If she had detonated a bomb, Jamie couldn’t have shocked the entire restaurant more. No one moved. In fact, the head of the post office, Mr. Tinsdale, was so stunned his clam fritter fell out of his open mouth, landing with a splat.
“I think this is a conversation best had in private,” Emma said. She looked furious. Lindsey couldn’t blame her. This dramatic reveal was devastating and also not super helpful in the middle of an investigation.
Emma put down her beer and began to stride to the door. Jamie didn’t follow. Instead, she leaned up against the bar and said, “No.”
Blaise glanced at his watch. He opened his mouth to speak, but Jamie shook her head. She snapped her fingers at Ian, who was behind the bar, and said, “Dirty martini, heavy on the olives.”
Ian gave her a side-eye and set to work.
“Jamie, unless you want to be arrested for compromising an investigation—” Emma began, but Jamie cut her off.
“Is that a thing?” Jamie asked Blaise.
He shrugged. “It’s hard to prove.”
“But not impossible,” Emma snapped.
Jamie stared her down, scooping up the martini Ian had just poured. She took a sip and then began to walk through the tables, staring at the diners who watched her with a rapt fascination.
“You all thought I murdered him, didn’t you?” she asked. “Me. The outsider, the person you never liked, the woman who was never good enough for your precious Steve Briggs. Well, how does it feel to know that the murderer was one of your own? Because it’s as obvious to me as the pimento in my olive”—she paused to bite an olive off of the cocktail stick before she continued—“that the murderers are Naomi and Nate Briggs, probably working together so that they can inherit everything.”
“Jamie, I am warning you—” Emma hissed.
“And do you want to know how I found out about the affair and that the baby might be his?” Jamie asked, ignoring Emma. Her voice was hitting a shrieky pitch in a combination of temper and hysteria. “I was just at the reading of his will, and he left everything to it contingent upon a paternity test.”
“That’s enough.” Emma stormed forward, grabbed Jamie by the elbow and hauled her toward the door. When Blaise of the shiny suit and pointy shoes stepped forward, blocking the path, Emma said, “Do not make me pull my gun.”
His eyes went wide, and he scuttled back, letting Emma escort his client to the door. Jamie wasn’t done, however. She downed her martini and dropped the glass on a nearby table.
“And as if it isn’t enough that he left everything, everything, to his bastard spawn, if it proves out that the baby isn’t his, then everything goes to his brother, Nate,” she said. She glanced around the restaurant, looking for something. Sympathy, maybe. “Do you understand? Do you get it? He left me, his wife, nothing!”
Emma pushed her through the door. Blaise followed, still carrying Jamie’s coat, while she let loose a verbal tirade on Emma, calling her every name in the book and a few Lindsey had never heard before.
Lindsey sank down onto a nearby barstool. Sully took the one beside her. There was no question that this changed everything.
“Drinks are on me,” Ian said. He poured them each a beverage. Wine for Lindsey and beer for Sully.
As their parents left the restaurant to go back to the island, Lindsey forced her lips to curve up so as not to worry them.
“That woman who was here a few minutes ago,” Christine said as she hugged Lindsey. “She’s not invited to your wedding, is she?”
Lindsey blinked. She had no idea. Steve was supposed to officiate, and she didn’t know if he’d been planning to bring his wife or not. She had assumed that Jamie wouldn’t come because she rarely participated in any of the local events, but maybe she had planned to come. Still, there was no need to worry her mom.
“No,” Lindsey said. “She just lost her husband. She has a lot going on right now.”
“Good,” Christine said. “Don’t mistake me, I feel bad for her loss, but that is a diva if I’ve ever seen one, and you do not want her at your wedding. She’d find a way to make it about her. Trust me, I know the type.”
“Good night, Mom,” Lindsey said. She hugged her mom and kissed her cheek and then did the same with the rest of the parents.
“Do you need me to stay in town?” Jack asked. He stood with an arm wrapped around his girlfriend, Stella, who was the only woman who’d ever been able to handle him.
“I don’t think so, but thanks for the offer,” she said. “I think Sully and I are going to call it an early night.”
“Probably the smart choice,” Stella said. “Call us if you need us.”
Once the families were gone, Lindsey collapsed back in her seat. She turned to face Sully and said, “Emma asked me to talk to Naomi tomorrow. What the heck am I supposed to say to her now?”
“Nothing,” Sully said. “If I were you, I’d let her do all the talking.” He ran a hand over his face. “I wonder if Nate knows.”
