Before Susan had an opportunity to comment on this, Sophia asked a question. “How is dear Donald holding up?”
“He seems to be fine.” The image of him jogging down the street popped into Susan’s mind.
“I’ve called and left messages, but he hasn’t called me back. I don’t blame him. I know he must be devastated, losing Nadine like that and now the police investigation into her death. It’s just too much for a sensitive man.”
“I’m sure it’s difficult-,” Susan began, but Sophie Kincaid raised one hand to shush her and reached for the remote control lying on the coffee table with the other.
“I have to watch this,” she said and turned up the volume.
Susan looked over her shoulder at the small television screen where a press conference was being held. A short dark-haired man leaned on a podium and answered questions about an international monetary fund for about three minutes until the shot changed to one of a perky anchorperson explaining that two of the most beautiful actors in Hollywood were getting a divorce and that interviews with both would be coming up momentarily.
“My husband,” Sophie stated, picking up the remote and turning it off.
Out of the corner of her eye, Susan saw the screen on the television in the playroom flicker and turn black. “Does that control two televisions?”
“Eleven. All the TVs in the house. It’s some sort of whole house system,” Sophie explained rather vaguely.
“And that was your husband?”
“Yes. He’s in Bruges… or maybe Zurich… or possibly Munich today. I can’t always keep up with his schedule.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s involved in international relations-banking. He works all over the world.” Sophie waved her hands in the air, perhaps to indicate her husband’s all encompassing job. “Right now he’s working for our government… I think… You know how it is-after you’ve been married for a while, you just don’t listen as closely as you once did.”
Susan nodded. She did know, although this woman’s ignorance seemed to be remarkably complete. “Does he travel a lot?” she asked.
“Constantly. I used to go with him, but sitting around in rooms in four-star hotels is so boring, don’t you think?”
Susan, who was here to get along with this woman, merely nodded. “And you don’t find it lonely to stay here alone?”
“I do now. Things were different before Donald moved, of course.”
Susan, who had been assuming Sophie would be reluctant to discuss her affair, was stunned. “You and he… you two spent a lot of time together?”
“Naturally. Donald always said he couldn’t get along without me.”
Susan couldn’t help asking the next question. “How did your husband feel about that?”
“I just told you. He travels a lot.”
Susan wondered if her eyes could possibly open any wider. “So he didn’t know about you and Donald?”
“I told him, of course, but it’s like we were just saying-after a while, you don’t listen as well as you used to. When I first started with Donald, I got the impression that my husband was relieved. He knows I like to keep busy.”
“Your husband must be very… unselfish… generous…” Susan wasn’t sure what word to use.
“Oh, he is. He bought this house from Donald for me.”
Susan was speechless; fortunately Sophie decided to expand her explanation. “And even though I was working for Donald at that time, my husband didn’t even ask for a discount on the price. That’s how generous he is.”
“You sell real estate?”
“Oh, no. You have to go to classes and be licensed for that. I was what Donald called ‘a finder.’ ”
“What exactly did you find?”
“Houses. Building lots. Whatever Donald was looking for.”
“So your relationship was professional.”
“Well, Donald didn’t pay me anything but he gave me lovely gifts.” She looked around the room as though expecting to find an example of Donald Baines’s generosity hanging on the wall.
“You said your husband bought this house for you-from Donald Baines, right?”
“Yes.”
“So you knew him before you moved here, before he became your neighbor.”
“Oh, yes. Donald and I have known each other for years and years.”
“Before you were next-door neighbors?” Susan asked, trying to clarify something.
“Oh, yes.”
“How did you meet?”
“My older brother was his roommate in college. I don’t think they were very close, but they did like to do the same things so they spent a few vacations together. I remember my mother being upset when Howard, my brother, went home with Donald for Thanksgiving his freshman year. She thought he should come home, but Howard was intrigued by the fact that Donald had grown up on an island and wanted to see it. You see, we’re from the Midwest and Perry Island sounded very exotic to my brother-and to me when he told me about it.”
Bingo! Susan hoped she didn’t look as excited as she felt. “I didn’t know Donald grew up on Perry Island.” She spoke slowly.
“Oh, yes. His mother didn’t have any money at the time. I don’t know all the details but I know she worked in a small real estate office on the island when he was young. Perry Island is a nice place now. At least in the summer months it is. I mean, there’s a small summer colony that has some interesting people who stay there, but when Donald was growing up it was pretty rural. But his mother bought property there and that’s where the family celebrated holidays. My brother loved it. He’s now a national park ranger in Montana. The more rural the better as far as he is concerned.”
“What about Donald?”
“Oh, Donald was just happy to have someone around his own age during vacations. Apparently his mother invited colleagues or potential customers for what she liked to callold-fashioned family holidays. They weren’t, of course. And Donald was lonely there as a kid and teenager. The main business on the island back then was this old old-folks home.”
“Are things so different now?” Susan asked, remembering her drive the previous day.
“Probably not, but they would be if Blaine Baines had had her way.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s been planning for decades to build a development of executive homes out on the point where the old-folks home is.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Donald and I’ve talked about it a lot over the years. I keep hoping to find something comparable for him to develop. He’s always been a bit competitive with his mother and that would be quite a coup for him.”
This new connection between the Blaineses and Perry Island stunned Susan. But Sophie had more to tell. “About a year ago, Donald told me he had a plan, a way to put that old-folks home out of business.”
“How?”
“He didn’t tell me that, but he said he was sure it would work.”
“And then his mother could buy the property and build houses on it?”
“That was her idea, but Donald said it was old-fashioned. He thinks a multiple-use development would make more sense. Private homes, of course, but also a big hotel, a conference center, maybe a private golf course, a spa.”
“Sounds like a lot of development for a small island.”
“Oh, it is. It would change the island completely. Every single home owner would benefit. That’s why Donald’s been buying up every property he can find for the past decade or so.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Nadine was very upset about it. She said they were land poor. She really didn’t understand him.”
Susan, who had learned more than she could possibly have imagined, decided to bring up Donald and Nadine’s relationship. “Did you get the impression that they had a good marriage?”
“What is a good marriage? They weren’t headed for divorce court or anything. At least not that I knew about.”
“Did you ever get the impression that Nadine resented the time you spent with her husband?”