by Grace York
"I'm going to call it a night," Ivy said when Adam took a breath.
"Oh, okay," said Addison. "I guess it's been a long day. See you in the morning."
Ivy took her dishes through to the kitchen before she came back for her laptop. "Goodnight," she said, and headed up the front stairs.
"Goodnight," said Adam and Addison together.
Addison asked Adam to keep going with his story, but her phone rang before he could get back to it. She checked the caller display. Wilcox.
"Hello?"
"Hi. I'm sorry to call so late, but I thought you'd want to know. We've made an arrest in relation to the murder of Patrick Wilde."
"An arrest? Who?"
"Louie Liu."
23
Addison had gone to bed with thoughts of Louie's arrest whirling in her mind. She'd told Adam, then they'd knocked on the girls' doors and informed them all. Everyone was surprised, of course, but also quite relieved.
Although it was hard to think of the quiet contractor who'd worked in her house and yard for weeks as a murderer, Addison had to admit she was relieved it wasn't any of her boarders. Maybe now she could answer Ivy's question – yes, she'd be able to keep running the beach house as a place for writers and artists to live and work.
Wilcox had promised to call first thing in the morning to explain the details of the arrest, and Addison found herself awake very early. She was up and dressed and down in the kitchen by six, joined by Amelie for the day's baking. Hazel had called last night and requested something vegan for the cafe today, so Addison was keen to try a new recipe. She'd found one for a vegan chocolate cake that looked promising.
Amelie pre-heated the oven and greased the cake tins while Addison set about melting chocolate and coconut milk together in the microwave. The recipe sounded so good she doubled the ingredients, so she could make a larger cake for Hazel and a smaller one for the beach house.
"When did he say he'd call?" Amelie asked. She'd finished preparing the cake tins for Addison, and was about to make a batch of Anzac biscuits – another request from Hazel.
"Detective Wilcox? He didn't give me a time, just said this morning. He knows I'm an early riser, though, so I expect we won't have to wait too long." Isaac hadn't given her too many details on the phone last night. It was late, and he still had paperwork to fill out after interviewing Louie. Addison was anxious to hear the details of the arrest.
"Do you think Louie killed Patrick then hid in the wardrobe?" Amelie asked.
"I'm not sure," said Addison. "I can't think of any other way for him to have done it and locked the bedroom door again when he left. He didn't know there was a spare key."
"No, I can't think of any other way either. The doors to the balcony were definitely locked, weren't they?"
"Yes," said Addison.
Amelie measured the oats into her mixing bowl. "It's a strange feeling, isn't it? Knowing they've caught him, I mean."
"I know what you mean," Addison agreed. "But it's only just happened. They've arrested him, but let's wait to get the details from Detective Wilcox." It was in the back of her mind that arrested didn't necessarily mean guilty, but she didn't want to say that out loud.
They worked away in silence until the rest of the household woke and joined them in the kitchen. Then the discussion got lively.
"I told you it was him," said Adam, pouring way too much milk onto his cereal as usual. "I just knew it. He looked shifty."
"You did say that," Ivy agreed. "Have they charged him yet?" she asked Addison.
"I don't know," said Addison. She checked the timer; the smaller of the two cakes should be just about done by now. "We're still waiting for Isaac to call."
"Isaac?" said Ivy with a smirk. "I thought he was Detective Wilcox? Is there something going on we should know about?"
"No, nothing like that," Addison replied. "It's a small town. Everyone knows everyone. That's all."
"I don't know him well enough to call him Isaac," said Adam, joining in.
Addison's eyes pleaded with Layla for help, but her cousin was no use. "I reckon he likes you," Layla said. "But I told you that already."
"No you didn't," said Addison. She would have remembered that.
"Oh no? Maybe I told Olivia." Layla smiled and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. "I'm off to meet the contractor at the gallery site. Let me know how you get on with Isaac."
