28. Thursday, August 22, 1005 P.M.
The Chief and Zara find Bull standing by the fire department’s barricade, hands deep in his pockets, shoulders hunched, eyes red and watering. The Chief has never had a beef with Bull; in fact, he kind of likes the guy. Likes him but doesn’t quite trust him. Ed would never, for example, have gone into business with him the way that Addison did.
“Bull,” he says. “We have questions for you.”
“I’m sure you do, mate,” Bull says.
The Chief looks over at the garage. “There’s an apartment on the second floor, right? Where Coco lives?”
“Yes,” Bull says. “Two bedrooms, though she has it all to herself.” He clears his throat. “We treat Coco very well. I have a hard time believing she did this.”
“This?” Zara says.
“Burned our house down,” Bull says. “Then disappeared into thin air.”
Into thin air—Leslee’s exact words. “Would you describe your relationship with Coco for us, please?” the Chief says.
“She was an excellent assistant—organized, responsible…”
“What about your personal relationship?” Zara says. “Did the two of you get along?”
“Of course,” Bull says.
“Your wife seems to think that Coco has feelings for you,” the Chief says. “Would you agree?”
Bull’s nostrils flare like… well, like a bull’s. “That’s rubbish.”
“Leslee told us Coco used to hang out in your office,” the Chief says.
Bull runs his hand over his face. “Ahhh,” he says. “She did come by my office a few times, but it wasn’t like that.”
The Chief and Zara wait.
“We used to talk. Listen, I know my wife isn’t easy to work for. I used to check in with Coco to make sure she was okay and that she wasn’t harboring resentments that would build up so that she felt like stabbing us in our sleep. Or burning our house down.” He shakes his head. “I thought we were friends.”
“Just friends?” Zara asks.
“That’s what I thought. But I’m often clueless when it comes to the women in my life.”
The Chief recalls the last time he set foot on this property, during the hot-tub party. He feels his dinner churning in his gut. “Just tell us what was going on between you and Coco, please, Bull.”
“A few weeks ago she came to me with a script she’d written.” Bull stands a little straighter. “I do some producing, which we told her when we met her down in St. John. I now think she might have manipulated us a bit. We hired her; she moved up here to work for us, and then she hands me this screenplay out of the blue. She’d never mentioned it before.”
“So you think she was using you?” Zara says.
“Using might be a strong word,” Bull says. “Taking advantage is probably more accurate. And I respected her for working the angle. Leslee and I do it all the time.”
The Chief coughs. He’s quite glad Andrea isn’t here. Or Delilah. Or Addison. “So you read the screenplay?”
“I did,” Bull says. “I gave her positive feedback but I couldn’t pass the script on to anyone I knew. It wasn’t viable. Which wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She tried to persuade me otherwise—”
“Sexually?” Zara says.
“I think there was an implication of that, yeah,” Bull says. “But I nipped it in the bud. I’m married, for better or worse.”
For worse,the Chief thinks. Bull and Zara turn to stare at him. Did he say that out loud?
“I told Coco I’d read whatever she wrote next,” Bull says. “The problem with these artistic types is that they get attached to their projects. That script was Coco’s baby. But to me and the rest of the world, scripts are a commodity. And this one I knew I couldn’t sell.”
“When you turned Coco’s screenplay down, did she leave your office in tears?” the Chief asks.
“She did, yes.”
That explains the lovers’ spat,the Chief thinks.
“Are you aware that Coco is in a relationship with Lamont Oakley?” Zara asks. “They’ve been seeing each other since the Fourth of July.”
“Huh,” Bull says. “I didn’t know that, but then again, I’m not vested in the love lives of my employees.”
“But Leslee is vested,” Zara says.
“Oh god, yes,” Bull says. “If she found out, she wouldn’t be happy.”
“Because…” the Chief says.
“Because she’s fond of Lamont,” Bull says. “My wife likes to exert power over every man in her orbit.” He pauses. “You know a little about that, don’t you, Chief?”
Zara gives Ed a startled look. At what point, he wonders, will Zara regret taking a job on this island?
“What is Coco and Leslee’s relationship like?” Zara asks.
“It’s fine.”
“But there’s a rivalry between them?” Zara says. “Either because of you or because of Lamont?”
“Maybe a bit,” Bull says. “But is that a reason to burn our house down?”
“Leslee seems to think the vow renewal pushed Coco over the edge,” Zara says.
“That doesn’t sound right,” Bull says. “Coco was the one who came up with the vows—she found them on the internet. Before we set sail, she seemed excited about the secret of it. Leslee didn’t arrange for the vow renewal as a romantic gesture. She just wanted something to make the sunset sail memorable for our guests. Leslee likes our parties to be memorable.” He nods at the Chief. “As you know.”
“Would you give us five minutes, please?” the Chief says. “We’ll likely send home all the guests except Lamont and my daughter. It seems like everyone else here is a relatively new acquaintance.”
Bull nods sadly. “Total strangers.”
The Chief and Zara step away, and the Chief checks his phone: There’s a text from Lucy Shields. No one matching Ms. Coyle’s description was on the last ferry.
Shoot,Ed thinks. It would have looked very bad for Coco if she’d left the island, but at least they’d know she was alive. She has now been missing for over two hours. “Coco and Leslee had issues,” he says, “because of either Bull or Lamont.”
“Bull has an alibi,” Zara says. “He was on the bow all evening, and Lamont was sailing the boat. That leaves Leslee.”
“Or Coco set the fire, then later jumped off the boat to escape,” the Chief says. “Or did Leslee hear about the fire, assume Coco set it, and push her off the boat in anger?”
“Coco had motive to set the fire,” Zara says. “Leslee was competition for Lamont and maybe Bull. Bull turned down her screenplay.”
“So she either jumped or was pushed,” the Chief says.
“Or it was an accident,” Zara says. “She fell against the back gate, which is unreliable, at best, and everyone was too agitated by news of the fire to notice.”
“We have to find her,” he says, though of course what he means is they have to find her alive.
Zara cocks her head. “Do you hear that?”
She and the Chief stride past the ashes of the fire and reach the Richardsons’ front lawn just in time to see Lamont speeding away in the Richardsons’ motorboat. “Damn it,” the Chief says. “There’s already a search underway. I’m sure the last thing Lucy wants is a bunch of Lone Rangers out on the water.”
One Lone Ranger can’t hurt,Zara thinks. “He loves her,” she says.