“The house is a crime scene,” Sam said, thinking that should be obvious, considering the yellow tape around the perimeter. “They’re not going to let anyone in.”
“It’s not in the house anymore. The cops took it for evidence,” Lincoln said.
“It’s crazy,” Maeve said. “I had nothing to do with the murder. My address book is in there! All my family’s numbers!”
“Don’t you have them in your phone?” Sam asked.What person our age has an address book?
“Some are,” Maeve said. “But it’s a special book that means a lot to me. It was my mother’s. It reminds me of her.”
At that, Sam nodded solemnly. It sounded as if Maeve’s mother was dead, and if there was one thing Sam considered sacred, it was a dead mother and the feeling of missing her.
“I hope you get it back soon,” she said.
“She will,” Lincoln said, taking Maeve’s hand.
Sam liked his attitude, the way he was being so supportive. Miranda, Bernard’s girlfriend, waved and started toward them.
“I wish I’d never met Suzanne,” Maeve said, staring at the house, oblivious to Miranda. That must have given her the vibe that she’d be intruding, because she turned and walked away.
“Howdidyou meet Suzanne?” Sam asked.
“Through me, playing at weddings,” Lincoln said. “It’s a small world of Rhode Island wedding vendors, and we share contacts.”
“So you told Suzanne that Maeve needed a calligrapher?” Sam asked.
“It’s much weirder than that,” Maeve said.
“Actually,” Lincoln said, “she completely tricked me. She’d heard about a big Ocean House wedding, and she asked if my band was playing it.”
“And he said no, but he’s dating the bride’s assistant,” Maeve said. “And she jumped on that. I swear she knew all along. She got to me through Lincoln.”
“And to Kate through you,” Sam said.
“Yes, and I feel horrible for hiring her.”
“Where is she from?” Sam asked.
“Not sure,” Maeve said. “Do you know, Lincoln?”
Lincoln paused for a few beats. He blinked fast and looked down.
That one motion triggered something in Sam.
After her mother was killed, Sam had developed a strange fascination. You’d think that the daughter of a homicide victim would do anything to avoid watching shows about violent crime, but she had gotten obsessed with profiling and behavior analysis. She had read a ton of books and watched YouTube videos of experts breaking down the behavior of criminals. She thought that if she had known such things, she would have been able to recognize her mother’s killer in time to warn her.
Lincoln’s blink rate was through the roof, and the left side of his mouth was twitching up a storm. Something was clearly bothering him, and Sam had the feeling he was carefully constructing his answer, weighing whether to lie or not.
“Yeah, I do,” he said. “She mentioned it one time ... I’m trying to remember.”
Sam stared at him and thought hedidremember but just didn’t want to say. Is that why he was being furtive? Maybe he’d known Suzanne all along. But then he sighed and put up his hands.
“I’ve got to tell you something,” he said. He paused, looked toward the ocean, at a sailboat heeled over in a still breeze. “Suzanne didn’t just want to work a big wedding—she specifically wanted to be at Kate and Conor’s wedding, and it had to do with Belinda.”
“How do you know that?” Maeve asked, sounding shocked.
“Yesterday I saw her going into Belinda’s room, before the rehearsal dinner. They hugged, and they were laughing and talking,” Lincoln said.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Maeve asked.
