Don't Close Your Eyes Part 35

The young man backed off, obviously considering more strongly the possibility that this loony woman had indeed killed the man. "I was only trying to help."

"I didn't hear any offer to help." Tears suddenly filled Natalie's eyes and she began to tremble. "Do you have a blanket we can throw over him?"

He turned and ran back to his wife. After a murmured exchange she exclaimed, "I'm not ruining one of my good blankets!" In measured strides they retreated to their house and firmly closed the door. In less than a minute their faces appeared at the front window.

"Love thy neighbor," Natalie muttered as she sank down beside Jeff's body, suddenly dizzy. Three times in one week she had stood guard over the victims of savage violence. It was absurd. It was horrible. She felt as if she'd fallen off the edge of the world.

Mary Coombs dashed out of her house bearing a blanket that she tossed over the crumpled form of Jeff Lindstrom. Then she sat down on the pavement beside Natalie and poured a cup of coffee from a Thermos. "Drink this, honey. You're shaking like it's thirty degrees out here."

The coffee was thick with cream and sugar. Natalie liked her coffee black, but she drank obediently. Mary put her arm around Natalie's shoulders, and slowly the shaking began to subside. "Did you know him?" Mary asked.

"Slightly. He wasn't a friend." She shuddered. "He was left here for me to find."

"Now, Natalie, you're just scared."

"I know what I'm talking about." She looked at the pleasantly weather-worn face of the woman who'd offered love and sympathy ever since Kira deserted her so long ago. "Mary, did you see his throat?"

"Yes, horrible. This is nasty business, Natalie, but it doesn't have anything to do with you. Not a thing in the world."

But it did. Natalie knew with sickening certainly that it had everything to do with her.

She wasn't sure how long she and Mary sat silently beside the white car before the first police car arrived. Nick Meredith emerged, his expression grim, his eyes surrounded by bluish circles. Natalie doubted if he'd gotten a full night's sleep since the murder of Tamara. He looked at the blanket, then at Natalie. "Know who it is?"

"Jeff Lindstrom."

He drew in a quick breath. "Okay, besides Natalie, how many people have trampled on the crime scene?" he demanded.

"Only me," Mary returned indignantly, "and I didn't trample."

"The guy who lives in the gray house was here," Natalie told him. "He didn't come within six feet of the body, though, and I didn't see him touch anything."

Nick looked around. "Pretty boy standing at his window clutching a woman?"

"Yes. Gary didn't come over."

"Who's Gary?"

"The locksmith gawking at you from the doorway of my house. He made the call after I found the body."

Nick turned to a deputy hovering nearby. "Get the tech team."

"Runnin' them ragged lately," the deputy muttered as he headed for the patrol car.

"And keep everyone else away from the area," Nick added. He pulled on a clear, latex glove and lifted the blanket. After gazing at the neck wound for a moment, he withdrew a wallet from Jeff's pants pocket. He flipped it open and read from the driver's license. "Jefferson R. Lindstrom. 2020 Madison Street, Cincinnati, Ohio."

Mary looked at him sternly. "Certainly you don't need Natalie to stay here and watch whatever you do with a body. She needs to go inside."

"She does indeed." Nick reached down and took Natalie's arm. "Let's go in and you tell me what happened."

Mary insisted on following, casting suspicious looks at Nick. He told Gary to go about his business, but Gary wasn't breaking any records. He worked slowly and quietly as he eavesdropped on Natalie's account of the morning up until she'd opened the door of Jeff Lindstrom's car.

As soon as she finished, someone began pounding on the front door and shouting, "What the h.e.l.l is going on? Are those home invaders back?"

"Oh, Lord, it's Harvey," Mary groaned. "He was fine when he went out to fish, but it sounds like he got into the liquor before he came over."

"Would you mind taking him home, ma'am?" Nick asked politely. "We have all the confusion around here we need."

"Yes, I'll take him home," Mary said with suppressed fury. "If we hadn't been married since we were nineteen, I'd divorce him, the old fool."

She marched off and, after a brief but loud altercation on the front porch, Natalie heard her leading away a protesting Harvey. "Poor guy," she said. "He used to be brilliant and so charming."

"Last week he spent the night in jail," Nick told her. "I thought Hysell was going to cry when I arrested him, but I can't have him sitting out in his boat yelling to a crowd of tourists that he hid a bomb on sh.o.r.e."

Natalie smiled faintly. "I appreciate the effort, but you don't have to keep prattling about Harvey. It's not going to take my mind off Jeff."

