Fifth Night Read online

  “That’s a great idea. I’d love to help you plan something if you’re willing to take the lead.”

  “Fantastic. Maybe we can do lunch on Friday to discuss both the shower and the Spring Fling. We have a half day at school then, so I’d be able to meet by one.”

  “I’d like that. Gertie’s?”

  “That would be perfect.” Brooke glanced at her watch. “I need to get a move on or I’ll be late for my afternoon classes.”

  “Before you go, can you tell me how I can get hold of Laurie Olson?”

  “She works at the new fitness center in town. She should be there this morning, if you want to stop by.”

  Brooke hurried off and I returned to the meat and seafood counter to pick up my crab. I didn’t want to leave the fresh food in the car for too long, so I decided to drop off both the groceries and the puppy at the house before heading to the center of town, where the fitness center was located.

  ******

  Fit and Fabulous focused on female clients. I’d been thinking about checking it out ever since it opened, but so far, I hadn’t found the time. The facility was located along one of the main thoroughfares downtown, and parking could be found in a public lot across the street. By the time I got there, the rain had intensified, so I pulled my jacket over my head and made a run for it.

  “Welcome to Fit and Fabulous,” a cheery young woman who looked to have zero percent body fat greeted me. “Are you a member?”

  “No. I’m not here to work out. I hoped to speak to Laurie Olson, if she’s available.”

  “Laurie’s teaching a spin class. She should be free in about ten minutes if you’d like to wait.”

  “Yeah, okay, that would be fine,” I said.

  “Would you like a tour while you wait?” the young woman asked. “We’re running a special for the entire month of January.”

  I glanced around at the clean, brightly lit lobby. When I lived in New York, I walked everywhere, but since I’d been on the island, I’d traded that for driving. I really could use some exercise. “I’d love a tour.”

  She grinned. “Fantastic. I’ll have Anton show you around.”

  Let me start off by telling you that Anton was not only fit and muscular, he had a sharp face with chiseled features that made me think of a Greek god. If Anton was the bait provided to overweight and stressed women, Fit and Fabulous was going to be a huge success.

  I tried not to stare at my gorgeous tour guide as he showed me the weight room, the yoga room, the Pilates room, and the aerobics equipment. The facility was pretty awesome, with up-to-date equipment, certified instructors, a fantastic locker room complete with a sauna, and even a small lap pool. I hadn’t intended to sign a one-year contract when I arrived, but by the time Laurie was free to talk, that was what I’d done.

  “Are you Jill Hanford?” asked a petite woman in a tight-fitting sweat suit.

  “I am. Are you Laurie?”

  She nodded. “How can I help you?”

  “I wanted to speak with you about a project I’m helping Abby Boston with, if you have a few minutes.”

  “You’re Brit’s friend.”

  I nodded. “Do you know Brit?”

  “Sure. She was one of our first clients. She told me that her group was going to try to help Abby get her money.” Laurie tossed the towel that had been wrapped around her neck into a large hamper. “There’s a juice lounge in the back. We can talk there.”

  Fit and Fabulous was pretty awesome for a small community like Gull Island. I wouldn’t have guessed there were enough fitness-inclined women here to keep the facility in business, but the place was packed.

  “Would you like some juice?” Laurie asked as we entered the lounge.

  “Thank you, but I only have a few minutes and I don’t want to take up more of your time than necessary. If you could just answer a few questions for me, that would be very helpful.”

  Laurie indicated that I should take a seat at one of the tables and she sat down across from me. “What do you want to know?”

  I took a moment to gather my thoughts. “I guess Abby told you that Brit asked our group to help her prove her husband was murdered.”

  She nodded.

  “What I’m most interested in at this point is your overall impression of Bobby, particularly at the time he died.”

  “Impression?” Laura asked.

  “How he seemed emotionally. Was he happy and energetic? Did he seem stressed and withdrawn? Was there something going on in his life that was worrying him?”

  Laurie answered carefully. “I first met Abby and Bobby four years ago, shortly after they moved to the island. We lived in the same apartment building at the time, and they had a lot in common with me and my boyfriend. We started getting together for dinner and going out on double dates. After I broke up with the man I’d been seeing, the three of us remained friends.”

  I watched Laurie’s face as she spoke. She appeared to be both sad and hesitant. I decided to remain silent and let her set the pace for our conversation.

  “Then Abby’s sister died a couple of years ago,” Laurie continued. “It was such a hard time for Abby. Not only did she lose the sister she adored but she was given custody of four young children. The twins were only one and didn’t really get what was going on, but the girls were older and understandably grief-stricken.” Laurie’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know how Abby and Bobby got through it, but somehow they did. Abby quit her job to be a full-time mom and Bobby took on a bunch of side jobs to help make up for the loss of income. Somehow, they bought a house large enough for the six of them, and by the time Abby found out she was pregnant, the new family had settled into what looked like a comfortable routine.”

  “It sounds as if Abby’s pregnancy wasn’t planned.”