Lindsey thought about it. Did Nate know? She thought back to the conversation Robbie had overheard. He’d heard one of them say, “She’s not yours.” And the other retorted with “She is for the right price.” Could they have been arguing about Naomi? Or, rather, was it about the baby? Did Steve think he could buy custody of the baby if she proved to be his? Could he have been that cruel to Naomi, who loved all her girls so much?
If it was true, and Lindsey had the sinking feeling that it was, then it would explain why Naomi thought Nate could have murdered his brother—for having an affair with her and trying to stake a claim on their youngest. It also explained why Nate thought Naomi could have murdered Steve, too. He was threatening her family, and as she’d said, “You do what you’ve got to do for your babies.”
“Well, that was bloody over-the-top, wasn’t it?” a British voice spoke from behind them, and Lindsey and Sully both spun around to find Robbie standing there, looking gobsmacked. “I felt like I needed to announce ‘And the Emmy goes to . . .’”
Sully snorted. “She was enjoying the limelight a bit.”
“She can’t be lying though, can she?” Lindsey asked. “I mean, if that was in the will, then it’s going to become public record, right?”
“Eventually,” Sully said. “In the meantime, she could just be slandering Nate and Naomi to get the heat off herself.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Robbie said. “Sure, it’d work in the meantime, but when the truth comes out, she’d be in worse shape than she is now. Plus, if what she said is true, that Steve left her nothing, then she had no motive to murder him, since she was going to lose everything upon his death.”
“That’s true,” Sully said. “Whoever did murder him cost her a fortune.”
“Which is a point she’ll be sure to announce as loudly as possible,” Lindsey said. “She’ll make Nate and Naomi look like criminals, and there’s nothing we can do about it. People tend to believe the most salacious gossip, and then they don’t care to hear the facts.”
“That’s true,” Robbie said. “But we don’t actually know the facts, do we?”
Sully was quiet. Lindsey studied his face. His usual bright blue eyes were shadowed, and the dimples that always lurked at the ends of his smile were nowhere to be seen.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I saw them together once,” Sully said. His voice was soft so that no one could overhear their conversation. Both Lindsey and Robbie leaned in. “I was returning from a run in the water taxi, and I took a shortcut past a secluded cove. I saw Steve’s boat anchored and paused to go and say hello. When I pulled up, it was just Naomi and Steve on the boat. It was clear from the vibe that I’d interrupted something, but I convinced myself that I was misreading the situation.”
“When was that, mate?” Robbie asked.
“About a year and a half ago,” Sully said. “About the time a baby the age of Matilda would have been conceived.”
Lindsey blew out a breath. “Well, it looks like Naomi may have a lot to talk about tomorrow.”
It was the day before her wedding, and Lindsey still didn’t have anyone to officiate. The mothers were continuing to oversee the details, and here Lindsey sat, in the jail, waiting with a basket of books for Naomi to appear. She had no idea how to play this when she desperately wanted to ask Naomi if it was true.
She wondered if stories of Jamie’s scene at the Anchor had reached Naomi yet. And if they had, would she ask Lindsey about it? What should Lindsey say? Emma had given her no specific instructions, but she knew from stopping at the bakery for a muffin and a coffee that the entire town was talking about the possibility that Matilda was Steve’s baby. The poor thing. Six months old and the center of a gossip storm. It wasn’t right. It was poorly done of Jamie, and Lindsey found that she had actively begun to dislike the woman.
Naomi came into the lone meeting room in the small town jail. A utilitarian table and two hard chairs were the only furniture in the room. Officer Wilcox unlocked the door and let Naomi in while Lindsey stayed seated at the table.
Naomi looked at her in surprise, and Lindsey gave her a small smile of encouragement. She gestured to the basket of books and said, “I thought you might be bored.”
Naomi’s shoulders sagged, and she looked like she might cry. “Not bored so much as worried about my girls and my husband. I miss them all so much. I’ve never been apart from any of them for this long.”
A single tear spilled down her cheek, and she brushed it away impatiently. She looked cold and tired and smaller than Lindsey remembered her being. Naomi was always laughing and playing, with her children gathered around her like a mother hen with her chicks. Now, she looked lonely and adrift, as if she had no idea what to do with herself if she wasn’t attending to someone else’s needs.
“Have you spoken to Sully’s friend Jim, the attorney?” Lindsey asked. “He seemed confident he could help you.”
“I did,” Naomi sighed. She glanced at the basket of books. She thumbed through them, but it was clear she wasn’t really seeing them. “There’s been new information that’s come to light, however, and I’m not sure he can help me anymore.”
