“I can leave,” Claire said.
“No,” Ava said. “There’s nothing Scott and I could talk about that you couldn’t hear. Scott was asking after Charlotte, but she’s not here.”
“Oh,” Claire said. “Where is she?”
Ava looked down, and then said, “We enrolled her in a boarding school in Europe. She left a few days ago. Will stayed to get her settled in but he’ll be back this evening.”
Ava looked up at Claire then, while raising her chin and an eyebrow, as if in a challenge.
“Wow,” Claire said. “I guess I’ve really been out of the loop. I had no idea that was a plan.”
“She was getting involved with the wrong crowd at school, and we could see where she was headed,” Ava said. “Will and I talked about it, and decided the best course of action was to remove her from temptation. It’s a great school, and she’ll get an excellent education. We’ll go over to see her in October and then she’ll come home for Christmas.”
“Sounds great,” Claire said, now looking from Ava to Scott and back.
There was an undercurrent of something between them that she wanted to figure out. They had definitely been arguing.
“I just stopped in to see if she was doing better,” Claire said. “She was so upset the night we found Alan’s body, I’ve been thinking about her.”
Claire intercepted the quick look of surprise from Scott, and then the fierce look of resentment from Ava.
“What happened that night?” Scott asked Ava.
“Just teenage angst,” Ava said, but did not look either of them in the eye. “She and her boyfriend broke up and she was devastated; you know the kind of thing. It was the last straw for me, and just the cherry on top of the awful summer we’ve had with her. We had to do something.”
“So you sent her away,” Claire said.
“Sometimes if you want to save someone from themselves, someone you love very much, you have to take dramatic action,” Ava said, looking Claire straight in the eye. “We had been considering sending her somewhere and that decided it.”
“I see,” Claire said. “Well, I hope she likes it there. If you’ll text me her phone number, I’ll call her occasionally.”
“We took her phone away,” Ava said. “It’s a rule at this school. It’s Swiss, and very hard to get into. Will’s father had to pull some strings.”
“I’ll write to her, then,” Claire said. “She’s probably homesick.”
“I’ll text her address to you later,” Ava said. “I really need to get on with my work, now, if you two don’t mind. I have guests.”
“So, you’re still doing business?” Claire asked.
“Will’s parents are here,” Ava said. “They’re throwing us an engagement party.”
Ava wasn’t wearing an engagement ring. Claire thought maybe that would appear at the party.
“Congratulations,” Claire said. “I hope you’ll be very happy.”
“It’s just a small gathering, mostly his parents’ friends,” Ava said. “I’m sure we’ll do something local with the Fitzpatricks sometime soon.”
“Sure,” Claire said. “I understand.”
And she did.
Ava was moving up in the world and where she was going the Fitzpatricks weren’t welcome.
“Well, I better get going,” Claire said.
Claire made a move to leave and Scott said, “Wait outside for me, would you, Claire? I want to talk to you about something.”
Claire went out and sat down on the front porch steps.
She could hear raised voices as Scott and Ava continued the argument she had interrupted, but she couldn’t tell what was being said.
So Ava was marrying her billionaire, and Charlotte was proving to be an inconvenience. It had been on the tip of her tongue to ask if Alan had been coaching Charlotte, but Ava would just lie if he were. There were other ways of finding out what she wanted to know, and from people who would tell her the truth.
After Scott came out, he helped her up and they walked up the path to the sidewalk together.
“How’re you holding up?” he asked her.
“On caffeine and nerves,” she said. “If I smoked, I’d be on my third pack today.”
“What was that about Charlotte the night you found Alan’s body?” he asked. “Do you think she had something to do with it?”
“She was screaming hysterically when I was at the back door,” Claire said. “And Ava was a nervous wreck.”
Scott took a deep breath and rubbed his face with his hands.
“Listen, Scott,” Claire said. “I’ve got nothing to go on but rumors right now, but I think something bad happened to Charlotte at a college party last fall.”
“Maggie gave me your message,” he said. “I got a tip from someone on the maintenance staff that Charlotte was one of the victims, but Ava is denying it.”
“I would guess no one at Eldridge is cooperating with you.”
“The town has a touchy relationship with the college,” Scott said. “There are political and financial complications. Everything that happens on that campus is filtered by the administration before I find out about it. When it concerns citizens of Rose Hill, especially underage citizens, we have every right to investigate. The city council supports our right to do it, but we have no leverage with the college. If we push too hard, they’ll close ranks and find some way to make life difficult for the town.”
“What could they do?” Claire asked. “They can’t move the college to some other town.”
“But they could renegotiate the fees they pay,” he said. “They provide 25% of the town’s operating budget. That includes subsidies for law enforcement and the fire department.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“They could also open an on-campus bookstore that would run Maggie out of business,” he said.
“Did someone make that threat?”
“Let’s just say it got back to me.”
“But you’re still going to investigate this, right?”
“I am,” Scott said. “Maggie backs me up one hundred percent. I’m just not sure it will do any good.”
“How can I help?”
