by Dana Moss
Maria threw her a glance, an obvious “keep your mouth shut” look. But Taffy was just trying to help.
“No, it’s my wife who’s in San Diego. Tyler’s mom is in the back bedroom, resting. She drove down yesterday when I called her with the news. She’s in shock. Needs pills to sleep. I could try to wake her, but—”
“So you’re remarried? And your new wife is…?”
“Her name’s Cara.”
“And Tyler’s mom?”
“Shannon.
Maria made notes. “And she lives in Eugene? Which is where Tyler, also known as Nathan, lived up until a few months ago?”
“New Year’s actually. He came to live with us in January.”
Maria’s pencil scratched out the details.
“I’ll need to speak with both of them.”
“Of course.”
Noel guided them to the living room, where soft white furniture seemed to rise up like foaming waves from the carpeting. Noel gestured for them all to sit down. When Taffy and Maria sat, he stood up again. “Coffee,” he said. “You want coffee? That’s what cops like, right?”
Taffy wondered if he had a Nespresso machine. She could go for a Carmelito, but all Maria said was, “We’re fine. Don’t trouble yourself.”
Noel dropped onto the cushy sofa. Maria had taken a chair directly across from him. Taffy sat between the two. She had a view across the fingerprint-free glass coffee table to the glass French doors that led out to a patio with a pool, where a pair of young men’s surf-style bathing trunks hung on the back of a lounger.
Maria leaned forward slightly, her tone of voice softer than usual.
“Where you surprised when Tyler didn’t come home Sunday night?”
“No. He’d said he be staying at his friend Wade’s place. Or maybe it was Dwight’s. I can’t remember now.”
Taffy piped up, “I think they were both at the campground.”
Maria gave her another look, but Noel appeared confused. “He didn’t tell me he was going camping. I tried to get him to go with me this weekend. With Cara away and all, I thought we’d get in some father–son bonding time. But he said he had other plans.”
“With who?”
“His girlfriend, I figured. And Wade or Dwight. I didn’t pry. I tried to be understanding, to give him his freedom…”
“Why?” Maria asked.
Noel cleared his throat. “He’d been having a hard time in Eugene. That’s why he wanted to move down here for a spell. Start fresh. He seemed to be doing so well.”
“How so?”
“Decent grades, new friends, a sweet girlfriend.”
“What’s her name?”
“Jenny. Jenny Hughes. Do you think she might know something?”
“Girlfriends usually do.”
Noel nodded, and then he looked down at his socks, white on white against the carpet. Taffy could see them through the glass coffee table, the part that wasn’t covered with neatly placed golf magazines.
“Did Tyler golf?” Taffy asked.
Noel’s face brightened for a split second, and he actually laughed. “No. Not at all. Made fun of me for caring about it so much. Called me a pussy for prancing around on manicured lawns and driving about in electric carts. We joked about it. He was sportier, liked baseball, even though half the sports he played lately had been on PlayStation.”
Taffy hadn’t noticed any sports equipment lying about. And the video games must have been in another room. It didn’t even look like a teenager lived here in this house.
Noel glanced in the direction of the French doors. He seemed to notice something. Then he turned back to Maria.
She continued to question gently. “Can you think of any reason why he’d be in a canoe on the lake?”
Noel’s shoulders moved up and down in his polo shirt in what seemed to be a halfhearted shrug. “He hadn’t been telling me much of what was going on for him lately.”
“So you weren’t getting along well?”
“As well as could be, I suppose. He’s seventeen, after all.” He paused. “Was. He was only seventeen. His birthday is next month.” He shoved a knuckle in his mouth to stop what might be some kind of parental lament. Taffy couldn’t blame him. She knew what it was like to lose someone you loved so unexpectedly.
Maria said, “Do you know if he was drinking that night? Or had taken any drugs?”