"I know, but you're so pale I thought I'd give you a minute to recuperate." Nick sat down and to her surprise took her cold hand in his. "Where's your father?"

"At the hospital. He's always spent more time there than at home."

"Even when you were a little girl?"

"Yes." She looked at him. "He couldn't help it. He's needed."

"I wasn't criticizing. When I think of how little time I've spent with Paige lately... well, never mind. Are you all right?"

"I honestly don't know. I keep finding bodies. It's almost funny. I feel like a bloodhound." Abruptly she started laughing. The laughter lasted for thirty seconds until suddenly it turned to ragged sobs. "I just don't understand, Nick. I thought Jeff might have killed Tam, but now he's been murdered. I guess this blows Ted's theory. Lindstrom didn't have anything to do with Eugene Farley."

"Yes, he did," Nick said slowly. "His mother is Constance Farley's sister. Eugene was Jeff's cousin."

Natalie looked at him in disbelief. "His cousin? How do you know?"

"I spoke with Mrs. Farley. She was really upset when she found out he was here. She said he was, and I quote, 'an awful boy' and 'crazy.' "

"Crazy how?"

"She didn't elaborate, but she was adamant that I not cooperate with him. She was especially freaked out over the possibility that I might discuss her or Eugene with him." He smiled. "She wanted me to run him out of town."

"Tar and feathers?"

"I didn't suggest it, but if I had, she would have jumped at the idea."

Natalie wiped at the tears streaking her face. "What do you suppose he was really doing here?"

"I don't know. I considered the possibility that Mrs. Farley might have dispatched him to do her killing for her, but that seems too extreme. Then there's the possibility that he really was interested in doing a true-crime novel and in his investigation he found out more than I did. Maybe he thought he knew who the killer was."

"And?"

"And he made the mistake of confronting that person. He could have had plans to triumphantly drag the killer into the headquarters of the stupefied police. Or he could have had plans to blackmail the killer. Lindstrom was c.o.c.ky as h.e.l.l, Natalie. He was the type who thought he could outsmart, outmaneuver anyone." Nick looked into her eyes. "But maybe he met his match."

The door swung open and Mrs. Fisher looked at Nick belligerently. "What is it now?"

"I need to speak with Dee."

"I need to speak with Dee, too, but she's not here." The woman clutched her flannel robe around her. She'd combed out her pin curls and her white hair formed a thin, frizzy halo around her wizened face. "I haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon. No one to fix my dinner! No one to fix my breakfast! I could have died in the night and laid in my bed till I rotted'."

Her face reddened and Nick feared she was working herself into another coughing fit. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Her gaze narrowed. "Always tryin' to get into this house, aren't you?"

Oh, G.o.d, not this again, Nick thought. "Mrs. Fisher, do you have any idea where Dee might be?"

"If I knew, I'd sure as h.e.l.l tell you so you could drag her back by the hair to take care of me like she's's'posed to. Free room and board I give her! And for what?" Her pale eyes pinned Nick. "Why're you here lookin' for her? She's done somethin'. Don't try to fool me. What is it?"

"I don't know that she's done anything. I just want to talk to her."

"About what?"

"I can't discuss it with you."

"Well, to h.e.l.l with you then!" Mrs. Fisher slammed the door.

Nick stood on the porch for a moment, thinking. Dee Fisher had been acting strangely for over a week. According to her mother she was often gone at night and had received a number of secret phone calls. Wade at the Lakeview Motel had seen her coming out of Lindstrom's room the night after Tamara Hunt's funeral. She was upset. Lindstrom was never seen again. And now he was dead.

And what about Alison Cosgrove? She'd been attacked around ten last night. Mrs. Fisher said she hadn't seen her daughter since yesterday afternoon. That left nearly twenty four hours unaccounted for. Twenty-four hours missing from the life of a woman who had loved Eugene Farley and never gotten over his death.

As much as he hated to do it, Nick knew he had to talk with Ted Hysell about the possibility that his girlfriend was a killer.

The paramedics had taken Jeff Lindstrom away over an hour ago. A couple of reporters prowled the street, but everyone had sequestered themselves in their houses, refusing comment. Just twenty minutes ago Natalie had spotted a particularly pushy female reporter for the local newspaper standing on the patio peering in the sliding gla.s.s doors at her. Natalie had drawn the vertical blinds with a crash and an expletive loud enough to be heard through the gla.s.s.

Now, numb from the shock of finding the body, she sat on the floor with her guitar and strummed absently, Blaine by her side. She hit ragged chords. Her voice quavered. She broke a string.

