money to back up his claim.”
“Hold it.” Robbie sat up straight. “I’ve been going at this all wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“I assumed they were talking about a woman but what else is usually ascribed a female gender?”
“You lost me.”
“We’re taking her out for a drive,” Robbie said. He wagged his eyebrows at her, trying to get her to catch his meaning.
“Cars, boats, planes! Ah, of course!” Lindsey cried. “They could have been talking about something other than a woman. That makes so much more sense, especially since Nate is a mechanic.”
“Any idea how we can find out what he’s been working on?” Robbie asked.
“Naomi, his wife, is in here all the time with their girls,” Lindsey said. “I could try and find out if she knows anything about a disagreement between the brothers.” She sighed and leaned back in her chair, feeling relieved. “It could be as simple as Nate advising his brother away from a bad purchase, couldn’t it?”
Robbie’s face grew serious. “No, we have to remember that whatever he was suggesting was very serious to Nate. Otherwise, why say, ‘You’ll be dead to me’?”
“Oh, right.” Lindsey took another biscuit and bit it in half. “So it could have been a car he was working on, maybe a car he wanted to invest in, or possibly a boat, although I don’t think Nate did much work on boats.”
“Steve’s boat is still missing,” Robbie observed. “And it’s a top-of-the-line craft, easily worth a couple hundred thousand.”
“It could be he was thrown overboard,” Lindsey said. “He might have bashed his head on a rock in the bay and had to swim for it.”
Robbie refreshed their tea and said, “Doesn’t it seem awfully odd that he would have been joyriding on his boat in the middle of the night when it was bitterly cold wearing only his elf suit?”
“That had occurred to me,” Lindsey said. “I’m sure Emma has thought the same.”
Robbie nodded. “She won’t discuss it, but I know it bothered her, too.”
“So that makes it seem more likely that it was murder,” Lindsey said.
He shrugged. “How drunk was he when he left the party?”
“I can’t say for sure, but it’s well known that Steve doesn’t drink. He’s been sober for as long as I’ve lived in Briar Creek. Unless, of course, he had a relapse . . .”
“It would explain a lot,” Robbie said. “Some of my worst decisions were made when I was tanked. Then again, some of my best decisions came from the same place.”
Lindsey gave him a look, but he made a scale with his hands and pretended to weigh the good versus the bad.
“Be that as it may,” she said, “it doesn’t seem likely that Steve got drunk and decided to go joyriding in his boat, does it?”
“Maybe the argument with Mancusi or his brother set him off on a bender,” Robbie offered.
“I feel like we’re reaching,” Lindsey said. “We have to leave it to Emma to figure this out. I don’t have time, and with Steve, well, gone, I have to find someone who can perform our wedding ceremony in just a few days. Not to mention the fiasco of having three times as many people in attendance than I had planned.”
Lindsey pushed aside her cup and rested her head on her desk. She was not overwhelmed. She was not. Just because the island where she planned to get married was off-limits due to an investigation, her family was arriving in a matter of days, she had no one to perform the ceremony, and one of her future husband’s lifelong friends had been found dead under mysterious circumstances, there was no reason to be riddled with doubt and anxiety.
“Chin up, love,” Robbie said. “Surely it can’t be that hard to find someone who is already ordained and has a certificate from the county clerk as well as a letter of good standing. I mean, that’s the easy part. What you really want is a person who can deliver a bang-up service. This is your big day, after all.”
“I’ll settle for someone who can ‘mawwage’ their way through the service,” she said.
Robbie burst out laughing. “Like in The Princess Bride?”
“Exactly,” she said. “Beggars not being choosey and all.”
“I bet you’ll find just the right person,” Robbie said. He gestured to the library around them. “Why, they’re likely right under your nose.”
“You’re probably right,” she said. She rose up from the desk, retrieving her cup and finishing her tea. “I just feel as if Steve’s death has cast a pall over the whole thing. I mean, he was our friend, and he was a cornerstone of the community. It feels so wrong to continue with the ceremony without him, but I feel like if we don’t get married this weekend, we never will.”