“Keep your ear to the ground in there,” Scott said.
“Here’s what I know,” Claire said.
She told him everything she had heard so far, and Scott took notes.
“The staff members are afraid to lose their jobs and the students are afraid they’ll be expelled,” Claire said. “Now Teague’s flown the coop, so there goes our main suspect.”
“That will make it harder,” he said. “But I’m still going to try.”
“Tommy thinks Charlotte’s boyfriend was somehow involved,” Claire said. “His parents have conveniently spirited him away to military school.”
“His dad’s the college president,” Scott said. “He’s not going to talk to me.”
“Do you think any of this could be related to Alan’s death?”
“If the toxicology report shows Alan was drugged,” Scott said, “there may be a connection.”
“To keep him quiet?” Claire asked.
“Or in revenge because he was involved somehow,” Scott said. “I wish I could talk to Charlotte, but Ava’s not going to allow it.”
“Of course not,” Claire said. “They’ve whisked her away somewhere no one could get to her even if they wanted to. What do you want to bet she doesn’t come home for Christmas or the wedding?”
“It will be weeks before the toxicology report comes back. They’re behind right now due to all the opioid overdoses. In Pendleton they had twenty in one day last month. Evidently some dealers are cutting the heroine with fentanyl or elephant tranquilizer and these college kids are playing around with roofies like it’s a game.”
“A roofie mixed with alcohol could kill a grown man,” Claire said. “Where would they get the drugs?”
“I don’t know,” Scott said. “I’m going to have to talk to some of Charlotte’s
friends.”
“Can I ask you something?” she said. “Something personal?”
“Sure,” Scott said.
“What happened between you and Ava?”
Scott groaned.
“You mean Maggie didn’t tell you?”
“I want to hear it from you.”
“Well,” he said. “After all that business with Gabe, Maggie dumped me in a way that convinced me it was forever, and I was devastated. Ava’s husband had just been murdered, and she was estranged from Patrick, so she needed someone.”
“You two fell in love.”
“I have always had a little crush on Ava, even back in grade school,” he said. “You know the effect she has on men.”
“Lethal.”
“I was heartbroken and she needed someone to lean on. I let my crush on her distract me from my broken heart, and I convinced myself I was in love with her.”
“How did Ava feel?”
“Ava’s a complicated woman,” Scott said. “It’s not hard to understand why she doesn’t trust anyone, after the way her husband treated her. She’s completely devoted to those kids, and would do anything for them. Although she seemed to care for me, and I certainly convinced myself she did, she was actually just using me until something better came along.”
“Like she used Patrick?”
“You know, I think she may have really loved Patrick. She certainly didn’t love me. As soon as she got the money Theo bequeathed to her, she kicked me to the curb.”
“You’re better off.”
“I’m grateful now,” he said. “It was never real. The Ava I was in love with never existed, and the real Ava is someone no one can get close to.”
“Maggie is as real as it gets,” Claire said. “What you see is what you get.”
“Don’t I know it,” he said.
“I’m glad you’re such a good guy,” Claire said. “It restores my faith in men.”
“Glad I could be of service,” Scott said.
“I’m going home to get ready for the funeral,” she said. “You going?”
“I’ll be there,” Scott said. “Hey, what’s going on with Hannah? Maggie’s being curiously tight-lipped about it.”
“Remember when you so kindly took the blame for skinny-dipping with me in high school?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Maggie still reminds me on occasion.”
“Well, Sam’s ex-girlfriend Linda got hold of the letters I wrote him while he was overseas and gave them to Hannah.”
“Oh, Claire, no,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
Claire could feel the tears fill her eyes even as she willed them away.
“I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive me,” Claire said. “I don’t know if I can forgive myself.”
“That all happened way before Sam and Hannah got together,” Scott said. “Hannah loves you, Claire. I’m sure she’ll get over being mad and eventually it will be okay.”
“I don’t blame her for hating me,” Claire said. “It was one of those toxic secrets that you keep, thinking you’re protecting someone, but in reality it’s just a time bomb, growing more deadly by the year.”
“You three are like sisters,” Scott said. “You’ll get past this with time.”
“From your mouth to God’s ear,” Claire said.
Scott hugged her.
“Better not do that,” Claire said. “You’ll have Maggie hating me, too.”
Chapter Eleven
Claire felt confident in her funeral outfit; she looked great in black, and the length of her skirted suit was just south of inappropriate but plenty north of boring. Ed was dealing with a printing press emergency, something about the dampening system that Claire didn’t understand and only half listened to, so he could not accompany her.
She arrived early and found a seat in the chapel near the back at the side, so when she turned sideways she could get a good look at who entered. She nodded at Scott, who was sitting over on the other side, doing the same thing.
She saw Beatrice arrive with her husband, the provost. She saw Maurice and a woman she assumed was his wife. Agatha was there, sitting with a group of teaching assistants, but Claire saw no administrative staff or secretaries.
