Page 87 of The Pretender

“Maybe Kramer is tired of being the employee.”

That didn’t work for her either. Then again, neither did Ted because of all of them he spent the least amount of time on the island. As a kid and a teenager, sure. Not as an adult. He only came now to help Kramer.

“Have you seen one bit of evidence to back that up?” she asked because she didn’t know of any.

“No, which means this is about something, some piece of information or evidence, Tabitha found. That’s why we had the attacks on the library. The person behind all of this thought whatever he needed to find and destroy was in there. The fire, the break-in. It all makes sense.”

“It also fits with Tabitha’s stolen laptop. It should have been with her or near her when she died, but the police never found it.” They rarely included that fact in their decision-making, but Gabby knew it mattered.

Harris broke eye contact to stare into the distance. “Yeah, that.”

“And the missing map and kidnapping documents.” She hated to add those in but she couldn’t avoid them. They were the pieces that didn’t fit with anything else, but the ones that wouldn’t leave her mind. “That’s ancient history but the hiding place being discovered makes it all relevant.”

Harris sat up higher in the chair. “If you were Tabitha, where would you hide something on the island?”

“Like what?”

“The map and whatever else you two buried in that wall.”

The direction of the conversation made her uneasy, but she answered. “The library.”

“No, we’re not giving your sister enough credit. She was in the library all the time. If it was something she wanted away from her, to make it hard to find, where would she put it?”

The logic made sense. Gabby couldn’t really argue with it. “The hiding place could be anywhere. I don’t know.”

That was the problem with being detached. She’d kept in touch with her sister over the years, through it all, but she didn’tknowher. That was evident from reading the chat room transcripts.

Harris put a hand on her knee, smoothed his fingers over her. “Think, Gabby.”

She conducted a mental inventory of the island. Every building and every space. “She liked gardening and to sit on the second-story balcony. She loved the fire pit and the pool, though not as much as she did as a kid.”

Harris shook his head. “What didn’t she like?”

“What?”

“If this is something she wanted to hide, something she needed to keep separate from herself, she wouldn’t put it where she could see it every day.” He turned in his chair, moved in closer. “Where didn’t she go?”

That was easy. “The boathouse.”

Harris continued to study her. “Why?”

She could almost see his mind working. He was taking all of the information and compiling it. “Tabitha thought the boathouse was creepy. It can be loud in there, and the upstairs was always a mess. She talked about tearing it down and just using the dock.”

“Right.” He stood up.

“Right?”

He reached down for her. “That’s where we’re going.”

It took them five minutes to get there. Every step of the way, Harris scanned the area. He didn’t expect anyone to jump out at them, but nothing would surprise him at this point.

The attacks, the fire—the moves reeked of desperation. The risk of jumping Gabby on a contained island were huge. Damon was right there when the fire started. He could have seen something. It was only by luck—the attacker’s luck—he didn’t.

Harris finally thought he knew why this was happening now. No one stole the map and the papers relating to the kidnapping. Tabitha hid them, and with her gone the possibility of them being uncovered loomed.

For whatever reason, she’d clearly gotten nervous about the original location of the paperwork and took everything out. Now the documents were somewhere else, but they were not gone. If she’d destroyed them no one would be searching. No, someone was desperate to find that stash, which meant they were in a race to get to it first.

They walked into the bottom floor of the boathouse. The smell of fish and water and wet earth hit him. The mix was concentrated in here because of the walls on three sides. So strong it made him gag.

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