“They’re not interested in Island Contracting for any reason,” Dottie said. “They’re fascinated by the TV people. They watched and watched and thought of excuses to come over here while Courtney was around, but now they’ve lost interest.”
“Unless…” Josie began slowly.
“Unless what?” Jill asked quickly.
“Oh, nothing.”
“Well, Chad and I didn’t do anything improper, and even if we had, we sure wouldn’t have gone next door to do it,” Annette repeated. “And I’d be happy to go over there and tell them that if you want.”
“No. Let’s just leave it be and get to work. We’re going to fall behind if we don’t watch out.”
They all knew what to do and Josie was relieved when the work resumed and she could take some time to think. She didn’t understand what was going on. She hadn’t known Annette for long, but the young woman’s argument made sense. Why would she and Chad be necking, here or next door, when they both had places where they could be alone together? On the other hand, why would Cheryl and Howard lie about it? Could it be that they had mistaken two other people for Annette and Chad? It was the only possible answer. She decided to worry about something else.
Naturally, the first thought she had was of the woman now, presumably, on her way to see Sam. Sondra. Blond, she decided. Slim, of course. (They all were.) Well educated and well connected. (She was, after all, working in a very competitive medium.) Well coiffed, well dressed, skin that looked as though it lived in a spa and was only taken out and worn on special occasions. Josie was becoming seriously depressed. Because even if Sam actually believed this woman’s story that she was coming to the shore and would find it convenient to drop off the tapes, to Josie it sounded like an excuse to renew an old acquaintance-and possibly to kindle an old flame.
It’s dangerous to stop paying attention to what you’re doing when you work with heavy equipment. Josie picked up a piece of molding and slid it against the back of the table saw but didn’t hold on tightly enough as she lowered the blade. The wood shattered and pieces flew in all directions. A splinter slit her left wrist. She turned off the saw and leaned back. She was lucky she hadn’t been seriously injured. But the molding had been a special order and would be expensive to replace. Damn, damn, and triple damn. Nothing was going well today!
She straightened, kicked the lumber aside, and slapped her hands together. She had the supplier’s number back at the office. The sooner she replaced this piece, the better. She stuck her head out the back door. “I’ve got to go back to the office for a few minutes. Anyone need anything there or on the way?”
“We were just talking about ordering some lunch,” Jill said.
Josie realized they were reluctant to ask their boss to run errands for them. “If you get something from the Deli Delight, they would have it ready and waiting for me to pick up in less than half an hour. I know it’s early for lunch, but it would save time later in the day.”
“We’ll order stuff that can wait around for a bit,” Dottie promised.
“Good. Then an Italian hoagie with the works for me and tell them I’ll be by to pick up the order in about twenty minutes. See you.”
Howard and Cheryl were entertaining Bobby Valentine on their front deck. Josie assumed they were regaling him with the tale of Chad and Annette’s misdeeds. She walked faster, hoping they either wouldn’t see her or would ignore her presence. No such luck.
“Josie! Ms. Pigeon. Did that young woman tell you we want to interview your carpenters this afternoon?” Bobby Valentine called out.
“Yeah. It’s fine with me. Gotta run.” Josie waved and dug around in her pockets for the keys to her truck. For once, they were where she thought she had left them. She hopped in the truck, started the engine, and roared off down the road. She’d go to the office and then pick up their food at Deli Delight for lunch and be back in no time at all.
And, surprisingly, everything worked out the way she expected it to. Except she returned to work with more to think about. Next door to Deli Delight was Le Château, the only French restaurant open for lunch on the island. And there, going into the front door of Le Château, were Sam and a woman who could only be Sondra. Josie had been wrong. She wasn’t tall, thin, blond, and chic. She was tall, thin, brunette, and definitely chic, wearing clothing Josie couldn’t find in a store, couldn’t afford if she did, and wouldn’t look good in anyway.
She spent the rest of the afternoon depressed.
TWENTY-FOUR
SAM HAD LEFT a message at Josie’s office. It was brief and to the point. He had gotten the tapes. Why didn’t she come over to his house when she was done with work and he’d cook dinner and they could go through them together.
She had wasted most of her day. She had worried about Cheryl and Howard. She had wondered about Sam and his ex-lover. She had thought about where Courtney’s body might have gone and who might have moved it. She had wondered exactly what Sam and his gorgeous ex-lover were doing.
Then she had tried to put up a wall while listening in on Bobby interviewing her crew members. Dottie had started out characteristically abrupt, verging on rude. Surprisingly, after a while, Bobby Valentine had appeared to charm her, and by the last question they had been chuckling together over something one of them had said. Jill had been less susceptible to Bobby Valentine’s charms although he began the questioning by flattering her. (Had his “Wow! I haven’t met many carpenters who look this gorgeous!” been more than a bit insulting to the rest of them? Josie thought.) Jill had merely nodded and waited for the questions to begin. She hadn’t warmed up. She had been polite, professional, and cold. Annette had been a nice contrast. Young, bubbly, obviously thrilled with the possibility of being on television, she had chatted on and on, full of enthusiasm for her job, her life, the house they were remodeling. Bobby Valentine had been smitten. Her interview had exceeded the total time he had spent with the other two.
When the interviews were finished, Josie had watched Chad help another young man roll wires and put lights and microphones and things away. Then she had started to wonder again what Sam and Sondra had been doing all this time.
Josie had taken the time to go home and change before heading to Sam’s house at the north end of the island. Her closet didn’t provide anything as chic as the wraparound silk blouse and linen capri pants Sondra had worn to lunch, but her jeans were clean, her yellow-and-white-striped oxford-cloth shirt pressed, and her green plastic flipflops only a few weeks old.
Sam lived in a small ranch house tucked into the dunes at the exclusive north end of the island. He and Josie had been remodeling it over the years; recently they had installed some rather elegant outdoor lighting. It was still light out, but Sam had turned on the display and Josie smiled as she hopped from her truck and walked up the wooden boardwalk to the deck that encircled the house. She peeked through the screen door into the living room. Sam was stretched out on one of the twin couches, a remote control in one hand fast-forwarding through the channels on the large TV, which stood to the left of the fireplace.
“Sam?”
“Josie, come on in.” Sam slid his lean, jean-clad legs to the floor, stood, stretched, and smiled. He was tall and tan, his sandy hair falling over his glasses and into his eyes, and Josie was instantly glad they were having this evening together. She might even have forgotten about Sondra if the woman herself hadn’t appeared in the kitchen doorway, a tray in her hands.
“I found some munchies,” Sondra announced, walking into the room. “You must be Josie. I’m Sondra.”
“Hi.” Josie looked over at Sam. “I thought you were going to be cooking.”
“The grill is warming up,” he explained. “Sondra volunteered to prepare some appetizers while I got these things organized for you. There’s a lot here, but you should be able to scan them in a little over an hour.”