Addison shook her head and focused on her chocolate cakes. She poked a skewer into the smaller one, and it came out clean. She put her oven mitts on and pulled it out of the oven.
"That looks awesome," said Adam. "What is it?"
"Vegan chocolate cake," Addison replied.
"Vegan? What on earth for?"
"Special request from Hazel. Apparently a lot of the tourists have been asking for vegan treats. This recipe looked good, so I thought I'd give it a try. Amelie made some Anzac biscuits if you don't fancy the cake."
Adam shook his head. "Nope, I'm not fussy. If it looks good and tastes good, I don't care what's in it. Or not in it."
"You're the type of house guest I like," said Addison. She checked the large cake, but it wasn't quite done. "Five more minutes for that one, I reckon."
The doorbell rang just as she was closing the oven door.
"I'll get it," said Amelie. A minute later she was back in the kitchen with Isaac.
"I thought you were going to call?" said Addison, careful not to use his first name and face further ridicule from her boarders.
"I was, but I need to take another look in Patrick's room. May I?"
"Help yourself." Addison pointed to the staircase, intending to let him go up by himself, but was bombarded with questioning stares. "Mind if I join you?" she added.
He shrugged, so she asked Amelie to keep an eye on the cake and followed him up to Patrick's room.
"So come on, tell me," she said once they were in the room. "What made you arrest Louie? Do you think he killed Patrick?"
"I wouldn't have arrested him for murder otherwise, would I?" Isaac opened the wardrobe door and stood thoughtfully in front of it.
Addison hoped he wasn't in a difficult mood. "No, fair point. You think he hid in there?"
"It's possible. Run me through what happened again?"
Addison described the events of that day, starting from Ivy's scream, and finishing with Louie arriving in the great room once they were all seated at the dining table.
"And no-one opened the wardrobe door," said Isaac.
"No. Adam and Dan unhooked the rope from the door knob and lay Patrick on the floor. He was our focus, not the wardrobe itself."
"Yes. We found both their fingerprints on the rope."
Addison was glad he hadn't said noose. It was still difficult being in this room, the sight of Patrick's body still very much at the forefront of her mind. "Were Louie's fingerprints on the rope as well?" she asked.
Issac shook his head. "No. We didn't find his prints anywhere in this room, or on the body. But then he could have worn gloves."
"True. He has a pair of gardening gloves. I've seen him wearing them. What made you arrest him?"
Issac turned to face Addison. "We found traces of cocaine in this room," he said. "Louie has form for drugs, and he wouldn't account for the discrepancy in his story to you versus what he told us. He maintains he didn't hear anything, said you all must have been mistaken about him saying he heard screaming."
Addison shook her head. "No, that's definitely what he said."
"Yes. When I challenged him further he asked for a lawyer, so we stopped the interview. We'll pick it up again this afternoon after we've searched his house."
Addison frowned. That didn't sound at all conclusive. She'd hoped the arrest meant she and the rest of the household could breathe easy once again. She said as much to Isaac.
"Do you really think you've got the right guy?" she asked.
He nodded. "We do. I'm sure we'll turn up something at his house to link him to Patrick. I s
uspect it has to do with a drug deal gone wrong, maybe a debt of some sort. Or maybe they were known to each other in the past and it caught up with them."
"Speaking of the past, I had a chat with Patrick's sister. She told me about a stalker he had a few years ago. Have you looked into that?"
"We have," said Isaac. "We confirmed that she moved to London and is still there. She didn't have anything to do with this. Relax, Addison. We've got the right guy." He checked his watch. "I have to go. The search of his house is about to get underway. I'll let you know once we've got enough evidence to charge him."
He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he left. Addison walked to the French doors and opened them, stepping out onto the balcony. She watched Isaac fold his large frame into the police car and drive off. She wrapped her arms around herself, feeling a chill despite the warmth of the morning sun.
Isaac might be confident he'd got the right guy, but Addison wasn't so sure.
