Page 29 of Light of Day (Sea Smoke Island #1)

Heather was late to the Sea Scoops Ice Cream Shop.

A retired tugboat captain had opened the place about five years ago, as a hobby, and hired her old friend Ellen to paint a mural of mermaids perched on the rocks, enjoying their ice cream cones.

Heather would have loved coming in here for that fact alone; the ice cream was a bonus.

She found Luke and Izzy already waiting for her, double-scoop cones in hand.

“No kiddie cones for you,” she joked to Izzy. “I was the same way when I was your age. I thought it was a big scam they were trying to pull on me.”

Izzy giggled through the chocolate ice cream smeared on her mouth, chin and even her nose.

Luke dabbed it off with a napkin, which he added to a small pile of similarly stained napkins on the table. “That’s why we have to get a double scoop,” he said dryly. “Half of the ice cream ends up on a napkin.”

“I get it. You know how dogs like to roll around in anything that smells good to them? I always thought that for me, that would be ice cream.”

Izzy found that image hilarious and laughed so hard that she nearly toppled the upper scoop of her cone. Luke rescued it with one quick move and plopped it back on her cone. The little girl found that funny too, but this time she managed to laugh without threatening her dessert.

Heather found herself smiling more than she had in quite some time.

Kids could always do that, couldn’t they?

Without even trying, they made you change your perspective on things.

The cascade of disasters that had come her way lately—dumped by Tim, show canceled, Gabby missing, father lost to the four winds—it all faded away as she soaked in Izzy’s infectious laughter.

It wasn’t until another child appeared, someone from Izzy’s school, that Luke and Heather were able to confer.

“Something happened to Andy,” he said in a low voice.

“Yes, I heard. I wish I’d gone easier on him. I was so focused on not letting our only connection to Gabby get away…” She shook her head. “I should have been more careful.” Luke had warned her, after all.

“I have a feeling it had been building up, but I’m going to talk to his parents as soon as we’re done here.”

“Good idea.” Heather nodded in agreement. “Can I come too?”

“What the hell, why not? We have one night until the Harbortown police take over. After that, probably not.”

Heather dug a spoon into her cup of Raspberry Moose Tracks with coconut flakes on top. She could have seen that coming. Of course she wouldn’t be welcome in an official murder investigation.

But the Harbortown police couldn’t stop her from pursuing the story that Gabby had been working on. “I found out something interesting from my mother.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Oh yeah?”

“She mentioned the other day that my great-great-grandfather was the only doctor on the island in his time. But she didn’t know what kind of doctor, so she asked a few of the oldsters who hang out at the Bloodshot Eyeball if they’d ever heard anything. One of them did. Carleton Grant.”

“He’s over ninety, right?”

“Yes. He remembered hearing about my great-great-grandfather, even though he died in like, nineteen-twenty, before Carleton was even born. Apparently, get this, Hennessy McPhee—that was his name—was a name used to scare little kids into obeying their parents. They’d say, ‘if you don’t behave yourself, Hennessy will come and take you away.

’ The memory of him was so powerful that parents kept saying it even after Hennessy was dead.

The legend lived on, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. ”

Luke was listening to her, looking just as fascinated as she’d been when her mother related the story.

“But why? Why would a doctor be so scary?”

“Well, apparently he specialized in mental disorders. If he diagnosed someone with a mental disability, they could get sent to the School for the Feeble-Minded. Remember what Jimmy Simms said, that his mother threatened him with that?”

The shock on Luke’s face mirrored her own when she’d heard that detail. “Jesus. So did that happen a lot, that people got sent there?”

“It shouldn’t have. I mean, on an island this size, how many mentally challenged people could there be?

Don’t answer that,” she said quickly, as a joke.

“But it sounds like it must have. Here’s the other thing.

Carleton was born in nineteen thirty-two.

That was twenty years after the hotel was built, right?

They started it in nineteen-twelve. Hennessy died in nineteen-twenty.

So how would Hennessy make that big of an impression on the islanders in such a short time?

Eight years? Carleton said he heard people telling those scare stories up until our generation was born.

The School for the Feeble-Minded changed names a few times, and was permanently closed in nineteen-ninety-six.

But up until then, people were still holding up Hennessy as some kind of specter of fear. ”

She watched him put all that together and sift through the possibilities. “So you think he must have been here before nineteen-twelve.”

“That’s my theory. Think about it. In nineteen-twelve, supposedly, laborers arrive on an uninhabited island to build the hotel.

Hennessy comes too, maybe so they had a doctor around.

But he diagnoses so many of these hard-working laborers with mental disabilities that he becomes a figure of fear to their descendants? That doesn’t add up.”

He nodded as he toyed with the last bit of his cone. “It doesn’t. Why would my ancestor hire a bunch of people with mental disabilities? Unless the island drove them mad after they got here,” he added with a little laugh.

“This place? Nah.” She grinned. “Maybe their working conditions were so dismal they went crazy.”

“Oh, so now it’s my ancestor’s fault.”

“Own it, Carmichael,” she teased. “Your ancestor was the big cheese. Mine was a mere doctor.”

He shook his head as he thought about it further. “None of these scenarios works. If a worker wasn’t effective, he’d be fired, not committed.”

“Exactly.”

“So people were living here before the hotel was built. That’s your conclusion.”

“Right. And not just little bands of Aucocisco who came out here to fish. People who had been living here all along. Who knows for how long.”