“The boys got in their cups now and again. But Tyler never did drugs. He was on the baseball team in Eugene and would have been at Abandon High, too, if he hadn’t started so late. The coach planned to take him on this game trip. Tyler should have been on the road with them this week, if only…”
Maria said, “Can you think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt Tyler?”
Noel looked stricken. “God no! Why would you say that?”
“It looked like he might have been in a fight. We’re still waiting to hear back from the medical examiner, but—”
Maria bit her lip. Noel’s eyes seemed to shrink in his head for a moment. Taffy watched his jaw start to clench. His limp hands curled into fists. In a dry, colorless voice, which gradually grew heated, he said, “My son is having his body poked and prodded and cut right now? Nails scraped, fluids drawn?” He stood up. “You have to go now. I can’t talk about this anymore. He was only seventeen!”
Taffy and Maria left. She told Noel she’d be back the next day to talk to Cara and Shannon. She told him to let them know. Then they walked back to the car.
Maria said, “Do you think I pushed too much? I’m still trying to get the hang of questioning like a detective.”
“You can’t blame him for being a tad unstable,” Taffy said. “He’s just lost his son. The grief is most confusing at the beginning, because it’s not consistent. I remember that. Sometimes you forget it’s happened and everything seems normal, and then you remember and it just splits you into shards. And then you realize you’d forgotten for a minute and there’s this god-awful guilt that creeps in. You don’t want to think you’re crazy for forgetting, but you make yourself insane by always remembering.”
Maria looked back at the house one last time before unlocking the car. Once they were both inside, she said, “I hear what you’re saying, and I don’t dispute it. Gotta give the guy some slack to go through what he’s going through. I’ve never grieved like that. My dad died before I could remember him. So I trust what you’re saying. There’s just one thing I don’t get. If Tyler couldn’t swim, why was there a pair of wet trunks out on the patio?”
CHAPTER SIX
When Taffy pulled into her driveway, she was met with the deafening drone of the lawn mower and the sweet smell of cut grass. Ethan waved from behind the ravaging machine.
She tried to yell over the roaring din. “You don’t have to do that!”
“What?!”
“I said you don’t have to do that! I can hire someone!!”
Ethan gesticulated that he couldn’t hear her. “I’m almost done!” he yelled.
Taffy shook her head and dragged her purse and bag of rice up the front steps. She’d never made it to the mall.
Inside the house, another smell washed over her. Roast chicken. She closed her eyes and inhaled. Such a homey scent, and familiar but unfamiliar. She never cooked. She’d eaten out almost every night when she’d lived in New York, or else she’d mooched off her grandmother’s chef’s creations and their various catered meals. Since living in Abandon, she’d mostly eaten things from the pantry or things that could be boiled or fried or simply mixed with water. She wouldn’t have known which end of the chicken to start with. But Ethan did. He made a mean roast chicken. And Taffy preferred to be on one end of a chicken dinner—the being-served end. Any day now, he was probably going to offer to show her how to roast a chicken, the way he’d insisted on showing her how to make her own coffee. But she’d hold out as long as possible.
She heard the winding-down whine of the mower. Leaving her purse on the counter, she went to the
front porch and called out, “How long until dinner? Do I have time for a shower?”
“Thirty minutes maybe. Plenty of time.”
Time enough if she hurried, didn’t blow-dry her hair, or reapply makeup. But Ethan didn’t seem to care much about any of that.
As she turned back to the house, she noticed part of a small bird’s egg shell on the porch. She picked it up. It was the color of a summer sky. Looking up, she saw an orderly collection of twigs tucked into the rafters of the porch roof. Midnight meowed at her heel. He was looking up too. As they watched, a robin flew over them with a worm in its beak. Midnight stiffened, his eyes fixed on the bird.
“Leave it be,” Taffy said. Midnight glanced back once at the bird and then followed her through the door.
As she climbed the stairs, he bolted past her, got to the bathroom first, and wouldn’t leave even when she turned on the shower. He settled onto the back of the toilet tank, his haunches and front paws tucked neatly under his body. His eyes closed to slits as Taffy undressed and stepped into the shower.
