Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,48
tell you, will you promise not to tell Hank? I’m going to tell him myself, just not yet.”
That sounded ominous. “Are you throwing him a surprise party or something?”
“Not exactly. Actually – no, it’s nothing like that at all. But I think I know who’s been terrorizing Jade.”
Matthew straightened up in his seat. “What? Really?”
“Yes. Can I meet you somewhere?”
Matthew looked around. “Oh – of course. Do you want to meet at the station?”
“No! Hank can’t know yet. Not until I get your opinion on things.”
“Oh. Okay. Well then…”
“Do you know the dock where Hank keeps his boat?”
“I do.”
“Can you meet me there? I’m driving over right now.”
Oh boy. What was he even agreeing to? As though he had a choice.
“Alright – I’ll be there soon.”
“Excellent.”
The line disconnected. Matthew laughed to himself – he’d never heard Margie sound like that. She was still nice, of course, but very no-nonsense.
It took him about fifteen minutes to get there, and Margie was already waiting. He spotted her standing at the edge of the dock. No one else was around, and the only other sounds were the birds and boats gently rocking on the water.
“It’s very peaceful here,” Matthew said once he was closer. “So I feel like I have to ask if you’re going to murder me.”
“What?” Margie chuckled. “No Matthew, I’m not going to murder you. But I might murder Eddie Mills.”
Matthew had stopped a few feet from her and crossed his arms. “Oh?”
“Now this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out. On the night that Jade’s house caught on fire, I was on my way over to talk to her when I got into a car accident.”
“Wait a minute,” Matthew held up a hand. “Did you call the police about that?”
Margie nodded. “I did! But when I got the news of the fire, I had to run. So I never really reported it, and it didn’t matter, because the guy who’d hit me just drove away.”
“I’m so sorry Margie – I think I was about to respond to your call, but then Jade’s house – ”
Margie waved a hand. “Oh please don’t apologize, I’m much happier that you rescued Jade than dealt with my little fender bender. In fact, after I rushed to the hospital and spent the weekend getting her all settled in the new place, I kind of forgot about it. I don’t really care about cars.”
Matthew nodded. “Okay.”
“But listen to this. When I picked up my car from the mechanic, he hinted that Eddie had some damage to his car that he thought was a bit suspicious.”
Matthew sighed. “Who’s your mechanic? He really should’ve told us about – ”
“No,” Margie shook her head. “I can’t tell you, it’s a secret. He didn’t want to point fingers if he wasn’t sure, you know? So I went to go see Eddie – ”
“Uh huh. I see where this is going. I’m sure he just confessed to it all and apologized, right?”
“No – and I don’t care about any of that. I don’t care about the car. I mean – it wasn’t a nice thing for him to do, but that’s not the point. The point is, if he was the one who hit me, then it was really strange that he ran off like that. Eddie isn’t a nice guy, but I don’t think that he’d normally hit another car and then flee the scene.”
“What makes you say that? People panic.”
“Because,” she said, her speed picking up, “last year he got into a fender bender with someone else and he made a big show about making sure their car got fixed and acting like he was this great guy. And everyone knows him, so it’d be hard to get away with something like that.”
“Well – that doesn’t mean – ”
“And the more I thought about it,” Margie continued, “the more fishy it seemed. He had some pretty nasty things to say about Jade’s plan when she first went to the county council with her idea.”
Matthew shrugged. “While that may be true, it seemed like he was in support of her at her fundraiser.”
“He was lying, I know he was. He showed up and was being so nice – something wasn’t right. And right after Eddie dropped off his broken car with the mechanic, he fled the island and left a bunch of work undone. I think that when he hit me – I really think it was him – he was coming from Jade’s house! It all