I took a moment to process that information. “It’s time for us to go home. Give me your keys. I’m going to move your car over to South Battery. You can pick it up tomorrow.”
Three
We were both quiet on the trip from downtown Charleston to the ferry dock on Isle of Palms. I didn’t want to hear any more until Robert was part of the conversation. And Nate. As soon as I parked the car in the ferry parking lot, I called Nate.
“Hey, Slugger,” he said. “Where are you? I was just about to call you.”
“Are you finished for the night?”
“Yeah. I just got home. I didn’t think you were going out.”
“Neither did I. Can you meet me at Robert and Olivia Pearson’s house at eleven? I’m waiting for the ten-thirty ferry.”
“Is everything all right?”
“We have a new case.”
“Now? How are we supposed to—”
“Sweetheart, please. Humor me.”
He sighed. “That is my usual custom. Drive safe.”
As soon as I ended the call, Olivia flew into a hissy fit. “You cannot tell Robert about any of this.”
“I won’t have to if you will.”
“I will never tell him. And if you were my friend, you wouldn’t either. I trusted you. You just think you’re so much smarter than everyone else—like you know what’s best. You don’t have any idea what I’ve been through.”
“And whose fault is that? If you’d told me you were being blackmailed, I could’ve helped.”
“I don’t need you to solve my problems. I can take care of myself just fine.”
“I can see how well that’s working out.”
“Oooh! You just drop me off at the end of my driveway and go straight on home and forget every single thing about tonight.”
“Not a chance. Didn’t you hear? Robert hired me.”
She screeched at me. “How could you betray me like that?”
“I don’t see it as a betrayal.” I kept my voice calm and soothing. “I’m trying to help two friends, both of whom asked for my help.”
“Exactly when did Robert ask you for help?”
“Like I told you, he hired me. He tried to hire me earlier this afternoon, and I turned him down flat, out of loyalty to you.”
“Why didn’t you call me right that very second and tell me? That’s what a true friend would’ve done.”
“Honestly, Olivia, I figured the best thing I could do was stay out of it all together. That was before you told me Robert was dead on the floor of a whorehouse, which, if I understand you correctly, you own half of.”
That shut her up, but I could feel her seething. Another eruption was imminent. While I could get a word in, I said, “And you abdicated the right to tell me to mind my own business when you called and asked me to come to the scene of an imaginary crime.”
“I didn’t imagine a damn thing. Someone was lying facedown on the floor of that parlor with his head smashed in.”
I held up my hands for her to stop. “Let’s just hold off on all that until we get to your house.”
She looked at me with so much venom I was momentarily afraid she might claw my eyes out.
“There is one thing I want to know right now,” I said, “and you owe me this much. Was someone other than Seth blackmailing you and Robert regarding this…brothel…a couple years back? Around the time Gram was killed?”
At the mention of Gram, she looked away. After a minute she said, “Because Robert is on the town council. That demon tried to blackmail me into getting Robert to vote in favor of a certain development project. I never told Robert. He knows nothing about any of this.” The meanness crept back into her voice. “And I’d prefer to keep it that way.”
I knew exactly which demon she referred to, my suspicions confirmed. The final piece to the puzzle surrounding Gram’s murder fell into place. But that’s a whole nother story.
Finally, the ferry docked. Cars trickled off. As soon as I could, I pulled onboard, parked, and opened the car door. “I’m going to get some fresh air.”
Before long, we were underway. The ferry glided through the night air, whipping the brisk wind into a freezing frenzy. I shivered, even with my trench coat over my pajamas, but the cold air blowing all around and through me had a cleansing effect, cleared my head. Thankfully, my car was the only one on the next-to-last trip of the night. No one could see me and report my attire to Mamma, who would not have been amused.
Also thankfully, Olivia stayed in the car.
Robert and Olivia lived in the closest thing Stella Maris had to a subdivision: Sea Farm. It was situated on the southeast corner of the island, Pearson’s Point. At one time, the land that now held roughly two hundred homes, a golf course, a clubhouse, Olympic pool, and tennis courts, had been Pearson family land. Robert and Olivia had a prime lot in the back of the neighborhood with the Atlantic just across the dunes.