Page 31 of Light of Day
“Awww, you really think so? I feel like you just gave me a compliment.” Her teasing tone made him smile.
“I may have. Is that a problem?”
“No problem at all. But when you say ‘pretty’…”
“My father is old-school. Smile a lot, show a little cleavage, play dumb, and you never know, he may even propose to you.”
She laughed. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll wear a turtleneck.”
He liked Heather McPhee, he realized. A lot. “I should be back in a few hours. If it’s not too late we can search Denton’s house. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Gabby will have turned up by then.”
“Let’s hope. It’s been three days now.” The worry in her voice deepened. “By the way, I heard that Jimmy and Denton had a big fight a couple of weeks ago. That might be worth pursuing.”
“Jimmy didn’t do it.” If there was one thing he knew, it was that Jimmy was genuinely devastated.
“Do what? Are you thinking someone pushed him off a boat or something?”
He cursed himself for how he’d phrased that. It wouldn’t take much to get misinformation flying around the island. In fact, it probably already was. “No theories yet. We’re just getting the facts. Please don’t spread?—”
“Rumors? Of course not. But they’re already out there. I heard someone talking about Denton being a member of the Lobster Illuminati, whatever that is.”
“It was originally a horseshoes team, but once the rumormongers got ahold of it, it’s anything from a brainwashing cult to a sex trafficking ring.”
“The things you have to deal with…”
“You don’t know the half of it.” He spotted the first masts bristling from the Harbortown Marina up ahead. “Gotta go. Talk later.”
“Be safe out there. Apparently there’s some super-dark things going on in Lightkeeper Bay.”
Chuckling, he ended the call and focused all his attention on guiding his boat to the wharf, where he could already see a gurney being wheeled out of the coroner’s van.
“Okay, Denton,” he said out loud as he reduced his speed to a near idle. “Onto the mainland we go. Say goodbye to the ocean.”
“Are you talking to a dead person?”
He startled, realizing that when he’d poked the “end call” button, he’d missed and Heather was still on the line.
“Goodbye,” he said pointedly, and made sure the call was over this time. Smiling to himself, he tossed a bumper over the side of his boat to cushion the impact, then jumped off to tie a line to the cleat.
When he saw the paramedic crew eyeing him suspiciously, he wiped the smile off his face. He was delivering a dead body, not the time to be grinning about how much fun it was talking to Heather McPhee.
16
Before bothering John Carmichael,Heather decided to do her online rounds again. She ordered an iced tea from the bar at the Lightkeeper, then took it to a comfy armchair in the conservatory and pulled her iPad from her backpack. As the sun pouring through the glass walls warmed the back of her neck, she settled down for some Internet surfing.
She checked Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, her email, the podcast’s email, anywhere someone might have interacted with Gabby. Gabby’s last post of any kind was almost a week ago. That in itself was cause for concern. Had Gabby ever gone that long without popping onto social media somewhere? She relished doing battle with the trolls and countering any misinformation she spotted.
“If I don’t tell these fools the truth, who’s going to?” she’d say.
“You think they want the truth?”
“It’s not about what they want. It’s about what everyone else sees.”
Now, she wondered…what if one of those trolls had taken a beef off the screen and into real life?
Gabby’s most recent post was a shot of the view from the Lightkeeper Inn. Even though it was mostly ocean and clouds, the shape of the old lighthouse on its remote rock could be seen through the fog. Had someone recognized it and decided to chase Gabby all the way to the island?
She read the caption.Where the deepest secrets lie, only the truth can bring the light.
