The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

  “I’m not his girl,” Nora said. “I’m not Sean’s girl either, just to be clear.”

  “Oh good, I love it when people are clear,” Milly said. “So here’s the deal, Nora. Yes, you aren’t Harvey’s girl any more. If you haven’t noticed, I’m trying my hardest to be his girl. I’m going to succeed, too. With men, I generally get what I want.”

  “Congratulations on getting what you want,” Nora said mildly.

  Milly flushed. “Don’t be so sarcastic.”

  “I’m not,” Nora said. “I get it, Milly. You want Harvey, Harvey wants your dad’s business. Win-win.”

  “Is that what you think of me?” Milly asked, tearing up. “That I can only be interesting to a man because of my father’s success? I’ve had people saying it to me all my life, you know, and I’ll go to my grave fighting against it.”

  “Milly, no, I’m sorry,” Nora said. “I guess, with Harvey, we broke up so recently that feelings still linger. But he’s an honest man, and believe me, if he’s with you, it is for yourself.” She didn’t quite believe her own words, though. With Nora, Harvey had been an honest man, but was he really above manipulating Milly to get the business deal he wanted? Nora didn’t know.

  “It’s hard,” Milly said. “Even at the fair, he left me alone in the bus with the band, and vanished. Next time I see him, he’s talking to you, looking all intense.”

  “That was nothing,” Nora said.

  “I don’t know,” Milly said. “Sometimes, I think I have no chance with him. That it is just my father’s business he’s after.”

  “Look, Milly. Harvey and I aren’t even friends anymore,” Nora said. “I’ll stay out of his path out of respect for you, but if you have doubts about your relationship with him, then he’s the best person to ask, really.”

  “You think I haven’t tried asking him?” Milly replied. “Sometimes he’s so sweet and charming, then other times he becomes so moody, it’s almost like he’s a different man. It doesn’t help that the only person he really seems to care about in this world other than himself, is you. No. Maybe I should just give up on him?”

  “He’s coming this way.” Nora lifted her chin slightly. “Why don’t you just ask him yourself?”

  But Milly turned around, caught one glimpse of Harvey’s smooth, arrogantly handsome face, and seemed to melt. “Darling, Nora and I were just talking about Daddy,” she said.

  “Oh.” Harvey smiled. “Didn’t think Nora was interested in business.”

  “Oh, I was telling her Daddy’s planning to invest a great deal in real estate in this town. That he thinks it’s really possible to develop the tourist business here in Milburn.”

  “That’ll be great for every business here,” Nora smiled. As long as he doesn’t become our landlord and raise our rents, she thought to herself.

  “Yes. Won’t it just. You’re very excited too, aren’t you, Harvey?” Milly asked.

  “It’ll be an honor to do business with the Studebayer family,” Harvey said.

  “Milly Studebayer.” Nora gasped suddenly. “I wonder how I never put two and two together! Amelie Studebayer! You were in a movie I really loved, a romantic comedy about a couple who meets at midnight in New York in the middle of a street festival. But you looked so different! You had blonde hair and were about ten pounds heavier I think. I hardly recognize you!”

  “Yeah, I dyed the hair and lost some pounds because I got so depressed after the movie bombed terribly at the box office. That was my only shot at Hollywood,” Milly said sadly. “I’m surprised anyone’s seen it here. That’s one reason I decided to come to Wyoming, far away from LA.”

  “Oh, oh, I loved that movie,” Nora said, clasping her hands together. “The entire soundtrack was one of the best I’ve ever heard. You were really great as an actress too, I thought. The timid teenage girl with a rebellious best friend. My only wish was that they’d cast a better hero. Everything else about the movie was so perfect and magical, and he ruined it.”

  Milly laughed. “Travis Savant,” she said. “Yeah. He was mainly hired because he’d done a role that nearly got him an Oscar nod. We were a small independent studio and thought he was quite the catch. Except, of course, he ended up being more interested in doing every bit of cocaine in New York, and not so much interested in the acting.”

