Page 21 of Trick of Light
“Not great. Three neurologists have confirmed he has vascular dementia, not too bad yet but bound to get worse.”
She nodded gravely, her forehead furrowing. “Then time is running out.”
“Time for what?”
He waited patiently for her to explain. Did she want to make peace with the man her daughter had loved? As far as he knew, she hadn’t seen him since Sophie had died.
After a long struggle, she brought forth words that stunned him. “Time for him to say what really happened to my Sophie in that cursed hospital.”
”What are you talking about? You said she died having me.”
Tamara shook her head gravely. “She was alive when I left her. She was holding you and so happy and healthy. They told me she had a blood clot, but I had made sure she was taking her motherwort. I never believed what they said. They told me to go home and hold my tongue. They even said it might have been the herbs she was taking, as if I would harm my own…child,” she ended in a broken voice. “They threatened to report me.”
He sucked in a breath. This was shocking news, and she’d never breathed a word of it until now. But he believed her, because his own father had threatened the same thing if he told anyone about his real mother. And now, with this spate of poisonings…was Tamara in more danger than ever?
10
The podcast’s next episode got thrown into chaos when Sasha Mackey got called back into work early. Gabby had been planning to bring her to see Tamara and record the entire encounter. But a summer flu was racing through the ER staff and they needed all hands on deck.
“I’m really sorry about the podcast,” Sasha told Gabby, who went to the dock to see her off.
“It’s fine.” Gabby wanted to reassure her, but in truth, she and Heather would have to figure out another direction for the next few episodes. And fast. “Of course your job comes first.”
A strange expression crossed the girl’s face. With her slim build and youth, it was hard to imagine her with such an intense job as trauma nurse. But now that Gabby had met Tamara, it made more sense. That family was the definition of resilient.
“It’s not just that…” Sasha hesitated, her gaze drifting in the direction of the inn, then back to Gabby.
“What’s going on?”
“I wasn’t going to tell you at first, but you’ve been so kind to me. The ER only needs me back for two days, but Barnaby Carmichael asked me to stay away longer. Well, it was more than that. He said something about turning down the temperature. I don’t know what that means, but I think it was about the podcast. I mean, I know it was, because he requested that I not do the meeting with Tamara yet. Since I’m counting on the Fund to help me rebuild the house…” She gave a rueful shrug of her shoulders. “I didn’t want to say no.”
That arrogant…interfering… Gabby had been softening toward Barnaby, but now that was out the window. What a typical Carmichael move, putting his own interests above everyone else’s. “Thanks for telling me, Sasha.”
“You’re not mad?”
“Nope. I get it. People like the Carmichaels usually get what they want.”
“Don’t be mad at Barnaby,” Sasha pleaded. “I think he’s just overwhelmed with everything going on right now. He was very nice about it. He said I should come back when emotions have died down a bit, and the islanders stop feeling so threatened. I don’t want anyone to feel that way. So maybe it’s best if I go back to my real life for a bit.”
While Gabby searched for a calm response to that, the ferry boat bumped into the dock, making the planks shudder. Saved by a large red-and-white open-decked seagoing vehicle. The hubbub of passenger arrivals and cargo unloading took over. In the milling crowd of sunburned summer visitors dodging gorilla carts loaded with boxes of groceries, she thought she spotted a familiar face, but then it disappeared.
“Please?” Sasha repeated. “You won’t blame Barnaby?”
“Don’t worry about Barnaby,” she said, giving the girl a quick hug goodbye. “Come back soon. You belong out here just as much as anyone, you know.”
“Belonging is not the feeling I get here,” Sasha said wistfully.
Gabby knew what she meant, but she really hoped that changed for Sasha. She did belong here. Her ancestors had lived and worked out here over a century ago, and now she’d been bequeathed property on the island. If that didn’t add up to “belonging,” what did? Was it really up to some self-appointed gatekeepers who changed the rules to suit themselves?
Sasha picked up her overnight bag and headed for the metal ramp the deckhands had positioned between the dock and the ferry. With one last wave to Gabby, she disappeared onboard.
After the ferry boat pulled away from the dock, Gabby lingered to watch a gaggle of kids in swimsuits do cannonballs off the pilings into the boat’s churning wake.
The things she was going to say to Barnaby when she saw him next…
“I can tell you want to jump just like those kids,” said a voice in her ear. Startled, she turned to find Detective Tina Chen by her elbow. So hers was the vaguely familiar face she’d seen in the crowd, the one she hadn’t quite recognized at first. If Black folks were rarely to be seen here, Asians were just as scarce. But Chen had been here just a few weeks earlier, helping bust the Carmichael conspiracy. She was a dynamo of a thirty-something woman all dressed in black, with a badge tucked on her belt,
“Oh hell no, I don’t. You will never see me jumping in that water.”
