Page 77 of Swan Song

“My advice,” Bull says, “is to give yourself five or even ten years, until you’ve lived a little and you have something more to write about, then try again.”

Coco feels tears blur her eyes. Five or ten years? Is he joking? She flees Bull’s office before she either flips him off or says something she can’t take back. Out in the hallway—of course, of course—Coco rams right into Leslee.

“Hey!” Leslee says, giving Coco an assessing look. “Are you all right?”

Coco smiles through her tears. “Bull’s home,” she says.

26. Thursday, August 22, 9:45 P.M.

“Hey, Lucy,” the Chief says when he answers the phone. Please, he thinks, tell me you found her.

“Hey, Ed,” she says in a weighted tone that lets him know the news isn’t good. “One of my track-line patrol found what we believe to be Ms. Coyle’s clothes, a pair of white shorts and a pink polo shirt, both size small, washed up on the beach at Smith’s Point. That matches the description of what Ms. Coyle was wearing?”

“We can’t be sure until we see them, though that sounds right.” Ed pauses. “They didn’t see anyone?”

“There were still a couple of picnickers out,” Lucy says. “And one couple banging in the back of a Bronco, which was pretty brazen, since the top was down. But nobody who matched Ms. Coyle’s description. The picnickers and the lovers said they hadn’t seen anyone.”

“She may have taken her clothes off in the water,” Ed says.

“Or she may have swum ashore, ditched the clothes, and made a run for it,” Lucy says. “If she was the one who set the fire.”

The Chief checks his watch. The last ferry of the night left five minutes earlier. “Call the Hy-Line and see if she’s on the boat.” If she is, Ed thinks, she’ll have some explaining to do.

“Copy that,” Lucy says. “I’ll have someone run the clothes out to you in Pocomo to ID.”

“Thank you, Lucy.” Ed hangs up and tells Zara the news.

“I tend to think the former,” Zara says. “She stripped down to have a better chance of making it to shore. Don’t you think?”

Ed isn’t sure what to think.

“Let’s talk to Leslee,” Zara says, and Ed swears under his breath.

Leslee Richardson is a hot mess. Her dress is soaked—she clearly waded ashore—and her makeup is smeared down her face, and yet somehow there isn’t a hair out of place; it’s still long and flowing in barrel curls, and all Ed can think is how much this would annoy Andrea.

The Chief knows how he has to start. “I’m sorry about all of this, Leslee.”

She snarls at him. “No, you’re not. Your daughter’s little friend set our house on fire. She tricked us into hiring her and now she’s destroyed everything we have.”

“Tricked you into hiring her? What do you mean by that?”

Leslee waves him off. Ed doesn’t believe a word that comes out of the woman’s mouth, but if Leslee thinks Coco tricked her, did Leslee take her revenge on the boat?

“Why would she want to burn down your house?” he says. “This is where she lives.”

“She lives in the garage!” Leslee says. “Which you’ll notice is still standing!”

Yes, Ed notices the garage is unscathed.

“She has the codes to the alarms,” Leslee says. “She probably turned them off before we left so the house would be sure to burn to the ground.”

“I still don’t understand what reason she would have—”

“She was jealous that Bull and I were renewing our vows,” Leslee says.

“Jealous because—”

“Coco is in love with Bull. She was always in his office talking to him about books and movies. Once I caught her coming out of his office and she’d clearly been crying. They must have had a lovers’ spat.”

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