  “Well, better luck with your next movie,” Nora said. “Oh, I wish I had a pen and paper, I’d ask you for an autograph.”

  “Actually…” Milly grew serious. “I’d love it if you didn’t call any attention to this. I want to keep it a secret. I hate it when people act all star-struck.”

  “Oh. Sorry,” Nora said, immediately quieting herself a little.

  “No, not you. Just… other people.” Milly sighed.

  “All right, but when will your next movie come out?” Nora asked. “I’ll make sure to drive up to the big city and catch it on the big screen.”

  “No more movies for a while, for Milly,” Harvey said.

  Milly laughed bitterly. “My father didn’t approve of my LA lifestyle. If the movie had been successful it would have been a different story, but once he cut off his funding to me, I had no choice really but to heed his beck and call.”

  *****

  Chapter 23

  Nora was glad to finally be alone, and walking through the woods. Her mind, which had been brimming over with the events of the day, had a chance to quiet itself, and mull over all that had happened.

  She felt very tired as if a great weight was loading her down. Perhaps it was because she’d had to deal with two different secrets, all revealed almost at once. Wallis’ death was a horrible thing, but Detective Jason had been right when he said that possibly more than one person in town was glad to see him dead. From what she’d heard today she felt that she knew who these people were.

  There was Joe, and what he’d said about Harvey fighting with Wallis just an hour before Wallis had been found killed. Why had Dr. Neil seemed so strange after that conversation, though? Could he have a motive for killing Wallis? No, surely it was too farfetched that the town doctor who’d been in practice for more than twenty years could do something like this? Still, Dr. Neil had looked shaken. She’d seen him at the fair too. Could it be something that he had heard or seen at the fair, something that he hadn’t realized at the time, but put together only after that conversation with Joe? Surely that was worth following up on?

  She could tell the detectives of course, but they’d most likely look upon it as meddling, and ignore her. No, she’d have to talk to Dr. Neil herself. She decided to go meet him with a blackberry pie or two as pretext.

  But leaving aside Dr. Neil, there was Karen to consider. How long had she and Sean been seeing each other? From what Sean said, it almost sounded like he had begun to have feelings for Karen even when she was married to Wallis.

  Nora bit her lip. Now that was tough. If that were the case, he had to tell the detectives. No matter what Sean said about Karen being with him when they discovered the body, he couldn’t be 100% sure she was uninvolved.

  For that matter, could Nora really be sure that Sean was uninvolved? If he was capable of lying so smoothly to the entire town, and to Nora herself, then could anything he said about discovering the body be trusted?

  Sean had said that he was willing to bend every rule for Karen’s sake. Could he possibly be willing to overlook murder for the woman he loved?

  She remembered something she had told Mrs. Mullally about Sean a long time ago.

  “He’s got a streak of cruelty in him, hidden beneath the niceness. He won’t ever be cruel to someone just for the sake of it, but his cruelty comes out when he’s convinced that someone’s in the wrong. When he wants revenge, Sean is capable of being a monster.”

  She stopped in her tracks, thinking back to her own words, her own judgment of Sean, and now considering him with renewed wonder.

  She had to tell the detectives about Sean and Karen, she decided. Better yet, she had to go to Sean a
nd tell him that either he told the detectives or she would. Perhaps it would make Sean hate her forever, in all probability, in fact. But she couldn’t hide evidence this critical to the case from the detectives.

  Making up her mind, she stepped out of the woods towards the lane that led to her house and stopped in surprise as she saw Harvey’s BMW parked in front of her, with Harvey himself leaning on it.

  “Harvey,” she said out loud, and he looked up from his phone, and smiled.

  He was one handsome man, Nora told herself. And one handsome man she’d do well to be wary around. Their relationship had ignited a fire in her soul, and when they had broken up, it had left nothing behind but charred remains. Even now, she felt an old scar throb in her heart as she saw him. He was wearing a grey shirt under a black pinstripe suit, and a dark dotted tie. Seeing her now, he took off his coat, and tossed it back into the car, simultaneously loosening his tie.

