Page 24

Eighteen

Benny

Present Day

“Got us a ride!” Zara was standing at the other end of the dock with Ryan and his dad. “Why didn’t you tell me what we were doing this morning?” Ryan asked Benny. “If you’d said we needed a ride, I would have asked my dad to take us. He has two boats.”

“ Two boats. You didn’t even tell me you had one boat.” Benny wasn’t sure she would ever be used to this world.

Ryan shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”

“Forgive him, Benny,” Harris said. He was dressed in jeans and a green polo shirt, the Terry Estate Vineyards insignia stitched onto the front pocket. “He means we had two boats.” She saw an expression she couldn’t read flicker across his face. “We just sold one, and we’ll probably have to sell this one too.” He grimaced. “Running restaurants is expensive.” His face relaxed. “But for today, this boat is ours, so I’m happy to take you out on it.”

“Thanks for the ride,” Benny told him. “I thought you were having lunch with my mom.”

“I still am. We just moved our reservation. When Ryan told me you needed a ride to the lighthouse as part of the game, I wanted to help.” He motioned to the pricey watch on his wrist. “Deadline is fast approaching, and we need you to win.”

“Thanks,” Benny said gratefully. At least someone knew what they were up against. “I really appreciate it.”

“And it’s a free ride,” Zara added, glaring at the other end of the dock. “Who needs Captain Grump?”

“Captain who?” Harris asked, stepping off the dock and walking to the next pier. They all followed. “No matter. Let’s get you to the lighthouse before it rains again.”

The boat was situated on the next dock. It was bigger than Ansel’s and the other boats Benny had seen in the slips. It had two levels and a huge lower cabin area that could be the size of her whole last apartment. In just a few minutes, Harris had the boat started, Ryan had untied it from the slip, and they were pulling away from the docks and heading into open water. Shelter Island was on their right, and in minutes, Greenport became a dot in the distance.

Benny held on tight as Harris navigated the boat over the chop. It was too loud to have a conversation with Zara and Ryan stuck close to his dad, helping him with various tasks. That left Benny to wonder what they were going to find when they reached the lighthouse. Would the clue be in plain sight? Would they have enough time to find it? She went over the riddle again in her head, thinking about the words that could mean something: Sea. Siren. Maiden. Compass. What were they looking for? But before she could decide, the lighthouse seemed to rise out of the water in the distance.

It looked like a house on stilts. The lighthouse was square, three stories, with a circular tower above it sitting on a bed of rocks in the middle of the water. The island was no bigger than the lighthouse itself and had only a small dock for Harris to pull up alongside. Benny didn’t see any lights on inside, except for the one shining from the lighthouse tower, circulating like a beacon. Behind the lighthouse, large black clouds were starting to form, like a warning. Ryan jumped off the boat, tied it to the dock, then put down a plank for them to walk from the boat to the dock as Harris kept the boat idling.

“Don’t take too long,” Harris said, shouting to be heard over the wind. “There’s a storm brewing again.”

We’ll try not to , she thought as she followed Ryan and Zara down the dock to a door at the base of the lighthouse, which Zara opened with a key she’d “borrowed” from the museum. Inside was dark. All Benny could see was storage boxes. Even the staircase looked like it was under construction. Light from the upstairs windows showed them the way.

“Come on up,” Zara said racing up the stairs to the next level. “I’ll tell Earl we’re here and not to tell my grandmother we visited and borrowed her keys.”

“Who is Earl?” Ryan wondered as Benny followed them.

“He volunteers here every week,” Zara said, reaching the second floor first. “Knows more about this lighthouse than even my grandmother.”

Benny reached the top step. The lighthouse was one big room on this floor. A spiral staircase stood in one corner and a Save the Lighthouse banner hung on a wall alongside a portrait of what Benny could only assume was the old lighthouse keeper. There was also a nautical map of Long Island on one wall. Otherwise the room was sparse.

Where would Evelyn have hidden a clue? Benny stepped up to one of the large windows overlooking the water and stared out. Even from this distance she could make out Evelyn’s brown-shingled house on the shoreline in Greenport.

Benny heard feet on loud metal and looked up at the staircase leading to the lighthouse lookout deck. “I talked to Earl, and he vows to keep our secret,” Zara told them. “He wants to meet you two, and then he’ll leave us alone. I’m going to warn you; he’s a talker, but I’ll try to keep him brief so we can start searching this place.”

Benny headed up first with Ryan right behind her. The next floor looked like it was once someone’s home and was now a museum. There was a coal-burning stove, a table, a bed, and a wingback chair, all situated on a rug in a roped-off area. Along one wall were framed maps, artwork, old newspaper articles, model ships, and a TV playing a story about a lighthouse on a loop. A grandfather clock with a carving of a lighthouse on the glass case ticked quietly in a corner. Benny longed to stop and explore the area, but Zara was hissing for them to keep climbing. Another spiral staircase took them up to the tower.

A loud clap of thunder shook the foundation.

“Oh, boy. My dad is going to want to get going already,” Ryan said, sounding anxious.

“We can’t leave now,” Zara protested. “We have to solve the riddle. And besides, it’s not even raining yet.”

