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Lucy frowned. “Alexia. After all the things you’ve told me over the years, you really think I’m going to freak out on you now? Come on. You know you can tell me anything.”
“It’s about Arnie.”
Lucy couldn’t hide her surprise. “Arnie?”
“Yes. When I was in New York, I met with Jennifer Hamlin’s mother. Billy’s ex-wife.”
“I know. You said. Sally. She was the one who made you decide to forgive Teddy.”
Wow. She must really have been listening at Elaine’s.
“That’s right. She was the one who told me about the threatening phone calls Billy had complained about. She also gave me a bunch of information, contacts and stuff, from when Billy’s mechanics business was still going.”
“Okaaay.” Lucy looked confused.
“Th
e calls from the crazy Bible basher began during the period that Hamlin’s went bankrupt,” Alexia explained, “so she thought there might be a link. Well, it turns out there was.”
Lucy waited.
“The link was a company called HM Capital. Do you know it?”
“Sure. That’s one of Arnie’s businesses.”
“Exactly. I saw his name on the directors’ list. Later I asked Teddy about it, and he told me that Arnie was the founder-owner.”
“That’s right,” said Lucy.
She didn’t seem angry or ruffled so far. Encouraged, Alexia went on.
“Okay. So over a period of two years, HM Capital systematically set about poaching Billy Hamlin’s clients and buying out his suppliers. There are too many connections for it to be a coincidence, especially given that the company had zero involvement in the automotive sector either before or after that time. As crazy as it sounds, Arnie wanted to ruin Billy Hamlin. And he succeeded.”
Lucy was quiet, apparently taking this information in.
“So my question is, why? Can you think of any connection, any connection at all, that Arnie might have had with the Hamlin family? However tenuous?”
Lucy shook her head. “No. I really can’t.”
“Please try,” Alexia pleaded. “There must be something. This is serious, Luce. Billy’s daughter and his business partner, Milo Bates, were both murdered.”
“I know that,” Lucy said calmly.
“When I told you about Billy Hamlin coming to find me in London, the last time we walked out to this side of the island . . . when I told you about my past . . . had you ever heard his name before?”
Lucy was smiling, but it was a strange smile. There was something off about it, something unfamiliar and not quite right.
“Maybe Arnie mentioned him?”
“Arnie never mentioned him.”
Lucy stood up and began pacing slowly back and forth, between the cliff edge and the bench.
Alexia wondered if Lucy was angry. If she’d somehow gone too far in mentioning Arnie. She tried to backtrack.
“I’m not accusing Arnie of anything. It may be he had nothing to do with the phone calls, or the murders. I don’t know.”
“You’re not accusing him,” Lucy repeated robotically.
