The sound in Brendans voice was almost childlike, pleading for people to recognize what a fine artist he was. And then he stopped, suddenly. The group turned to look at him, and he realized where he was leading people. He stared back, then took a few steps toward the door.
Beyond the den, music played and scattered cocktail chatter grew dim.
But in Billy Sobels carefully decorated den, all was quiet.
It took one minute for Brendan to collect himself. He lashed out, his voice slicing through the silence. No. Now you
are
crazy. Its not what youre thinking. I didnt kill Peabody. Or Billy. Youre crazy as fools if you think that. He backed up to the den door opening as if to flee, leaving his paintings behind in a rush to freedom and away from accusing eyes. No way did I kill those two guys.
No, Nell said softly. You didnt kill them, Brendan. We know that, though for a long time, we were on a path that said you might have.
Jane and Ham walked into the room, then, and Nell noticed Jerry Thompson was with them. It was late, and in the distance, she could hear Natalie saying good-by to departing guests.
Ellen had gotten up from the couch and whispered to Rebecca that it was getting late. They should be leaving soon, too.
Nell looked over at her sadly.
Ellen, we found the papers in Aidans house. The ones you couldnt find that night that you entered his house and searched for them. You must have taken a spare key Aidan gave Rebecca and then forgot to get back from her. But you looked in all the wrong places. Aidan had an unconventional filing system, you see . . .
Ellens brows pulled together. Papers? she managed to say.
Rebecca looked up at Ellen, her mouth open, but no words came out.
The art council reports that indicated youd been slowly depleting the foundations money. The reports Aidan confronted you with the day before you killed him. It only took minutes to confirm what we all thoughtthat last summers fund-raising gala and other generous gifts to the foundation had made it flush. There was enough money there to run the arts academy for several years. And its nearly gone.
No, its not. Youre wrong. Ellen, please . . . tell them theyre wrong. It was Rebeccas choked voice, barely recognizable.
Itll be all right, Rebecca, Ellen said softly. Dont worry.
Worry? Ellen, you stole from our friends? From the foundation that you cared about? That we both cared about? Rebecca stood up and pressed her back against the wall, staring at the woman a foot away who had built a house for her, managed her career, her gallery, her life.
Cared about? Rebecca, it was you I cared about, not a foundation or a job or a gallery. It was all about you. Ellens tone was steady, but when she looked at Rebecca, her eyes were filled with such raw, naked emotion that Nell was forced to look away.
Ellen had done it all out of love. Every single bit of it. The foundation embezzlement to pay for the things Rebecca wantedthe house, the studio. The gambling to put money back into the foundation. A vicious, awful circle. And then murder, to release her from her final debtto her friend, Billy Sobel.
The money . . . it wouldnt have mattered . . . , Rebecca began, but her voice failed her and she stopped.
Of course it mattered, Rebecca, Ellen said sadly. You matter. You are the only thing in my whole life that ever mattered. But it was your money I lost, Rebeccawhat you brought to our relationship. I knew youd never forgive me if you knew what Id done. And then one terrible thing led to another, and I was so desperately afraid Id lose you.
Rebecca slumped back down on the chair.
Aidan knew everything, Nell said. He read the financial reports, knew the figures were skewed. And he knew that Ellen was the only person who had access to it.
Ellens voice dropped to a whisper. I knew if you found out, Rebecca, youd leave. So I went to Billy. And dear Billyhe understood. Hed bail me out. Wed fix the books, make it better. Wed paid Billy back once, wed do it again. And our life would be good again.
Nell knew that beneath the surface was the other thing that Ellen was counting on. If she could stall until Rebeccas uncle died, thered be more than enough money to make everything right. To cover her crimes. Aidan was gone. She had control over the books. No one would ever have to know.
Ellen could barely pull her eyes away from Rebecca. It was as if once she did, the connection would snap forever, and her life would crumble to the floor.
When she finally looked away, her voice switched to an eerie monotone, as if someone else had taken over for her, and she had simply disappeared.
Nell hoped that Doc Hamilton hadnt left yet. Hed be needed to refill Rebeccas Nembutal prescriptionit had run out, she suspected, because Ellen had used it to make the Mickey Finn that shed slipped into Aidans drink. And Ellen might need something as well.
Rebeccas makeup was completely gone now, and sitting in the dark shadows of the room, she looked as vulnerable and defense-less as a sixteen-year-old. She covered her face with her hands, her grief swallowing her up.
Nell had to restrain herself from wrapping her up and taking her home.
Natalie had slipped into the back of the room as Ellen was talking. A look of total disbelief filled her face as she stared at the woman who had killed her husband. The outstanding debt, the $250,000. It was Billys gift to his friend Ellen. The gambling debt.
Ellen spotted her. Its you who is to blame for this, Natalie, she said calmly. Billy would never have made me pay him back. But you insisted. I begged him that night. I sat in the rain next to him and begged him to honor our friendship, to forgive the debt so I could make the foundation books balance before Jane got her hands on them.
But he couldnt, he said. Not without losing his wife. He would if he could, but his hands were tiedhe couldnt bear the thought of you leaving him. And then he finished off the bottle, and when he tried to stand, he slipped on the wet dock and tumbled off the end. I couldnt pull him back, of course. He grabbed the rung, but I couldnt do anything to help him. He was so much heavier than I am.
So you stepped on his hands, and let him drown in the churning sea.
The words echoed silently in the sadness of the room.