  “No, it wasn’t. Abby was totally freaked out when she found out about the baby. Poor Bobby was already working every waking hour. She couldn’t see how they were going to pay the medical bills and buy the things they’d need for a newborn. I could see Abby’s pregnancy put stress on their relationship. Neither of them had the emotional strength to carry another burden, and I’m afraid, at the time, that’s what they considered the baby: a burden.”

  Laurie was quiet for a moment, and I once again elected not to speak. I figured I could ask questions later if I needed more details or clarification.

  “Anyway, life in the Boston household had grown increasingly tense, but my overall impression was that Abby and Bobby loved each other and would find a way to work things out. If he’d lived, I know in my heart he would have loved that baby as much as Abby will.”

  “I’m sure he would have. An unexpected pregnancy can be difficult to deal with even if you don’t already have four children to raise. The financial hardship alone must have seemed overwhelming.”

  “It did. And to add to everything else, there was a rumor going around that there were going to be layoffs at the firehouse. Bobby was the last to be hired, so he assumed he’d be the first to be laid off. The arson spree started up at about that time, so the layoffs were put on hold.”

  “So, if the arsonist hadn’t come onto the scene, Bobby would most likely have been out of a job?”

  “That’s the way I understood it,” Laurie answered. “I think Bobby and one other firefighter were targeted for layoffs.”

  Oh boy; that didn’t sound good. I seemed to have discovered a motive for Bobby to have set the fires. I closed my eyes and stifled a groan.

  “Are you okay?” Laurie asked.

  “I’m fine. Back to the story. Do you think it’s possible Bobby had become so overwhelmed with the pressure of an unwanted pregnancy, raising four kids who weren’t his own, and possible unemployment that he could have taken his own life?”

  Laurie shook her head. “No way. Bobby was going through a tough time, but he loved Abby. He would never have left her to fend for herself.”

  We spoke for a few more minutes, but then Laurie had to go teach a yoga class. I than
ked her and went out into the rain to my car with a feeling of dread that things might not work out the way we all hoped they would. If you looked at the totality of the stressors weighing Bobby Boston down at the time of his death, it seemed totally believable that he’d snapped and done exactly what the note said he had.

  Chapter 5

  I left Fit and Fabulous and sat in the car for a moment, considering what to do next. I needed to write the article about the goofy condo project, which, as far as I was concerned, had virtually no chance of getting past the island council, but before I could do that, I needed a bit more information. I decided to stop at Betty Boop’s Beauty Salon to see if Mayor Betty Sue Bell was available to chat. Betty Sue was an interesting character I’d found to be quite helpful when it came to understanding the political climate of our community.

  Betty Boop’s was decorated in a fifties’ motif. Not only did the décor take you back in time as soon as you walked in the front door, the hairdressers who worked there, including the mayor herself, dressed the part, with big hair and heavy makeup.

  “Morning, Betty Sue,” I greeted as I entered from the rain-drenched sidewalk.

  “My, don’t you look like a drowned rat?”

  I put my hand to my hair. I supposed I did look a fright after spending the morning running from my car to one place or another in the pouring rain. “I guess this isn’t the best day to be running errands, but I’m on deadline and wondered if we could chat about the huts Derek King wants to build.”

  “Come on in and sit a spell. It’s been dead this morning. Not that I blame folks for not wanting to venture out in this storm just to have their roots touched up.” Betty Sue motioned for me to have a seat in the waiting area. “How can I help you?”

  “I met with King yesterday, so I have a general idea of what he has in mind. Call me crazy, but the idea seems nuts to me. Is there any chance at all he’ll pull this thing off?”

  Betty Sue crossed her arms over her ample chest. Her long, hot-pink nails reflected off the light from the overhead lamps. She pursed her thick lips, which she’d painted with a pink as bright as her nails, then tilted her head just a tad to the left before she answered. “The project King is proposing isn’t at all compatible with the regulations we’ve adopted over the years to protect the ecology of the marsh area. When he first brought the idea to the council, I, like you, thought he had a screw loose. Since that first meeting, however, I’ve come to understand that he’s a shrewd and cunning businessman.”

  “How so?”

  “For one thing, he’s set up a series of contingencies that, when taken as a whole, have a domino effect.”

  “Can you elaborate?”

  Betty Sue, who was standing next to her hairdresser’s chair, leaned a hip against it. “King is proposing to build these raised condos over marshland owned by the Littleton trust. From what I understand, he’s offering a ridiculous amount of money for what’s otherwise useless land. He’s built a contingency into his offer that the sale will only proceed if he receives the permits he’s seeking to build his project.”

  “And I take it the Littleton family wants to sell the land?”

  “They do. Marcus Littleton was a rich man who amassed quite a fortune in his lifetime. At one point, he owned most of the land on this island. But it seems his descendants aren’t as industrious. The estate, which was once valued in the billions, has been whittled down to a fortune so small that referring to it as one seems grandiose. Over the years, the family has sold off one piece of land after another. Now, there are very few acres of any value left to sell.”

  “So the family is motivated to sell the worthless marshland they own to a developer. What does the island council have to say?”

