“—and I don’t appreciate you skulking about here, Mr.Murphy!I don’t know what you think you can get away with just because you’re famous but I know all about your sort!”
I blinked, shaking myself mentally.I’d missed the first half of the rant but my context clue skills were excellent.“You think I’m famous enough to get away with murder?”I asked, pressing my hand against my chest and giving him my bestI’d like to think the academy smiles.“That’s so nice!Thank you!”
He blinked and took a step back from the gap in the hedges.“I know your sort,” he repeated.“And you’re all only good for one thing and that’s nothing!”
“That might hurt my feelings later,” I admitted.“But right now I’m just trying to enjoy a nice, uh, cloudy afternoon walk and spend some time in this lovely park.”
He wiggled his way through the gap, still clutching his rake as if he’d need to defend himself from me at any moment.“This was a quiet town until you got here,” he spat.“A quiet town!Now there’s murder!And tabloids!Andactors!”
“Oh god forbid,” I muttered, but I felt bad because I got it.Everything that’d happened since the summer, I got it.
“Sir, I’m just trying to enjoy my day,” I lied.
“Enjoy it back in La La Land!”He shook the rake at me then, backing away.“Murderer!If I’m found dead in my bed, the world will know it was you!I called my wife before I came over here!She knows you’ve seen me!”
“Oh my god.”
“I’m telling everyone on My Good Neighbor that you’re lurking around!”
Dear lord.That My Good Neighbor app was like an HOA run amuck.Which, given the state of HOAs according to my parents and Aunt Nina, was really saying something.“Well, do what you feel is best,” I said, since he was lingering, apparently hoping for some response.
He jerked his chin up defiantly.“I’m calling the police!”
“Tell Heath I said hi.”I wiggled my fingers in a wave before shoving my not-casted hand in my pocket and heading for the park exit.So much for gathering my thoughts. I don’t know what Good Neighbor was telling Cherry at the station but it was high-pitched and frantic, his tone carrying over the sound of the growing breeze and rustling trees.The entire encounter had thrown me off my game and I was neck deep in sorting through everything when Heath pulled up beside me at the corner of Clarendon and Shore, about two blocks from Witte House.
“Mr.Grubbins said you were threatening him,” Heath called through the open window of his cruiser.“And you wereskulking menacingly.”
I kept walking.“Mr.Grubbins wanted to hit me with a rake so he can take his menacing skulking, fold it into five corners, and shove it—”
“He’s a busybody,” Heath cut in.“He’s harmless.These rumors and the fires, Tubbs’ remains...It really gets to people like him and oh my god, would you stop walking for a minute?This is a pain in the neck trying to drive and talk to you at the same time.”
“I have to walk the dogs and flush after the cat.”
“Youwhat?”
I ignored him.“Besides, Ben’s leaving this afternoon and I need to ask if I can borrow his car instead of the Beetle since his car’s automatic.”
Heath looked a tiny bit put out by this.“I can give you a ride while your arm heals,” he said, a trace of petulance in his tone.“You’re seeing the orthopedist in Malm’s Corner?I can take you.”
“Not while you’re on duty,” I pointed out.“My appointment’s tomorrow at ten.You’re working, remember?I have an appointment to give you my statement at three.”That had been a pain in the rump, on top of everything else.Ben had insisted on me having representation ready to go just in case things went even more pear shaped, so coordinating with his friend Mario and with Heath had taken most of my morning before heading out.
“Well, I’m notalwayson duty.”
I felt like I was missing something important but couldn’t put my finger on it.Glancing at Heath as I jogged across the intersection to get on Buttermilk Road, I asked, “If I wanted to report a missing person, do I have toknowthem?”
“How do you know they’re missing if you don’t know them?Maybe they’re just avoiding you, specifically.”
Rude.Who would want to avoid me?I’m a delight.“Any news on who’s stalking me?Those pap pics aren’t taking themselves and I checked—taking a picture of meinsideWitte House is kind of illegal.”I’d been pretty sure it was but a quick internet search on Maine’s laws regarding that sort of thing proved me right.“What about finding whoever pushed me into the water?I’d think that’s pretty important.I mean, tomeit is but I don’t know about to you.”
“Damien...”
I stopped on the corner, Witte House in sight.A few people were coming and going from their houses, the faint sound of cheering wafting on the breeze from the marina as the regatta spooled out on its last day.It should’ve been an idyllic early autumn afternoon but I couldn’t enjoy it, not while everything in my head felt like I was on the edge of a cliff, waiting for it to crumble under my feet.“Am I a laughingstock to you, Heath?To the entire department?”
His sigh was audible and dramatic.
“It’s a serious question.Because you’ve brushed off every concern I’ve had this week.And those pap pics?They’re scaring me, okay?And, not to sound like too much of a dick here, they’re tanking what little cred I have left.I’ll be lucky if I can get a job selling sketchy kitchen appliances on informercials when this is all done.”
Heath’s expression scrunched up in thought.“They still make infomercials?”
