Page 48 of Trick of Light
While Gabby settled into the bedroom, he unearthed his pillow and bedroll from the leather trunk Tamara kept them in. He stretched out on the couch, which seemed to get shorter every time he slept on it. Was it more uncomfortable too? Or was it just hard to sleep listening to the sounds of Gabby moving about? He punched the pillow a few times, thought about finger-brushing his teeth, then stared up at the ceiling. The rain had subsided to a soft patter on the roof.
Who the hell would want to spy on Tamara Brown? Was it the Harbortown police?
He ruled that out immediately. Planting spy cameras didn’t fall into any approved police procedure he’d ever heard about. Just to be sure, he could check with Luke first thing in the morning.
To his knowledge, the only other people interested in Tamara were Gabby herself, and Heather. The Dirty Rotten Bastards co-hosts. Gabby obviously hadn’t put those cameras there—if she had, why would she have pointed one out? Would Heather do it without Gabby’s knowledge? That seemed very unlikely too. They were journalists, not spies, and they worked together.
Since this was Sea Smoke Island, should he look at his own family? Were the Carmichaels behind this? Tamara was connected to Sasha, the one “descendant” who had come forward. Maybe someone was trying to sabotage the effort to track down the survivors?
But Tamara’s side of the Thatcher/Brown family hadn’t been chased off the island like the others. She wouldn’t be included in the restitution fund.
Besides…Barnaby was the Carmichaels. He was the one in charge, the one everyone reported to. Unless someone was making trouble behind his back?
The cameras could have been there for a while, since before the story about the evictions had been exposed. What if his father had put them there to keep tabs on his former lover Sophie’s mother.
He doubted it, simply because the cameras had all been relatively dust-free. If they had been there for a long time, they would have been coated in dust, especially since Tamara was getting too old to clean the tops of her cupboards regularly.
So the cameras were relatively new, which ruled out his dementia-battling father. His thoughts moved to the rest of his family. When Carson had been trying to sabotage the eviction investigation, he’d hired hotel workers to do some of his dirty work. Had he paid someone to install those cameras? From behind bars? But why?
Did he even know about Tamara?
It was hard to know when it came to Carson, who’d turned out to be a real sociopath.
Fiona? What reason would she have? Did she know Tamara? Maybe he needed to pay both his siblings a visit at their respective jails, something he hadn’t done since they’d been arrested.
What about Celine? No, he decided after some thought. She had never set foot on the western end of the island; in her world, it might as well not exist.
Rufus and Ruby were obviously not involved, since they were in college and uninterested in family drama. Both had internships this summer. Was there anyone he was forgetting? His father’s ex-wives? Annabeth was somewhere in Argentina. Luke’s mother, Diane, had lived in California since their divorce. Rufus and Ruby’s mother, Kiki, had moved to England. The Carmichael ex-wife diaspora. If any of them had been seen on the island, it would have been a bombshell.
Maybe Judy Griffin, the manager? Nah.
Wow, could he actually rule out the Carmichaels in this particular nasty incident? God, he hoped so. He didn’t want any more shame attached to the family name. But lately, his family members had been making that damn difficult.
The next morning, after a restless night’s sleep, Barnaby suggested that they report their discovery of the cameras to Luke. Gabby agreed, yawning as she made coffee in Tamara’s ancient espresso pot. Apparently she hadn’t gotten much sleep either.
The rain had finally stopped, leaving glittering sparkles scattered across the mossy ground. The leaves of the birch trees shimmered with moisture. With the sun rising fast, they would dry off soon, so he took a moment to absorb the green radiance outside the window.
Barnaby gathered up the supplies Tamara had requested, and they drove in silence to the constable’s station. Luke met them at the door and beckoned them into the break room.
“The Harbortown guys are interviewing Tamara again.”
“They shouldn’t—” Barnaby began.
“Don’t worry, the Carmichael lawyers are here. I made sure of it.”
But Tamara had wanted him, her champion. He felt Gabby squeeze his hand, both in comfort and to keep the focus on the point of this meeting.
She was right. There was nothing to be done about it now. He set aside his protests and showed Luke the hidden cameras they’d discovered.
“Jesus. That’s a lot of cameras for a house the size of a kiddie pool.” Luke took the baggie they’d put the cameras into. “Were they activated?”
“One of them had a light, that’s how I spotted it. Maybe it was low on battery or something,” said Gabby. “But I suppose we don’t really know if they were actively recording.” The color rose in her cheeks. He surreptitiously bumped his arm against hers—a little reminder of the heat between them.
Even though they hadn’t spoken much this morning, that kiss and all that hot passionate desire hadn’t gone anywhere. He still felt every bit of it. He hoped she did too.
“All right. I’ll see what I can find out about these.” A frown wrinkled his forehead. “I’m going to have to tell the Harbortown crew about them. They could be connected to the investigation somehow.”
Barnaby glanced at Gabby, who shrugged, probably thinking the same thing he was. Now that they’d handed them over, there wasn’t much they could say about what happened next.
