Page 49 of Trick of Light
“I’m going to take a trip to the Harbortown Correctional Center today,” he told Luke. “Do you want to come with me?”
“Is this for family or business?”
“Just a few questions to see if Carson might be responsible for these.”
“Why would he be? Just general Carmichael shenanigans?”
Barnaby laughed. “Basically, yes. Maybe he knew Tamara was related to a branch of Sasha’s family, and wanted to keep an eye on her.”
“Well, you won’t get any answers if I’m there.” Luke smiled ruefully. “He hates me even more than he used to. You’d better go alone.”
Barnaby nodded, and handed over Tamara’s bag. “Will you give this to Tamara?”
“I’ll have to search it.”
“Search away. Nothing to hide.”
“Is there any chance we can see her?” Gabby asked. “Maybe later?”
Luke nodded. “I’ll shoot you a text when they’re done. I suppose you want to ask if she knows anything about those cameras?”
“Yes, unless you think it would upset her, Barnaby?” She turned to him as she posed the question.
“It might. That house is her sanctuary, and I’m sure it’ll hurt to think of someone sneaking in to spy on her. But it’s still better if she knows.”
Outside, the soggy ground sank under their feet. It had soaked up a lot of rain overnight. “If you drop me off at the dock, you can use this truck today,” he offered as he and Gabby swung into the cab. “I told the Lightkeeper I’d be using it for the next few days.”
“Would I pick you up when you get back?”
“I wouldn’t say no.”
“Okay, thanks. Heather’s bike that she used in middle school has its limits.”
He headed for the west dock. He could drive back to the east side and use one of the hotel’s speedboats, but sometimes he liked the ferry ride because it gave him time to think. This meeting with his brother was going to be a doozy.
“Can you drive a manual? This truck is old-school.”
“I…think so?”
He stopped the truck in the middle of the road. “Let’s switch places. You can learn as we go.”
22
Along with all his other surprises, it turned out that Barnaby was an excellent teacher. By the time she dropped him off at the dock, Gabby was fully confident in her manual gear-shifting abilities.
“Good luck,” she told him. “And be careful.”
He looked as if he wanted to kiss her, but the dock was crowded with passengers and deckhands unloading cargo. Pulling her behind the freight shed, he held her close, then hovered his mouth over hers, as if debating whether to go forward or not, until she kissed him out of sheer frustration. Engulfed in his embrace, lost in the pleasure of those firm lips, she barely heard the last call for the ferry, until he wrenched himself away and ran for the ramp.
Her heart was still jumping as she climbed into the Lightkeeper Inn’s work truck. What now? She wanted to see Tamara again as soon as possible. But there was something else she wanted to check on first.
She’d been thinking more about those hidden cameras. What if someone wanted to monitor Tamara’s clients? If Tamara hadn’t poisoned her own patients, someone else had. Would that person have installed those cameras in order to find out who Tamara was treating?
If so, why had that person chosen Safiya, Andy, Amelia and Buzzy as their targets? Maybe there was a common thread. Safiya was off the island, Andy was probably fishing on a calm sunny day like today, and Amelia was…unavailable. So Buzzy it was.
She drove to Buzzy O’Keefe’s house, which was perched on a long rise of granite close to the shoreline near Seal Cove. She didn’t know Buzzy well, but she had interviewed him for the podcast since he was one of the oldest living people on the island, and he still had a sharp memory.
And some questionable attitudes. But she could handle that.