“Ask yourself this, what would Steve want you to do?”
“Get married,” she said. She knew it as surely as if he was standing there saying it to her. Steve had been thrilled when they asked him to perform the ceremony. During their conversation about the service, he’d confided to them that he was a sucker for weddings and considered them the highlight of his position as a justice of the peace.
It was one more reason that Lindsey had never understood his relationship with Jamie. It was so clear that Steve loved Briar Creek and was happy here while Jamie could barely stand it. What sort of marriage was that? Had Steve been happy? Jamie clearly hadn’t been. What did it all mean in regard to Steve’s death? She didn’t know.
“What are you thinking?” Robbie asked.
“That I have a lot of questions about Steve’s death,” she said. “But Emma would probably say—”
“Leave it to the police,” Robbie finished for her with a sigh.
“And she’d be right,” Lindsey said.
“That’s never stopped us before,” Robbie said.
“We had reasons before,” Lindsey said. “People we cared about were being wrongly accused or were in danger.”
“I fail so see your point,” he said.
“We have no reason to think Steve was murdered as yet,” Lindsey said. “Also, I have a wedding that I need to be thinking about. I can’t be getting all caught up in some possible investigation.”
“Of course, you’re right,” Robbie said. “It’d be bad form of us to assume the worst and then start looking for a murderer in our midst. Besides, even if there is a culpable party, my money is on that Mancusi fellow. He clearly had a beef with Briggs that had been festering for some time.”
“And if he is the responsible party, Emma will no doubt be on top of it,” Lindsey said.
“So, is this how it’s going to be now?” Robbie asked.
“How what’s going to be?”
“This. Us. Me, the fabulous yet out-of-commission undercover operative, and you, the good-hearted librarian who no longer sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong?”
“I’m not sure I like that description of me,” Lindsey retorted.
“Sorry,” Robbie said. “I just felt like we were a team, taking on the bad guys and all.”
“We were,” she said. “I just think we need to join a volleyball league or something, as our time as sleuths has obviously come to a close. No more bad guys should be a good thing.”
“Meh. Volleyball?” Robbie made a face of disgust.
Lindsey laughed. “Fine, you pick our new hobby, but, yes, I do think those days are done. I hope so, at least. Wouldn’t life be better if there were no more murders in Briar Creek?”
“Well, yeah, but . . .”
“No buts,” Lindsey said. She glanced at the clock on her computer. “And I have to get back to work.”
“Why is teatime always the shortest part of the day?” Robbie asked. He stood and began gathering their things, loading up the tray he’d used. Lindsey helped, and when he lifted the tray, he stared over it at her with a considering look.
“What?” she asked.
“I was just thinking,” he said.
Lindsey waited. She knew Robbie. She knew how his brain worked. He had an angle he was working. She perched a no on the tip of her tongue, getting it ready.
“You said that we don’t have a reason to investigate this situation,” he said. “But I’d argue that as long as your wedding is swinging in the balance, we very much have a reason to find out what happened to Steve Briggs, because the sooner we know, the sooner the island will be available for you to get married. And the clock is ticking.”
Lindsey exited the library, leaving Beth in charge for the evening. Sully’s parents were still staying at the bed-and-breakfast while the police finished up on the island, so Lindsey and Sully were meeting them for dinner at the Blue Anchor.
Mike and Joan were already seated in a booth with Sully when Lindsey arrived. She hung up her coat on the rack at the end of the booth, draping her scarf over her wool coat. Sully and Mike both stood, and Sully hugged her and gestured for her to go ahead into the booth. She sank gratefully onto the dark brown vinyl seat, already thinking about what she wanted for dinner.
The biscuits she’d had with Robbie at tea a few hours ago were history, and her stomach was ready for more. The smell coming from the kitchen was a combination of lobster bisque and clam fritters, and she was torn between the two and debating ordering both.
