“It’s no excuse.” Celeste bows her head. “I was preoccupied and I didn’t persuade Merritt to come to bed. If I had done that, she would be alive. This is my fault.”
Nick needs to keep his bride focused. “Celeste, what were Tag and Merritt and Thomas and… Featherleigh doing under the tent? Drinking? Smoking?”
“Drinking shots,” Celeste says. “Of some special rum Tag gets in Barbados. Tag had a cigar. They looked happy. Merritt looked happy, or happier, anyway. They tried to get me to join them but Benji and Shooter had gone to bed and I wanted to get some sleep…”
“Understandable,” Nick says. “You were getting married the next day.”
Again, Celeste shakes her head. It’s the mention of the wedding that seems to set her back, so Nick decides not to do it again.
“As I was saying good night to everyone, Abby called down from an upstairs window,” Celeste says. “She wanted Thomas to come to bed. And I did hesitate a bit then because I thought it would be bad for Tag and Merritt to be alone together. Honestly, I thought they might rekindle their…” She stops, pinkens. “I thought they might hook up.”
Nick nods. “Okay.”
“But Featherleigh was there and she showed no intention of leaving. She made a comment that it was morning in London and she had just gotten her second wind.” Celeste swallows. “I kissed Merritt good night and I squeezed her hand and looked her in the eye and I said, Are you okay, my friend? And she said, Hey, your stutter is gone. Because I had a stutter for a few months, actually. Anyway, I figured she was sober enough to notice that, she would be fine. So I went up to bed.”
“Did you hear anything outside after that?” Nick asks. “Did you hear anyone in the water? There was a two-person kayak left out on the beach. There was blood in the sand and Merritt had a cut on her foot. Do you know anything about that?”
“Kayak?” Celeste says. She sits up, swings her feet to the floor, and starts to pace. “Did Tag take Merritt out in the kayak? Do you know if that happened?”
“I don’t,” he says. “I’m working with the Nantucket Police on this. The Chief will question Mr. Winbury about the kayak. The important thing is you didn’t hear anything?”
“No,” Celeste says. “But the house has central air and Benji’s bedroom—the room where I was staying—faces the driveway, not the water.”
“And this morning… you’re the one who found Ms. Monaco, is that correct?”
“Yes,” Celeste says.
“You were up early,” Nick says. “Why is that?”
Celeste bows her head and starts to shake.
Nick turns to see a yellow paisley duffel bag in the corner of the room. He remembers what Patty said. “And you had a bag packed? I guess I don’t understand why you were down at the beach at five thirty in the morning with your bag.” Although Nick does understand, or he thinks he does.
When Celeste looks up, tears are streaming down her face. “Is there any way we can be finished for now?”
Nick scans his notepad. This was not your typical wedding. The maid of honor was sleeping with the groom’s father. Nick will call the Chief and have him question the father; Nick would likely lose his cool with the guy. He’s beginning to have emotions about this case, which is never a good thing.
But then Nick thinks about Greer Garrison. Which of Greer’s answers had Nick found suspicious? All of them, really. She had seemed bloodless, soulless, unaffected, and… unsurprised. And she had intentionally not told Nick about going to the kitchen for a nightcap. Greer writes murder mysteries. If anyone would be able to plot a murder and get away with it, Nick thinks, it would be her.
Right?
If she knew about this affair, she would be a prime suspect.
But Nick can’t leave any stone unturned here. Featherleigh Dale was at the table after both Celeste and Thomas left. Featherleigh might be able to say for sure if Tag took Merritt out in the kayak.
Nick writes on his notepad: Find Featherleigh Dale!
The sound of Celeste crying brings Nick back to the present.
“We can be finished,” Nick says. “For now.” He gets to his feet. The poor kid. It’s pretty clear she’s going through more than just her best friend dying. “I’ll send Patty back in.”
Saturday, July 7, 2018, 2:00 p.m.
THE CHIEF
Shooter Uxley wants to lawyer up, which is his right, although any cop in America will tell you the same thing: It doesn’t look good. Why lawyer up if you have nothing to hide? The Chief tries to point this out to Shooter gently, without making his true motivation known, his true motivation being that they need answers, and fast.
Keira, the Chief’s assistant, informs the Chief that before he went off duty, Sergeant Dickson was able to locate and speak to Ms. Monaco’s brother, Douglas Monaco, of Garden City, New York, and that Mr. Monaco said he would contact his parents and would, when the time came, make the necessary arrangements for the body.
“How did he sound?” the Chief asks. “Did he have any questions?”
“He was shocked,” Keira says. “But he hadn’t talked to her since last Christmas and he said his parents hadn’t spoken to her in years. They had a falling-out.”
“Did he ask you what happened?” the Chief says.
“He didn’t,” Keira says. “He just thanked me for letting him know and gave me his contact information.”
“Good,” the Chief says. The last thing he needs now is aggressive, upset family members demanding more intensive police work. And yet the complete opposite of that feels sad, even though it makes his job easier. “You can release the name, age, and the hometown—use New York City—to the press and tell them the matter is under investigation. No further comment.”
“Also?” Keira says. “Sue Moran from the chamber of commerce called. She’s concerned.”
“About what?”
“Weddings on Nantucket generate over fifty million dollars, she said. A Murdered Maid of Honor is extremely bad for business, she said. She wants us to try to keep the wedding angle quiet.”
“Fine,” the Chief says. “We’ll try. But you might want to remind her that it’s a small island.”
