Page 44 of Light of Day
“Or she was kidnapped!”
“Oh no!” Andy wailed. He sank onto the bed and dropped his head into his hands. “They got her! I told her to stay where no one could see her. But they got her!”
Heather pulled away from Luke and prowled around the suite. Someone had been here, that was certain. The king-size bunk had been slept in. Its many pillows were askew. She picked one up and sniffed, half-closing her eyes at the familiar fragrance of Gabby’s shea-butter shampoo. After close inspection of the pillowcase, she found one tightly curled brown hair.
She turned on Andy, who cowered by the door. “Who is ‘they’? Who are you talking about?”
“I don’t know! Ask him!” He pointed at Luke, who was checking the portholes.
“Him? Why him?”
“I can’t…I can’t…” He slumped against the wall and slid to the floor, where he covered his ears with his hands and murmured to himself.
“Shit.” Heather crouched next to him. “I’m sorry, dude. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m just afraid for my friend. Do you understand?”
But Andy was in his own world by now. Everything else was shut out.
Luke got to his feet with a sigh. “Let him be. He just needs some space.”
“We can’t just leave him here, can we? We have to go look for Gabby! Someone might have grabbed her.”
“I don’t think so. I think she found a way out of here.”
“What makes you think that?”
He beckoned her over to one of the portholes. It was ever so slightly ajar. The only reason it wasn’t swinging open was that a strip of cardboard—it looked like from a roll of toilet paper—was wedged in it. “I think Gabby managed to climb out of this porthole, and then jammed it shut so no one would notice.”
“That’s impossible. First of all, it’s too small.”
“Want to try? Unless Gabby’s much bigger than you, I bet she could do it.”
Heather pushed it open and thrust one shoulder through it. Maybe she could, she realized. Gabby was taller and slimmer than she was, so she might have managed it.
“But even if she got out, how would she hold onto the porthole and close it at the same…” Peering down the curving fiberglass flank of the sailboat, she saw her answer. This particular porthole was positioned just a few feet under the forward deck. “She went up.”
“Exactly. She pulled herself onto the deck, then reached down to jam the window. She didn’t want anyone suspecting anything.”
Heather’s thoughts were racing. “You know what else that means?”
“What?”
“She knew other people were after her. Gabby is really smart about people. She would have figured out that Andy wasn’t the real threat. She wasn’t trying to hide her escape from him. It was those other people she was afraid of.”
21
Hours later,after they’d taken Andy home and delivered a half-baked explanation to his fully baked family members—cannabis-ly speaking—Luke found himself in his bathroom, sitting on the toilet seat while Heather perched on the edge of the bathtub, armed with a Q-tip and a bottle of Bactine.
“Do you think Gabby’s hiding somewhere on the island?” Heather asked, her breath warm against his face. Her closeness made his skin tingle with awareness. She dabbed the wet Q-tip at his cut, which had become crusted with dirt from their adventures that night. He hid his wince. It had to be done, and Heather had a better angle on it that he would.
“I can think of a few possibilities, and that’s one. She could have swum to a rowboat and headed somewhere else. But I haven’t heard of any missing skiffs, so I doubt that happened. Maybe someone on a passing boat picked her up.”
“If she’s safe, she would have contacted me.”
“She might not have her phone.”
Heather pulled a funny face. “I know it’s not that big of a deal in the scheme of things, but Gabby lives on her phone. I hope she didn’t lose it.”
Privately, he thought her phone was probably at the bottom of the ocean by now. If she had it, she would have found a way to reach out.
