Page 2 of Renewal After Dark

After he’d aged out of the foster system, he’d come back to Gansett, willing to do whatever it took to make a home for himself there. In the ensuing eighteen years, he’d been a dockhand on the ferries and a bartender at the Rusty Scupper, among many other odd jobs. He was eventually hired at the tattoo studio in town, due to his ability to draw anything and everything.

They’d trained him in the trade, and when the owner retired, he’d turned over the shop to Duke, which was how he’d become a business owner at twenty-nine. Seven years later, the shop had grown beyond his wildest dreams and was providing him with a very decent living in-season. The off-season was much quieter, but he’d come to welcome the slower pace and had learned to save up for the slowdown.

On the island, he’d found the peace and quiet that’d eluded him for the first half of his life. Here, he’d found the home of his heart, a family of friends who loved and supported him like no one else ever had, especially Rosemary Enders, who’d shown him more about how to live than anyone else ever had.

His phone rang with a call from one of his close friends, Mick Jacobs from the gym.

“Hey, what’s shakin’?”

“Have you talked to Sturgil since the storm?”

“No, but that’s not unusual. I only say hi to him at the gym, and even that’s a stretch after the way he treated his ex-wife. Why?”

“No one’s heard from him since the storm, and his folks are pushing the panic button. They thought he was on the mainland, but no one has seen him over there either.”

“Is there any chance he was with Billy on the boat?”

“I suppose it’s not impossible. The two of them were friends back in high school. Billy was one of the few people who didn’t turn his back when Sturgil made a mess of things.”

“I was afraid you might say that. Don’t think much of the guy, but I don’t wish him dead.”

He glanced at the clock on the wall in the kitchen and saw it was inching closer to five. “I gotta run. Let me know if you hear anything.”

“You do the same.”

Damn, Duke thought. Sturgil might be missing. He wondered if his ex-wife, Tiffany Taylor, knew that and whether he ought to ask her about it when he picked up McKenzie.

Nah, he decided. Wasn’t his place to tell her, and besides, it wouldn’t take long for word to get out on Gansett that Sturgil might be missing.

“I didn’t thinkanything of it, you know?” Tiffany sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea McKenzie had made for her. “He missed his visit with Ashleigh last night, but that’s happened before. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even tell her he’s coming because I don’t want her to be disappointed when he doesn’t show.”

McKenzie wished she knew what to say to Tiffany, who was trying to hold it together since the phone call she’d received from her former mother-in-law, asking if she’d heard from her ex-husband, Jim, since the storm. McKenzie had pieced together enough to realize the breakup had been ugly, and Tiffany didn’t know how she should feel about him possibly being missing.

“I mean, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably off somewhere, oblivious that anyone might be looking for him. Maybe he’s somewhere with no power.”

“I’m sure that’s all it is.”

“It’s such a weird feeling. I’ve secretly wished he’d go away and never come back so many times in the last few years, but hearing he might be missing was so…”

“It’s very upsetting.”

“It is, and I wouldn’t have thought I’d care, to be honest. He put me through hell.”

“I assume you spent a lot of years with him.”

Tiffany nodded. “From high school through to a couple of years ago.”

“At times like this, we tend to focus on the good times and not the bad.”

“That’s true. And here I thought my biggest issue this week was going to be figuring out what to do about my poor squished Bug.” A tree had fallen on her red Volkswagen Beetle during the storm.

“I’m so sorry about that. It was such a cute car.”

“Blaine says we’ll get another one, but that seems so trivial now that I’ve heard Jim is missing.”

She’d no sooner mentioned her husband than Blaine came bursting through the kitchen door, taking them by surprise. “I came as soon as I heard.”

Tiffany perked up considerably at the sight of her ridiculously handsome husband. She wiped a tear from her cheek. “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

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