She recognized the Buttercombes from the picture in the paper when they presented the big check. Mrs. Buttercombe was professionally made up, stiffly coiffed, and fashionably dressed. Claire estimated she was a full two decades younger than her short, stout husband, who sported several chins and wheezed when he made any physical movement more taxing than a nod. They waited just inside the chapel until a young woman, the hipster version of Mrs. Buttercombe, joined them. The younger Buttercombe was pouting and looked terminally smug. She rolled her eyes over everything said to her, and slouched in the universal demonstration of immature boredom.
‘That must be Cressida,’ Claire surmised.
She wondered if the lover had abandoned her, or the parents had threatened to cut her off unless she returned. By her demeanor, Claire thought maybe both had happened.
Claire turned around and paid attention when the service began, but halfway through detected a movement in her peripheral vision. She turned and saw a young man arrive. She took a quick look and then a double take. It was Rafe Beauchamps, the young man in the nude photograph she found and the star of many of the photos on Alan’s refrigerator. She was determined not to let him get away, so she kept him in her sights, and when he made a move to leave during the last hymn, Claire followed him out.
“Rafe!” she called out to him as he walked quickly away from her down the stone concourse outside the chapel.
He turned, and to Claire’s relief, he waited for her to catch up with him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Do I know you?”
“No,” Claire said, “but we both knew Alan and I need to talk to you.”
He looked down at a paper tote he held, with Zabars advertised on the side, looked around as if for a way to escape, but then seemed to make up his mind to face whatever it was he feared would happen.
“Come with me to the fountain,” she said. “It’s a public place but quiet.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” he said, and then, “Oh, I see; you’re afraid of me.”
He laughed a short, bitter laugh, and then shook his head.
“I didn’t kill Alan.”
“But you know what happened.”
They walked over to a bench near the fountain and sat. He put the shopping bag, which seemed quite heavy, on the seat between them.
“I came back for his funeral and to tell someone what I saw that night,” he said. “Now that I’m here I’m not sure who to tell. No one at the college is going to do anything about it because of the bad PR. I’m afraid to go to the police; they’ll probably arrest me and why wouldn’t they? They’d only have my word for what happened. I could just keep my mouth shut, it’s only, I know how Mercedes loves to talk, and I don’t want this hanging over my head the next time she needs a favor.”
“What happened?” Claire asked. “Maybe I can help.”
“Alan got me an internship on an independent film. At least I thought that’s what it was. Turns out it was more pool boy than director’s assistant. Once I realized that was all it was ever going to be, I came back here to confront him, and give him an opportunity to make it right, or at least apologize. Laughable, huh? Now I realize how stupid I was, how naïve. You can age twenty years in a summer, you know that?”
“What day did you come back?”
“Labor Day. I took the early Jitney from the Hamptons to Manhattan and then caught the bus to Philly and then here. As soon as I arrived in Rose Hill, I got off the bus and went straight to Alan’s.”
“What time was that?” Claire asked.
“It arrived at 4:45 in the evening. I was walking up the alley toward his apartment when I saw a young boy, he couldn’t have been more than sixteen, leaving his place. I thought I recognized him; I think he was one of the high schoo
l kids who audited a class with Alan last spring. Like supplying chicks to the chicken hawk. It’s awful how he was with them. So seductive; grooming them and building them up before he swooped down and consumed them. I was disgusted by it but I wanted my shot, you know? I’m ashamed now, but I wasn’t smart enough to be ashamed then.
“I didn’t let the kid see me; I didn’t want him to be embarrassed. I waited until after he left. I went upstairs and the door was open, so I let myself in. At first I didn’t think Alan was dead when I found him. I saw the gin bottle on the night stand and I thought, ‘typical.’ It was typical. He loathed himself, you see, I know that now. He always drank after one of his ‘coaching sessions.’
“Then when I realized he was dead, I wanted out of there. The kid must’ve found his dirty photo stash, because he left a mess of them all over the bedroom floor. I gathered them all up and put them in my backpack, and then I took the photos off the fridge, and his photo albums, too.”
He gestured to the shopping bag.
“I was just about to leave when I heard someone coming up the steps to the apartment. I knew how bad it looked; I panicked. I hid in the closet in his bedroom. The doors are louvered so I could see out, but I hid behind his clothing so I don’t think anyone could see me inside.
“It was a woman who came in the apartment. She was screaming Alan’s name; she was so angry. When she got to the bedroom and saw him, she stopped. She checked the pulse on his wrist and realized he was dead. She didn’t react like I thought she would. She was very calm and methodical. She picked up the gin bottle –it was about three fourths full–she poured it out on him and the bed, and then dropped it next to him.
“Then she went in the bathroom. I could hear her going through his medicine cabinet. After that, she left; I heard her going down the steps. I waited maybe ten minutes and then I got the hell out of there.
“I went straight to the bus station and called Mercedes to beg her to buy me a bus ticket. Mercedes told me she and Porsche were expected at Alan’s for cocktails at 7 o’clock, so I told them what had happened. Mercedes met me with the cash and I got the 7 o’clock bus to Allentown; from there I caught a bus to Manhattan.”
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