32. Bluetooth

Riggs

Riggs sat slouched on the pads sitting in the furniture he built out of logs for his outside seating area, his feet up on the low table he'd also made, staring through the trees toward the lake and making a decision, because Nadia was right.

He didn't have enough outdoor area, and none of it gave the best perspective to enjoy the view.

So that summer, in between commissions, he was going to build a deck.

He planned to set it a few steps down, so it wouldn't mess up the view from the windows, doing this from a hole he was going to carve into the outside wall of dead space at the landing, which afforded the kitchen a view and separated the living room from the dining room. He was then going to install French doors that led out to a huge-ass deck with a walkway down to the pier.

Next year, he was going to build a balcony off his bedroom, and maybe another smaller deck off the guest room.

When that was done, his pad would be perfect.

It was Friday, early evening.

Maribeth had flown in on Wednesday, and Nadia had driven to Seattle to pick her up.

Riggs and Ledger didn't meet Nadia's friend until Thursday night, due to girl time and spa appointments.

He and his son had walked over for dinner, and Riggs had learned that Maribeth was just like Nadia, except petite, slim, Black, and unlike Nadia, who was making a pass at dressing like a nature girl instead of an heiress (and she sometimes failed), Maribeth obviously had money, and although she wasn't in your face about it, she didn't hide it.

She was also outgoing, smart as fuck, funny as hell, cool with him in a way he sensed also held some gratitude, and great with Ledger.

Though she was more of the outgoing part than Nadia, and Riggs reckoned it was only because Nadia had sustained the recent blows she'd been dealt. He'd caught glimpses of the brightness inside that had dimmed because of that shit.

Once she settled into a life without her mom in the world, she'd come back to herself.

He'd see to that.

They'd had a nice dinner, Riggs had expended the effort of tearing Ledge away from Gia, and they'd gone home.

That day, Murphy had shown, and Nadia and Maribeth left the men to it to have guy time. The women were coming over soon for drinks and dinner.

Riggs thought about Gia, and how she was with Harry, and how that gave him peace of mind.

Also how he knew Nadia thought she was going to get an invoice from Hutch, but she wasn't, since Riggs had already paid for the dog and the training.

When she figured it out, it was going to be fun.

On this thought, he smiled before he lifted his bottle of beer to his mouth and took a sip.

He heard ice rustle and looked to the side to see Murphy pulling a fresh one out of the cooler that sat between them, but his eyes were on Riggs.

"I gotta talk Emma into moving back," Murph declared. "The shit you piled on me when I met her and got lost in her, I can't return if I'm in Cali. This woman I'm about to meet owns your dick, brother, and I gotta get mine back."

"I was being an asshole back then, so have at it. I deserve it," Riggs invited.

"Took everything I had to stop Em from coming with me so she could lay eyes on this Wonder Woman who tamed the Untamable Doc Riggs," Murphy ribbed.

"She's welcome any time," Riggs returned before another pull on his beer.

"Yeah, I feel that, Riggs," Murphy replied. "I remember not giving a fuck you razzed me unrelentingly. I knew I was going back to Emma, so what did I care?"

"I now see why it was so fucking frustrating I couldn't get under your skin," Riggs remarked.

"That's why I'm gonna let you off the hook," Murph announced. "Because, if I approve of this woman once I meet her, I can just be happy, after you had to put up with that bitch who fucked you over so goddamned bad, that you finally have a good one in your life and get it."

Suffice it to say, he and Murph caught up.

Murphy not only knew all about Nadia, he also knew about Angelica, Bubbles, the Haunting of Weaver Cabin, the Mystery of the Missing Fancy Grape Juice, and all that was going down, or they were theorizing, about the Whitaker Family.

Riggs offered the neck of his beer to his friend, and Murphy clinked as Ledger raced to them from doing whatever kids did when they were outside and not hanging with the adults.

It'd be good when Viggo got a few more years in. Ledger would always be a lot older than his brother, but at least he'd have someone who could string a sentence together to hang out with when Viggo was at Riggs's.

