Golden Girl(109)

“Do you know anything about a photo from that night being sent around by Peter Bridgeman?”

Jasmine frowns, shakes her head. “Peter? No. But I did see him hanging out with Marissa that night, after she and Leo broke up.”

“Leo Quinboro?”

“Yes. Really, the only thing that happened at that party was that Leo broke up with Marissa. And later, Leo disappeared and I saw Marissa sitting in the dunes with Peter. But I don’t know anything about a photo, sorry.”

The Chief needs to think for a moment. Leo broke up with his girlfriend? Neither Cruz nor Leo mentioned this. And then the girlfriend was seen with the Bridgeman kid? The Bridgeman kid then sent Leo and Cruz a picture—of him and Marissa, maybe? Was that what had them so upset? Or maybe it was a photo of only Marissa, a nude or whatever, which would have been upsetting coming from Peter Bridgeman.

Peter Bridgeman is at camp for the summer in Maine. He must have left pretty soon after Vivian Howe’s death. Peter Bridgeman’s mother is Pamela Bonham of the Bonham Insurance Agency. Did Peter Bridgeman head over to the Howes’ early on Saturday to see Leo? Did he want to confront Leo—or apologize?

Did Peter Bridgeman hit Vivian Howe? Cruz told the Chief that he was coming from the Bridgemans’ house, that he went to see Peter but Peter didn’t answer the door. He also said he didn’t see Peter’s truck. Maybe Peter had just left; maybe Cruz had missed him by a matter of minutes and knew he was heading over to the Howes, so he chased him, which would explain running the stop sign and speeding.

The Chief will find a way to talk to Peter Bridgeman. But before he does that, he needs all the information he can get.

“This Marissa,” Ed says, pulling out his notepad. “What’s her last name?”

“Lopresti,” Jasmine says.

The Chief stops, looks up. Lopresti, he thinks.





Willa




Pamela needs to talk to Willa, but she wants to do it when neither Zach nor Rip is around, which is tricky. Then a day comes when Zach is flying himself over to the Vineyard to see his “buddy Buddy,” who heads air traffic control at MVY. They get together once a year. Zach is leaving early and will be gone all day.

“Can you come to my house at nine?” Pamela asks Willa.

“I have work.”

“Can you come at noon?”

“I’m having lunch with Rip at the club,” Willa says—though this isn’t true. She has an OB appointment at the hospital.

“Cancel it.”

“I can’t,” Willa says.

“The two of you are freakish in your devotion,” Pamela says. “Do you hear me? Freakish.”

Willa is proud of being freakish in her devotion. At least she’s not monitoring her husband’s every move trying to figure out who he’s sleeping with.

“I know,” Willa says with some smugness.

“Can you come now?” Pamela asks. “Stop by on your way to work?”

“I was planning to ride my bike to work today,” Willa says.

“Drive instead, you’ll have extra time that way,” Pamela says. “There’s something I have to show you.”

Willa doesn’t want to drive; she wants to ride her bike. And she’s pretty sure she doesn’t want to see whatever Pamela has to show her. She’s already in too deep, so deep that she had to confide in Carson, which was risky. Telling Carson did lighten Willa’s emotional load a little, and when Carson said she had no friends to tell, she wasn’t lying. Carson is a lone wolf. Willa is sure she has friends at the Oystercatcher and guys she meets at the Box, but she isn’t going to tell any of them about Pamela and Zach Bridgeman’s marital discord.

Everyone is so self-absorbed that it’s nearly impossible to find someone who can be fully invested in your problems. That has been Willa’s experience with the miscarriages. After the first one, people were sympathetic—but everyone wanted to hurry Willa along to “You can just try again,” rather than sit with her in the pain and the loss.

Except Rip.

And Vivi.

“Willa?” Pamela says.

“What?” Willa says. She yanks herself up out of the rabbit hole. “Um…okay, yeah.”

“You’ll come? Right now?”

“Yes,” Willa says. She will be invested in Pamela, she decides. She will go, right now.



Willa doesn’t have time to waste, however. She walks into the Bridgeman house on Gray Avenue and expects to see Pamela waiting, but the first floor is deserted.

“I’m here!” Willa calls out. “And I need to be back in my car in ten minutes!”

There’s no answer, and Willa is tempted to leave. This is so like her sister-in-law—impose on another person’s schedule, then make her wait. Willa knows that Pamela is this inconsiderate (and worse!) with Zach.

“Pamela!” Willa calls out. She hears footsteps upstairs; she thinks they’re moving toward the stairs—but no, they’re moving away. “Okay, I’m going to work, then. Call me later!” Willa manages to keep the annoyance out of her voice, but she’s miffed. She thinks longingly of pedaling past the turtle pond where Vivi used to take Willa and Carson and Leo when they were little kids. Vivi would patiently tie string around pieces of raw chicken and help them cast the lines across the surface of the water.