Page 28 of The Pretender

“Tabitha’s laptop? Suddenly that seems even more important.” Harris hadn’t asked for every detail about what was happening in the investigation. He knew Wren followed it closely and that was good enough. But now the pieces mattered. Harris needed to fit them together to form the bigger picture.

“Did you see it that night?” Damon asked.

“I knew about it because I had tapped into it, but I wasn’t looking for it when I was here. Honestly, all I remember is the body.”

“Well, it’s a good thing Wren handled the laptop while you were strolling around on that other island.”

Harris could only imagine. “I didn’t stroll. To be completely accurate, I swam and nearly drowned.”

“It sounds like whatever the two of you did, separately or together, was a waste of time because the killer already had the laptop. Not that it did him or her any good.” Damon finally stopped playing with the glasses and shoved them into his shirt pocket. “The laptop being missing is one of those things the police didn’t disclose publicly, by the way. I saw it in the confidential report Wren... what’s the word you like to use? Liberated.”

“Shit.”

Damon let out a harsh laugh. “I have a feeling we’re going to be saying that a lot while we’re investigating.”

“So, your plan is to watch her to see if her uncle is right.” Which would be interesting because Harris definitely planned to keep watching her. He really hoped to be touching her soon. Kissing her.

“There isn’t a camera inside the guesthouse, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Jesus. Harris hadn’t even thought of that. “Okay.”

“Or is there?” Damon smiled. “Fine. There’s not, but the holy-shit look on your face was pretty fucking great. It’s rare to see you panicked.”

“Let’s get back to the actual case. Tabitha’s true crime fixation thing?” Harris wasn’t sure where that fact fit in.

“Yeah, I need to find documents or some background so we can figure out what private chat groups she was in. The main forum Gabby talked about should be easy enough to find. I’m not sure about the rest, but we need to know what she was doing and checking out the people she talked with. She may have found the wrong case or upset someone.” Damon sat down on one of the lower steps. “Let’s hope the person who took the laptop didn’t think to take her actual files.”

“I do remember a lot of paper on the floor that night.” Harris stared down the long hallway again. “But there must be a million books back there.”

“You look a little green.”

A tightness banded Harris’s chest. Regret, guilt. He had been battling both since he stepped on the island. Shifting artwork around, passing it from one person to its rightful owner, never bothered him. He slept just fine. Watching the life drain out of Tabitha had changed everything.

He dealt inthings. Moving them around, evening the score, settling old debts. Insurance companies paid out or someone learned a hard lesson in karma. No one paid with their life. “I’m going to get some air.”

“Harris, so we’re clear. You know I’m going to follow this case wherever it goes.” Damon sat with his elbows resting on his knees and an arm dangling between his legs. “I’ll protect you because that is always going to happen. Always. But my loyalty doesn’t transfer to her.”

The words meant something. When Damon pledged his support, he meant it. Harris didn’t take it for granted, but he hoped Damon would spare a bit of that loyalty for Gabby. “She’s innocent.”

Damon shook his head. “No one is.”

Chapter 8

Gabby didn’t go back to the guesthouse or the garden at dinnertime. She wandered over to Kramer’s house to say hello. The fact that Kramer and his son, Ted, were putting hamburgers on the grill early tonight was just a bonus.

They asked her to stay and she didn’t play coy. She’d been around them, eating with them, for as long as she could remember. Kramer’s dedication to first her parents then Tabitha never wavered. He’d worked at the family’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, where she grew up. When they died and the house was sold, Tabitha asked him to come to the island with her.

The lives of the Kramers and Wrights were entwined. Her parents paid for Ted to go to the same private high school she did. Back when she had friends, Ted had been one of them. He was a bit younger, but not as young as Tabitha, and spent time with their family.

Kramer was one of the people her parents took care of in their will. There was a trust that paid him and guaranteed him a home and benefits. That was all separate from Tabitha’s estate and protected. When the island finally sold, Kramer joked that there was a cottage waiting for him just outside of Annapolis.

Lawyers and financial planners took care of all of it. From the fact Kramer had worn the same baseball cap for two decades, Gabby doubted the man spent much of the money left to him.

They’d eaten a lot of meals together since she arrived back on the island. She didn’t have any other family left. Not any members who talked to her. Kramer and Ted never abandoned her. It was the one relationship she’d gone out of her way to keep.

She sat at the picnic table on the small patio and watched Ted fiddle with the grill. He cleaned the grate. Played with the temperature. Clearly grilling was an involved endeavor... so she didn’t get in the way.

“You hanging in there, Gabby girl?” Kramer groaned as he squatted down on the bench across from her with a beer in his hand.

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