Page 16 of The Glass Dolphin

No matter what, Maddy suddenly felt like she was carrying the weight of the entire island on her shoulders, and it threatened to break her back. Break her completely.

“I need to text everyone,” she whispered.

“Who, everyone?” Alice asked.

“My employees,” she said, sniffling and then pulling in a long breath as if she could reel in her insecurities, her exhaustion, and her anxiety with only oxygen. She stepped away from Alice and removed her phone from the front pocket of her slacks.

Alice gently took her phone from her and asked, “Do you have a group message?”

“It’s an app,” Maddy said, tucking her hands into her jacket pockets. She shivered in the early morning chill, Christmas only five days from now. The sun had crested the eastern horizon now, and the grayness surrounding them turned into copper and then gold and then white, seemingly before Maddy could exhale and draw another breath.

“It’s called Bob,” Maddy said. “He manages their shifts and hours and paychecks. They’ll all get notified from him when I message.”

“I’ve got it,” Alice said, her eyes down and her fingers moving. Part of Maddy wanted to manage her own employees, but the other part could only stare.

“My boss is coming.” Maddy sighed and turned away from the ruined storefront. “I need to get everyone here to help clean up.”

“Not today,” Alice said.

“I’m supposed to be in Nantucket tonight.” Maddy took a few steps away, tilted her head back, and sighed up into the sky. Everything she’d had on her agenda had been wiped away by one person and a bucket. She wasn’t sure how life could be flipped so dramatically, but she was living in the moment where it was happening.

“You have an assistant manager, right?” Alice asked. “And the owner. Let them handle it.”

Maddy didn’t know how to do that, so she didn’t say anything.

Officer Harmon returned, and he gave Maddy a badge. “Clip that on your jacket there.” He frowned at Alice’s back. “Ma’am, I only have authorization for the manager here to come in with me.”

“I’m her lawyer,” Alice said smartly. “But I’ll allow it.”

“The owner will be here as soon as the Clipper arrives from Nantucket,” Maddy said. “She’ll need to be able to come in, and when can I get my employees in here to help clean up? We need to be open for the holidays.”

Robin pulled up in her minivan as Officer Harmon looked at the ruined restaurant and back to Maddy. “I honestly don’t know if that’s possible, ma’am.”

“Anything is possible,” Robin said, and Maddy started to feel like herself again. She’d been strong through her divorce. She’d almost lost her kids completely. She’d moved to Nantucket and opened a dilapidated inn with an enemy. She and Julia were best friends once again, and that hadn’t been easy.

She could do this.

“Show me everything,” she said. “I need detailed lists of what needs to be fixed. Should I call my general contractor? He’ll need to come through all of this too.”

Another police vehicle showed up, and everyone waited while Chief Sherman and Paul Leyhe got out. They wore their official uniforms from head to toe, and Maddy really had no idea how they walked with all of that equipment attached to their belts.

“Robin,” Aaron said, but it wasn’t in the casual, caring way Maddy had heard during Appetizer Hour. “Alice. Madeline.”

“Chief Sherman,” Maddy said before Alice or Robin could pipe up. “I need to get back in there. I need to get this fixed. We have averyfull holiday schedule.”

Aaron exchanged a glance with Paul, who happened to be Laurel’s husband. “Come with me, Maddy,” he said. “Lieutenant, stay with these ladies, would you?”

Maddy exchanged a glance with Robin and then Alice, and then she went with the Chief. Her heels crunched over glass, and she steppedthroughthe door frame while it remained locked.

“Maddy,” Aaron said, his voice much quieter than outside. No one would dare to contradict him, though, even in a soft voice. He carried power no matter what he said, which reminded her of Ben.

Ben.

Her mind seized. Her fiancé was coming to get her that morning so they could make the trip to Nantucket together. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t called him after the cameras had gone still, after she’d hung up with Teresa, after she’d showered and prepped herself for today.

“Chief, I need to make a quick call,” she said.

Aaron quirked his eyebrows. “Maddy, this is a clear case of vandalism to make a statement.”

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