Flipped Out (29 page)

“One of the crew,” Derek said. I nodded. “Well, at the moment, we’re gonna ruin our own chances of being on TV if we don’t get moving. We won’t have much help today, so that means we’ll have to do more of the work ourselves. Let’s go.”

“The coffee . . . ?”

“Take it with you,” Derek said and headed outside to load the holey Adirondack chair into the back of the truck.

By the time the television crew arrived at the house on Cabot, we were hard at work. Derek was finishing up the second coat of polyurethane on the wood floors, and I was putting the doors back on the kitchen cabinets and screwing the new door handles and drawer pulls onto the doors and drawers. It all looked great and would look even better when the kitchen counter was in.

Ted and Adam helped Derek maneuver the counter in place while Wilson filmed. Meanwhile, Fae pushed me into the utility room, Nina on her heels. “We heard about Shannon and Josh. How horrible!”

I nodded. “They were lucky. Things could have been so much worse.”

“What happened?” Nina asked. “Kate said they’d run off the road on the way home from dinner yesterday, and she’d been at the hospital all night.”

“Basically, that’s all we know. The brakes on Josh’s car failed. No idea why yet, but I’m sure we’ll find out when the mechanic has taken a look at it. Luckily, Josh managed to find a place where they didn’t fly off a cliff and drop like a rock straight into the ocean, so it turned out all right. He has a broken bone in his foot. Shannon has a concussion. Other than that, and some cuts and bruises, they’re both fine.”

“Oh, my,” Nina said, and grabbed Fae’s arm. “That could have been Fae!”

“If it had happened the night before, sure. Although there are no cliffs on that side of town.” I hesitated for a second, calculating a plan of attack, before I continued, “But really, they were very lucky. People die in car accidents every day. Young people no older than Josh or Shannon. Or Fae. You had a friend who died in a car accident, didn’t you, Nina?”

Nina paled, and she dropped her hand from Fae’s arm. “How do you know about that?”

“It’s public knowledge, isn’t it? KRBQ in Kansas City named a road after her. Aurora Lane, right?”

Fae was looking at Nina now, too, while in the kitchen, Derek had started the process of screwing the kitchen counter to the cabinets. From the other room, we could hear Adam explain the process to the camera. “What Dick is doing now . . .”

“His name is Derek, Adam,” Wilson said. “Start over.”

In the utility room, all were silent. Fae was watching Nina, a guarded expression on her face. Nina looked like she had trouble breathing.

“I went online,” I said. “Last night. Something’s going on here. People are dropping like flies around this production, and we’re lucky Tony’s been the only fatality so far. I wanted to know why. So I did some research.”

“And you found out about Rory?” Nina’s voice was hoarse.

I nodded and chalked up a point for Derek, who had postulated the nickname. “She died during the time you worked for KRBQ, right? You and Tony?”

Nina nodded, her face still several shades too pale. She was twisting her fingers together.

“Did you have something to do with it?”

“I didn’t kill her,” Nina said. “It was an accident. I wasn’t even there that night. And I had no idea she’d get in the car and try to drive to work even though she’d been drinking. That was just stupid!”

“Maybe she was afraid that if she didn’t show up, you’d take her job,” Fae suggested, her voice low but with an underlying sharpness. “That’s the way it is in television, isn’t it? So many reporters, so few jobs?”

Nina looked stricken, and I followed up with another question. “You did take over her job, didn’t you? Afterward?”

She swallowed. “Just the newscasts. Not the midday show. They decided to shelve that when Rory was killed. And I didn’t stay there much longer, anyway. Just a month or so after she died.”

“Guilty conscience?” Fae suggested. Nina turned on her.

“I didn’t do anything! I wasn’t even there when she left. Sure, she was the favorite, and we all knew it, and we all wished she’d mess up or be late or do something stupid so the rest of us could get our chance, but we didn’t want her dead!”

Fae snorted.

“Who did she go drinking with that night?” I asked, and Nina looked at me, her eyes haunted.

“Tony.”

“She and Tony were dating?”

I’d thought Nina and Tony had been dating, but maybe I’d misunderstood the situation. Although that
was
what she’d said, wasn’t it?

Nina shook her head. “Tony was with me. God knows why, because she was much prettier than I ever was, although I didn’t look too bad back in those days, I guess.” She shrugged. “Rory had a baby, though, and Tony didn’t want to be tied down. He wasn’t looking for anything permanent. I always knew our relationship wouldn’t last beyond Kansas City. Tony had too much ambition. So did I. Rory didn’t, but things just seemed to work out for her. You know?”

I nodded. I knew the type. “So what was she doing with him that night?”

“She always liked him. He’d never given her the time of day before, but that night he asked her out. And to go home with him afterward. She said yes.”

I wrinkled my brows. “How did you feel about that?”

“I asked him to,” Nina said.

“You what!”

This was Fae, and Nina turned to her. “I asked him to do it. To take her out and get her drunk and take her back to his apartment. I thought it would make her sleep through the two A.M. alarm, and she wouldn’t make it to the TV station in time to do the morning broadcasts. Or if she did, she’d be too drunk or too hungover to go on the air. I made sure I was there so I could do it instead.”

“You asked your boyfriend to take advantage of her?”

“It wasn’t taking advantage!” Nina said. “I told you, she liked him. She said yes, didn’t she? And all I wanted was to make sure she couldn’t go on and do the morning news. I didn’t want anything to happen to her!” Her eyes had filled with tears.

“What did happen?” I asked, making sure my voice was gentle.

Nina blinked. Hard. “I don’t know. Nobody does. Tony slept through it. He didn’t wake up until I banged on his door hours later. He didn’t even realize she’d left. Maybe she tried to wake him up in the middle of the night, or maybe she didn’t. Nobody knows. I don’t know why she didn’t just call a cab, if she was bound and determined to get to the studio. She wasn’t supposed to drive!”