  “Funerals don’t suit me,” he said. “I’d be happy if I never saw one again in my life.”

  “Yeah, well… I haven’t met anyone who enjoys them much,” Nora said. “What are you doing here, Harvey?”

  “I dropped Milly off,” he said. “I came back to talk to you.”

  “You’re treating her terribly, you know. That’s no way to get--”

  “If you mention her father’s business one more time, Nora, honestly, I’m going to…” He paused, “Well, I suppose killing you’d be illegal,” he said lightly.

  “All right,” Nora said. “It’s unfair of me to say that anyway. Milly really likes you, Harvey. Don’t toy with her.”

  “You’re fonder of her once you found out she was Amelie Studebayer,” Harvey said.

  “More star-struck maybe. But she’s being fair to you and me. She’s asking us not to…”

  “Not to what?” Harvey asked. “Start dating again?”

  “Not a chance of that, right?” Nora laughed, her voice a little strained.

  Harvey didn’t say anything. He looked away for a second, then took off his tie and stuffed it in his pocket. “Times like this, I really miss smoking,” he said. “It’d give me something to fill the silence with right about now.”

  “What did you want to talk about?” Nora asked.

  “You.” Harvey said. “More accurately, you and Sean. I know I got no right to ask you this , but--”

  “I’m not dating Sean, I’ve never kissed Sean, and I won’t in the future,” Nora said. “Is that all? If you were distracted by jealousy you can go back to Milly secure in the knowledge that I’m alone, and probably staying that way for some time.”

  “That’s your choice, you know,” Harvey said.

  “Sorry?”

  “That’s your choice.” Harvey said, more firmly. “You’re the one who pushed me away. Or maybe you just refused to be with someone you thought was ‘unethical’.”

  “You’re the one who offered me money after telling me about all the girlfriends who’d used you for money,” Nora said, her voice rusty. “Tell me what I was supposed to do? Accept it?”

  “I never meant it that way,” Harvey said, frustrated. “I told you that.”

  “But you still couldn’t believe it when I said no,” Nora said. “You just had to take it personally. You had to fight about it all the time.”

  “You refused to accept my help, but if Sean came over to fix things, you let him do it for free,” Harvey said. “What was I supposed to think, Nora?”

  “What?! That isn’t… Harvey, that’s ridiculous.”

  “Not so ridiculous,” Harvey said. “You can say what you like about intending to be single forever, but I saw you in that car with Sean. I saw how you leapt to his defense when the town was against him. I saw how he got you flowers at the Viking festival.”

  “He’s pretending to like me,” Nora burst out. “He doesn’t, not really.”

  “Oh sure.” Harvey rolled his eyes.

  “I’m serious, Harvey. There’s someone else in his life. He’s just friends with me, but there’s someone else he’s in love with,” Nora said.

  “And you hate that?” Harvey said. “It makes you angry that he loves someone other than you? Because you love him?”

  “I don’t care,” Nora said. “To be honest, I have no time for love anymore. I have no time for anything really. I have a catering job I need to do tomorrow, and Dr. Neil to visit, and Ricky to worry about, and a hundred other things besides.”

  “No time for love?” Harvey scoffed. “You manage to breathe just fine, don’t you? There’s time for anything if you value it enough.”

  “Well then maybe I don’t,” she said. “I don’t value… I don’t value the heartache love leaves behind, Harvey. And with you, every day was like walking on a tightrope, wondering when I’d fall off.”

  He stared at her, and she continued in a rush of breath. “I don’t know why I cared about you, Harvey. I only know that being with you after losing Raquel was… was simultaneously the best and worst thing that happened to me. Every day, I’d wake up feeling like if I didn’t see you, I’d die. To be honest, it scared me. It scared me how much I needed you, and how fast. I couldn’t take the money because the price would have been too high. The diner was the one thing in my life that was separate from you.”

  “I was an idiot too,” Harvey said. “I got so insecure about Sean. I was so sure that you’d prefer him over me. I mean, my own father did, didn’t he? Sean’s everything I’m not. Solid, dependable, popular…”

  “He isn’t you,” Nora said, moving a little closer. “Harvey, you had no reason to be jealous of Sean. Not ever.”

