“What kind of person cheats on her husband at her grandmother’s house with the whole family around?” Tim looked at me like he thought I might know the answer, what with all my years living in New York with a mixed bag of human garbage.
“The kind that kills her brother when she thinks he’s caught on?”
Tim’s eyes widened. “You think?”
“Could be. Ned has reason to freak, too, but Abella’s pinning the blame for the affair squarely on Bebe. She says Ned’s a close friend. They hang out together in the city—her, Jasper, and Ned. If you ask me she’s giving Ned a lot of credit, considering she caught him banging his friend’s sister, but she insists he’s innocent.”
“They hang out in the city,” Tim repeated thoughtfully. “Does the happy group include Flynn?”
“I got a hard no on that. It’s Ned, Jasper, and Abby who fraternize, no asshole brothers allowed. Flynn made it sound like he and Jasper are pals, but Abella says they hate each other. According to her, Flynn’s got a history of aggression. You should have heard the story she told me about Flynn torturing Jasper when they were kids. Way worse than your typical sibling stuff.”
“So does Flynn know about the affair, too?”
“Abella doesn’t think so. If he did, and he’s as violent as she’s suggesting, it’d be Ned or Bebe missing, not Jasper.” I paused. “You’ve had a look at Ned. He take a fist to the chin?”
“The fresh bruises on Flynn’s knuckles,” Tim said. After talking to Flynn, I’d texted Tim a truncated report of what I knew so far. It wasn’t as good as sharing my findings in person, but I wanted to keep him in the loop without having to constantly pull him off guard duty. It was kind of like backing up critical data. Tim made a useful hard drive. “No sign any of them took a punch.”
“Maybe there’s a wall somewhere missing some plaster?”
“Or maybe it was Jasper who got hit,” Tim said. I started to speak, but he cut me off. “You know, I bet that’s it. Jasper got in a fight with his brother and took off. Out here, so close to the border, he could easily make a dash for Canada. There are lots of places where he could have crossed, where the border’s just an invisible line in the river. You’re supposed to check in with your passport on the other side, but it’s an honor system. Agents don’t patrol the border area much this time of year. Even if he went over without letting them know, it’s not so easy to slip into another country unnoticed if you plan to stay awhile. If that’s what happened, we’ll find him.”
“This doesn’t feel like a runaway situation,” I said. “Jasper’s phone is still charging upstairs. What twentysomething guy leaves the house without his phone? I think Jasper’s in trouble.” It was such a huge understatement; saying it out loud sounded stupid to my ear.
“We’ll find him,” Tim said again. “I know we will.”
“These people.” I shook my head. “This isn’t a soap opera, it’s a shit show.”
“They’re not from around here. So.”
I hadn’t meant the comment as an attack on the Thousand Islands and their residents. Tim was fiercely loyal to his community. It was my community now, too.
“Right, of course,” I said. “Wonder what the parents were like? Abella never met them, but she told me a little about their deaths. Car accident while on vacation.”
“Shit, I think I remember that,” Tim said. “Didn’t put two and two together—but yeah, the deaths would have been in the paper up here on account of their island connection. Google?” He reached for his phone.
“Already done,” I said with a smile. We were clicking in a way I’d hoped we would months down the line. Tim had worked at the state police Alexandria Bay station a long time, so while I was technically his superior, I’d come to rely on him to indoctrinate me in the ways of the North Country. The ease with which we could bounce ideas off each other, his ability to read me and gauge where I was going next—those aren’t guarantees in a colleague, and finding it so soon with Tim was a nice surprise. “The accident was big news farther south. New York Textile Tycoon and Wife Killed While Vacationing in the Caribbean. Two years ago, Baldwin and Rachel Sinclair went on one of many quick getaways to Antigua and never came back.”
Tim sighed and dropped into an armchair. There was a second chair nearby, so wide and plush I wanted to curl up in it and reset my brain, but I knew neither of us should get too comfortable. I could see Abella nervously watching us from across the hall, and I was itching to talk to Bebe and Ned.
“Both parents in one shot. Can’t have been easy on the kids,” Tim said. Then, “Where’s the money?”
“Excellent question. It went to the three of them, most likely—Jasper, Bebe, and Flynn. We need to confirm that. I’ll ask Camilla.”
“This girl, Abella,” Tim said. “You believe her?”
I’d asked myself the same question multiple times since sitting down with her. My gut told me she was innocent. But could I trust it? “Right now, at this moment? Yeah, I do.”
“Because the girlfriend has every reason to lie. She was in a bed stained with blood. There’s blood on her clothes. She could be making the whole thing up: the affair, Flynn’s bullying, all of it.”
“She could be,” I agreed, “but I still can’t imagine her rolling over to stab her boyfriend and going back to sleep.” Someone else had done that, and I was increasingly sure that someone was still in the house.
“Know what I think? I think Abella knows exactly what happened.” Tim interlaced his fingers and clasped the back of his neck in a stretch. “The fight Flynn overheard last night was probably them breaking up, and Jasper didn’t feel like sticking around to deal with the fallout in the morning. I know lots of guys who don’t have the balls to face an ex. Abella’s pissed and embarrassed by the fact that he left, and as for the blood, couldn’t it be . . . you know . . . female trouble?”
I gaped at him. “What?”
“Bleeding all over the sheets at an ex-boyfriend’s house is even worse than the boyfriend taking off in the middle of the night. The family called it murder, and she didn’t want to fess up, so she let it snowball. From where I’m standing—sitting,” he amended with a grin, “this seems like a simple misunderstanding that got way out of hand.”
I contemplated Tim’s straight eyebrows and the evenhanded character I’d come to know. Between the two of us, I was the only one who seemed certain Jasper Sinclair was dead. Tim was considerably more optimistic about the man’s fate, even when faced with evidence to the contrary. As he rolled his neck and relaxed his shoulders, it was clear he thought he had it figured out.