Page 48 of The Beach Hut on Plum Island
“You knew my late ex-wife?” Finn looked at her in surprise. “Only a few people knew her as Trudy Taylor. Her mother was a single parent until she married Trudy’s stepfather, who adopted her and gave her his last name, Wyse.” It suddenly dawned on him. “I met Trudy at the Joyce Island Open Classic that the locals hosted in order to raise funds for victims of a terrible hurricane that nearly destroyed one part of Joyce Island.”
“That’s where you met your late ex-wife?” Harriet’s eyes widened. “I never knew that.”
“Trudy was one of the judges,” Finn told her.
“I only met Trudy once or twice,” Harriet told Finn. “When I first met her, she was visiting Estelle for the summer, and Leon Senior brought them to Joyce Isles.”
“Was she still Trudy Taylor then?” Finn asked.
“Trudy’s mother had just remarried, if I remember correctly,” Harriet told him. “I think her mother may even have been on honeymoon or something.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t paying much attention. I had all my friends with me, and we did our things.”
“She once told me she knew the Joyce royal family,” Finn said. “I just thought it was because she skied competitively on Joyce Isles a lot.”
“What a crazy world we live in.” Harriet gave a soft laugh. “It’s like our lives have always somehow been connected while we passed each other without even knowing.”
They fell into a companionable silence as they sipped their beverages. Harriet’s phone was lying on the counter beside her, and Finn knew it was time to let her into his crazy world. As it was now being melded with hers, and if they were going to get dragged into some crazy mystery drama, there was no room for secrets.
“Harriet, about that photo,” Finn began. “I know it looks incriminating, but trust me, it really isn’t what it looks like.” He frowned. “Well, it is a bit, I guess.”
“It’s okay, Finn,” Harriet told him. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I just needed you to know what Estelle was up to and for you to be careful.”
”Iwantto tell you,“ Finn assured her. “Harriet, if we’re going to make our engagement work and seem real enough to fool your uncle, you need to know about my past as well.”
“Only if you want to tell me,” Harriet said.
“That photo must’ve been taken seven years ago,” Finn began, his voice steady despite the turmoil brewing inside him as it always did when he spoke about that day. “It was the day Trudy and her new husband died in a crash.”
“That photo is fromthatday?“ Harriet’s eyes widened in disbelief. “That accident made the news all over America.”
Finn nodded. “Trudy and her new husband, who was her coach, by the way, were coming back from a belated honeymoon in Cancun.” He ran a hand through his hair, trying to keep the flashbacks at bay. “They had invited other guests along with them on honeymoon—guests like Estelle.”
“Was she in the car with them?” Harriet’s eyes narrowed.
“No.” Finn shook his head. “As far as I remember, Estelle only arrived on the scene when the emergency vehicles got there.”He frowned. “I barely remember talking to her. I was in shock as Trudy had just died in my arms.” He closed his eyes. “She seemed fine when I pulled her from the car. Her safety belt was stuck because the passenger door had been hit.” He cleared his throat. “Her husband was already dead, but I had to get him out of the car first, as the driver’s door was the only door I could pull open.”
“I’m sorry, Finn.” Harriet’s voice was soft and full of compassion. “You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to.”
“I’m fine,” Finn lied, but it did feel good to talk about it to her. “I got her out of the car, and she was babbling about something under her seat that I had to get rid of.”
“The bag of pills!” Harriet guessed, and Finn nodded in confirmation.
“The car was burning, and I managed to reach in.” Finn held out his hand to show the burn marks on them. “It was already so hot that I burned my hands but pulled the bag, which was actually beneath her husband’s seat, up to the back window that I’d smashed.”
“And the car was alight with flames?” Harriet gasped.
“I managed to nearly get the bag out of the window when one of the other cars that was involved in the accident exploded,” Finn told her. “You can’t see it in that photo because of the angle. But I wasn’t throwing the bag into the car. I was trying to get it out of the car, but I dropped it.”
Harriet clicked her phone and looked at the picture, examining it a little closer, “The picture was taken at the precise moment you dropped the bag, making it look like you dumped it into the car.”
Finn nodded in agreement as he continued the story. “I couldn’t reach back into the car to try to get it again because the flames got higher, and a firefighter managed to pull me away just in time before it just exploded.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t get worse burns than those on your hands.” Harriet’s eyes were filled with concern.
“I got a few burns on parts of my back from the blast,” Finn told her. “But I didn’t even realize it as I rushed back to Trudy’s side to tell her the bag was engulfed in flames.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and drew in a breath. “Her last words were, that’s good, Finn, that’s good.”
“So it was true about Trudy being the one selling sports-enhancing drugs to athletes and taking them herself?” Harriet asked.
“Yes.” Finn nodded. “Trudy and I had been separated for two months. After Maggie was born, Trudy became a different person. When we’d had Tucker, she’d vowed she’d never have another kid, then Maggie came along six years later. You know she barely held Maggie more than three times.”
