Page 71 of Deadline

“She told you about him?”

“Not much. He works on boats.”

“I know little more than that. I urged her to invite him to the house, but she seemed reluctant to introduce us. I wish now that I?

?d pressed her for more information about him, but she was a grown woman. I didn’t feel it was my place to interfere.”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

His tone suggested an unspoken footnote. So did the discomfiture in his expression. “Bernie, do you know something that you’re not telling? Whatever it is, you should share it with the authorities.”

He shifted in his seat, glanced into the rearview mirror to make certain the boys weren’t listening, then gave her an uneasy glance. “I saw them together.”

“Her and Dirk?”

Looking miserable, he shook his head.

Her heart began a dull, hard thudding. “Dawson?”

He nodded.

“When?”

He screwed up his face in thought. “Thursday?”

“You must have the day wrong.” She’d caught Dawson spying on Friday, and Stef hadn’t met him until that evening at Mickey’s.

“No, I’m certain it was Thursday, because that was the day I was packing up and my hip started giving me fits.”

Without interrupting him, she listened carefully as he described to her the encounter he’d seen.

When he finished, he paused, and added awkwardly, “It wasn’t anything. Not really. But when I teased her about it later, warning her that he looked too old for her, she just laughed and asked me not to say anything to you about seeing them together.”

“Why did she care if I knew?”

“She didn’t. He did. He’d told her not to tell you that they’d met.”

Amelia was too heartsick to respond.

Bernie pulled up to one of the village’s few stop signs and looked across at her. “I hate now that I told you.”

“I needed to know.”

“It’s not my place to butt in.”

“You didn’t butt in. I pried it out of you.”

“Who you spend time with is your business.”

“It was only circumstances that brought Dawson and me together.”

“That may be,” Bernie said, “but I think you like him.”

She turned her head aside so he couldn’t see her face. “We’d better hurry or we’ll miss the ferry.”

Chapter 13

Dawson left the interior of the sheriff’s administrative offices through a doorway that opened into a small lobby. He was shocked to see Amelia there alone. She was sitting in one of a row of preformed plastic chairs lined up against the wall. She seemed just as surprised to see him. Her eyes widened fractionally, then she looked away.