Chapter 29
NICHOLAS
Financial projections blurred in Nicholas’s vision.
He rubbed his eyes and stretched in his office chair, trying not to fixate on the State Street revamp.
Turning eleven blocks into a pedestrian arcade, giving Santa Barbara more of a “European” appeal to tourists, made some sense.
But so had Paseo Nuevo, decades ago. Now, without any anchor stores, it was becoming a dead mall. Another problem to deal with.
What annoyed him most about the State Street project was that he didn’t have a strong preference either way. He wasn’t sure what to push for, what to support, so he just glowered at the screen until his phone dinged.
Ocean
We need to meet
Hamilton
Yes! I have news.
Well, we have news.
Miles helped, he joined a party
raiding into the voidlands.
Ocean
That detective is sniffing around
the Cottages. Edible. Oh ffs, you
know who I mean
Lily-Ann
Why?
Hamilton
Because the cop I know
will give us information
if we help him beat the vault.
Sophie
Autocorrect is a bitch
Lily-Ann
Not you, Hamilton.
Anthony
W repa
Nicholas smiled at Anthony’s inability to text and added, I agree with Anthony, just to join in.
Lily-Ann
Why is Enible sniffing around?
Ocean
Karina the widow thinks CJ pushed Frank.
The cop wonders if she invited S&N
to the party to help with murder
Hamilton
What is S&N?
Oh! Forget it. I see now.
Nicholas stopped smiling and said, “Fuck.”
Nicholas
He thinks we’re involved?
Sophie
That’s not good
Anthony
Sorrry I hit send brfr
Lily-Ann
Don’t worry. Enible can’t finesse
the evidence to implicate you.
Sophie
What should we do then?
Lily-Ann
What we discussed. Hamilton’s talking to
his cop friend. Did you talk to your networking
friend Angela?
Sophie
A little. There’s more to ask.
Lily-Ann
Ocean, you asked around about the other
guests?
Ocean
Not yet I’m busy!
Can we talk about the fact
that CJ lives here now?
Sophie
Yeah that kind of implicates us
Ocean
I am freaking out.
Not freaking out but …
Not because of that, Sophie.
Hamilton
You think she’s guilty??
Ocean
No! I think she’s the first woman
I’ve been this interested in
since Zoe. My ex
Nicholas
And now she lives directly
across from you. That’s great
and also I will bring you a
bottle of whiskey
Ocean
That’s not why I texted
Edible isn’t going to stop poking around.
Lily-Ann
That’s fine. We have nothing
to hide.
Nicholas winced, afraid one of the others would mention that they absolutely needed to hide the truth about James Dedrick and Gregory Ybarra, who’d been murdered at the Marigold Cottages last spring.
If any of the tenants got arrested again, there was nothing stopping the cops from searching their phones.
Lily-Ann
Especially not while
writing in a digital medium that
the cops can search, ha ha.
Nicholas
Ha ha
Sophie
Ha ha
Anthony
aa
Hamilton
The autopsy found blunt force
trauma to the head but also
slight bruising on his back.
Possibly from being pushed but
more likely from any of other 231
things that can bruise an eighty year old
man who bruises easily.
Anthony
DO NOT TLAK TO COPS
Lily-Ann
Thank you, Anthony.
Nicholas
Maybe we should also stop interfering
in a murder investigation
Ocean
Yes
That
Lily-Ann
Mrs. B is here, and she says “We’re not
interfering. We’re helping an innocent
person who is wrongfully suspected.”
And also says you two are
ungrateful children.
Nicholas took a moment to enjoy being lumped in with Ocean as one of Mrs. B’s children. Both of his biological parents were dead. The widow of his biological father was as close as he had to a parent now, and he liked knowing Mrs. B felt the same.
Lily-Ann
It’s probably not even a murder.
Sophie
You HOPE it’s murder.
Lily-Ann
That’s beside the point.
We should meet CJ as a group.
Nicholas
What a lucky woman
Hamilton
At my house! I’ll make moussaka.
And chocolate mousse.
A double moose meal.
Anthony
CAP SLOCK
The conversation drifted, and Nicholas fiddled with his mouse.
He didn’t care much about Frank DeYoung’s death, but he was terrified about the detective poking around in their lives.
What if someone—well, Mrs. B—let something slip about the previous murders?
And considering that Detective Enible already suspected him and Sophie, he might simply adjust the evidence to fit like he had with Anthony’s arrest. Which meant they needed to unequivocally prove CJ innocent.
Whether she’d killed the guy or not.