The best weapon I could think of was the fire extinguisher in the apartment kitchen, which was all the way across the studio from the bed. Getting there would take me behind the stairwell, which was important. I had no desire to pass in front of the stairs and run smack into the intruder. I slid out of bed and crept across the room. The footsteps kept coming.
I grabbed the fire extinguisher, ran to the top of the stairs, and lifted it over my head, determined to do some damage.
“Julia!” The room lit up and Chris stood at the top of the stairs, hand on the light switch. “It’s me.”
I was panting from the fear and the adrenaline. “I thought it was the murderer.”
“No kidding.” Chris dropped his hand to his side. “Did it maybe occur to you to check the bed next to you? To see if I was there, or to wake me up so I could help you, or maybe even defend myself?”
I stared, shame-faced, at my bare feet. “I am so sorry. I’m a little on edge.”
He took the fire extinguisher from me and walked it back to the kitchen. “Gus and I boarded up the trapdoor this afternoon. We’re not idiots, you know.”
“Why were you downstairs anyway?” I wasn’t taking the blame for almost clobbering him all by myself.
“I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I figured rather than wake you, I’d go down to the restaurant, eat a sandwich, watch a little TV.”
I had slept through all of this. “Why couldn’t you sleep?”
“Same reason you almost killed me. It doesn’t make sense that this Enid woman drowned and then kept breaking into our home. Unless she’s haunting us.”
“So you agree with me.”
“Of course I agree with you.” He kissed the top of my head. “I always agree with you.”
“Liar.”
He laughed.
“I’m glad you boarded up the trapdoor.”
“Me too. But I’m not sure it matters. You haven’t been all over town today asking people about gift certificates or showing them copies of an old photo. Why would the intruder break in tonight? No bait.”
No bait. But I did have bait—the insurance report. Since Binder, Flynn, and Jamie weren’t back in Busman’s Harbor, no one in town knew about the discovery of Austin Lowe’s study wall and Enid Sparks’s letter. I could use that to my advantage.
Chris turned out the light, and we climbed into bed. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Chapter 26
“We never saw each other again after that night,” Caroline Caswell said. I was seated again at the round glass table, watching the birds at the feeder on the deck. “We knew one of us had left that cigarette smoldering in the couch. We didn’t know who had done it. Every one of us, except Enid, smoked back then. We all feared we’d been the one. We could never look each other in the eye again.”
She put her elbows on the table and leaned toward me. Henry, seated next to her, silently put an arm around her petite shoulders. “The New Year’s Eve party was meant as a reunion of sorts. Right after we posed for that photo at the yacht club dance, we began to grow apart. The world felt like it was spinning faster on its axis, pulling us in different directions.
“Henry dropped out of college and joined the navy. Days after their college graduations, Phil and Sheila married. Phil went to business school and joined the family drug company. Three years later, he left Sheila for Deborah. That was the first explosion.
“Michael went to law school to please his parents, but you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. His politics became more radical. He went on and on about the rights of the oppressed. Barry attended art school as an undergrad. After college, he drifted. His hair grew down to his waist and his beard was enormous.”
I imagined the Barry Walker I knew, with the Bozo-inspired coif, with a beard and hair down to his waist. It was easy to picture.
“Madeleine arranged the New Year’s Eve party,” Caroline continued. “She thought enough time had gone by for Sheila to be over the divorce, and persuaded her to come. It was meant to be a peacemaking, a healing moment for all of us. Barry and Enid announced their engagement at dinner. We toasted them and cheered. Madeleine was the perfect hostess. She smiled and laughed all evening. It made her so happy we were all together. I was happy too.” Caroline’s voice thickened. “My beautiful friend.
“That night must have been so difficult for Sheila. She and Phil had been together as a summer couple, well, always. We were all friends, but I can’t remember a time, even when we were quite young, when it wasn’t understood that Phil and Sheila’s relationship was special.” She paused, considering how to go on. “I think once Phil became a rising star in business, he needed a more glamorous wife. Deborah was always the most beautiful of us. Dan had been dead for three years by then, and she was in Manhattan. Sheila had no idea, but Phil found Deborah and wooed her. He left Sheila and married Deborah the day his divorce was final.”