Part of the house renovation after the fire included remodeling the bathroom. The original claw-foot tub had been reglazed, and a hall closet had been annexed for a walk-in shower with multiple heads and a digitally controlled hot steam feature, which would be a nice luxury for next winter. Next winter… Taffy could hardly believe she was thinking so long term. A mere six months ago, she would have done anything to escape from Abandon. Had she been tamed so easily?
When Taffy came downstairs, Ethan was setting the chicken, vegetables, and rice on the table. Rice! She looked around the kitchen. Her purse was sitting on the unlit wood stove, and the bag of rice was gone.
Taffy picked up a serving spoon and poked into the bowl.
Ethan chuckled. “You think I boiled your phone after you nearly drowned with it?”
Taffy sat down. “I didn’t nearly drown!”
“What would you have done if I hadn’t been there to yank you out?”
“I probably would have thrashed around for a bit, and then I would have grabbed onto the edge of the boat and pulled myself up.”
“And what if the boat had drifted too far away? How would you get to it? You don’t know how to swim, Taff. How did you get to be twenty-five and not learn how to swim?”
“There aren’t that many pools and beaches in Manhattan, even if it is an island.”
“What about the Hamptons? Your friends with pools? And yachts?”
“I never really had to go in the water. It was more of a scenic backdrop.”
Ethan shook his head. “Can’t swim, never been camping. What am I going to do with you?”
She prayed he wouldn’t ask her to go camping, but she was worried his thoughts were drifting in that direction, so she tried to shift the conversation as she helped herself to a chicken thigh.
“You know who else can’t swim? Tyler Bradford. The kid in the canoe.”
Ethan served them both broccoli. “Then what was he doing out on the lake by himself?”
“He was by himself when we found him, but that doesn’t mean he was alone all night. I thought those marks on his face were from those vultures, but the medical examiner thinks he was in a fight.”
“Oh boy, not again.” Ethan pressed his palm to his forehead.
“What?”
“You’re getting involved.”
“So? I might be able to help. In fact, I already have, because Noel Bradford asked me to come with Maria today.”
“You should leave the detective work to the professionals.”
“The professional in this case happens to be my friend, and I like helping my friends.”
Ethan sighed in defeat, and then he donned a charming grin. “I’m your friend.”
Taffy tried to remain serious, but Ethan’s full, smiling lips framed by light, cover-model beard growth, had a contagious effect.
“Did you need my help?” She gave up her fight and gave in to her own giddy grin. “I’d be happy to help you.”
She stretched out her bare foot under the table. As her toes reached his jeans, she felt a stinging scratch. “Ouch!” Her pain reflex forced her leg to jut out hard, and she ended up kicking Ethan in the shin.
“Ow, what was that for?”
Midnight meowed under the table. Then he started licking Taffy’s Achilles heel. Ethan pushed his chair back and looked under the table. Midnight fled to his cat door.
Taffy watched his tail disappear through the flap. “I think he’s jealous of you.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow. “My rival has four legs?”
“Have you noticed he gets in between us when we sit close together on the couch? And we have to shut the door, or he jumps on the bed when we, you know—”
“Don’t tell me you’re having a hard time deciding between us?”
Teasingly, she said, “You wouldn’t really make me choose, would you?”
The truth was, Ethan had no rivals and probably never would. Over the last few months, Taffy had fallen hard for her ranger dude, as Ellie referred to him. They’d taken their time getting to know each other. They’d fixed up this old house, shared meals, had romantic sleepovers. Taffy couldn’t imagine going through a day without wanting to feel his arms around her. But she still wasn’t sure about their differences. Ethan would probably want to settle in Abandon for good, and while Taffy was enjoying her new life away from New York, she wasn’t sure she could live far from the big city forever. Maybe she was beginning to plan for the next winter, but what about the one after that, and the following ten?