“Lindsey, I’m so glad you’re here,” Joan said. “I had an idea about your wedding.”
“You did?” Lindsey asked. With only a few days to go, she’d thought the time for ideas was done, but she was willing to listen.
“Yes,” Joan hesitated. “I hate to even mention this because it seems cold, but you still need someone to marry you, yes?”
Lindsey glanced at Sully. Unless he’d pulled off a miracle of which she was unaware, they still needed someone to perform the service.
“Do we?” she asked. He nodded. So no miracle then. She turned back to Joan. “Yes, it appears we do still need someone.”
“Okay, then, I was thinking about my uncle Carl,” she said. “He’s retired, but he was a minister in Durham for years.”
“Oh, Mom, no,” Sully said. He shook his head. Lindsey glanced at his face. He looked pained, as if he didn’t want to reject her suggestion but felt he had no alternative.
“Why? What’s wrong with Uncle Carl?” she asked.
A waitress came by and delivered a glass of wine to Lindsey. She glanced at the bar and saw Ian. He waved, and she smiled. He was going to be her brother-in-law in just a few days, and she knew she couldn’t ask for a better one.
“Dad, help me out,” Sully said to his father.
Mike’s gray eyebrows rose up to his hairline. “Sorry, son, you’re on your own.”
“Well?” Joan persisted.
“Mom, the last time he was assigned grace at Thanksgiving, he went on for five minutes and then fell asleep,” he said. “He almost did a face-plant into the mashed potatoes.”
Mike burst out laughing and clapped Sully on the shoulder. “And he would have if Ian hadn’t scooped them out of the way in time.”
“Not a surprise. You know how Ian feels about his taters,” Sully said.
“It was a very busy day, and he was tired,” Joan said. She gave them both a reproving glance and then turned to Lindsey. “He’s a very nice man.”
“He is,” Sully conceded. “He’s also ninety-six and hasn’t left his assisted-care facility in the middle of winter in years. The shock might do him in.”
“Sully!” Joan frowned.
“I’m sorry, Mom, I love Uncle Carl, too, and if he was a decade or two younger, I would absolutely consider him, but this day is going to be too much for him, and you know it,” he said.
Joan sighed. “I know. I’m just afraid if we don’t find someone . . .”
“We’ll find someone,” Lindsey said. “I’m sure of it. I have everyone I know looking. It’ll be okay.” She wasn’t sure of anything of the sort, but she must have sounded more confident than she felt, because Joan looked reassured.
“I think we need to consider the possibility that we won’t be able to get married on the island,” Lindsey said. “Maybe we should find a place in town to have the wedding.”
Sully nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.” He turned to his parents. “Has Emma said when you’ll be able to go home?”
“She said they’d be done with their investigation by tomorrow,” Mike said. “Don’t worry. The island will be in perfect shape for the wedding.”
Joan nodded. “It’ll be lovely, you’ll see.”
Lindsey felt herself relax. If Mike and Joan felt this confident, then surely she should, too. Her parents and her brother were arriving in a few days. They were all staying at the Sullivans’ house on the island, and the wedding would be a simple ceremony with a reception to follow. Thankfully, they’d managed to rent a large tent with side flaps that closed and portable heaters so that they could accommodate everyone who was planning to come. She tried not to think about the invitation debacle. On the scale of bad things that had happened lately, this certainly seemed rather insignificant in the grand scheme.
She looked at Sully. “If it’s too hard for you to get married without Steve, we could postpone.”
He turned to face her. His blue eyes were warm, and his mouth curved up on one side, deepening a dimple in his cheek. His expression was a mix of gratitude and grief. “Thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. But Steve would have been the first one to tell us to carry on without him.”
Lindsey nodded. She could see that. Steve had been a big believer in living life to the fullest.
“Talk about carrying on,” Joan said. “Isn’t that his wife, Jamie, eating dinner with a strange man?”