  “The only thing I had to offer that Sean didn’t was my money,” Harvey said. “Even that, you refused to take, while he came around to your house to fix things. It made me feel like you didn’t need me. It made me feel like…” He shook his head. “Nora, I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have. I did a lot of things I shouldn’t have, but--”

  “But now you’re dating Milly,” Nora said, a warning tone in her voice. “So nothing can happen between us while you are, right?”

  Harvey took a step towards her, but she backed away.

  “I’m flawed in a million ways, Harvey, but the one thing I place above all others is loyalty. You know that.”

  “Yes,” Harvey said. “I know that. I won’t be unfair to Milly, Nora. I think she knows it already, or suspects. I’ll tell her as fast as possible.”

  “I know you didn’t want me to bring this up, but she won’t take kindly to that,” Nora said. “Neither will her father.”

  Harvey laughed. “I really don’t care,” he said. “If he wants to invest, he can invest because he thinks the money will do well here. If he doesn’t, he can go right back to wherever he came from.”

  “Milly will feel you’ve used her,” Nora said, biting her lip.

  “I’ve used her?” Harvey said incredulously. “Nora, the only reason Milly came here was because her other option was to go to a very expensive rehab down in Florida,” he laughed. “No, I don’t think her father can complain, or her. She’s been clean since she came here.”

  “She didn’t look like she has a drug problem,” Nora said, horrified.

  “Alcohol,” Harvey said. “She started drinking a little too hard when her film flopped, and her father told her he’d cut off her money if she didn’t choose a better career, like the family business.”

  “Oh,” Nora said, feeling worse for Milly. “Harvey, she really does like you.”

  “And I really like you,” Harvey said. “Nora, I’ve missed you every day that we’ve been apart. If I promise not to be a fool about Sean any more, will you--”

  “We can’t!” Nora said. “We can’t right this minute, at least. Let’s give this some time, okay?”

  His face hardened a little, though his eyes still looked like they were pleading with her.

  “Whatever you say,” he said. “Just tell me one thing. Did you miss me at all?”

  “Every moment,�
� she said. “It was torture for me, to be so cold to you, Harvey.”

  In her pocket, the phone rang. She took it out and a feeling of dread stretched itself in her heart.

  “What is it?” Harvey asked.

  “The detective, Jason,” she replied. She answered the phone and a terse voice said, “I need you to come down to the station. Now.”

  “Give me a ride?” Nora asked Harvey, who nodded, and ushered her into the car.

  They sped all the way back to Main Street, Harvey driving as recklessly as he always did, but with the same control.

  At the station, Detective Jason and Rudy stood dejectedly in front of a desk, Rudy chomping on a bagel while Jason sipped coffee. Jason looked up as she entered, and then raised an eyebrow at Harvey.

  “Harvey. Thought I saw you with Milly at the funeral.”

  “You did,” Harvey said. “What’s the problem, Jason? Any reason you had to make us run down here?”

  Jason nodded, his face grim. “Unfortunately, there’s been a… discovery,” he said.

  Nora’s stomach sank. In her heart, she already knew what he was going to say next.

  “We need you to identify a body,” he told her. “The clothes, mainly.”

  “It’s Ricky, isn’t it?” she asked.

  “We’re not sure of it yet,” Jason said. “We’re running the fingerprints.”

  Nora’s legs started to tremble, and Harvey put an arm around her shoulders. “Easy there,” he said. “We’re not sure it’s him yet.”

  “No,” Jason said. “Not 100% anyway.”

  “You were one of the last people to see him too, weren’t you, Harvey?” Rudy asked casually. “Nora here mentioned how he ran away when he saw you.”

  Harvey raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said.

  “Yes you do,” Rudy replied. “Have you ever met Ricky before, Harvey? Have you talked to him at all?”

  “No,” Harvey said firmly. “I have no idea who he even was.”