“Every choice has a consequence,” Ethan said. “Even the ones you don’t make.” He was still joking about Midnight, but it also related to her private thoughts. What would she choose?
Ethan started clearing the dishes. She got up to help but winced from the slight pain of her scratch.
“Rest easy, my princess. I’ll take care of this.” He kissed her on the top of her shower-damp head.
She sighed, sat back, and took another sip of wine. It helped numb the cat scratch. She watched Ethan fill the dishwasher. He was tall, broad shouldered, and had a cute backside. Probably cute enough to tempt her to give up city life forever, which scared her a bit. She’d been so eager to start dating him, to test out their chemistry, which had gone from sparks to full ignition during the house renovation. They’d successfully “christened” every room, even the closets. And now they’d settled into a steady slow burn that occasionally flared hot and dangerous when they weren’t too tired from working.
“Seriously, why aren’t you supportive of me helping Maria?”
“It’s not about helping Maria per se. But you nearly got killed last time you helped her. I don’t want you to get hurt, Taff.”
“I think Midnight doesn’t want me to get hurt either.”
“But he just hurt you. How do you explain that?”
“Maybe he’s trying to get me used to the pain early on? Or warn me of pain to come?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Ethan hadn’t given her any reason to worry, apart from being slow and steady in his affections. But had their initial excitement died off already? Theirs hadn’t exactly been a whirlwind romance. He was strong enough to pick her up off her feet, but he’d had no impulse to sweep her off her feet. Maybe he wasn’t completely sure about her either. What if he could be happier with someone more like him? Taffy took another sip of wine, watering her doubts.
Ethan said, “I just hope Maria solves this case sooner than later. Another murder in Abandon isn’t going to help Mayor Gifford’s tourism plan, which I think has been working. We’ve had so many camping reservations this season, and I’ve been interviewing more seasonal help. When the news gets out, it could go either way. Canceled reservations or a surge in interest by lookie-loos.”
“Then maybe it’s a good thing I’m getting involved. We’ll solve the case faster.”
He laughed and shook his head. “You sure have a knack for seein
g things the way you want to see them.”
“Is that such a bad thing?”
“Not most of the time.” He leaned in to kiss her on her cheek.
She closed her eyes, thinking of something else she had a knack for. “Are you staying over tonight?”
“I’d love to, but I have to be up extra early tomorrow to do some interviews for the park assistant job.”
Taffy pouted, wondering why he’d kissed her cheek rather than her lips. But then he slid his hand over her shoulder until he had a firm grip on the back of her neck and he pulled her pouty lips to his.
After a kiss that melted any doubt still lingering in Taffy’s mind, he pulled back and murmured. “I don’t have to leave right away…”
“Does that mean we have time for dessert?”
His lips edged down her jaw to her throat. “Uh huh, and I’d like two helpings.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
When Taffy got to work the next morning, there were two messages from Maria, but when she tried to call her back, she didn’t answer.
Taffy fired up her computer to look over the revised Sweet Abandon Candy Factory website. Their “Fall in Love with Sweet Abandon” campaign had taken off, and they’d incorporated the ideas on the website’s home page. Cartoon candies danced and swooned on Taffy’s screen. When two candies puckered up and kissed, they burst and let flow their liquid centers that turned into sparkles and hearts that then poured into a chocolate river.
Five minutes later, Ellie walked in.
“Abandon Secondary is interested in a tour but the principal wants to speak with you first.”
“Why can’t he sort it out with you?”
“He said something about knowing you. Do you mind calling him back?”
Taffy was pretty sure she didn’t know the local high school’s principal, unless they’d met at one of several new business openings the mayor had been hosting in a strategy to boost business and tourism. Taffy hadn’t been able to keep track of all the new people she’d been meeting these past few months.
She took the number from Ellie. “Sure. I’ll call him.” Then she had an idea. “Better yet, I’ll go see him in person.”