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Fish frowned, considered Ellery for a moment, then shrugged. “No. I guess not. But if your question is who doIthink sent those threats to Lara Fairplay? No clue.”

“Are a lot of the other bands upset about bringing in Lara to headline?”

Fish gave a small, irritable sigh. “Yes and no. First off, it’s not like we’ve got that many working musicians on the island, let alone playing in bands doing traditional music. There are a handful of us, so ninety percent of the bands you’re going to hear this weekend are coming in from the mainland. That’s a given with any music festival.”

“Okay.”

“Secondly, the headliner is usually from out of town. It’s just that our festival is so small, we’ve gotten used to the headliner beingsemi-local. Like for the last two years, we had Pat Pendragon from Narragansett. A lot of us know and have played with Pat at other festivals.”

“So is it Lara’s history that rubs people the wrong way?”

Fish gave a short laugh. “Talk about leading the witness!”

“Sorry. I’m just trying to get a feel for the social dynamics.”

“Part of the problem is that Lara’s being paid more than any headliner we’ve ever had.”

“I can see that would cause trouble.”

“In fairness to her, she’s the biggest act we’ve ever booked. If she was still at the top of the charts, we couldn’t have come close to affording her. It’s only because her career’s in free fall that she took the gig.”

“That, and she has connections to the island, right?”

“Yeah. I guess so. But it was a long time ago, and she doesn’t strike me as the sentimental type.”

Ellery said, “Honestly, I have no idea what type she is. She’s hard to read.”

“Truth, brother.”

“How did word get out about how much Lara was being offered to play?”

Fish’s dark eyes flickered. He hesitated a fraction of a second before saying, “Not sure.”

That seemed like a weird thing to lie about. But it did seem like Fish was, at best, hedging. Until that moment, Ellery had felt that Fish was being candid and trying to be helpful. Now he wasn’t so sure.

Although maybe Fish, who was the festival’s entertainment coordinator, was where the information leak had sprung. If so, it was understandable why he’d want to gloss over that slip of the lip.

“When I talked to Lara this morning, she said that threats come with the territory. She was skeptical of anyone local really posing a danger, but she did say there might be a couple of people she knew as a kid who might still have lingering hard feelings.”

“Did she?” Fish asked absently, gazing out across the field dotted with colorful tents. Beyond the meadow was the salt marsh, and beyond the salt marsh was Loon Lake.

“People who might still dislike her enough to send a couple of anonymous emails, with no intention of literally doing her harm.”

Fish swiveled his gaze back to Ellery. “She gave you names?”

“James Sutherland and Arti Rathbone. I guess the three of them were in a band together when she spent summers here as a kid.”

“Yeah? Hm.”

Ellery didn’t think he was imagining Fish’s abruptly distant affect. “Have you lived on the island your entire life?”

“Me? No. It’ll be nineteen years next month. I grew up in Washington County.”

“Right. So you don’t know of either Sutherland or Rathbone?”

Fish seemed to come to a decision. His gaze met Ellery’s. “I’ve no idea about James Sutherland. I never heard of him. Arti Rathbone is my accordion player.”

Fish’s band, the Fish and Chippies, had acquired a new accordion player over the summer; a slim, dark-haired woman with a Madonna-like air and musical chops to rival James Fearnley. Ellery had never known the woman’s name because he didn’t know any of the band’s names, with the exception of Fish.