She glanced up at Lindsey. The dark circles under her eyes made them seem huge, as if they were being swallowed up in her sadness.
“What happened, Naomi?” Lindsey asked. “Do you want to tell me?”
“I . . . I don’t want you to hate me,” Naomi said. She folded her arms on the table and put her head down and wept. It broke Lindsey’s heart.
She moved her chair around the table and sat beside Naomi. She gently put her hand on Naomi’s back, letting her know she was there, while Naomi sobbed. “It’s all right. There’s nothing you could tell me that would make me hate you.”
“I slept with Steve,” Naomi said. The words were garbled, but Lindsey got the gist. She kept her hand in place, letting Naomi know that she wasn’t judging her or pulling away. Lindsey was here, and she wasn’t going anywhere.
“What happened?” she asked when Naomi’s sobs settled a bit.
Naomi lifted her head and said, “I messed up. I was scared and desperate, and I was just so damn tired of being afraid.”
Lindsey ran her hand over Naomi’s back in a gesture of comfort. She didn’t say anything, just let Naomi tell her what happened in her own time.
“Our oldest, Maddie, has a condition. It’s called pectus excavatum.”
Lindsey had never heard of it, but it sounded bad.
“About two years ago, she had a massive growth spurt. She shot up five inches in six months. When it happened, the cartilage in her rib cage slowly collapsed. We had no idea. She didn’t tell us until one night she had a sleepover with friends, and when they were changing into pajamas, her friends saw her chest and gasped.”
Naomi paused to press the heels of her hands to her eyes. “When she came home and showed me—Ugh, my baby.”
Lindsey waited for Naomi to gather herself.
“When you look at her chest, it’s as if someone has put their fist right into her rib cage and made a massive dent. We took her to the doctor, and they did X-rays. It’s bad. Her ribs are compressing her heart and lungs. The front of her heart is actually flat where it’s smashed up against her ribs. She’s going to need surgery, otherwise she’ll end up with a hunched back, looking like a question mark, and have limited heart and lung capacity.”
“Oh, Naomi, I’m so sorry,” Lindsey said. “How frightening.”
Naomi nodded. “The surgery is prohibitively expensive. We have benefits, but because we own a small business, they’re not great, and they won’t cover most of the surgery. It can run up to seventy-five thousand dollars or more, as they’ll have to insert steel bars into her chest to brace her ribs for the next three years until the cartilage hardens. She’ll be in the hospital for about a week. Nate and I have tried everything we can think of to come up with the money, but . . .”
Naomi bent her head. It was clearly painful for her to talk about, but she pressed on. “We tried to get a second mortgage on our house, but we didn’t qualify. Nate considered taking on investors or a partner, but no one was interested in the garage. We tried to think of anything we could sell, but we don’t own anything that valuable. I begged Nate to talk to Steve about borrowing the money, but he refused. They hadn’t been close since Steve married Jamie, and Nate felt awkward asking for help.”
Naomi turned to look at Lindsey. “I understood how he felt, but you do what you have to do for your babies.”
She was quiet, and Lindsey had a feeling she knew where the story went from here. “You went to Steve on your own?”
Naomi nodded. She looked miserable. “I was desperate.”
“I can only imagine,” Lindsey said. She gave Naomi a bracing hug. “You were in a terrible position.”
Naomi turned and looked at her. Her eyes were troubled, and her voice was soft when she said, “I only spent one night with him. It was a mistake, and I regretted it immediately. I love my husband. My life is with Nate. But for a few seconds, it was just so nice to have someone promise that they were going to take care of things and know that they actually could make my troubles go away. Steve told me that he’d pay for Maddie’s surgery. He promised me that she’d be okay, that he’d get her the best care. I was so insanely grateful and relieved that I fell into his arms, and one thing led to another.
“When I got pregnant, he was convinced the baby was his. She isn’t. I know it, but he didn’t believe me. He was pushing for me to have a paternity test and refused to pay for Maddie’s surgery until I had Matilda tested. I didn’t know what to do. I dressed up as the woman in black the night of his party so that I could meet with him without anyone knowing who I was. I was going to beg him to go forward with the surgery and to stop insisting on a paternity test, but he refused. In fact, he said if I didn’t do as he asked, he planned to have a court-ordered paternity test, and if Matilda was his, he was going to sue me for custody.”