The phone rang. Kenny's disembodied voice floated from the answering machine. "Natalie, I know you're there, so pick up. I want to talk to you. Let's work this out. Natalie?" A pause. "Well, I love you, hon."

Nothing about having read of more murders in Port Ariel and being worried about her. Nothing about thinking of her sadness after Tamara's funeral. "Let's work this out." He was bored, temporarily at sea without her. And, "I love you, hon." Two weeks ago her heart would have beat faster at hearing those words. Now they sounded hollow. No feeling ebbed behind them. Had it ever? Or had she been nothing more to Kenny than the woman of the moment, someone convenient and eager to please?

She began to play and sing, launching into "I Can't Make You Love Me," by Bonnie Raitt. Tears were gathering in her eyes when the phone rang again. "Natalie, it's Lily." Natalie put down the guitar, swallowed to control her voice, and picked up the receiver. "What's going on?" Lily demanded anxiously. "You found a body?"

"Do we have a Port Ariel town crier?" Natalie asked. "How did you find out?"

"Your neighbors across the street called my father. Apparently they're afraid they're going to be dragged into something unsavory. They wanted to know if they needed representation and said they wanted the best."

"What a pair of self-involved idiots."

"Why didn't you call and tell me what happened?"

"I didn't want to upset you. I figured all h.e.l.l was breaking loose in your world already considering the attack on Alison."

"I didn't know anything about it until this morning when I called Dad. He was just on his way to the hospital."

"He didn't go until this morning?"

"Apparently not."

"Viveca called here around one A.M. wanting my father to come. I wouldn't wake him because he was wiped out and sound asleep, but I talked with her for a while. She told me she'd asked your dad to come, but he said he had his own problems."

"You think he was unfeeling."

"To say the least. He's supposedly in love with Viveca."

"Well, maybe he's not as crazy about her as he thought."

"Last night was a fine time to decide that."

"What is it with you?" Lily asked sharply. "I didn't know you'd become Viveca's champion. And my father has been through a lot. He's nearly reached the end of his endurance."

"I didn't mean to offend you. It's just been quite a morning."

"Never mind." Lily's voice turned oddly fiat. "About this body you found. Who was it?"

Natalie stiffened. About this body you found. Who was it? Lily sounded like Natalie had found a stray cat on the porch. She'd gone off on a tangent about her father and Viveca before she even asked the ident.i.ty of the body. "It was Jeff Lindstrom, Lily," Natalie answered slowly. "His throat had been cut."

"Like Tam's," Lily said without expression.

"And Warren 's and Charlotte's and Alison's." Natalie waited for Lily to say something else, but she didn't. "Who do you think could have done this to him?"

"You sound as if you honestly expect me to have an answer," Lily said edgily. "Do you think I know more about all of this than you do?"

"No, I thought I was just asking if you had any ideas," Natalie said carefully. "I haven't talked to you since Nick found out Lindstrom was Eugene Farley's cousin."

"His cousin!" This time Lily sounded genuinely shocked. "What on earth was he doing here?"

"He told Nick he was gathering information to write a true-crime novel about the recent murders. Then Nick found out he was Constance Farley's nephew. When he spoke with Constance, she said she didn't know anything about a book and she was very upset that he was in Port Ariel poking around. Then he disappeared on Thursday."

"The day of Tam's funeral."

"Lily, did Jeff ever try to talk to you or your father about Tam and Warren?"

"The only time I ever saw him was that day in the store. You heard the conversation. And I know if he'd tried to talk to Dad about Tam, Dad would have mentioned it. He had nothing to do with Jeff Lindstrom." Her voice rose. "Nothing."

"Lily, what is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with you? You're asking me all these questions about someone who was murdered. You sound like you think my father and I know something. And what's all this with the sheriff? He's Nick now? Are you on the rebound from Kenny? Trying to score some points with the handsome young sheriff by doing his dirty work for him, badgering your oldest and supposedly dearest friends about murders?"

"Lily, for G.o.d's sake, calm down!" Natalie was stunned by Lily's outburst. "I didn't mean anything-"

"The h.e.l.l you didn't! Just keep your suspicions to yourself, Natalie, before you do a lot of damage!"

For the first time in their long friends.h.i.+p, Lily slammed down the phone on her. Natalie sat dumbfounded, holding the receiver for nearly a minute as Lily's words played over and over in her head: Just keep your suspicions to yourself before you do a lot of damage. But she couldn't keep her suspicions to herself, not when Lily sounded so jumpy, so frightened...