Page 90 of Trick of Light
After a moment of crackling silence, a male voice answered. “You idiot. As if I’d leave an active radio operational.”
Gabby’s jaw dropped and she felt Barnaby go tense beside her.
“Hooper? Where are you?” he demanded.
“I’m safe. Unlike you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Guess you’ll have to figure that out, Carmichael. You people think your rotten family can control everything? Eventually it’s gonna blow up in your face.” He hooted with laughter before the connection crackled into silence.
“I guess he hates the Carmichaels too,” Gabby said. But Barnaby wasn’t paying attention to her.
Barnaby straightened up and scanned the maintenance room, which to her was a maze of cables and humming generators and other equipment she couldn’t recognize.
He zeroed in on something in the corner.
“Get out of here, Gabby,” he said in a tense, low voice. “Go downstairs and run. Get behind some rocks or something.”
“What…what…” She wanted to obey, but panic fastened her feet to the floor. He limped over to her, picked her up and set her on the stairs.
“Go! Now!!” he shouted.
Shocked, she went. She flew down the stairs and out onto the grass. The blare of a boat horn caught her attention—a boat was cruising toward them. Not Hooper’s, thank God, but one of the island lobster boats.
She jumped up and down to get their attention, and saw Detective Chen lean out the window and wave at her.
Chen…was she working with Hooper, her partner?
She dismissed the thought immediately. Hooper had obviously poisoned Chen just like the others. She still looked ill.
“Help!” Gabby yelled across the water. “Hooper did something and Barnaby’s upstairs and?—”
She was interrupted by a sudden crashing sound and spun around. Up on the aluminum walkway that encircled the top of the lighthouse, Barnaby burst through a door. He must have kicked it open, but how had he done that with an injured leg? Against the backdrop of that pulse of light from the beam, he staggered to the railing. Something was clutched in his right hand. Amazingly, her sweater was still tight around his leg, but even so, his wound was bleeding again.
He drew back and flung whatever he was holding as far as he could in the direction of the open ocean. When it was about fifty feet above the surface, it exploded in a burst of blinding light.
The blast sent a shockwave traveling through her. She clapped her hands over her ears as a high whine set in. Up on the walkway, Barnaby collapsed onto his knees, then onto his side.
She dragged herself to her feet and stumbled across the grass. Into the lighthouse, up the spiral stairs, then the next set, until she reached the top level. The door was off its hinges from the massive kick Barnaby had given it. She ran through it and across the aluminum catwalk. Dropping to his side, she saw that his eyes were closed.
“Barnaby, wake up!” She felt his throat for a pulse and found a faint one. “Are you okay? Barnaby!”
He moaned lightly, eyelids fluttering.
“Was that a bomb? You saved the lighthouse!”
Finally his eyes opened and he glared at her almost as fiercely as he had during that first confrontation at the inn. “Why are you here? I told you to run. Are you hurt?”
She gave a sob. “I’m fine. I did run. You could have just run like I did, but?—”
He shook his head and murmured. “Wouldn’t have made it with my leg. I saw the timer.”
“Oh my God.” He’d seen the timer and he’d acted instantly. “I could have carried you. You didn’t have to sacrifice yourself to save a stupid lighthouse!”
“To save you,” he corrected sternly. One might even say arrogantly, if one didn’t know better. “You were in the lighthouse. So I saved it too. You shouldn’t be up here, it’s not safe.”
Oh my God. That was it. The last little bit of her caution fell away and she knew Barnaby was her man. The one who would climb mountains for her, take bullets, face off with a giant blinding lamp in the sky. That lighthouse beam kept illuminating his face, and maybe it was a trick of light, but every time it felt like a glimpse into his soul and his big beautiful heart.
