outfielder. The book had become a huge bestseller and thrust Jamie back in the limelight for a brief time. Now he was out here, living on Big Sister with Evan Havenhurst and dealing in antiques. He seemed at peace. He was certainly fit and cheerful.
“Do you sail?” he asked Mitch.
“No, I’m a city kid, through and through. I can’t even swim.”
“Not a problem-that’s why they have life preservers. I can’t swim either. Child stars can’t do anything. Hell, I didn’t learn how to tie my own shoelaces until I was…” Jamie paused, glancing down at own his feet. “Actually, I still don’t know how to.” He let out a huge guffaw. “You’ll have to come out for a sail sometime with us, Mitch. You’ll enjoy it. And I promise you we’ll even wear clothes.”
This comment did not go over well with Bud, who immediately stalked off, red-faced.
Evan let out a pained sigh. “Jaymo, why must you rub his nose in it?”
“Sorry, Ev,” said Jamie, patting his hand. “The Bud man’s just such a prig I can’t help myself.”
Evan went to fetch them drinks, leaving Mitch with the one-time star.
“Still doing any acting, Jamie?”
“Boyfriend, I never was an actor,” he replied, with no trace of bitterness. “Being a child star means being you. When you get to be older, and you find out they now expect you to play a role, you discover you never really learned how. And you have no real life experiences to draw upon, since you’ve had no real life.” Evan returned now with glasses of wine for each of them. Jamie thanked him and turned back to Mitch. “In answer to your next question: No, I never watch the reruns. It was all a lie. Bogus people living in a bogus world. In fact, we don’t even own a TV That’s all behind me now. So is Tinsel Town. Beverly Hills is the only ghetto in America where the rats don’t live in the walls. Being here, I have achieved peace for the first time in my life.” He glanced fondly at his handsome young companion. “Poor Evan still has the bug, I’m afraid. That’s how we met-he was in an acting class that I was teaching in New York. I’ve been doing my best to talk him out of it. That’s absolutely the only thing Bud and I see eye to eye on.”
Evan had brought hors d’?uvres that needed heating. He excused himself to go take care of them. Mitch and Jamie drifted into the study, where Bud and Red sat talking. The subject was Niles Seymour and what a bastard he was.
“It wasn’t enough that he broke Dolly’s heart,” Red was saying, his voice a low murmur. “He had to leave her high and dry, too. That’s the detestable part.”
“Unforgivable,” agreed Jamie, sipping his wine.
“He cleaned out their joint checking and savings accounts,” Bud explained to Mitch. “He even liquidated their stock portfolio. Well over a hundred thousand dollars altogether. And he used their joint Visa card to buy two airplane tickets to St. Croix-before Dolly could get around to freezing it.”
Mitch nodded, wondering why they were suddenly being so open with him.
“Has he filed for the divorce yet?” Jamie asked Bud.
“No, but she will,” Bud replied. “On the grounds of desertion.”
“I call it outright theft,” Red fumed. “He should be in jail. The man is a no-good con artist.”
“I wouldn’t call him no good,” Jamie said. “I’d call him damned good. He’s handsome. He’s charming. And he’s as persuasive as hell. Convinced Dolly to put his name on everything, didn’t he?”
“We can’t touch him, Red,” Bud admitted glumly. “Niles had a legal right to that money.”
“But the money in those accounts was hers,” Red said insistently. He had grown considerably more loquacious with a couple of stiff drinks in him. And, like Bud, he was very protective of Dolly. “Those investments were hers. They do not belong to Niles Seymour and that… that… bimbo.”
“Who is the other woman?” Mitch asked.
“We don’t know,” Bud answered, reaching for his scotch. “Some little redhead he knew in Atlantic City before he met Dolly, apparently. All we can say for certain is that one day she showed up at the Saybrook Point Inn and the next day Niles, his car and every penny Dolly had to her name were gone.”
“We spotted them together,” Red mentioned. “Bud and I. We’d docked at the inn after a sail for a bite of brunch. And there they were having a cozy breakfast together in the dining room. She was exactly what you’d expect from Niles-young and sleazy. A thorough tramp.”
“Dolly found a Dear John letter on the kitchen table the next morning,” Bud added. “Bastard didn’t even have the nerve to face her. Just cleared out.”
“What does he do for a living?”
Evan came in now with a platter of quesadillas. He lingered, refilling his father’s scotch and Jamie’s wineglass.
“He sells things,” Red answered. “Menswear, cars, yachts…”
“And himself,” Bud added bitterly. “Above all, Niles Seymour sells himself.”
At the mention of the name Evan abruptly slammed the wine bottle down and went fleeing back to the kitchen.
“Evan doesn’t like to talk about him,” Jamie explained to Mitch quietly. “He murdered Bobo, you see. We loved Bobo. She was our baby. Most traumatic experience of Evan’s life, watching that poor little dachsund writhe in pain in his arms, unable to do a thing to help her. The vet did an autopsy-said someone had fed her ground meat laced with arsenic. We could never prove it was Niles, but we have no doubt. He’s the one who was always complaining about her barking.” Jamie’s face tightened at the memory. “He used to call us the Queers. Was always leaving us nasty little notes that began: ‘Dear Queers.’ If we left a trash can out. If we had people in for drinks… I think he believed we were having gay orgies. He’s a truly horrible person.”
“None of us were particularly sorry to see him go, Mitch,” Red said. “It was almost as if he went out of his way to antagonize every single person on this island. Kept pushing me to build luxury condos out here. He wanted to bulldoze the woods, have plans drawn up. Condos
…” Coming out of Red’s mouth it sounded like the single dirtiest word in the English language. “Can you imagine?”
“He put the moves on Mandy repeatedly,” Bud spoke up angrily. “She was not the least bit interested. But he wouldn’t leave her alone. I finally confronted him about it. Do you know what that bastard said to me? He said, ‘Don’t blame me if your wife is a common slut.’ I popped him one right in the nose. First time I’d hit someone in thirty-five years.”
“Niles used to smack Dolly around,” Red recalled. “I saw the bruises. So did Tuck Weems, who threatened to strangle him. That put a solid scare into Niles-Tuck not being the stablest individual around. Niles reported Tuck to Tal Bliss.”
“Did Bliss arrest him?” Mitch asked.
“No, that’s not Tal’s style,” Bud answered. “He just told Tuck that it would be best if he didn’t work here on Big Sister anymore. Now that Niles is gone, he’s back. Dolly insisted. She’s always been fond of Tuck.”
Red stared morosely into his empty glass. “I must confess there’s one thing that greatly concerns me…”
“What’s that, Red?” Bud asked.
“What’ll happen when Niles comes back. Because he will be back-just as soon as the money runs out.”
“Never,” Bud snapped. “That’s totally unthinkable.”
Jamie said, “I agree with Red. The bastard will come crawling back. What’s more, Dolly will take him back.”
“After what he did to her?” Mitch said. “How could she?”
“Oldest reason of all,” Red replied. “She still loves him.”
They fell into grim silence. Outside, ominous clouds were rolling in over the Sound. The sky was growing dark.
“Understand you got yourself locked in your crawl space yesterday, Mitch,” Bud said offhandedly.
“Yes, I did. Someone closed the trap door on me.”
“Damned foolish thing to do,” muttered Red.
“Who did it?” asked Jamie.
“No idea,” said Mitch. “All I know is I heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps.”
“I see…” Bud glanced uneasily over at Red, who seemed a bit uncomfortable himself. “May I ask-how did Dolly react to your little misadventure?”
“Rather strangely, now that you mention it. She maintained I hadn’t heard any footsteps. She was quite
