Page 33 of Light of Day
Apparently it didn’t. He shook his head, glancing again at Celine. “Did I meet her, sweetheart?”
“I certainly don’t know. You meet lots of guests.”
“This guest is a young Black woman, my age, very pretty, taller than me?—”
“Gabby.Gabby.” Recognition dawned on his face. “She loved talking about the Lightkeeper Inn and all the history. So much history.” A frown formed between his eyebrows, then disappeared. “The Lightkeeper Inn was built at the start of the very first tourist boom here in Maine, you know, back in the nineteen-ten’s.” He shifted into what was clearly his favorite topic. “It was an instant success. In those days, wealthy families, mostly from Boston and Connecticut, were looking for a place to get away from the heat and give their children some time at the beach. Lightkeeper Bay was a natural magnet for developers. So many stunning and accessible islands. My grandfather scouted the area, saw an opportunity and voilà.” He gestured at their surroundings. “Witness the result.”
“It’s very beautiful,” she said dutifully, making sure to add a smile. She wasn’t working the smile angle as much as she should be—maybe because his wife was present. “This place has such a mystique. It gives me shivers every time I see it from the ferry boat.”
“I’m happy to hear that. I never know what the rest of the island thinks of us.”
“Oh, John.” Celine waved a hand in the air as if to send that topic into the ether. “Why get into all that?”
Heather kept her focus on John, who seemed to have hit an internal “talk” switch. The more he chatted, the more likely he might say something helpful. “How do you mean?”
“Oh, we’ve had controversies over the years. I’m sure you’ve heard of some of them. Taxes are a big one. Some people think we’re responsible for raising their property taxes. Resource allocation. Water and so forth.” He shrugged his shoulder, as if to dismiss such pesky concerns. “So far, we’ve managed to work things out so everyone’s happy.”
“How?” Heather asked.
“How?”
“Yes, it always seems like these complaints come up, and they seem legitimate, but then somehow they just…subside. Everyone moves on to some other topic.”
Celine frowned, apparently displeased by that very accurate summary, but John shrugged it off. “I guess that’s life on an offshore island. There’s always something else to get upset about.”
Celine climbed out of her chair and gestured at the grandfather clock nested between two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. “It looks like you have one minute left, Heather McPhee. Any other questions?”
She wasn’t getting anywhere with these two. Celine was being a guard dog and John was playing the rambling old man. Sometimes you just had to get savage.
“Yes. I’m wondering if Gabby had some kind of complaint and you guys made her go away just like all the other problems you cause on this island.”
John flinched, as if her words were a physical slap across his face.
“Who do you think you are?” Celine gasped. “If she had a complaint, I’m sure it was dealt with properly.” She dragged Heather to the door and flung it open. “You can go now.”
“Wait.” John’s deep voice had them both turning around. “That girl, Gabby. I remember now. She knew something.”
“Yes, she knew all about the hotel’s history, just like you told me after you ran into her. You couldn’t stop talking about how well-informed she was.” Celine shot Heather an exasperated look. “Unless you want another history lesson, you should probably go.”
“But—”
Before she knew it, she was on the other side of the door and it was closing firmly behind her.
Phew. That was…something, she thought as she headed for the service elevator. Had she learned anything?
Yes. One thing.Gabby knew something.That part was true.
Also, John Carmichael seemed to be losing a step or two.
17
Heading backout to Sea Smoke after a trip to the mainland always felt like freedom to Luke. As if he could finally take a full breath and stand tall. Even as a teenager, coming home from boarding school, he used to imagine the wind sweeping the cobwebs away as he sailed toward that big rock in the sea.
Living with his father was another type of imprisonment, but he’d solved that by breaking every rule and finding his own way of life on Sea Smoke Island. He wouldn’t trade it for anything, even after his marriage broke up. He’d take part-time dad, full-time constable, a man writing his own story, a hundred times out of a hundred when the other option was doing his father’s bidding.
After tying theIzzy Cto his mooring, he rowed to the dock, where Heather had promised to meet him.
That was one thing missing from the life he’d chosen—a real relationship with a woman. The closest he’d gotten since his divorce was Abby, but he hadn’t heard from her in a while. Finding a real connection was such a challenge, and that was probably on him. The breakup with Carrie had shaken him to his core. He was still rebuilding. So far, no one he’d met had pulled him out of his frozen emotional rut.
