Page 75 of The Note

She pushed any thought of Josh to the side. Once they all got through today, working things out between them would be her top priority. That morning, he called to remind her about the calendar entry for this Friday, the drop-dead date before their deposit became nonrefundable. Apparently he thought they might be calling things off in the next three days, but she couldn’t think about that now.

She made sure to sip her wine spritzer slowly—much more spritz than wine—as Kelsey talked about having to reschedule all her meetings and the shows they’d supposedly been binging since they’d become court-ordered roommates.

“How long is this supposed to go on?” Nate asked. “Kelsey said you were trying to get clarification from the court and instead the judge let slip that he was listening in on gossip from Boston.”

They had agreed that if at all possible, they’d wait until Nate was the one to bring up the investigation. They didn’t want to make it obvious that they were trying to get him to talk about the case.

“Right. Well, I’m glad you and Kelsey are here together, because the news isn’t very good. So you know I’ve been trying to get that detective in East Hampton to see that Bill may have done this on his own, without Kelsey having any idea. But he’s telling me the Boston police are convinced that Kelsey had to be involved, because even if Bill knew about David Smith, he wouldn’t have known where to find him in East Hampton unless Kelsey told him.”

“Unless he was having him tailed,” Nate said.

“Two months after they broke up? They’re not buying it. Kelsey called her dad Saturday morning on the way back from Montauk to get Josh’s car, and they’re convinced she told him about her run-in with Dave.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Kelsey said. “I called himbecause if I don’t, he calls me, and I wanted to get it out of the way.”

The only person Kelsey had talked about David Smith with was Nate. It was another piece of evidence that Lauren and May kept emphasizing.

“Well, I think they’re just trying to intimidate you,” Nate said, swallowing the rest of his wine and reaching for the bottle on the coffee table. “They can speculate all they want, but they can’t prove you were involved, because you weren’t. Hell, they can’t even prove the two cases are related.”

“Oh, turns out that there’s new information on that,” May said, her tone growing sharper. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, Kelsey.”

“Tell me what?”

“The latest update from my detective friend. They got the ballistics evidence back on David Smith.” She looked at Kelsey with the expression she used to wear when cross-examining a defendant. “He was shot with the same gun that was used to kill Luke—”

“That’s bullshit,” Nate interrupted. “I mean, don’t cops do that all the time? Make up some evidence they don’t have, hoping to get you to confess? I think that cop’s playing head games with you, May.”

She shook her head. “Nope. I thought the same thing. I told him to send me the results. Cashed in a favor with a guy who used to testify for me at the DA’s Office. It’s solid, Kelsey. And whenI was prepping you to talk to that detective, I asked you point-blank about any phone calls you made. You never told me about calling your dad Saturday morning.”

“I probably forgot.”

“Stop lying,” May said, keeping her gaze aimed directly at Kelsey. “How could you have dragged all of us into this? Are you ever going to start telling us the truth?”

“What are you talking about? Oh my god, are you accusing me again? I thought you were finally on my side.”

Lauren was walking out of the kitchen with a bowl of chips. “May, this is really screwed up. Is that why you brought us all here, to interrogate Kelsey in front of us?”

“You’re supposed to be my lawyer.” Kelsey’s voice was filled with the pain of betrayal. Nate wasn’t the only actor in the Ellis family.

Nate set his wineglass down on the table. “May, this feels straight-up unethical. What are you doing?”

“Honestly, after what she’s pulled, I don’t care. I’m not even a practicing lawyer anymore and she tricked me into representing her. Why, Kelsey? So I wouldn’t figure out the truth, or because I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone once I did?”

“Hey,” Lauren said sharply, “don’t put that on her. That was Nate and me.”

“Well, she shouldn’t have let me hitch my horseto her wagon. And what about you, Lauren? You’ve spent years feeling sorry for her, when she’s an entitled little Veruca Salt rich girl who got her daddy to kill two men all because she can’t stand being rejected. Daddy always buys you what you want. Your spot at Wildwood. Prep school. College admission. Your job. Isn’t it that simple, Kelsey? It wasn’t about the embryos or wanting to be a mom. You just hate being dumped.”

May had been worried she wouldn’t be able to pull off her monologue, but it turned out she still had enough built-up resentment to deliver the lines convincingly.

“Stop it,” Kelsey said, her shoulders beginning to shake. “I swear I didn’t do it.”

“It’s okay,” Nate said, reaching to wrap an arm around Kelsey. “It’s not even true. She’s lying to you.”

“About what?” Kelsey asked beneath what sounded like actual tears.

“The test results. Luke and Dave weren’t killed by the same gun.”

May had been fiddling with her phone the whole time and snuck a glance at the screen, waiting for the text message from Decker. They all knew more now than they did three days ago. Carter had found the Hertz reservation to prove that before Nate arrived in East Hampton by train on Monday, he had rented a white Chevy Malibuin downtown Manhattan on Saturday, returning it early Sunday morning with 272 miles added to the odometer, more than enough to get to the East End of Long Island and back.

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