Ledge stopped close to Murphy's chair and leaned into it, so Murphy casually wrapped an arm around his son.

Riggs liked to see it. They were close. And he'd had to feel it when his bud moved away, but also feel it that Ledger wasn't a fan of that happening either.

"Nadia and Maribeth are coming up the trail. And Gia!" Ledger announced elatedly.

"A gentleman escorts the ladies to the party," Murphy noted.

Ledger didn't need more coaxing. He broke free of Murphy's light hold and took off toward the trail.

Eyes to the trail, Murphy asked, "Is that about the dog or the woman?"

"Right now, the dog. But he and Nadia are getting tight. He's just known her longer."

"Hmm," Murphy hummed.

Both men took their feet when the party came into view, Nadia holding Gia's lead, Gia sticking close to her side, but the dog's attention went right to Murphy.

"Fucking hell, she's a bruiser," Murphy muttered.

She could be, she'd made that clear.

But if Nadia claimed you, she was a musclebound love bomb.

Hutch hadn't gone the way of clipping Gia's ears or docking her tail because, even if both could be vulnerabilities to her if she was in a situation, Hutch didn't do what he did only to make a living. He was an animal lover and found those practices barbaric. On top of that, he had explained to Riggs that dogs communicate with their ears and tail, both to humans and other dogs. Since he trained his animals to work in sync with each other, and communication with their owners was key, it fucked with their ability to do their jobs.

When they got close, Nadia, who had discovered the tone that worked and kept using it (so Hutch said he'd be back a couple more times to check that things were cool, but Nadia had continued with her training, even though Maribeth was there, and had texted Riggs that day to tell him they'd essentially "graduated"), thus Nadia went through the "friend" command again.

Introductions were made, with Riggs getting the addition of Nadia getting in his space, putting her hand on his abs and rolling up to give him a soft kiss.

Riggs nabbed the opened but corked bottle of rosé from the cooler and the two glasses he'd brought out, and he poured the women a glass of wine while Nadia let Gia off the leash, commanded, "Go," this to Ledger calling her and slapping his hand on his leg.

Gia loped to his son, and they took off. The women settled into the two chairs angled opposite the men at the table, and Riggs decided to carve out time to make a matching loveseat for the set that summer.

"Is Murphy up to date?" Nadia asked him.

"Yup," Riggs answered.

She launched right in. "So, Maribeth thinks the assistant did it."

Maribeth leaned forward, her pretty face animated, and Riggs saw that, yeah, these two were peas in a pod.

"Two words. Woman scorned," she declared.

And yeah.

They could both be cute.

"Sorry, Maribeth. Doesn't explain why Lincoln would go to the lengths he did to cover for her," Riggs noted.

"Well, obviously because she'd been around awhile," Maribeth returned. "She probably knew all about the whole brother-husbands thing, and when that Roosevelt guy didn't initiate her as a sister-wife, she got ticked. It was her who showed and found them in the hayloft, and she'd had enough of yearning from not very afar, so she took care of business. Lincoln happened onto this, and she told him if she went down, she'd share their secret. So, to protect his brother, his wife, and maybe their franchise, because, yes, most people would think the arrangement sordid, but people get off on sordid, so that's going to sell books, as is people thinking he murdered his wife and brother. But in the end, either way you cut it, their legacy is screwed. So he decided to take the fall."

On that, stating her case, Maribeth sat back and took a sip of wine.

"Then why'd she kill Lincoln in Seattle?" Riggs asked.

"Because Lincoln had enough time to consider he'd paid dearly for something he didn't do," Maribeth answered. "I've no idea, but the idea of prison, as bad as that idea might be, is a lot better than actually being in prison. By then, he didn't care if she spilled, and maybe he wanted to clear his name, say, his kids thought he did it too, and he didn't want them to think that. So he had chats with them all and then calls this woman and tells her to brace," Maribeth answered.

