Deadly Ever After by Eva Gates (smart books to read TXT) 📕

“Wait here, all of you.” Watson took the few steps across the room to the bar to talk to her.

I edged ever so slightly toward them. If I could have pricked up my ears, I would have.

“I’ve been told,” Watson said, “you were talking to a young man from those people’s party earlier tonight?”

“Yeah. He said his name was Ricky. He’d been at Mr. and Mrs. O’Malley’s table with Lucy and Connor and the others, but he left them before the main courses were brought out and took a seat at the bar. I thought that was rude, but it’s none of my business. He was drinking a lot. Scotch, and not the cheap stuff either.”

Watson was facing away from me, so I couldn’t hear what he said, but her reply was clear.

“Hour ago, maybe? I’d say he left about fifteen to thirty minutes before I heard the yelling from outside. He wanted to meet me when I get off, but I told him I’m in a relationship. He said he’d be at the bar in the Ocean Side anyway, if I felt like dropping by.”

Watson asked her something.

“As if. I get that all the time here. Rich guys on vacation, too much to drink. Wives and girlfriends at home. More trouble than they’re worth. No thanks.”

Watson thanked her and returned to our table of curious faces. “Jake, did anyone go out the kitchen door this evening before Ruth did?”

Jake scrunched up his face and thought. “We’re in and out all the time. That’s where my staff go for breaks. They don’t stand outside the front door smoking. You can ask them if they saw anything, but I went out for some air about fifteen minutes before Ruth did, and he wasn’t there then.”

“Are you sure of the time?”

“I wouldn’t set my watch by it, but round about then.” He glanced over to the group of his helpers, sitting silently together. “Robyn, she’s new, burned a steak. In my earlier days I would have torn a blue streak off her. But, under the influence of my loving bride”—he smiled at Josie—“I’ve learned to take myself away for a few minutes. Robyn didn’t mean to do it, and she won’t do it again. Me yelling at her wouldn’t help the situation any. So, I stepped outside. Took a couple of paces, breathed a few times, and when I’d calmed down, I came back in and got on with it. I didn’t see a body, and I would have if one had been lying at my feet.”

“It’s dark out there,” Watson said.

“It’s my place,” Jake said. “I know what’s happening around me.”

Watson nodded.

“I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary either,” Jake said. “No one arguing or fighting for sure. But then again, the kitchen’s a noisy place.”

“Thanks,” Watson said. “I’ll talk to your staff in turn. But first,” he asked the people at my table, “did any of you see Richard Lewiston Junior this evening?”

“Never met him,” Connor, Amos, and Ellen said as Mom, Dad, and I shook our heads firmly.

“I didn’t know he was in town,” Dad said.

“I suppose it’s possible Evangeline called and told him where we were,” Mom said. “Although that wouldn’t explain why he was in Nags Head in the first place or why she didn’t tell us she’d invited him.”

“She left,” Dad pointed out.

“That’s right. But Ricky was still here. For a while, anyway.”

“And then he left,” I said.

“Butch,” Watson said, “you’re too close to these people to take statements. Go outside and supervise the scene and ask Officer Rankin to come in.”

Butch nodded and left.

“You know what my schedule’s like, Sam,” Josie said. “I need to get home. Can I give my statement first? It’ll be short. I saw nothing, heard nothing. Never saw the dead man before in all my life.”

“Sure,” Watson said.

When Officer Holly Rankin came in, almost bouncing on her toes at the chance to be of help to the detective, Watson told her to take statements—Josie’s first—from my family and the restaurant staff. “I have to go round to the Ocean Side and speak to Mrs. Lewiston, and I hope to get there before she and her son hear the news.”

Mom stood up. “I will accompany you.”

“That won’t be necessary. I’d prefer—”

“Not a problem.” She gathered up her handbag. “Evangeline and I have been the closest of friends for forty years. She’ll need all the comfort I can offer at this time. Lucille and young Ricky are also extremely close. She’ll accompany me.”

“I will?” I said. “I mean, yeah. Glad to be of help.”

“Who’s Lucille?” Watson asked.

“Me,” I said. “I have the name of a ninety-year-old woman.”

“You were named for—” Mom began.

“Yes, I know.” I was honored, really I was, to have been given the name of Dad’s maternal grandmother. I wasn’t honored when people met me for the first time and said I was much younger than they’d expected.

Watson shrugged. “Might as well. Lucy will find some way to get involved, whether I want her help or not.”

I didn’t bother to protest. Somehow, that was the way things worked out.

Connor got to his feet. He put his hand lightly on my arm and led me a few steps away from the table while Watson instructed Holly Rankin. “Are you okay going with your mom? Want me to follow?”

I laid my hand on his chest, just for a moment to feel the beating of his heart. “Not necessary, but thanks. You go home, and I’ll call you when I’m back at the lighthouse. Mom never liked Richard the Second, but this will still be upsetting for her, and I need to be with her. Particularly when Sam breaks the news to Evangeline and Ricky.”

“Interesting that they’ve both disappeared.”

“Isn’t it just?”

Chapter Six

Mom and I followed Detective Watson outside. He’d been at home when he got the call, so he’d come in his own car, but he waved for a uniformed officer to join us, and Butch broke away