Page 87 of Trick of Light
Gabby shook her head, not sure what she was supposed to be noticing. Tamara pointed to a mark under the word “pining,” and another under “trick of light.”
“I think these marks were added later.”
“Really? What makes you think that?”
“The ink is more modern, and it’s not as faded as everything else.”
Gabby could see now that she was right. “It could be just a result of the photocopy. Or a trick of light.”
Trick of light.
She sat bolt upright. If someone later on had marked the words “trick of light,” was that a reference to the lighthouse? This structure hadn’t been built until the late eighteenth century, a good hundred years after Marianne’s journal had been written. So maybe one of her descendants had buried the treasure to keep it safe—from smugglers? Islanders who feared witches? Thieves? Maybe that descendant had left clues in the journal, which was passed down from generation to generation, almost like a bible, until it ended up in Denton Simms’ safe.
“What do you see?” Hooper demanded.
She looked up at him, at the menacing black firearm in his beefy hand, his overgrown football player physique, the heavy jowls that made his face nearly unrecognizable from the handsome teenager he’d been. “It’s not here. But the lighthouse does point to it. That’s what the ‘trick of light’ means.”
“Where is it, then?”
“I don’t know exactly, but it’s near a pine tree. See how ‘pining’ is underlined? It’s on a spot overlooking the ocean, probably a calm spot where you see the tree’s reflection in the water. Something about the lighthouse beam will show where. We have to go there. Tamara might know it when we see it.”
Tamara nodded, just as refracted light beyond the open door turned her hair to white fire. Then it passed; another flash of the lighthouse beam.
“Get up, then. Both of you.” The drone of an engine had them all jumping to attention. “Just in time. Go around back to the maintenance dock and get into the boat while I take care of this.”
He pointed the direction he wanted them to go, then went the other way, turning left out the open door.
Fear gathered in Gabby’s stomach as she helped Tamara to her feet. Whoever was in that boat didn’t know what they were getting into. What if it was Barnaby? Or Heather? She couldn’t let them get hurt.
“Follow my lead, okay?” she whispered to Tamara. “If I make any moves, just get out of the way.”
Tamara’s wide eyes rolled from side to side. She looked terrified. Gabby realized she’d be better off doing this next part alone.
“It’ll be okay,” Gabby reassured her. “Go to the boat, I’ll be there in a second. I won’t do anything reckless.”
Tamara squeezed her hands tightly, whispered something in another language, then toddled across the scrub grass that extended from the lighthouse base to a tumble of sharp rocks that made up the perimeter of the island. The dock must be around the corner, out of sight.
Gabby ducked low and followed after Hooper, who had taken up a foxhole kind of position in the rocks. To stay out of his line of sight, she stayed directly behind him as she crept across the rocks. He was using a chunk of granite as a stabilizer for his arm. His weapon tracked the path of a lethal-looking watercraft zooming toward them.
It had to be a Carmichael speedboat. No one else around here would have a boat that fast and expensive. In no time, the boat was practically on top of them. It rooster-tailed to a halt as Barnaby’s voice rang out.
“Hooper, it’s over. We know who you are and what you’ve done. Give it up.”
She spotted no one besides Barnaby in the speedboat. What was he doing? Did he think he could handle Hooper on his own? Was his arrogant Carmichael side taking over? Or had he simply not wanted to wait for Luke or Chen?
Without a word, Hooper opened fire.
As he sprayed it with bullets, holes appeared in the hull, one after another, dot dot dot. Barnaby ducked out of sight, but had he done so in time?
With her heart in her mouth, ears ringing, Gabby crawled across the rocks to get closer to him. She needed a loose rock, or maybe she could just push Hooper off balance. You can’t budge him, he’s a heavyweight.
She heard a splash and peeked above the rocks in time to see Barnaby disappear into the ocean on the other side of the speedboat. Something dark streamed from his leg and formed clouds in the water. Oh my God, he’s been hit!
So had the boat, many times, and now its nose was pointed in the air and it was sinking down below the surface, nearly vertical in its final plunge toward the ocean floor.
Barnaby! She wanted to scream. But she held her tongue and scrambled behind a rock as Hooper lurched to his feet. He shot a few more rounds towards the boat, then took off at a lumbering jog toward the back of the lighthouse, where his boat was docked. He didn’t catch sight of her, which gave her a chance to…what? Chase after him? He still had a gun. Still, it was worth a try, so she grabbed a handful of seaweed to pull herself up the rocks, only to feel it slip through her hands. She caught her balance just in time to keep herself from tumbling down the rocks.
Heart hammering, she decided to stay where she was for now. She crouched down until she heard the sound of a boat engine zooming away from the lighthouse rock.