Lindsey tried to grasp the kind, jovial Steve she knew being this man who so ruthlessly used his sister-in-law to get what he wanted at any cost. She had no doubt that he manipulated her into sleeping with him when she was terrified for her child and at her most vulnerable. That was not okay.
“Does Nate know about any of this?” Lindsey asked.
“I never told him,” Naomi said. “I know I should have, but I just couldn’t stand the thought of him looking at me with disgust or hatred. He’s my life, Lindsey. He and the girls are everything to me.”
“Steve told him, didn’t he?”
“He must have. When Matilda woke up coughing that night, Nate got up to take her for a drive. When he was putting her in the car seat, he looked at me and said, ‘She’s my daughter,’ and I just knew that he knew. That’s why I dressed up and went to confront Steve.”
Naomi started to cry, and Lindsey felt her own heart break a bit. Life could be so complicated and so cruel at times. She patted Naomi’s back and said, “Listen, it’s going to be okay. The lawyer Sully has helping you, Jim, is a genius. He’ll be able to figure this out. I’m sure of it.”
Naomi didn’t look convinced. Lindsey knew that the only thing she could give her friend at this moment was hope, so she took Naomi’s hands in hers and held them tightly. “I promise. It’s going to be okay.”
“Thank you,” Naomi said. “You’re a good friend, Lindsey Norris.”
“Well, I’m an even better librarian,” she said. “Now, pick some books so you can think about something else until we get you out of here. And we will get you out.”
“But I confessed,” Naomi said. “And I stand by it.”
“Are you doing that because you think Nate might have killed Steve because of the affair?”
“No!” Naomi said. But her answer came in quick and hot, letting Lindsey know that was exactly what she was afraid of.
“We’re going to prove your innocence,” Lindsey said. “And Nate’s, too. Trust me.”
There must have been something in Lindsey’s expression that gave her courage, because Naomi nodded. Then she peeked inside the basket. She chose a British rom-com by Beth O’Leary entitled The Flatshare and a mystery, Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming.
“Good choices,” Lindsey said.
Officer Wilcox appeared at the door and announced that the visit was over. Naomi clutched the books to her chest, and Lindsey gave her a quick hug. “Be brave. You’ll be home with your girls soon.”
Lindsey watched Naomi leave and wondered if she had just told the biggest pack of lies of her entire life. She picked up the basket and made her way to Emma’s office, where she knew the chief was waiting for her.
She rapped on the door and walked in. Emma was at her desk, with Sully sitting across from her and Robbie pacing about the room.
“How did it go?” Emma asked.
“Brutal,” Lindsey said. She then shared everything Naomi had told her. When she got to the part about Naomi suspecting that Nate had found out about her affair, Sully jumped in. He’d spent the morning talking to Nate and had gotten an even clearer picture of how Steve had used the financial stress of his brother’s family to his own advantage.
“Nate knew,” he said. “In fact, the argument Robbie overheard, Nate admitted to me, was Steve telling him about his plan to have the baby’s paternity tested, then he was going to sue for custody and woo Naomi away from Nate. Steve thought he was in love with her, and he was prepared to do anything he could to win her from his brother, including pay for the surgery for their oldest daughter.”
“How did Nate feel about that?” Lindsey asked. “I mean, I assume he was furious.”
“Actually, he said he didn’t believe Steve,” Sully said. “He thought it was all just some crazy scheme Steve had cooked up in his head because Jamie refused to have kids. He figured Steve would get over it, but when Naomi ‘found’ the wig and veil in the trash can, he began to wonder if she was the woman in black. And if she was, then he wondered if everything Steve had told him was true.”
“Does he think Naomi is guilty?” Lindsey asked.
“He says he doesn’t, but I think he doesn’t know for sure,” Sully said. “He believes the baby is his but said he doesn’t care if she isn’t biologically his. She’s his in every way that counts. He said he knows how charming his brother can be when he wants something, and he doesn’t fault Naomi, especially given the circumstances with their oldest daughter, for falling for Steve’s promises.”
“Wow,” Robbie said. “That Steve Briggs was a right manipulative bastard.” When they all glanced at him, he said, “Sorry, I know he was a friend of yours, but still.”
“No, you’re right,” Emma said. “That’s not the Steve Briggs I knew. He must have become obsessed with having a family of his own at any price.”
“And now, between finding out that the murder weapon came from Nate’s shop and their mutual confessions, plus the information about the will and the dubious parentage of the baby, it seems the most likely person to have wanted Steve Briggs dead is, in fact, his brother, Nate Briggs.”