“Our phones don’t work here. There’s no service down in this valley.”
“Fair enough. But you must have mentioned hisabsence to someone of authority, no? Your parents? Or perhaps resort security?”
Grace curled her bottom lip inward and shook her head. “No. Not to anyone at the resort. I told my friend Ellie Reiser. Ellie came to my cottage and stayed all night.”
“Your boyfriend is missing, and this is of no concern to you?”
“No. I mean, it was. I was concerned, but not that he wasmissing.Not that anything bad had happened to him.”
“If you weren’t worried that he was missing, what exactly was the source of your concern?”
“We had gotten into an argument that day. When I couldn’t make it to the bluff on time, I figured Julian assumed I blew him off. I waited on the beach until it was dark, then I checked his room. When I couldn’t find him, I figured he was angry and avoiding me.”
“You and Mr. Crist had gotten into an argument? About what? Why was he angry with you?”
Grace took a deep breath. She held open her palms. “He was my boyfriend. Occasionally we got into fights.”
“But this particular argument, which occurred on the day that he was killed. What, exactly, were you fighting about, Ms. Sebold?”
Grace took a deep breath. “Do we really have to get into all this?”
“I’m afraid we do.”
Grace looked to the ceiling and wiped her tears again. “Julian was mad about . . . another guy. He was jealous, I guess.”
“Jealous about what?”
“I don’t know. Julian thought Daniel and I were . . . He thought we had feelings for each other.”
“Daniel?”
Grace shook her head, moved her gaze to the side, and stared helplessly at the notepad, where the scribbler was slashing away.
“Daniel Greaves,” she said. “Daniel and I dated a long time ago, just briefly in college. Julian found out about it that afternoon and thought something was going on between us.”
“Between you and Daniel Greaves?” Inspector Pierre asked.
“Yes. There wasn’t, by the way. It was just a stupid misunderstanding.” Grace shook her head, tears starting to well again on her lower lids.
“Who, exactly, is Daniel Greaves, and why was he at Sugar Beach Resort?”
Grace looked once again at the recorder, which sat on the table, and at the messy shorthand, which Inspector Pierre’s assistant was jotting onto the legal pad. Grace eventually closed her eyes.
“He was the groom. Charlotte’s boy—” Grace stopped herself. “I guess, at that point, he was Charlotte’s husband.”
CHAPTER 5
SIDNEY LOOKED AT INSPECTOR PIERRE.
“So this argument,” she said, “between Grace and Julian. I understand that many resort guests witnessed it, since it occurred near the pool. And it happened in the afternoon of the day Julian was killed. But is an argument between two young lovers so uncommon that it made you immediately suspect Grace? I don’t know any young couples who don’t have a spat every so often.”
“The argument alone was not what raised my suspicion, it was thecauseof the argument,” Pierre said.
“Grace admitted that it had to do with her past relationship with Daniel Greaves.”
“That’s what she suggested,” Pierre said. “It was a convenient way to explain the fight, and clearly implied that Julian was angry withher. Thathewas the jealous one.”
“But you didn’t believe this?”
