Dead In The Hamptons Read Online Free PDF

said. “She could have died there.”
    “She wouldn’t have drowned in the house,” Stephanie said.
    “Did she drown?” Oscar asked. “Did you hear anything from the police?”
    “They’re treating it as a suspicious death so far,” Cindy said. “That means the detectives can act as if it’s a homicide until evidence tells them any different.”
    “Maybe I can find out more,” Oscar said.
    “Oscar knows everyone in this town,” Corky said with pride.
    “They searched through all our stuff,” Stephanie said. “Every room.”
    “They didn’t put everything back, either,” Barbara said. “They left things heaped on the bed and hanging out of drawers.”
    “They’re allowed to look for evidence,” Cindy said. She wore an NYPD sweatshirt today. She chose that moment to take it off. I couldn’t help looking, but I tried to think post-feminist thoughts.
    “I hate it.” Jeannette pulled off her splashy red and purple muumuu, revealing a matching bathing suit and a quantity of opulent flesh. “Why do they have to keep coming back?”
    “One of the cops told me it’s against the law to die in the State of New York,” Karen said.
    “What does that mean?” I asked.
    “It means there has to be a reason,” Karen said, “and they won’t stop looking until they find one.” She rose to her knees to fish a tube of sun block out of a big straw carryall, then stood up to smooth it onto her long limbs. Her shadow fell on the patch of sun I’d been basking in.
    “The reason was that she drowned,” Stewie said. “Nobody would have killed Clea.”
    The remark dropped into a well of silence. Or it might have been my imagination. Lewis climbed to his feet, increasing the shade. He dusted sand off his hands and took the tube of sun block from Karen. She turned her back. He slathered it on, making circles on her back and pushing the straps of her suit out of the way without ceremony. They didn’t seem mad at each other today. A guy named Shep from Oscar’s house started doing pushups on a towel. Jimmy raised the hand that wasn’t scurrying around the touch keyboard to slap at no-see-ums on his neck.
    “People had strong feelings about Clea,” Oscar said finally. “Did anybody see her on the beach?”
    “We did,” Barbara said, “Jimmy and Bruce and I, and I wish we hadn’t.”
    “Sorry,” Corky said. Apologizing for Oscar’s insensitivity? I bet she went to Al-Anon. She’d now used both the passwords. Guilty and sorry, guilty and sorry all day long.
    “I meant before you found her dead,” Oscar said.
    “The last place she was seen,” Jimmy said, “must have been the deli. She got bagels for the house and dropped them off. None of us at the house saw her then, as far as I know.”
    “Nobody was up when I found the bag on the kitchen counter,” Barbara said.
    “The police didn’t know she’d gone to the deli until you told them,” Cindy said.
    “Someone might have seen her on the beach,” Barbara said.
    “They’re knocking on doors near where they found her,” Shep said. “Including ours. I talked to them yesterday afternoon.”
    “What?” Oscar sat up so abruptly that his chaise longue almost snapped shut on him.
    “You were in the shower. Everybody else was out.”
    “What did you tell them?”
    “Nothing. I hadn’t seen her. They showed me a picture, but I didn’t know her.”
    “I did,” Corky said, “and so did Oscar and the others who were in the house last year.”
    “We didn’t say anything about you guys,” Karen said.
    “They dropped a stitch, not thinking of past summers and asking where she’d stayed,” Lewis said.
    Oscar closed his eyes. His lips moved. Silent prayer. Or silent cursing.
    “They will. I guess I’d better expect them back.”
    “What about the day before?” Cindy asked. “I saw Clea when I arrived, mid-afternoon, and she said she’d taken an early train out. Did anybody spend much time with her?”
    “We didn’t,” Barbara said.