“Oh, comeon,” says David. “There’s no way you could tell that.”
She shrugs. “Larger spots in the forewing.”
“I thought you were amarinebiologist.”
“Aspiring. But I have a thing about butterflies too. I have a thing about all of nature. The natural world makes a lot more sense than all the rest of it.”
“You can say that again.”
There are so many loops and trails to choose from up here. She wants someone else to make the decision. She wants both her and David to be kids again, swimming out into the center of the lake, secure in the belief that inside the house the adults have everything under control.
Host:You know the drill. This isLife and Death on an Island, episode two, “The Town Council.” Remember the code lifeanddeath gets you ten percent off at any of our sponsors. Kelsey, you mentioned that something happened at a party at Taylor Buchanan’s house that you thought was relevant.
Kelsey:Yeah. Why Shelly Salazar and Taylor had a very public heart-to-heart at Taylor Buchanan’s party, nobody was sure. People were drinking a lot. Did that have something to do with what happened later? It’s impossible to say. Summer and alcohol make strange bedfellows, as the saying goes.
Betsy:That’s not how the saying goes.
Lou:We were all invited. Town council, planning board, the whole kit and kaboodle. Clearly she was trying to do something. Win us over. But I didn’t go. I can’t be bought.
Betsy:Even Zoning was invited.
Evan:And nobodyeverinvites Zoning to anything. Don’t tell them I said that.
Lou:I actually can be bought. But my granddaughters were in from Newport. I chose them. I’ll always pick my granddaughters, if it’s a choice between them and someone else.
Betsy:I didn’t go out of principle. There’s something I don’t trust about those Buchanans. I still come upon Henry at the oddest moments when he looks like he’s been crying. Blames it on allergies, but I’ve known him since he was a baby and he’s not allergic to anything. Something or someone did a real number on my Henry.
Kelsey:I go to every party I’m invited to. I’m twenty-seven years old and I live on an island that basically shuts down in the winter. I’m not going to miss a party.
Evan:There was a signature cocktail. I’ve never been anywhere where there’s a signature cocktail. My wife had three of them. We had a sitter for only the second time all summer.
Kelsey:In case you’re wondering it was Prosecco with a locally made mint blueberry syrup.
Evan:Went down like Gatorade after the Shad Bloom trail run. Which is to say, fast and easy.
Kelsey:I saw them talking. But I wasn’t close enough to hear everything. So this is like thirdhand. But my sources are pretty reliable.
The Town
Some people were on the patio outside, where the bar was set up. Others were in the living room. (People marveled at thewhite furniture: Didn’t Taylor and David have asmall child?) The kitchen, of course, was a popular spot, as it is at every party, and what a kitchen this was! Top-of-the-line everything, as you’d expect. Somebody pulled out a drawer to find that it was a warming drawer; another, an extra-cold drawer to supplement the refrigerator. Another, a stand-alone ice machine like you’d find behind a bar. At an actual bar.
Someone saw Shelly and Taylor deep in conversation on that long, white couch. Dangerous, when you consider the potential spilling of the blueberry cocktail, but there you have it. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? A deep conversation with a relative stranger at a party. Sometimes in these conversations we find ourselves going deeper than we do with our closest friends. We put everything on the table. Not onthattable, though, because it was also white, and made of a nubbly texture. There was nowhere to rest a glass. Who buys a nubbly table? Only people, we supposed, who had so many other kinds of tables to choose from that it didn’t matter if one was purely for decorative purposes.
Shelly Salazar was, to put it delicately, wasted. She had eaten only one meal that day (the Shoreline Toast from The Cracked Mug,highly recommended, and try it with an oat milk cappuccino) but that was hours and hours ago. Then she’d ridden her bike out to Cooneymus, just for the heck of it. The day had been hot; the ride was hilly; she’d forgotten to bring a water bottle. Quick shower before the party, and here she was, lightheaded, underfed, really quite drunk from one drink.
Not long after they started talking, Taylor swung the conversation around to Juliana. Taylor had learned about Shelly’s connection to Juliana at the dinner at her house, and now she wanted to mine that connection for gold. “Tell me again when you guys graduated from college?” Taylor asked.
“Twenty fourteen,” said Shelly. She pumped her fist in the air. “Go Eagles!”
Taylor put on her interested face, the one she used in client meetings. She said, “What was Juliana like in college?” She paused and gathered herself. “I’m always so interested in women entrepreneurs, you know, being a woman in business myself. And she’s so successful!”
“Sure,” said Shelly. “I get that.” For a moment, she seemed to disengage from the conversation, looking off into the middle distance.
Taylor said, “So...?” and eventually Shelly came back to Planet Earth.
“To be honest, I really only knew her freshman year. I was good friends with her roommate, Mary Ann. She was around, but she wasn’t likearoundaround, you know? She was pretty shy. She didn’t really fit in.”
Taylor made herself look concerned and said, “Oh, no. Why’s that?”