"It makes sense, Riggs," Nadia chimed in. "Because those kids were all very young. Kids can do crazy things too, but that's super crazy. And none of those kids came back here after, right? The estate tried to rent these properties, so they couldn't have. But she's lived in Misted Pines the whole time. She'd have access to do the ‘hauntings.'"

"Okay, say that happened, then why didn't the kids say anything about Lincoln being innocent after he died?" Murphy asked.

"Because she killed all their parents," Maribeth told him. "I might keep my mouth shut if I thought I, or one of my siblings, was next."

"If that's the case, what's she looking for out here?" Riggs asked.

"They didn't have bodies to check to see how long they were dead, seeing as Lincoln, or maybe the assistant, burned them," Maribeth said. "He took the time to hose down the area, maybe he had the time to hide some evidence that proved he didn't do it."

"He had the shotgun with him," Riggs pointed out.

"But they didn't test for GSR," Maribeth retorted. "Can't do it now, but they didn't do it then either, so they also can't prove Lincoln had it on him."

GSR.

Gunshot residue.

He knew what these women had been up to that day, or maybe since Maribeth arrived.

"She could have written Roosevelt letters," Nadia said. "Or made some threats to Sarah in a way they could keep them. If Lincoln shared with the police that he and his brother were both, in a way, married to Sarah, and he was okay with that, his motive melts away. But if he can prove this woman had a thing for his brother, or she made threats, hers takes shape."

"This theory holds merit," Murphy remarked.

It did.

There were holes in it, but Harry had said he had a gut feeling about her.

He'd let Harry know and see what he thought.

Riggs took a sip of his beer.

"Are we gonna eat?" Ledger shouted from down the slope. "Or are you gonna starve your son?"

"We're ordering Luigi's because Murph needs his fix!" Riggs shouted back. "What do you want?"

"Duh! Pepperoni and sausage calzone!" Ledge yelled. "And don't forget the bomboloni. I want one filled with pastry cream!"

Riggs leaned forward to dig out his phone, suggesting, "Pull up the menu on your cells, ladies, so I can get our order in before my kid expires."

"I don't have to look. I know what I want. Six of those bomboloni with pastry cream," Maribeth declared.

Nadia looked at her.

"What?" Maribeth asked Nadia. "This is the first long weekend I've had away since I endured eighteen hours of labor to bring Caleb into the world." She looked to Murphy. "That's my first. He's five. I have two. Layla's three." She went back to Nadia. "And Carter survived one single day doing what I mostly do at the same time I have a full-time job just like he does, before he called his mother to move in for the time I'm away. I'm not only letting loose because I'm on vacation, I'm celebrating, because Carter finally gets it. Yes, his getting it will last precisely two weeks, then he'll call me to pick Caleb up from kindergarten because he's vomiting all over the crayons because he's got the flu. But that two weeks he chips in will be bliss. I can return to the drudgery of avoiding carbs when I get back home."

Nadia listened to this then looked right to Riggs. "Please order her a calzone too, baby. Pepperoni and black olives. And some salad, because town is far away, and I don't have laxatives at my cabin."

He was laughing when he said, "Got it."

"Don't have to say, the works for me, brother," Murphy put his order in.

Riggs got Nadia's order, made the call, got a delivery time (another reason to order from Luigi's, it wasn't only awesome, they were one of the few places who delivered all the way out here), then put his phone in his pocket, his beer to his lips, and he killed it.

He opened another and settled his eyes on Nadia, who was curled into her chair, turned to Maribeth, and smiling at something she said.

His chest expanded.

Feeling his friend's eyes on him, he turned his head.

Murph had a look on his face Riggs had never seen, but seeing it then, his chest expanded even more.

Then Murph tipped the bottom of his beer Riggs's way, and looked to the women, saying to Maribeth, "Trade you pics of our kids."

They both pulled their phones out.

"We could use music, baby," Nadia said softly to Riggs.

To which, Riggs shouted "Son! Go get the Bluetooth!"

"On it, Dad!" Ledger shouted in return.

Riggs settled back.

And life was good.