24
Addison was still up in Patrick's room, trying to get her head around ever being able to let it out to a new boarder, when Jason arrived to fix the door.
"Hi," he said, after knocking on the open door. "Amelie said you were up here. Everything okay?"
"Yes. No. Oh, Jason, I don't know. Have you heard? They've arrested Louie."
Jason nodded. He entered the room and stood awkwardly by the bed. "I really don't think it was him. He barely even knew Patrick. Why would he kill him? And then cover it up to make it look like suicide? It doesn't make any sense."
"No, it doesn't. Isaac – Detective Wilcox – thinks it has to do with drugs. You did say Louie had a history with drugs."
"Yeah, but only pot. He smoked a bit of weed, that's all. His mum called me early this morning. She said they're saying he sold cocaine to Patrick. That doesn't sound like the Louie I know."
Addison pulled out the chair from Patrick's desk and sat. "I can't see Patrick as a cocaine user, either. I know I only met him a couple of weeks ago, but he lived in my house. Sat at my dinner table every night. I like to think I'm a pretty good judge of character, and I got nothing from him that said drug user."
"So what can we do?"
"I don't think there's anything we can do. It's up to Louie. If he's innocent, he needs to account for those missing five minutes in his story."
"Yeah." Jason sat on the edge of the bed. "I tried to ask him about that, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer. He's hiding something. I just don't think it's murder. I don't think I ever saw him even talk to Patrick. But…" Jason hung his head, elbows resting on his knees. He looked shell-shocked.
"But what?"
"Well, if they're right… if he did do it… then it's my fault for bringing him here. I'm sorry, Addison."
"Don't be ridiculous," said Addison. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Jason. In the short time she'd known him he'd had his heart broken, gone through the trauma of being suspected of murder himself, and now he carried the burden of possibly introducing a killer into Addison's house. The poor guy couldn't catch a break.
"It's not your fault, whatever happens," Addison continued. "You've been nothing but kind and generous to me and my family, Jason. You've done a lot of work on this house, and I know you haven't charged me enough for everything you've done. We'll discuss that later. But I don't blame you for any of this, and neither will anyone else."
Jason lifted his head. "Thanks," he said with a solemn nod. "That means a lot to me."
"You're welcome. Now, what do you say we get that door fixed and get this room back to normal?"
Jason smiled then, and got to work. He examined the broken door handle and the splintered wood while Addison straightened the bed. The more time she spent in the room, the more comfortable she was becoming with it again.
"Dan made quite a mess here," said Jason.
"Can you fix it?"
He nodded. "I'll have to go into Riverwood for a new handle and lock, but the wood can be patched." He took a few photographs on his phone. "Right. I'll go and get the supplies and be back in an hour or so. Is there anything else you need from the hardware store while I'm there?"
Addison didn't think so. She was just keen to get this room back to looking normal again. She couldn't think of any other projects right now.
"Let's just get this done," she said. Jason agreed and set off for Riverwood.
By the time she got back into the kitchen Adam and Amelie were nowhere to be seen. Addison presumed they were in their rooms working. There was a note from Ivy saying she'd gone out for the day with her brother again, and may not be back for dinner.
The chocolate cake for Hazel was sitting on the cooling rack waiting to be iced. The smaller one she'd made for the beach house already had a piece missing. Adam, presumably. That boy would eat anything at any time. She'd once found him eating cold pizza for breakfast.
As she iced the cakes Addison thought back over what Isaac had said. Louie was definitely suspicious, she couldn't argue with that. She'd had him in her sights as well. But was that because he really was guilty, or because she didn't want to think it could be one of her boarders?
He couldn't explain why he didn't come straight away when he heard screaming, and then lied to the police about hearing the screaming at all. He had a history with drugs, and there were traces of cocaine found in Patrick's room. He was small enough to fit in the wardrobe, so he theoretically could have hidden in there while the rest of them found the body. And like Adam said, he looked shifty. Not that that was a great indicator of guilt, she had to admit.
