“Hey,” I say quietly, approaching her. “Am I interrupting anything?”
She looks up with a sad smile. “No. Looking at funeral stuff.” She takes a deep breath. “She has no one to plan it except me and I…” she trails off as her voice thickens. Then she shakes her head and focuses on me. “Your brother said you’d be by to talk to me soon. What do you need?”
“Do you want to talk here or go somewhere more private?” I look around at the half-empty floor.
“None of these people care,” she replies sadly. “They’re on minimize-campaign-damage mode. Same with Dad. He hired a new manager to oversee everything since Jane quit after Nat was found. She’s in his office now. The new one, I mean. Not Jane.”
I nod slowly. “I know my brother already took your statement, so I’m not gonna ask you about Friday. I want to know more about Natalie.”
“And Nick?” she asks, her cheeks pinking.
Interesting. “Especially about Nick. Their relationship sounds kinda crazy.”
“It was. But Nat… She had her”—Madison pouts, pausing—“things,” she finishes lamely. “I don’t know how to phrase it. He was cruel about it. He called her a sadomasochistic whore, disgusting, a freak, all sorts of things. He didn’t realize why she liked BDSM.”
“I don’t know much about it, so at the risk of looking like a total asshole, she had a specific relationship with them, right?”
“The guys at the club? Yeah. She was always the submissive.”
“How long has she been going there?”
“Since she was twenty-one. They have an age limit. I think she ended up there after a date with one of the guys who goes regularly. Their relationship never made it back out of the club. As far as I know, he was one of the only people she was with regularly.”
“What’s his name?” I rifle in my purse for a notebook and a pen.
“Vince Fulton,” she answers. “Here.” She hands me a Post-it and a pen, and I write his name down then hand them back. “He works at the—”
“Building yard just outside town, right? Yeah, I know him. He did my parents’ sunroom last year. Thanks.” I tuck the note into a zip pocket inside my purse. “What kind of stuff did she do there? I don’t want to upset you, but her positioning on Saturday was kind of…”
“Uncomfortable? Painful? Disturbing?” Madison raises an eyebrow. “Take your pick, okay? I don’t know. I told her I didn’t want to talk about that shit with her. I accepted that she liked to be whipped and chained or whatever, but when she moved into that strangling stuff and pretending that she was being raped, I was done. I only went once and stayed at the bar the whole time because I was too scared to go inside a room.”
“Who else would have known about what she liked except for the club members and Nick?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. Their relationship was screwed the moment she told him she was missing that lifestyle. I think she went back to try to get rid of him, but he gave her a compromise she couldn’t refuse.”
I nod in agreement.
“It was…awkward with them. Sometimes, they got along really well, but when they didn’t, they’d both close off and go and sleep with anyone they wanted.”
“Did you sleep with Nick?”
Her eyes flick down to the desk, and she rolls up the sticky note on the top of the pile. “Twice,” she admits softly. “The first time was an accident.”
Did his penis slip and fall into her vagina or something? Did it apologize after?
“How do you sleep with someone by accident?”
“You get drunk,” she responds wryly. “He walked out after finding out she’d had a threesome at the club. I was at the bar, escaping my parents never-ending arguments, and we commiserated together. Literally.”
“And the second time?”
“I…wish I could give you an explanation. It was one of those things that happened. She told him she was going away to see her cousins in New Mexico, but really, she was going to a swingers weekend there. He came to my place, and you know how the rest of that story goes.”
“So, when you say twice, you really mean…”
“Two different occasions.” She even looks embarrassed. She should, too. Sleeping with her best friend’s boyfriend no matter the state of their relationship is the lowest of the low.
Mind you, so is sleeping with your best friend’s dad.
Still, though, if I found out Bek slept with Drake…
Hold the phone. Since when do I refer to him as my boyfriend? My brain and I are gonna have to have ourselves a little chat tonight.
I pull my attention back to Madison. “Right. When was the last time you saw Nick?”
“Right when they broke up. He told me he wanted to be with me and that’s why he broke up with her. He said he couldn’t deal with her freaky desires.”
“What did you say to him then?”
“I told him there was no way we could be together right away. And that I didn’t trust him not to cheat on me.” She shrugs and picks at a cuticle. “That was the last time we spoke, too. I tried to call him when the hospital let me go home on Friday, but he wouldn’t answer.”
“Believe me, you’re not the only one who had that issue.” I wet my lips with my tongue and meet Madison’s eyes. “Did you know that Natalie was pregnant?”
She stiffens, her finger and thumb still pinched at the base of a nail on her other hand, and her eyes gloss over with shock. “She—she was? When? How many—oh my God.”
I’m gonna go with a whoops here.
“Yeah. It came out in the autopsy,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew.”
She shakes her head and clears her throat. “How far…how far was she?”
“Not very,” I lie. “Only a few weeks. We’re trying to find out who the father was.”
“So, it wasn’t Nick?”
“He says no.” I shrug. “Look, I’ve taken up enough of your time today. I’m sorry.” I hand her one of my cards from my wallet. “If you need anything, call me.”
Madison nods slowly, taking the card from me with a shaking hand. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the baby thing.
“Ms. Bond?”
Ugh. Kill me.
I turn to face the mayor when I stand. “Mayor McDougall. How are you?”
“Well, well,” he responds, his gaze flittering between me and his daughter. “What are you doing here?”
I’m fine, thanks. Got a hankering for a cupcake though. “I wanted to make sure Madison was okay and ask her a few things about Natalie’s relationship with Nick. I figured, if anyone could help me, it’d be her.”
“Excuse me,” Madison whispers, getting up and slinking past him.
His nod is slow, his eyes calculating. “And was she helpful?”
“Oh, absolutely. I have a much clearer picture of their relationship. Nick wasn’t real helpful on that when I spoke with him.”
“So you’re coming close to being able to arrest him?” He finally focuses on me.
“I couldn’t say, sir. That’s up to Detective Nash and Sheriff Bates. I’ve been told to keep my bitch in check and get as much information about him as I can. I’m actually off to his apartment building to interview his neighbors about him now,” I lie smoothly. “He seems like a waste of oxygen, if I’m honest.”
“Indeed. There’s actually someone I’d like you to meet. My latest campaign manager has regrettably stepped out following the unfortunate circumstances this weekend.” He steps to the side, revealing a stunning brunette wearing a well-fitting skirt-and-blazer set.
The white blouse she’s wearing only accentuates her golden skin, and as my gaze crawls upward, her fake smile is the first thing I notice. The deep brown of her eyes is the next, and they hold a serious measure of contempt.
“Ms. Bond, this is Jessica Shearer. She’s my newest campaign manager. Ms. Shearer, this is Noelle Bond, owner of Bond Private Investigations. I’ve hired her to work with the police here to find Natalie’s killer.”
Jessica steps forward and holds a hand out, her gaze flicking over me from head to toe. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Bond. I can’t wait to hear more about what you’ve found out so far.”