The tears overflowed and spilled down her cheeks, and she dug in her handbag for something to wipe them with. I tore off a sheet of paper towel and handed it to her, and she buried her face in it. Fae watched her for a second before she slipped off into the kitchen to join the others, I guess maybe to give Nina some privacy. I would have liked to have done the same, but I still had questions.

“Do you think this is the reason you’ve been getting the letters? Someone knew what you did?”

“But I didn’t do anything!” Nina said again. “I didn’t want anything to happen to her, I just wanted her out of the way for a couple of hours so I could take her place. That’s all! I felt horrible when I heard what had happened. But we never intended for her to try to drive herself to work in the dark!”

“I get that.” And I did. She seemed too distraught not to be telling the truth, and besides, it wasn’t like she’d stayed at KRBQ after the accident to take advantage of Aurora’s passing. Both she and Tony had been out of Kansas City within a few months and hadn’t been in contact with one another for twenty years. Those weren’t the actions of people who had planned to kill. “Did anyone else know? Or just you and Tony?”

“Ted,” Nina said.

“Ted was there?” I hadn’t noticed his name in the obituary, but then they may just have listed the talent, not the lowly tech guys. Or maybe Ted wasn’t really his name. Maybe it was Theodore or Edward or something.

“He was new, too. We were friends. Could have been more, maybe, if it hadn’t been for Tony.”

“And he knew what happened? Could he be the one sending you the letters?”

“Ted?” Nina said with an amused smile on her face. “Not in a million years. He’d never do anything to hurt or threaten me.”

“Are you . . .” I hesitated, not quite sure how to phrase the question.

She smiled. “Off and on. Between other things. He was married for a while. I’ve had a few relationships since Tony. But we always seem to end up back together.”

“That’s . . . nice.” It was, sort of. Unusual maybe, but nice. And possibly it was just the way they did things in show business. “Does he know about the letters?”

“I haven’t told him,” Nina said. “He worries.”

“Right.” I thought for a moment. “How did he and Tony get along? Back in Kansas City?”

“Ted didn’t like Tony,” Nina said readily. “Tony pretty much didn’t know that Ted existed. I’m not sure he recognized him when he saw him this week.”

I nodded. So Ted had wanted Nina twenty years ago in Kansas City when Tony had had her. Then Tony dropped off the face of the earth for twenty years, and Ted got Nina. At least on and off, when they weren’t involved with other people. Which—OK—was a little strange, but to each their own, right? And now they were here in Waterfield, on again, off again, and then Tony shows up. Tony, whom Nina had been involved with before. At a time when she could have had Ted, but had chosen Tony over him. So what were the chances that Ted thought Nina might get involved with Tony again?

Probably pretty good, I figured.

What were the chances that Ted had killed Tony to keep that from happening?

Probably not so good, I admitted to myself. If he’d been married himself, and he’d been OK with Nina’s other relationships through the years, he might not care if she had another fling with Tony, especially if the crew was only here in Waterfield for five days. They hadn’t tried to make a long-distance relationship work last time, so chances were they wouldn’t this time, either. Still, it bore looking into, perhaps.

Ted had said he and Wilson had been in Portland together the night Tony was killed. Or maybe it was Wilson who’d said it? I couldn’t remember anymore. I did remember hearing it, though. Maybe I should double-check and make sure they were both onboard with that explanation.

Unless they’d been acting together and neither had been in Portland.

Or they’d both been in Portland but had stopped by the house on Cabot on the way back.

Or something.

“How did Ted find out about what happened to Aurora? Did he plan it with you?”

Nina shook her head. “I came up with the idea and got Tony involved. Ted had nothing to do with it. But after Rory died, Tony and I couldn’t keep our relationship going. Too much guilt, I guess. It was her choice to drive drunk, nobody made her do it, but we knew if it hadn’t been for us, she wouldn’t even have been drinking that night. It got to where we couldn’t look at each other anymore. But I needed someone to talk to, and Ted was there, so I talked to him.”

That made sense. Rebound relationship.

“So you left Kansas City, and so did Tony, and until this week, you didn’t see him again.”

She shook her head. “It was a shock, too. At first I wanted nothing to do with him. It brought everything back, things I hadn’t thought about for years. But then I got back to the B and B and found the letter and realized it had followed me here. And that was the first time I thought that maybe the letters had something to do with Rory. Up until then I thought maybe someone was blaming me for what happened to Stuart.”

“So you agreed to go to dinner with him. And you talked about Aurora. And maybe the letters, too?”

She nodded.

“Was he getting them, as well?”

She shook her head. “He said no. The one that the chief of police showed me must have been the first.”

And it had been sent after the crew had arrived in Waterfield. After someone had realized that Tony had known Nina in Kansas City and might have had something to do with Aurora’s death, as well. Unless Tony had lied, of course.

“And then he drove you home?”

“Like I told you.”

“But you can’t prove it, can you? Nobody saw you. And you didn’t see anyone.”

Nina shook her head. “I didn’t kill him, Avery. Why would I? He was as complicit in Rory’s death as I was, and everyone agreed he wasn’t to blame. He told the police what happened, you know. That they’d been drinking and they’d fallen asleep and he didn’t wake up until morning. She was already long gone by then. Everyone agreed it wasn’t his fault.”

“Did he tell them about you, too?”

This time her cheeks flushed. “No. He kept that part out of it. When we broke up after it happened, everyone assumed it was because he’d cheated on me with Rory.”

“What if he had threatened to tell now?”

“What if he had?” Nina said. “We didn’t kill her. We didn’t even want her to die. We just wanted her to oversleep and miss her on-air time. That’s all.”