Accomplice
"Call for an ambulance boat!"
Five minutes ago, she woke to the sound of strangled cries. Thinking that the noise was a remnant of a bad dream, Nadine melted back into the bedding. Certainly, after this trip, she would be upgrading her pillows at home! With the windows propped open, a cool breeze drifted in off the water. Her eyelids fell closed as she listened to the curtains lift and, in sync with the waves crashing against the rocks, sway back toward the window frame. After she heard a scream, she slipped from her bed.
"He's dead," Blake told his sister.
Now, she hovered in a doorway, watching Meredith Moran grab at the base of her throat as she cried hysterically.
"Please, call for help," she pleaded.
She noticed that the room was warm and smelled of sex.
Standing on the far side of the bed, Blake stared down at the floor. Unlike his sister, he didn't appear panicked. In a similar fashion to his mother, at least for the moment, he seemed to have his emotions under lock and key.
"Mom," Meredith wept.
With her back to the door, Edie tried to wrangle her daughter's arms into the sleeves of a silk robe.
"I need you to stop crying," Edie said.
Taking the chance, Nadine stepped further into the bedroom. There, just inside the doorway, she was able to see past the edge of the bed. On the floor, in front of Blake's feet, lay a naked man. And not just any man— Jeff Rhodes, the minority leader. He was face down against the braided rug.
"Oh my God," Nadine gasped.
Hearing the voice, Edie momentarily forgot her task of securing the tie of the robe around Meredith's slim waist. She whipped around to face the door. With her hands still tangled up in the tie, she inadvertently tugged her daughter forward.
"Blake, get her the hell out of here," she said, but Blake didn't move.
Heart pounding against her chest, Nadine's eyes jumped back to the body on the floor. It appeared that a porcelain ginger jar had been taken to the back of Jeff's head. During his fall, he must have smacked his forehead against the corner of the nightstand.
"Go," Edie barked.
The receiver of an old rotary phone dangled from its cord. Like the fate of this family, it still swung in the air.
"Meredith, go shower," Edie said again before nudging her daughter toward the ensuite.
Blood seeped into the ivory carpet, staining it a bright red.
"What do we do, Mom?" Blake asked.
Standing near the far wall, Nadine felt like an out-of-town aunt who only visited on Christmas. She didn't fit in here, but, with this family, that was a good thing. Once Meredith was dressed in a pair of pajamas, they got to work.
"You dress him." Blake handed over a pair of men's boxer shorts to his sister. "You're the one sleeping with him," Blake said.
Edie gently touched her daughter's shoulder, now wanting to coddle her through each and every step. "Go to Gooseberry and wake Max," she whispered as she took the underwear from Meredith's hands. "No one else."
She wondered why their cousin, Max, was needed.
After Edie managed to pull clothing onto Jeff, Max and Blake carried his body down the front staircase, out onto the wraparound porch, and along the stone path that led to the smaller boathouse.
"You'll need this," Edie mumbled, holding up a pocketknife.
On the dock, the old wooden planks felt like sandpaper against the bottoms of her bare feet.
Max held up a knife of his own before he said, "This isn't the first time we've gotten rid of a body, remember?"
"Go," Edie urged.
At the edge of the dock, Nadine stood behind the two Moran women. The three of them watched as the boys paddled the boat out to sea. Edie had instructed them not to use the motor until they were past the big rocks— "so not to wake anyone." Just like Max had said earlier, this obviously wasn't her first time dumping a body into the Atlantic.
"Call Daddy." Once the boat had disappeared around the rocks, both women turned to face the island. "He'll know what to do," Meredith said as they began the walk back to the house.
In the early hours of the morning, Fred arrived to deal with the police. Nadine watched as he and the officer shake hands like they were old friends. Apparently, Fred has known the Edgartown police chief for years.
"My daughter's pretty shaken up."
Now dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain sweater, Meredith lingered at the end of the dock, a few steps away from her father. Blake was at her shoulder. Although her muscles ached from fatigue, Nadine stood beside them.
"Can we take a look at the boat?"
The officers accept the mugs of coffee that were offered to them by Edie Moran.
"Of course," Fred said before he led them to the boathouse.
Out of respect for the family, they kept questioning to a minimum.
"A round of golf next month?" Fred asked the police chief before he and his team of officers boarded their boats and departed Gull Island.
While the police were on the island, the Moran cousins stayed quiet, but they'd bombarded them with questions once the officers began the trek back to the mainland. Blake told them the same story that he and Max told the police chief: "Jeff, Max, and I went for a sunrise boat ride." The fact that they'd discussed such plans last night at dinner made the story more believable. "We decided to go for a swim while anchored. Jeff didn't come back up out of the water."
"Let's talk," Fred said to Meredith.
On the stone pathway, he touched his daughter's back, leading her back to the house.
Just last week, Blake explained that, now that they were older, their father treated him and his sister differently. After Fred realized that his son had no interest in following in his footsteps, he turned to the child who would fight tooth and nail for a seat at the table. Now, he was protecting that child. Certainly, someone set to run a billion-dollar company couldn't handle the publicity of a mudar charge.
Before Blake started to follow them, Nadine grabbed his arm.
"How can you stand by them?"
This morning, when she passed Meredith's bedroom on her way downstairs, she noticed that the pieces of the porcelain ginger jar had been swept up, the receiver of the old rotary phone had been returned to its place, and the stained ivory rug beneath the bed had been rolled up and removed.
Stepping close, Nadine whispered, "Your sister killed a man."
Blake only stared.
"Nadine, Meredith didn't kill Jeff Rhodes." He looked into her eyes. "I did," he said before he began up the path.