Page 52 of Murder Will Out
As Naomi andWillow rounded the house to the shore path, they saw Audra DuBois approaching almost at a run. The young widow’s frustrated assistant called out, “Naomi, I’ve been texting you for an hour. Where have you been?”
“I turned my phone off,” Naomi said curtly. “I had things to do.”
“How am I supposed to find you if you turn your phone off?” Audra asked, clearly frustrated.
“Maybe I didn’t want to be found,” Naomi snapped. “It looks like you found me, anyway. What’s up?”
“I got a call an hour ago from—” Audra faltered mid-sentence and gave Willow a nervous glance.
“It’s okay, Audra.” Naomi managed an anxious smile in Willow’s direction. “Geralt trusted her. I’m inclined to do the same. Willow knows. At least the basics.”
“Are you serious?” the other woman exploded. “My God, how can you be so naive?” Audra shook her head in frustration and stepped closer to Naomi. “You know she and her friends are working to get the Montalto woman off the hook—in what universe do you think she won’t put you into the hot seat in a fast second if she can? No offense,” she added, turning briefly to Willow.
“None taken,” Willow murmured, the corner of her mouth twitching.
“Come on, Audra,” Naomi said with barely concealed irritation. “Just tell me.”
Audra’s look flicked back and forth between Willow and Naomi. “The Times. The Globe.A few more.”
Naomi sighed. “Ah. So it’s about to hit the fan. When?”
Audra’s expression of worry deepened as she glanced at Willow again.
“When?” Naomi pressed.
Audra’s jaw tightened, then released. “Tomorrow morning’s editions.”
“The money?” Naomi asked, her voice bleak.
Audra nodded. “And… everything else.” Her eyes skittered again to Willow, and then away. “How much of the basics? What did you tell her?”
“That the money is gone.” She reached out a tentative hand to Willow, who took it. “And no, I don’t think she’ll throw me under the bus. Besides,” Naomi continued, “when the world knows I’m broke and I have nothing to benefit from his death, I basically have no motive to have gotten rid of him.”
Willow said, “Believe it or not, none of us are looking for some random person to replace Rina and get her off the hook; I want toknow whoreallykilled Geralt. And I think you—both of you—do too.”
Naomi nodded. “I do.” She gave a small smile. “We’ll talk later. And—thanks.” She started off down the coastal path; when Audra started to follow, Naomi waved her off and said in a voice too brittle to qualify as polite, “Look, I… I need a little time to myself, okay? Just let me walk.” She turned her back on Audra and Willow and headed toward the village.
Audra flashed Willow a side-eye. “Still like her?” she asked dryly. “Still convinced she’s innocent?”
Willow nodded warily. “I… do, yes. Both. I mean—” She glanced sympathetically at Audra. “I mean, yeah, that was sort of rude, but she’s had an awful week. And it seems like it’s just getting worse.”
Audra snorted and said bluntly, “You like her because she wanted you to like her. From the start, at the reception after the memorial service, she locked in on the thing you both had in common, which was feeling like the outsider, the one who didn’t belong. Bonded with you. A little sisterhood of Little North Island rejected women. Remember?”
Willow remembered and suddenly felt cold.
“That’s how she operates, how she is with everyone she meets. She has this instinct for knowing what someone is looking for in her, and she becomes it. With Mr. Talbot, she was ambitious and unfiltered, and she stood up to him in a way no one else dared, and he loved it. With Talbot’s business associates, she was always competent and calm, the antithesis of her husband, presenting herself as the ally who could get him to do what they wanted when they couldn’t manage it themselves. With me—”
Audra looked away; Willow wasn’t sure if those were tears she’d seen in the shine of the other woman’s eyes. “At first, she was the perfect best friend,” Audra continued. “We went shopping together, got our nails done, shared advice and horror stories about men, talked about our hopes and dreams and ambitions. When she and Talbot got engaged, I became herunofficial wedding planner, helping with vendors and fittings, and keeping her disorganized self on track. She made me feel appreciated and needed, which of course made me feel good about myself, and after the wedding, she begged me to leave my job and be her assistant full-time. By then, it didn’t even occur to me to say no; she’d maneuvered me into a place where it felt almost inevitable.”
Audra eyed Willow. “You’ve been here, what, less than a week? Trust me, you do not know the real Naomi Talbot. I’m not sure Naomi herself even knows who she really is.”
The shiver that went through Willow had nothing to do with the chill island day or the impending storm.Be careful who you trust, Geralt had told her, and Naomi herself had echoed it.
Was Willow putting her trust in the wrong person, after all?
First thing whenall this goes down, Naomi thought as she strode past the village toward the ugly modern house Geralt had insisted on building,will be informing my pushy and paranoid assistant that I can no longer afford an assistant.Then she took a mental step back; she knew she would never have gotten through the past few days, let alone the past eight years, without Audra’s near-manic level of organization. Naomi just needed a little space.
The gulls yowled above her; the incessant thundering of the sea was giving her a headache.Maybe it would be better if I walked away from all of this, found myself a nice, normal life, Naomi thought. I never much liked Maine or island life. Maybe I’ll go back to Boston—or heck, maybe California or Texas or something.She thought about Willow’s short-legged, loaf-shaped companion.Maybe I’ll get a dog. A dog, and maybe a nice little town house.She’d saved a little money of her own that wasn’t tied to Geralt’s; she could do it. She could renew her physical therapist credentials, go back for a couple of classes to update her certifications, be a regular person again if she had to. She’d been one before.