  “As you may have heard, the council has been looking in to building a facility to convert and store solar energy to be used as a backup to the island’s current power source. It’s an ambitious idea that will only produce a fraction of the energy the island needs, but with all the power outages we’ve been having, it has strong backing.”

  “Sounds expensive.”

  “It will be,” Betty Sue confirmed. “A couple of the council members got together and found a grant that will help us buy the equipment we need, including the very expensive batteries required for such a venture, but the grant doesn’t cover either the purchase of the property or the construction of the building. There’s a proposal floating around that a small increase in the sales tax could cover the cost of the building, but a piece of land large enough for such a facility will still be needed. As it turns out, the Littletons just happen to own the perfect property. They’re willing to sell it to the town for a very reasonable amount, but only if King’s project is approved.”

  “Yikes.”

  “Yikes is right. What should be a very simple decision has turned into something very complex. There’s a subcommittee studying the situation, but I don’t see a decision coming down soon. But it seems Mr. King is a patient man and willing to wait.”

  I sat back in my chair. “I’m new around here and haven’t had to live through what I understand can be extensive power outages, but agreeing to the condo project for any reason seems unwise. I almost feel as if it could set a precedent.”

  “Perhaps. All I can really say is that the issue isn’t as cut and dried as you might think.”

  I thanked Betty Sue for taking the time to explain things to me and then headed to the newspaper. I wasn’t sure if Jack was coming in today with his mother due to arrive, but I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to check on things. The contractors who’d been working in the conference room yesterday had completed that part of the project, and as far as I knew, Jack had put a halt to further construction during his mother’s stay.

  “So you are here,” I greeted him as I entered the office. “I wasn’t sure you were coming in today.”

  Jack glanced up but didn’t respond.

  “Is she here?”

  “She is.”

  I hung up my jacket and set my purse on the desk. “How’s it going?”

  “Given the fact that I’m a grown man who basically ran away from home and is currently hiding from his mother, not so good.”

  I grimaced. “That bad, huh?”

  Jack nodded before returning his attention to his computer screen. I could see he was in a delicate mood, and if I was smart, that would indicate I should leave him to his thoughts. But when it comes to human interactions, I’m not always the best at taking my own advice.

  “She does understand that this is your life and your career and therefore all decisions regarding both are yours to make?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Complicated how?”

  “Just complicated.” Jack looked up at me. “Did you want something?”

  I hesitated. “No. I just came by to check in before I went back to the resort to write my article.”

  “Okay, then.” He returned his attention to his computer, effectively shutting me out.

  I wanted to point out that being rude to me wasn’t going to help him with his problems with his mother, but instead, I grabbed my things and stormed out. If Jack didn’t want my company, that was fine. I didn’t have time for his drama anyway.

  ******

  “Who stole your puppy?” Brit asked later that afternoon while I was making the seafood chowder.

  I glanced at Kizzy, who was sleeping by the fire in plain sight, so I assumed she meant the question in a figurative sense, in relation to the amount of banging around I was doing, and not literally.

  “Jack irritated me, and I guess I’m taking out my frustrations on the pots and pans,” I explained. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to finish the soup without all the noise.”

  Brit shrugged. “It’s not bothering me, but isn’t this the time of day Garrett usually takes a nap?”

  I gently placed the knife I was holding on the counter. “You’re right. I wasn’t even thinking about how annoying all the racket was to everyone aroun
d me.”

  “Care to tell me what the problem is?” Brit grabbed an apple from the bowl on the table and took a bite.

  “Jack’s mom is in town.”

  “And that made you mad?”

  “Jack and his mom are fighting, which, given the circumstances, I understand. But when I stopped by the newspaper today and tried to talk to him about it, he snapped at me. His mom is the controlling, dictator type, and she’s making him miserable. I don’t know why he snapped at me for trying to help.”

  Brit hopped up onto the counter, continuing to eat her apple while we chatted. “I’d be willing to bet if Jack’s mother has him on edge, he’d be likely to snap at anyone who tried to get involved.”

  “I wasn’t getting involved. I was trying to help,” I reasoned.

  “Remember when that friend of yours from New York offered you that job last month?”

  “Yeah. What does that have to do with this?” I asked.

  “Remember how when your ex came to town to try to convince you to take the offer, you felt all pressured and flustered?”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “Do you remember what Jack did?”

  My shoulders dropped as the reality of what Brit was trying to tell me finally sank in. “He supported me, while giving me the space I needed to make up my mind.”

  Brit raised a perfectly shaped brow.

  “I guess I owe Jack an apology.”

  Brit hopped off the counter and crossed the room to toss the apple core in the trash. “You probably do, but I wouldn’t do it now. I’m sure his relationship with his mother is complicated. The best way to support him is to give him the space he needs to figure out whatever he needs to do.”

  “Thanks, Brit. I guess I needed to hear that.”

  She shrugged. “My door is always open.”

  Brit was more than a decade younger than me, but at times she demonstrated an emotional maturity I was still working to achieve.