danger and been miraculously spared. He squeezed her hand as he fed Ben some stew.
“Matilda's people weren't paying a whole lot of mind to her, and those two young fellows were. She was flattered and got to care for them. Genuine niceness on Roger's part, more than likely, but Eric must have always had his eye on the main chance. I thought he might have burned his house down himself to convince her to leave them hers. But Sonny did that and he's been kicking himself ever since.'
“Sonny? Why?' Faith realized she had missed something. 'He was trying to get Eric to leave the island. He tried other things too, but nothing worked.'
“So that fight at the dance
“Ayuh. I'm not saying what he did wasn't wrong, very wrong, especially when you see all the drugged-out kids around this area. Right here tonight—kids who would have been showing the sheep they raised or the jams they put up before all this hit. I blamed the bridge that they built to the mainland, but that's neither here nor there and it was bound to happen one of these days. Pretty hard getting across the reach by boat in the winter.”
Now it was Earl who was off.
Faith felt like the lady they had seen at the sheepdog trials earlier. She resisted the impulse to say 'come on, Laddie.”
“But you think Sonny did have some excuse for doing what he did?'
“Not excuse. Reason. He was in big trouble financially. Two summers ago was a bad one for lobsterin' and an especial bad one for Prescott's pound. They had just bought anew six-wheeler when they lost a boat in a storm and then there just weren't any lobsters. That was when Eric came along. Sonny was only going to do it until he got on his feet again, but it was easy money and after a lifetime of strain and struggle, which fishing is, I guess a little easy money was like heaven. They landed the bales on some of the small islands offshore, then loaded them into the front of the trucks at the Old Ferry Cove dock, which hasn't been used for years. Then they'd go back to the lobster pool and fill the rest up with lobsters. If they did get stopped, an inspector looking for shorts would never make them unload the whole truck without a pretty good reason. And they were lucky. The drivers didn't know what they were driving and Eric had it all worked out on the New York end. Sonny didn't even see the stuff. He just provided the transport. Andy and his crew from Camden were doing the heavy work.'
“But then Sonny wanted to stop,' Jill picked up the story. 'I was so stupid. I should have known what was going on. I heard them arguing one night. It didn't make any sense to me and when everything else began to happen, I forgot about it.' Her voice lowered and she looked away. 'I guess it was hard for me to believe Eric could be involved with anything illegal.'
“I'm stIll confused. Why did Eric kill his friend Roger? And why did he have my wife at gunpoint?”
All the pieces had fallen into place and it was Faith who could answer him. 'I think Eric was a very selfish person. Enough was never enough. He had a lucrative pottery business, but he started dealing drugs to make more money. Then Matilda left them the house. That would have been fine, so long as it was Roger, but when he found out about Bird and the baby, that was too much. There are so many sad stories here, but Bird's is the saddest. She had finally found Roger after all those years and was looking forward to marriage, motherhood. But Eric couldn't allow that. It also may be that Roger had found out about the drug dealing. Something Eric said the other night suggested that. And Bird probably knew because of Andy. So he sabotaged the boat, no doubt put something stronger in place of what Roger usually smoked, and took off for his friends. He returned grief stricken and oddly enough, I think he was.'
“Roger was the only person Eric ever really cared about or let get close,' Jill said softly. 'Oh, I never fooled myself into thinking he loved me as much as I did him. There was always a distance between us. But he loved Roger, almost like a part of himself—a better part. I remember when Bird came to the island, he was upset. If she and Roger hadn't gotten together, I'm sure Eric would have given up the dealing rather than lose Roger. But since Roger was already lost to him, he just went ahead taking care of himself.'
“ `Taking care of himself' is an apt expression,' Faith continued. 'It was going to be so easy too, before things began to go wrong. He had planned a nice tidy little murder.”
No one seemed about to interrupt her and Faith kept a firm grip on center stage. 'He'd get the house—which did obsess him—marry Jill, maybe see Margery on the side, maybe still run the drug business, but basically settle down. Then Bird didn't go out in the boat and he had to tie up that loose end. He may not have intended Margery to kill Bird, just find out what she knew. But the deed was done. He had to plant the evidence on Bill Fox, then Andy got picked up and things began to get even more complicated. At some point he must have decided to cut and run, but he wanted to take the gold with him and the key to the whole thing was in my hands. We know he tried to steal the quilt and did take my bracelet,' Faith remembered indignantly before winding up her tour de force. 'It looks like Margery was getting secondhand goods all the way around—not that I feel particularly sorry for her. She or Eric must have been the person following me in the woods to see if I was on the track of the gold. They were probably following us all week.'
“I should never have asked you to bring the quilt over that night,' Louise apologized. 'Then they would never have known.'
“How long have you lived on this island?' her husband demanded. 'When does something like a treasure map in a quilt get hushed up?”
Pix shook her head. 'I feel like I'm still on that Tilt-aWhirl ride. The whole summer has been like that. Roger, then Bird, then Bill—and everything finally colliding in your living room, Faith.'
“If he hadn't been afraid Andy would talk, he might have stayed, believing that the police thought Bill had killed Bird and Roger. You didn't, did you?' she asked Earl.
“No, we weren't too happy with that one, although it all made sense.'
“Sense! Bill would never have killed Bird, never would have killed anybody. Besides, whoever killed Roger had planned to kill Bird at the same time. We were too dense to see what was in front of our faces. Remember? Samantha told us originally Bird was going out in the boat with Roger? And she didn't know how to swim, according to her father. That would have eliminated Bill right away if we had only thought of it.'
“I think once Bird was gone, it was only a question of time for Bill,' Elliot said. 'We've known him for years and there was a dark side to his nature. You mustn't blame yourself.”
Tom looked at Faith in annoyance. 'You've got the perfect candidate for blame in Eric, and you and your sister, Bat-woman and Robinette, are responsible for his capture. Think about that instead.'
“We all trusted him and liked him so much,' Sam mused, 'it's hard to understand how so many of us could have been taken in.'
“He would have been some good as a con man—was in the case of Matilda, conned the house right out from under her and the rest of the Prescotts, then killed her once he was sure she had changed her will,' Earl pointed out. 'No scruples and a lot of self-importance.'
“And what about Sonny? Think how we trusted him! I can't get over someone from the island being involved.' Pix looked devastated.
Earl grinned, 'You summer people are all alike. Somehow you've dreamed up this idea that Sanpere is like the Garden of Eden before Eve got hungry. Nobody lies, cheats, or steals.
We just go along our blameless ways. Every carpenter is a master. Every fisherman gets a good catch. Every woman can make good pie crust and raise prizewinning tuberous begonias. Well, surprise—we're just like other people, good, bad, and mostly in between.”
The sergeant was getting more interesting by the moment. Faith wondered whether the combination of boyish charm and good looks plus an interesting philosophy of life was working any magic on Jill. Goodness knew she needed some after Eric.
Sam looked at his watch. 'I hate to break this up, but something tells me we're going to be repeating this conversation with some frequency and if we want a good spot for the fireworks, we've got to get going.'
“I think I can find you a spot,' Earl promised. Rank had its privileges.
Quentin and Hope were waiting by the information booth. Hope was eating cotton candy and feeding it to Quentin. The bison had been joined oy a raccoon, or rather a mutant of the species three feet tall, wearing goggles and a vest. All four of them looked disgustingly smug and blissfully happy.
Samantha ran over. 'Mom, we want to sit in the grandstand. Is it okay if we meet you after?' She pointed back at Arlene and two gangly boys who were stolidly munching fried dough.
“Why is it always `Mom'?' Sam complained. 'Don't I get a vote?'
