Page 18 of Brought to Light

Sawyer’s eyebrows creased together. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not working,” I said with a shrug.

Sawyer shook his head as if that were nonsense. “Those things don’t break, they’re like the Nokia of the twentieth century. Stuff was built differently back then.” He came around the counter as I got up to get my phone from the other room.

“Well it was working earlier, but it just stopped. But if you can get it up and running, I’ll give you a muffin.”

“I’m taking a muffin anyway,” he called over his shoulder as I left the room.

I grabbed my phone from the pocket of my lab coat hanging on the hook in the office. Opening the browser, I searched ‘Thai Food Moon Harbor, Maine’ and laughed at the one result that appeared. “Found it,” I called out.

Clicking on the menu, I walked back to the reception area while scanning the options. “Ooh, they have Khao Soi, my favorite. Totally getting that.” But when I looked up, Sawyer was gone and the door was swinging closed. I caught a flash of his head through the window as he turned the corner of the building.

Curious, I followed him out the door and found him in the tiny alley between the buildings. Only about four feet wide, it was really more of a walkway to allow people to get to the back of the buildings without having to go all the way around the block. I hadn’t even been down this path myself yet, as it was decidedly too spooky for me.

Sawyer crouched down, surveying something along the brick.

“Looks like someone’s made a clean cut here,” Sawyer said, holding up the severed end of the phone cable in his hand. His brow furrowed but his eyes looked dangerous. “This wasn’t an accident, Hannah.”

“Cut?” My voice hitched, a mix of anger and disbelief churning within me. I shivered as goosebumps formed along my spine.

“Who the hell would do this?”

“Maybe it was an accident. Maybe something scraped against the wall and the wires were damaged.”

Sawyer stood up and cocked his head, looking at me like I was being naive. And I probably was. But it didn’t make sense for someone to sabotage the clinic. I had no enemies here. Immediately my mind went to Hulk from upstairs. Surely he wouldn’t actually risk sabotaging me like this? Not when he was already doing a great job of it by just existing upstairs.

“Or maybe it was kids,” I blurted.

“Kids?”

“Teens, you know…nothing better to do but cause some inconvenient trouble around town?”

“Do teensnowadays even know what telephone wiresare?”

“Huh.” He had a good point. But I wasn’t convinced this was a targeted thing. It couldn’t be.

“You need to report this to the police.”

“That seems like an overreaction.”

“No, it seems like exactly what you’re supposed to do if someone vandalizes your property.”

“Well it’s not exactly my property. I’m renting the place. It probably has nothing to do with me.”

“Hannah.”

I deflated, my shoulders sagging. “I’ll go file a report and call about getting it repaired tomorrow. I’m too tired to deal with this right now.”

Sawyer looked me over for a minute, his eyes scanning my body and face as if he were trying to get a read on something. I didn’t know what. And normally it would have made me squirm. But instead, I found myself enjoying being the object of his curiosity.

He must have gotten whatever answer he was looking for, because a moment later, with a quick nod of his head, he took a step forward, putting his hand around my back and guiding me around to walk toward the front of the building.

“Come on, let’s get you some food and celebrate the day.”

The small of my back tingled under this touch and another shiver ran down my spine. But this time, it was one of excitement.

ten

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