Page 23 of The Glass Dolphin

“Now,” she said. “I’m told the public will need tickets to attend the display, and Mayor Sherman has assured me they’ll be available from the Five Island Cove city government website, starting right now. They’re free, but the police don’t want a mob. You’ll need a ticket if you want to see what was preserved from over fifty years ago.” She held very still for a long moment, and then said, “Back to you in the studio, Ralph.”

The picture changed to the two of them side-by-side, and Clara finally released her breath. She picked up her phone, trying to decide if she should read the texts from her friends or hurry to the Five Island Cove government website and get tickets for herself and her family to see whatever had made Aaron Sherman clear his throat on live TV.

“The maximum is ten tickets,” her mother said.

“Get all ten,” Clara said, not sure where the words had come from. Something seethed in her gut, and she didn’t know why. She wondered how documents were “verified” or “validated” and what that meant.

“I got ten for tomorrow at two-thirty,” Mom said triumphantly. Her fingers never stopped moving, and she could text fast for someone her age.

Clara turned her attention to the group text, where messages had started flowing in toTurn on your TVs! Aaron’s got an announcement!andAre you guys seeing this?

“Eloise got ten for three o’clock,” Clara said, relief filling her. They should all be able to go with twenty tickets split among them. Her mother’s message came in about the ten she’d secured, and they started splitting themselves into two groups.

I can’t believe I’m not there, Robin said.Someone tell me everything once you see it.Then she asked,How long will the items be on display?

Eloise must’ve been glued to her phone, because she said,At least two weeks. You’ll get to see it all, Robin. Don’t worry.

Clara wished she could take that advice. But she’d wait until she saw what was on display at City Hall tomorrow before she decided if she could stop worrying or not.

ChapterTen

Kristen didn’t want to separate couples, but she wanted to walk down the wide hallway at City Hall with her daughter and her Seafaring Girls. As it was only two days after Christmas, and as the holiday had fallen on a weekend, most people had today off as their vacation day.

She wasn’t sure if Aaron and his police force had done that deliberately or not, but when she got within three blocks of City Hall, she couldn’t go any further. “Just let us out here,” she said to the RideShare driver, who’d probably heard the same thing all day today.

She and Clara exited the vehicle. Lena had gone to work at the supermarket as normal today. Scott had gone to drive the ferry. There were some occupations that always had to be done, and those were two of them.

Clara had worked her shift as the morning manager at The Cliffside Inn, and she and Eloise had ridden the ferry back to Diamond Island together. El had gone home first, but she planned to meet them for their two-thirty entry appointment.

Alice and Ginny, Laurel and Jean, and AJ and Kelli, took their party to nine. The last ticket had gone to Theo, and Kristen quickly texted him that they’d abandoned their RideShare and would be walking in.

The ten of them would be going through City Hall together, and the other ten tickets that Eloise had procured would be going to anyone else who wanted them. Julia and Liam had taken a pair, though surely Liam, as a cop, had seen the time capsule contents already.

Robin and Duke and their girls were off the island until next week, and Kristen knew that was slowly killing her.

Maddy and Ben weren’t back from Montreal yet, but they’d gotten tickets for later in the week. Kristen knew they wouldn’t allow photographs, and she could only guess at the texts and gossip that would be flying.

She’d deliberately stayed offline that day, choosing instead to walk with AJ and Jean despite the cold, then visit the lighthouse and her granddaughter. She loved all things Five Island Cove, and she couldn’t imagine learning something damaging about this place where she’d grown up, loved, and lived for her whole life.

Tessa and Abe were still in Nantucket, as he was planning to move to Sanctuary Island with Tessa in another week. So they had plenty of tickets for Arthur and Charlie, Matt, Shad, and Reuben.

Unsurprisingly, Aaron and Paul hadn’t wanted tickets, probably because they’d been over the contents of the time capsule with a fine-toothed comb. Both Laurel and El had spent several texts last night assuring and reassuring everyone that their husbands had not told them a single thing. There had not been a single picture shared with them.

Finally, Kristen had detected some defensiveness in El’s texts, and she’d told everyone to calm down. They either believed Eloise, or they didn’t. And she had no reason not to believe her. Everyone had taken things down a notch at that point, but the situation only showed Kristen that even the closest of friends could have sharp talons when different opinions got raised.

When someone felt betrayed, they could transform into a portrait of desolation, with eyes like vacant windows and smiles as brittle as old parchment, their joy packed away as if fragile heirlooms, until trust could be stitched back together thread by fragile thread.

Kristen had seen it before, with her girls—the very women she was going to meet. She’d seen them disperse as young adults, then forget about one another as they each made their own separate way in the world. Their paths had really only intersected again with the death of Kristen’s husband, and she pressed her lips together as she put one foot in front of the other, each step taking her closer to City Hall.

To the truth.

Hopefully not to witness something that would fracture the friendships she’d carefully nurtured and watched reseed, rebloom, and regrow over the past few years.

The women she loved so dearly definitely didn’t always agree. They’d weathered familial storms, a literal tsunami that had nearly torn them apart, and old secrets buried inside even older walls.

They’d had a fairly quiet year, despite a semi-scandal between Clara and Robin’s mother. Oh, and there’d been that squall that had nearly left Reuben a widower while Jean was out at sea with her Seafaring Girls…

And the drug case that had caused Laurel to leave the Narcotics division and return to the streets as a beat cop.

---