Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark Page B

are openly suspicious.”
    Tina. Should he explain to Adam that before he met Viv, he’d been involved with her? That the relationship had started last year when he was working at the playhouse? Would Adam understand that he’d had nothing to do with her after he met Viv?
    He could explain that Tina hadn’t realized he’dcome back to the Cape. Then of all the damn luck she quit her job in Sandwich and started working at the Wayside Inn. After she saw him and Viv having dinner there she started calling him. The one time he’d agreed to meet her in person, Henry Sprague, of all people, had to be sitting beside him in the pub! Sprague was nobody’s fool. Should he explain to Adam that Tina only stopped by the house one time after Viv was missing, to offer sympathy?
    At four o’clock the phone rang. Grimly, Scott went to answer it. It had better not be that detective, he thought.
    It was Elaine Atkins, inviting him to a barbecue at her fiancé’s place. “Some of John’s friends will be here,” she said. “Important people, the kind you should be seen with. I saw Adam last night, by the way. He told me he’s going to represent you.”
    â€œI can’t thank you enough for that, Elaine. And of course I’ll be happy to join you.”
    As he drove down the street an hour later, he noticed Nat Coogan’s eight-year-old Chevy parked in front of the Sprague house.

27
    N at Coogan had dropped in on the Spragues without phoning in advance. It was not something he did without calculation, however. He knew there wassomething Henry Sprague had not told him about Scott Covey, and he hoped that the element of surprise might encourage Sprague to answer the question he planned to ask him.
    Sprague’s cool greeting gave Nat the message he expected. A phone call ahead of time would have been appreciated. They were expecting guests.
    â€œIt will just take a minute.”
    â€œIn that case, please come in.”
    Henry Sprague hastily led the way through the house to the deck. Once there, Nat realized the reason he was hurrying. Sprague had left his wife alone outside, and in the minute he was gone she had started to walk across the lawn to the Carpenter/Covey house.
    Sprague quickly caught up with her and guided her back to the deck. “Sit down, dear. Adam and his wife are going to visit us.” He did not invite Nat to be seated.
    Nat decided to lay all his cards on the table. “Mr. Sprague, I believe that Scott Covey deliberately abandoned his wife when they were scuba diving, and I’m going to do everything in my power to prove it. The other day I had the very strong sense that there was something you were debating about telling me. I know you’re the kind of man who minds his own business, but this is your business. Picture how terrified Vivian was when she knew she was going to drown. Imagine how you’d feel if someone deliberately led your wife into danger and then abandoned her.”
    For some time, Henry Sprague had been valiantly trying to give up smoking. Now he found himself reaching into the breast pocket of his sports shirt for the pipe he had left in his desk drawer. He promised himself that he would get it when he let this detective out. “Yes, you’re right, there was one thing. Three weeks before Vivian’s death I happened to be in the Cheshire Pub at the same time Scott Covey wasthere,” he said reluctantly. “A young woman named Tina came in. I’m sure they were planning to meet. He made a pretense of being surprised to see her, and she took the cue and ran off. She was not someone I knew. But then I saw her again this morning. She’s a waitress at the Wayside Inn.”
    â€œThank you,” Nat said quietly.
    â€œThere’s one thing more. My wife knew her by name. I don’t know when they could have met except . . .”
    He looked over at Vivian Carpenter Covey’s home.