An awful, eerie silence was broken only by the agonizing cry that escaped Natalie Sobels lips. In the next second, she fell into a dead faint, saved from the hard wooden floor by Chief Jerry Thompsons strong arms.
Chapter 34
M
any of the Canary Cove neighbors and artists pitched in to give the Peabody house and Fishtail Gallery a thorough cleaning, opening windows, scrubbing floors and kitchen cupboards.
But it was Nell, Cass, Izzy, and Birdie who stayed with Willow, going through bookcases and drawers, making beds with fresh-smelling cotton sheets, and filling her house with flowers from Aidans garden.
They talked as they worked, putting the last weeks of summer into their proper place.
Rebecca had decided to stay on in Sea Harbor, hiring a new manager for the shop and moving on with her life. She was brave, everyone said.
But when Izzy and Nell stopped in her gallery the day before, Rebecca had taken them into the private office, shut the door, and broken down in tears. All the secrets, living a pretend life, was painful for her, she said. Distasteful. But Ellen had insisted, knowing they risked losing the inheritance if they acted otherwise.
Ellen was so afraid of losing you, Nell said. That was what this was all about. Losing the one person in her life who held her together.
Rebeccas sadness was profound. I didnt care about the money. I honestly didnt. I only cared about Ellen. And I hated pretending to be something I wasnt. I think thats why I was so nasty to everyone, she said. Her eyes, if not her words, asked them for forgiveness.
I think Rebecca will be fine, Birdie said. But it will take a long time for everyone to heal.
Shes using her uncles money to replenish the foundation, Nell said. Its a start. And a generous gesture. Youre right, Birdie. Rebecca will be fine, though Ellens crimes will be difficult for her to forget or forgive. This is certainly a start.
I feel sorry for Brendan, Izzy said. He was so obsessed with his own talent, so angry that people didnt recognize it, that it ate him up.
I wonder if he would have eventually let it slip, just to let people know that he was as good as Robert Jamesat least in his mind. And hed proven it by his deception, by others accepting his work as that of the master.
It may have come to that, Nell said. He wanted recognition so badly that he might have admitted his guilt on his own.
What will happen to him? Willow asked.
Nell could see that she still carried a fondness for the art teacher. But Willow was resilient. As far as being prosecuted, probably nothing will happen. He didnt forge James signature yet. And didnt received any money for the paintings, though that was clearly his and Billys plan. Natalie discovered papers that offered half of the sale to Brendan, something that would have been mighty difficult to explain to her when the time came.
But hes lost his job. Sea Harbor High has canceled his contract, Birdie said. Its understandable, but a shame. Brendan was a talented artist and, if Stella Palazola speaks the truth, a fine teacher.
Hell go back to Maine, maybe. I dont think he would ever have been happy in New York. Willow emptied a pail of water into the kitchen sink. And then, hopefully, hell grow up.
Birdie led the way into Aidans den and switched on a light. It was that magical time of evening when light played off the trees and filtered in through the curtains, casting shadows on the braided rug on the floor. Through the open windows the sweet smell of roses drifted in from Aidans garden.
They sat together on the floor, even Birdie crouching down beside Izzy, her short legs sticking straight out in front of her. A circle of unlikely friends.
Willow leafed through the stack of letters retrieved from a secret cubbyhole in the back of Aidans mermaid. Since theyd found them earlier that day, they hadnt left Willows hands.
No one had found the stash, not in the polices search of the house or the deep cleaning that Jane and Birdie gave to every inch of the family room. No one noticed the small latch in the mermaids elaborate fins that opened up to a hollowed-out space, not until Willow herself ran her hands over the finely crafted wood and felt the tiny protrusion. A little brass knob, nearly invisible in the carved fold of wood.
Nell wasnt sure why Aidan had hidden the lettersthough he was a private person and she supposed it was in character. Or maybe it was an effort to keep them safe under the mermaids watchful eye.
They had sat with Willow as she opened every single letter. Each one addressed to a post office box in Madison, Wisconsin, and returned, unopened. Occupant unknown. Aidan had made a deal with the post office to keep sending them back if they went unclaimed, even after the grace period ran out. It was a connection, he thought, and he paid the charge willingly.
Nell supposed he hoped that one day a letter would come back. And hed go looking again. Or maybe get a call.
Each letter detailed a fathers search for a child. Although Aidan never knew with certainty that there was a child, his letters expressed a yearning and a connection. He felt the childs presence, he had written in one of the letters.
And he thought of her always, another said.
It wasnt clear why the baby became a she, but Aidan seemed to know. Or maybe it was wishful thinking. His little mermaid. In one letter he talked about a small mermaid he carved and kept on his desk to remind him of this little girl growing up. Somewhere. It was the little mermaid Ben had suggested buying. The one Aidan stalwartly refused to sell.
The letters were sporadicmore frequent in the beginning, but always at least once a year.
Willow stood and walked over to the desk. She slipped them into the drawer.
You came here to meet your father, Nell said. She pushed herself up off the floor and slipped onto a cushioned chair.
Willow looked over at Nell and nodded. She smiled slowly.
At least it was a beginning, Nell thought. And a strong one. The letters told her so many things, and Aidans home and art and studio would tell her more. Each day.
Are you ready for your exhibit, young lady? Birdie asked. All the ladies from my tap-dancing class are coming.
We should have them do a number, Willow teased.
Ive got Natalie Sobel going over there with me. She used to be a dancer, you know.
Birdie, no, Izzy said, stifling a laugh.