There were things that didn't add up, though. Louie seemed to barely know Patrick. Jason hadn't ever seen them speak to each other. Louie's drug history had to do with marijuana, not cocaine. And Patrick didn't strike Addison as a drug user, either.
Then there was the theft of Patrick's laptop from the police station. Why would Louie have done that? It certainly didn't fit with the drug motive.
Patrick's murder had been planned to some extent – whoever did it had the foresight to bring a rope with them to stage the crime as a suicide. If it didn't have anything to do with drugs, as Isaac suspected, then what possible motive could Louie have for murdering someone he barely knew?
That was the key. Patrick had been in Getaway Bay for only two weeks. Whoever killed him had a plan, and you don't plan to kill someone you've barely known for a fortnight. Surely that's not enough time to develop a motive for murder?
So who did that leave? Who'd known Patrick for longer than the two weeks he'd spent in Getaway Bay?
Only one person sprang to mind.
Amelie.
25
Addison didn't know what to do. She'd delivered the cake and Anzac biscuits to Hazel, hoping to get a chance to speak to her friend about her suspicions. Everyone at the cafe was talking about Louie's arrest, but unfortunately Hazel had been too busy to take a break. Addison didn't want to get into it with the town gossips, so she found herself back in her kitchen, alone, and not feeling at all confident that Isaac had arrested the right man.
She really needed to talk this thing through. Jason would be back soon with the supplies to fix the door, but he had work to do. She wondered whether Mrs Jones was around. A quick look over the back fence put paid to that idea. The little cottage was locked up, Bella sunning herself on the back step, so Mrs Jones must have already left on the bus for her weekly trip into Riverwood.
It was close enough to morning tea time, so Addison made herself a coffee, cut a slice of the vegan chocolate cake, and settled down at the kitchen table with her notebook and pen. If she couldn't talk the issue through with anyone, she'd do the next best thing and write it all down.
She started with Isaac's main suspect, Louie. She wrote down all the reasons why Louie was suspicious, and underneath that she listed the clues that didn't add up. She was no more convinced of Louie's guilt than she had been when talking to Jason earlier.
Next, she looked at Amelie. The fact that she was th
e only one to have known Patrick for more than two weeks was a strong clue, in Addison's opinion. If Patrick's murder had been an accident, or something that happened in the heat of the moment, then she could understand him being killed by someone he didn't know well. But all the signs pointed to at least some level of forward planning. It just didn't make sense that Patrick could have done anything to upset someone in such a short space of time to provide enough motive for premeditated murder.
So what was Amelie's motive? Unrequited love, according to Layla. But was that all? Was there perhaps some jealousy that Patrick had shown an interest in Ivy since showing up at the beach house?
Amelie seemed like such a nice woman. Isaac had said Patrick was strangled – did Amelie really have the strength to do such a thing? She was fit and strong, there was no doubt about that. Patrick was of average build, and not particularly fit. Perhaps if she'd taken him by surprise, approached him from behind… it could be possible. But then could she have moved his body over to the wardrobe and positioned it to look like he'd hanged himself?
Addison was sure she wouldn't be able to do such a thing herself. She struggled to think that Amelie could have either. But then someone had done it. And she'd only known Amelie for two weeks as well. Did she really know her well enough to say she couldn't have killed Patrick?
Then there was Patrick's laptop, stolen from the police station. Adam said he saw Amelie go out in the middle of the night on Saturday, which put her out of the house and alone when the laptop was stolen. Could she have been responsible for that?
Addison punctuated Amelie's entry in her notebook with a number of question marks, before moving on to the next person on the list. Adam. She'd more or less ruled him out already, but it felt like she should include him in her analysis.
Adam had an argument with Patrick two days before he died. Amelie said there'd been pushing and shoving. Adam had a history of violence. But he'd explained that, and Addison believed him when he said he'd never used his fists against anyone since. She didn't think Adam had anything to do with Patrick's death.