I swallowed and set my coffee down and turned to the mayor. I didn’t want to be in this house one minute longer than I had to.
“Sir, we’ve made an interesting discovery. I’m not sure how much relevance it has to Nicky’s disappearance three years ago, or his murder this week, but we’ve got to look at everything that comes up,” I began.
As I spoke, Ellen leaned forward and spooned something white into Frank’s half-open mouth. The substance, pale and jiggly, sat there for a moment and then Ellen pushed it in further with the silver spoon. Frank obediently closed his mouth and swallowed and I thought that age is not a progression at all, but a return. We emerge helpless and dependent and the end, for many, is marked by the same helplessness and dependency of infancy.
Terry stared at me. “Well, what is it?”
“It appears that in the months leading up to the accident at Bride’s Veil, Nicky was spending most of his free time at the local library, researching the murders of the McKenzie boys. By all accounts, he was there every day after school, and not at basketball practice, as you may have thought.”
The mayor’s mouth fell open. From her end of the couch, Annika sprang up like a jack-in-the-box. She knocked her cup of coffee to the floor and swore. Ellen continued to calmly spoon more of the gooey white curd into Franklin’s mouth. Hannah Watkins chose that moment to join the party. She came in quietly, somehow aware that she’d just missed a bombshell.
Annika spoke first. “That’s crazy, I would have known if he had been looking into that old mystery. We didn’t keep secrets from each other.”
If that was true, either Annika was lying and she already knew what I had just revealed, or Nicky had decided to keep something to himself. I watched as the same realization struck her and she slowly sank to the floor, a confused look on her face. She began to pick up the broken shards of her coffee cup.
Bellington looked as confused as his daughter. He said, “He never mentioned anything about the Woodsman murders. How do you know about this? Murders, death, mystery, that sort of thing didn’t interest Nicky at all. He was into sports, and if I remember right, that year he was obsessed with perfecting his basketball game. He was determined to make captain his senior year.”
“He may have told you he was practicing, but he was at the library most afternoons after school,” Finn said. “In fact, he quit the team right before Christmas.”
Mrs. Watkins was silent through the exchange. She shooed Annika away from the mess on the floor and pulled a towel from her pocket. She dabbed at the stain gently, careful not to rub the coffee into the carpet.
“Thanks, Aunt Hannah,” Annika said. She watched as her childhood nanny picked up the shattered pieces of china. It was clear Mrs. Watkins knew her way around broken things; she carefully stacked the shards into a tidy pile on the table and then scooped them all into the towel with the edge of her hand.
Finn finished off his coffee, reached across the table, picked up the pot, and poured himself another cup. He added a dollop of milk and dropped in a sugar cube that splashed into the hot liquid with a wet plop.
He took a slurp and smacked his lips. “This is great coffee, ma’am. Is that Starbucks house blend? It sure tastes like it.”
Ellen ignored him and scooped the last of the white gunk-I’d decided it was tapioca-into her father-in-law’s mouth. She said, “I knew he was at the library.”
Surprise hit me. If she’d known, why point me to the basketball coach, Darren Chase? Had Ellen thought she was sending me on a wild goose chase? Before I could ask, though, the mayor spoke up.
“You did? You never said anything,” Terry protested.
“Darling, you were up to your ears at the office. You had just decided to leave the private sector and make the move to politics. You were courting every person who might have a connection to someone, anyone, who would help get you elected,” Ellen said calmly. “You were kissing every ass that you could get your lips on, except mine, to be frank. You were utterly and completely distracted.”
Ellen wiped the silver spoon on a white napkin and then leaned forward and, with the same napkin, gently wiped at the corners of Frank’s mouth. The elderly man continued to stare at her; his hands idle in his lap, his shoulders hunched forward.
“So, what? He told you but not me?” Annika asked. A hurt look replaced the confusion on her face and tears welled up in her bright eyes. She glared at her mother. “He never said a word about any of this.”
Ellen sighed. I could feel the exasperation in her breath.
“He didn’t tell me. I went at the school one afternoon in, oh, I don’t know, late April or May. I thought I’d surprise him at practice and take him to an early dinner at Enrique’s. But the coach said Nicky had quit the team, to concentrate on his studies. I was shocked, of course, but you know Nicky wasn’t that great of a player. I think it helped the team to lose the dead weight,” she said.
Annika gasped and a deep bloom rose in her mother’s cheeks as she realized her poor choice of words. Ellen bit her lip, and then went on. “Well, anyway. Everyone knows Nicky was no athlete.”
She folded the white napkin she’d used on Franklin into a neat, tidy square, tucked the silver spoon into the napkin and set it down on the table, and then poured herself a fresh cup of coffee and took a sip. She noticed Mrs. Watkins was still on her hands and knees, dabbing at the carpet.
Ellen said, “Hannah, dear, don’t worry about the stain. I’ll have the cleaners work on it tomorrow. You’ve done enough. I think your father’s probably ready for a nap soon.”
Mrs. Watkins rose from her knees and picked up the towel, with the broken shards, and left the room with a nod. I watched her leave and wondered not for the first time what she thought of her sister-in-law.
As though reading my mind, Ellen said, “We’re so lucky to have Terry’s sister with us. Quiet as a mouse, she spends her days watching over my family. Such a shame she couldn’t have children of her own; she adores kids. Everyone thinks I’m the strong one in the family, but I’ll let you in on a little secret-that woman is a rock.”
Annika said, “Mom, don’t try to change the subject. Why was this a big secret with Nicky? Everyone in Cedar Valley was obsessed after you found the bodies, Gemma. They all thought they were going to solve the ‘mystery of the century.’ Why didn’t Nicky just tell us the truth?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Regardless, two days before he died he told the librarian at Cedar Valley Public Library that he was finished with his research. I think he may have found something, something big, and in between telling her that, and going over Bride’s Veil, something happened to scare him. Scare him bad enough to go on the run.”
“That’s ridiculous,” the mayor began, but Ellen interrupted him.
“Is it ridiculous? Nicholas was a puppy dog, trusting everyone, eager to please. He could never have made it in politics.”
She turned to me and continued. “If you’re right, and so far I haven’t heard anything to think you might be wrong, perhaps Nicky revealed this big find to the wrong person.”
I nodded. “That’s exactly what I think.”
“Nick was a smart kid. If he’d figured out who the Woodsman was, he wouldn’t have gone up to the guy,” Terence Bellington said. “That’s just stupid and my son wasn’t stupid. He would have gone to the police… or me.”
He stood and paced the living room, one hand rubbing the back of his neck so vigorously it turned scarlet. After a moment, he stopped pacing and jammed his hands into the kangaroo pocket at the front of his sweatshirt and stared at us.
Finn spoke first. “Maybe he wanted to blackmail the guy.”
Ellen laughed and to my amusement, I saw Finn jump at her harsh bark. “Are you completely retarded? Do you have any idea what our worth is? Nick’s allowance was more than you make in a week. Money doesn’t matter to this family. We just happen to have a hell of a lot of it.”