“Yeah, but—” Ryan started, and Zara sounded like she was going to argue.

Benny cut them both off. “Why don’t I go up and say hi to Earl, and you two start searching?” She pulled the riddle out of her pocket and handed Zara the necklace. “Take these. Maybe you’ll need the pendant or rereading the riddle will help you. I’ll be back down as soon as I can.”

“Don’t let him talk your ear off,” Zara said as Benny hurried up the stairs.

“Got it!” Benny whispered back.

The area was tiny, but offered a spectacular a 360-degree view of the harbor, Greenport’s docks, and Evelyn’s house in the distance. In the middle of the circular space, the lighthouse lamp, much like the one at the museum, was whirring and spinning, the light flashing out on the gray skies. Benny noticed the clouds were swirling and moving fast, the storm rolling in, a sheet of rain seemingly heading right toward them. She didn’t know how much time they had.

“Welcome!” Earl said. He was hard to miss in the space’s one lone folding chair. Possibly in his seventies, Earl was wearing navy captain’s hat, a Save the Lighthouse T-shirt, and khaki shorts with white Crocs. “Welcome to the Greenport Lighthouse tour,” he said on autopilot. “I’m Earl Spoodle, and I’m a volunteer with the Greenport Historical Society. Today, you will be embarking on a fun-filled tour of this historical—oh.” He realized Benny was the only one there and looked surprised. “Where did Zara go?”

“Hi, Earl,” Benny said pleasantly as the wind whipped outside, making an eerie sound against the panes of glass. “Zara had to take care of something downstairs for her grandma, but she asked me to come up and say hello. I’m Benny.”

Earl just looked confused. “Ben, you say?”

“Benny,” she clarified.

“Benny,” he repeated, committing her name to memory. Something caught his eye in the distance. “How did you get here? Does Thea know you’re here?” He looked outside, and Benny wondered if he thought Zara’s grandmother was going to drive up on a speedboat.

A flash of lightning made Benny ever more mindful of how little time they had. She heard something fall downstairs. “Well, it sounds like Zara needs help, but it was nice—”

“Can’t leave without hearing me give my speech.” Earl cleared his throat. “The Greenport Lighthouse was commissioned in 1850 by Evelyn Terry. It—”

“Earl, I don’t know how long we can stay,” Benny tried.

“It has been a working lighthouse ever since, though there isn’t much need for one anymore in the harbor. Still, the Greenport Historical Society would like to see it be maintained. This place has always had an air of mystery.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Did you know there are rumors about a tunnel leading from this lighthouse all the way to Greenport Harbor?”

Benny paused, intrigued. “Wait. Really? Is that true?” No one mentioned that before.

“That’s what I heard,” Earl said. “Been hearing that rumor since I was a kid, but it would make sense. You know, during the Prohibition Era, Hooked Restaurant ran a bootlegger business? It’s true. Since the restaurant sits on the docks, small boats would pull up underneath. They had a trapdoor window that the ship would pass them booze through. The bar has a trapdoor behind it you can still see to this day. You ask that Ryan kid that Zara knows to see it. His family owns the joint. Anyway, there’s a tunnel down there too. That one I’ve seen back when I bartended there in my youth. People were too scared to use the tunnel or see where it goes, but it felt like a good hiding spot if you ask me.”

“Yeah, that would be,” Benny realized, wondering now herself what else was down there.

“And if there is a tunnel there, makes sense it would lead here, but oh, what am I saying? People never listen to ol’ Earl.”

Another flash of lightning made them both look out the glass window. The wind was rattling the glass hard now. The clouds were closing in, almost as if they were overhead. A fog was rolling in over the bay. Benny noticed something strange. “Earl, why does the sky look green? Is that the glass or the light in here doing that?”

“Green?” Earl sat up and scratched his head. “It is green.” He stood up and stared out at the water. “That’s odd. It doesn’t happen very often. In fact, I’ve only seen this happen once or twice before.”

“What does it mean?” Benny asked. The wind was whipping so loud, she worried the glass might blow out. The sound reminded her of whispers. They sounded like voices.

Earl didn’t seem to hear her question. His voice was barely a whisper as his nose smushed the glass. He sounded like he was in a trance. “It’s the island trying to be found again.”

Benny froze. “Did you say island ?”

His eyes were like saucers as he stared at the horizon line. “Look out there. Can you see it? Hear it calling to you? It’s the island waiting for someone to step ashore.”

“You know about the island?” Benny inhaled sharply, goose bumps prickling her skin as she followed Earl’s gaze out over the water, prepared to see nothing.

Instead, she saw it faintly, like an outline a person would sketch on a piece of paper—a small piece of land where moments before there was none.

Her fingers pressed against the glass, willing herself to be certain. Evelyn’s island. It’s real , she thought, heart pounding as she stared at the island, not far from the lighthouse, forested, with a small beach, and what appeared to be a fort, crumbling on one end of the shore.

It shimmered for a moment, almost like a mirage, before another flash of lightning lit up the whole tower, and then before she could even fumble for her camera to snap a picture, the island was gone.