Swan Song (Nantucket, #4)

by Elin Hilderbrand

But also, Ed felt guilty. Had he played fast and loose with his health? Yes. Could he just give two weeks’ notice and leave the public safety of the island up for grabs? He could not. He would retire in the fall.

She has spent her one wild and precious life selecting wallpaper and scheduling the pool cleaners; she has spent it reading People magazine in line at the market and fruitlessly trying to improve her backhand. She has spent it scrolling through her phone.

It has been Blond Sharon’s secret lifelong desire to become an author.

The late great novelist John Gardner famously said that there are only two plots: One, a person goes on a journey, and two, a stranger comes to town.”

Why is the casual traveler in America so decidedly unstylish?

Then he tells me he’s a movie producer and I’m like, Good for you, mate. I’m a restaurant hostess without any available tables.”

“Well, they have good taste in assistants,” Andrea says, smiling at Coco. They should probably change the subject. Andrea isn’t a stickler for etiquette, but discussing Coco’s employers in front of her seems tacky.

Books had raised her (Jane Austen had taught her how to comport herself at a dinner party like this one), and movies allowed her to escape the chaos going on outside her bedroom door.

“I didn’t hire you to perform a miracle,” Leslee says. “Well, I did, but a manageable one. Follow me, I’ll show you.”

There’s no denying that Leslee Richardson is an attractive woman. She has long, flowing dark hair and a yoga body underneath her white jeans and tight white tank. But she’s also married, and she’s giving I’m a handful vibes. Was Benton a fool to break his no-new-clients rule?

Avalon sighs and goes to the bar for another round. She loves Eric, but he’s completely clueless.

“I’ll take you to my go-to.” Kacy pulls up in front of a boutique called the Lovely. As soon as they’re inside among all the dainty, fluttery, summery things, Coco feels like a cat in a wineglass. What is she doing here?

The Richardsons’ house has burned to the ground, and on the same evening, an employee of theirs has gone missing. This feels like more than a coincidence, but if all these years of policing have taught Ed anything, it’s that one should never jump to conclusions.

Kacy feels embarrassed that she’s never read Moby-Dick. Like all the other nurses on her unit, she reads Colleen Hoover.

Delilah takes a breath to speak, then hesitates. “This has to stay in the vault.” Surely she’s being ironic, Sharon thinks. Everyone on Nantucket knows she is constitutionally unable to keep a secret.

“What I’d really like is for Chief Kapenash to step away from this investigation,” Zara says. “His last day is Monday. He shouldn’t be taking on the onus of this case, of these two cases, with only a few days left.” She sighs, then blurts out, “It’s like he wants some kind of swan song.”

“I’m sorry about the uniform,” Leslee says. “It was Bull’s idea. He feels… well, he wants our household staff to wear uniforms. So people know who you are.”

“It’s not the money, it’s the money.”

“Haven’t you heard?” Sharon says. “He left me for his physical therapist. We’re getting divorced.” “What an idiot,” Romeo says. He has never understood men who leave their wives for younger women. Romeo believes women get funnier, wiser, and, yes, sexier as they get older.

“You look pretty,” Coco says. Kacy is in a pink floral prairie dress, and Coco feels like a douche-noodle in her uniform.

“I can’t believe how crazy this party is,” Kacy says. “Leslee is Her.” Coco understands how Kacy might think that, especially after Leslee reentered the party in her second outfit of the evening, a jumpsuit so tight you could see her religion.

He once attended a seminar about missing persons and learned that, in some ways, it’s more challenging for people to grapple with loved ones’ disappearances than their deaths. Missing causes one to feel equal parts despondent and hopeful.

“Is there something else you want to say, son?” Lamont looks from Zara to the Chief. “You’re questioning the Richardsons, right?”

But no, Eddie won’t get into it. He needs to let go of the past, especially now that his future is looking so bright.

“He likes mango in his fruit salad,” Leslee says. “We had it every day on St. John.” Right, because St. John is a tropical island where mangoes grow on trees, Coco thinks. On Nantucket, thirty miles out in the Atlantic, she has to go to four places before she finds a mango that isn’t as hard as a rock. However, the mango is a breeze compared to the morning buns.

She snatches a bottle of Tanqueray and a bottle of champagne. From the kitchen, she swipes sugar packets and… two of the Amalfi lemons. Her straw bag is sagging with the weight; the bottles clink against each other, making what can only be described as a pilfered-alcohol sound.

The Richardsons are allowed to have fun; as the sound of the first fireworks remind Heather, it’s a free country. She won’t say anything to Sharon about the Richardsons, she decides. After all, they’re not dangerous. It’s not like they’re going to hurt anyone.

Sharon has become the kind of woman she never understood before—someone who doesn’t need to talk about other people to make her days more interesting because her days are interesting enough as it is.

Kacy weaves through the crowd until they’re standing by Mike the piano player. He’s singing “Rich Girl,” and everyone singing along agrees that she’s gone too far but they know it don’t matter anyway.

Every good night out on Nantucket ends at the Chicken Box. Kacy hasn’t set foot in the place since a Christmas break during nursing school, but it never changes—it still smells like beer and lust.

The place is crammed with the beautiful people lucky enough to be on Nantucket tonight.

Bull nods slowly. “I love her,” he says. “And she loves everybody.”

“Hell no,” she says. “Why is that woman still inviting us to things? Can she not take a hint?”

so where would Coco work, and can she walk away from the absurd amount of money she’s making?

She hates Bull, she realizes, because if she doesn’t hate him, she’ll end up hating herself.

Can Leslee read Coco’s mind? Does she know that Coco has contemplated both desertion and murder?

“This is gorgeous,” Sharon says. “Is it antique?” The gate looks like it came from an English manor or a French monastery. “It’s brand-new but fabricated to look authentic,” Benton says. Sort of like the Richardsons themselves, Sharon thinks.

He snatches up his clothes and goes. He doesn’t bother saying anything to Bull and hopes never to see the man again, but if Ed were to leave Bull with parting words, they would be Your wife needs help.

Lamont came here, Leslee found out, Leslee confronted Coco on the boat, there was a tussle, Coco fell in, Leslee thought, Oh, well, and went to get herself another glass of Laurent-Perrier.