"A… what?" Nick blundered.
"C-O-U-R-T-E-S-A-N," Alison spelled loudly. "So? Anyone know?"
"I… well…" Natalie longed for another good, stiff drink. Nick looked like he was considering plunging out a window. Alison gazed at them with a twelve-year-old's innocent face and avid, ferreting eyes. "Let's talk about something else," Natalie managed finally. "You said you like cats. What about dogs? I have a dog."
"I love animals, but my mother never let me have one. I know about yours, though. You have the dog that stayed with Tamara when she died. I'm not supposed to know that." She gave each of them a canny look. "However, I know all kinds of things I'm not supposed to know."
"Alison, darling, I've been looking for you." Viveca appeared behind her daughter, placing her hands on each of Alison's thin shoulders. "Have you had anything to eat?"
AH the air seemed to flow out of Alison. "I'm not hungry-"
"Nonsense. There is some lovely foie gras-"
"I-am-not-hungry," Alison said through clenched teeth. "You only want me to eat so I'll be quiet."
"Darling, that's not true-"
Alison uttered a guttural sound and flung away. Viveca looked at Nick and Natalie, shrugged, and emitted a high pitched trill of laughter before darting after her daughter. "Good God," Nick muttered.
"Never a dull moment around here. My father dated Viveca. Alison could have been my stepsister."
"What saved you?"
"Viveca dumped Dad for Eugene Farley, then Eugene for Oliver. I think she might marry Oliver. Lily will be furious. She hates Viveca."
Nick frowned. "Tell me about her husband."
"Alison's father was Damon Cosgrove." Nick's eyebrows raised. "Yes, the writer. Two critically acclaimed best sellers. Then the poor sap came to his aunt's summer cottage in Port Ariel and met Viveca. They married, had Alison, and he never published another book. Not even a short story."
"Why not?"
"I don't know. Maybe he was just one of those writers who only has one or two books in them. Or maybe he felt overwhelmed by Viveca. I think she was about ten years younger than he but still quite the femme formidable, as my Grandmother St. John would say. Damon died when Alison was five or six. He was electrocuted to death in front of her."
Nick cringed, thinking of a five-year-old Paige seeing something so ghastly. "Viveca blames Alison's problems completely on the accident," Natalie continued, "but I've heard she wasn't exactly a well-adjusted child before it happened." She took a deep breath. "And now I'm guilty of pernicious gossip but I comfort myself with the thought that the more you know about us, the quicker you might find the killer."
"It's true that the more I know, the better, especially because Alison is directly involved as a potential victim and a suspect."
The music changed to "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks. Nick looked around with a mixture of bewilderment and humor. "Viveca's idea," Natalie said. "She seems to think we're mounting a Broadway play."
"This whole thing is like a play," Nick grumbled. "And the more time I spend waiting for all this nonsense to end, the more I put Lily and Alison and you in danger. I want to talk to Viveca and Oliver now."
"Now? Can't you wait until all of this is over?"
"This could go on for hours. There's Viveca hovering over Alison. Find Peyton for me, Natalie. Tell him I want to see him and Viveca."
Natalie didn't know Nick well, but she could already tell when he was deadly serious. She also knew he was not someone to be argued with when he'd made up his mind.
"Mr. Peyton, the sheriff would like to speak to you," she said softly when she located Oliver speaking to the mayor.
Oliver made a swatting motion as if she were a gnat. "I'm busy. I'll speak with him later."
"He wants to talk to you now."
Oliver's lips pressed together. "Young lady, I don't mean to be rude, but I have said later and I mean later."
"Mr. Peyton, it's important."
Oliver Peyton gave her a coldly furious look. Then Lily said in a steely voice, "If Natalie says it's important for you to speak to the sheriff, then it's important." She gave the mayor a polite smile. "I'm sure you understand."
"Of course," he said. "Go right ahead, Oliver."
Oliver walked beside his daughter, frowning furiously. "I think you've lost your mind," he snapped at Lily. "I do not answer to Sheriff Meredith or Natalie St. John!"
"Please save the high-and-mighty act," Lily said tiredly. "You don't scare me like you did Tam, and you certainly don't scare Meredith. He and Viveca are waiting for you in your study."
"Viveca!" Oliver exploded. "What does Viveca have to do with this? Lily, I know you don't like her, but if you are talking your friends into bullying her-"
"No one bullies Viveca, Dad." Lily opened the door to the study. "Here's your shrinking violet now. I'll leave you alone."
"Lily, I'd like for you and Natalie to stay," Nick said. "Close the door, please."
"My daughter-" Viveca began.
"Your daughter will be fine for a few minutes, Mrs. Cosgrove," Nick said. "I don't want her to hear what I have to say."
"Hear what?" Viveca asked. "What can't she hear?"'She leaned toward Oliver and clung to his arm, frightened and helpless. Natalie exchanged looks with Lily. What an actress. Viveca Cosgrove could organize and lead an army into battle. "Oliver?" she implored tremulously.
"This is ridiculous," Oliver burst out. "You are alarming Mrs. Cosgrove. What is this all about?"
"if you'll all be quiet, you'll know what it's about," Nick said repressively. "I believe I see a possible connection among these murders." He then calmly, almost tonelessly, laid out the story of Eugene Farley and how Viveca and Oliver played into the drama of his death. "Therefore, you need to be especially careful about the welfare of Lily and Alison."
Viveca and Oliver stared at him for a moment. Then Natalie watched color slowly drain from Oliver Peyton's face. Even his lips paled. He looked ill and touched his left arm. For a moment she thought the man might be on the verge of a heart attack.
Viveca paid no attention to her supposed great love. She, too, had grown pale, but she came out fighting. "I think this theory of yours is absurd, Sheriff Meredith. I never did anything to Eugene." Nick stared her down. "Oh, we dated some and it didn't work out, but beyond that-"
"Beyond that he embezzled two hundred thousand dollars from Bishop Corporation to win you back," Lily lashed out.
"Well, that wasn't my fault!" Viveca returned hotly. "I didn't ask him to do it. And poor Oliver here defended him."
"And lost the case," Nick said.
"Once again, that was not his fault!" Viveca retorted. "It's ludicrous to hold us responsible for Eugene Farley's death!"
Nick looked at her coolly. "Mrs. Cosgrove, I'm not holding you responsible for Farley's death. I think someone else holds you responsible."
"I don't understand. Oliver, why don't you say something!"
"Maybe he's afraid to." The door had opened quietly and Alison stood there, glaring at Oliver Peyton. "Why don't you tell them what I know?"
"I… I don't know what you're talking about," Peyton stammered.
"Alison, go in the other room!" Viveca ordered.
"No." She looked at Nick. "People in this town were awful to Eugene. He was wonderful-handsome and sensitive and kind, and they caused his death." Tears streamed down her cheeks. "They all caused his death!"
"Alison, you don't know what you're talking about," Viveca said in the harshest voice Natalie had ever heard her direct toward her daughter. Her gaze flashed back to Nick. "If you're looking for someone who's bitter about Eugene 's death, look to Dee Fisher. She's that trampy nurse he dated when he first got to town. She stole drugs from the hospital. She even accused Andrew St. John of negligence and claimed he let Eugene die during the operation. She's crazy! She was also obsessed with Eugene. She threatened me when I was seeing him. She told me I'd pay for taking him away from her! She's crazy, I'm telling you!"