“Interesting. I’m still not sure what that has to do with anything that’s going on now.” He balled up the sticky napkins and tossed them in the trash.

“Well, I don’t know either. But Gabby was investigating it, and Denton was involved, so it’s got to be connected. There’s another thing that’s strange.”

“Really, another?” he said dryly. “What a shock.”

“I know, it’s just one strange thing after another.

When I asked Amy Lou if the island was inhabited before the hotel was built, she totally danced around the question.

What I got was that the official story was that Sea Smoke was settled when the hotel was built, but there’s some scattered evidence of preexisting inhabitants.

The button, for instance. I bet if we went out to Shell Beach and dug around, we’d find more like that.

In fact, I asked Amy Lou what she knew about the rules out there now that the Island Trust owns it. Know what she said?”

“What?”

“That anyone’s welcome to walk around below the tideline, and anything found below the surface belongs to the Island Trust. Even that button, strictly speaking, belongs to them.

Amy Lou might have confiscated it if we’d told her we found it at the beach.

Doesn’t that sound strange? Why would they have a provision like that? ”

“In case oil is discovered?” They both laughed. “Or some rare earth mineral or other,” he added. “I guess you never know.”

“There’s always the legendary buried treasure.”

“Right. How could I forget that potential goldmine?” He checked on Izzy, who was now running up and down the outside deck playing tag with two other girls. “Have to admit I’m starting to wonder about this Island Trust.”

“Same. It’s on my list for more research.”

He filled her in on what he’d discovered—the note he’d found in Denton’s boat, the location of the murder, his various theories. “Have you heard anything from Gabby since this morning?”

“Nothing. I’m hoping she made it off the island. By the way, I found out that Denton paid for her room at the hotel.”

“Really? Interesting.” She watched him file away that bit of information.

“I worry that she’s still in danger. Whoever killed Denton?—”

“I agree.” Luke cut her off before she could finish that terrifying thought. “I’ve alerted the Harbortown police that she might be a target.”

“You what ?” She looked at him in surprise. “So now they’re looking for Gabby?”

“Not officially. There’s no BOLO. But they’ll keep an eye out.”

“You really think that was necessary?” Heather felt a knot develop in her stomach. “Gabby can obviously take care of herself, and we don’t know how the police are going to handle this.”

“I told them she’s not a suspect.”

“But will she know that?” She rose to her feet. Somehow, she had to get word to Gabby that she might be in danger and that the Harbortown police might be looking for her.

“Heather—”

“I’m just going to warn her.” She pulled out her phone and fired off an email to every account Gabby had.

Just a head’s up that the police might be looking for you. You’re not a suspect but Luke is worried you might be in danger from whoever killed Denton. Watch your back and be safe.

She closed it out with several hearts and prayer hands.

When she looked up from her phone, she saw that something had gone awry with Izzy and her friends. Their parents, including Luke, were clustered around them trying to sort things out. He looked up and caught her eye, mouthing, “don’t leave.”

A few moments later, the squabble was settled and the other little girl offered Izzy a tearful apology. Hugs were exchanged, and Izzy and Luke came back to the table, her hand in his. “Everything okay?” Heather asked.

“We made up,” Izzy announced. “She said she’s sorry.”

“That’s great news. There’s nothing like a really good friend.” Heather’s heart twisted as she thought about Gabby being in danger even off the island.

But Izzy had already moved on. “Can I have more ice cream?”

“And…that’s our cue to head back to your mom’s,” Luke said dryly. “Where’s your jacket?”

As Izzy crawled under the table to retrieve her jacket, Luke said to Heather, “Meet at my house? It won’t take me long to drop off Izzy.” When she hesitated, he added, “Better yet, why don’t you come with us? That way you don’t have to ride in the dark.”

He was right, it was already getting dark. The first evening star glowed over Eagle Point, and the sky was settling into a dreamy sapphire blue.

“I can also drop you at your house if you prefer. Please,” he added. “As your constable, I should mention that riding bikes in the dark out here is a sketchy proposition. I’ve dealt with three bike crashes already this season.”

“How many of those were stoned teenagers?”

“All of them,” he admitted. “But my point stands.”

She gave in, partly because she hadn’t done this much bike-riding in a while and her butt was sore. They dropped off a sticky, yawning Izzy at Carrie’s house, which reminded Heather that she really did need to catch up with Carrie.

She shot her a quick text before she forgot, and they made a plan for coffee on Saturday, when Izzy had a play date with her bestie. Apparently she’d just committed to still being here on Saturday. Go figure.

“I’m sorry you’re upset about Gabby,” Luke began.

“Are you really worried she might be a target?”

“Maybe. I have a theory that she intended to be at the meeting at which Denton was killed, but Andy got in the way of that. Better to assume she could be, and prepare.”

“Oh God. What a nightmare this all is. If anything else happens to her—” She broke off, biting her lip to hold back her fear.

“Hey.” Luke put a hand on her leg, a gesture meant to reassure her, though it had another effect altogether. Tingles spread up her thigh and settled in her lower belly. “The best way to help Gabby right now is figure out who killed Denton and arrest their ass.”

“Good point.” She swallowed hard, wishing his touch didn’t have such a big effect on her. “So what’s next then? Aren’t the Harbortown police taking over that investigation?”

“Yes. I have to meet them at the wharf first thing in the morning. But until then…want to come talk to the Highgroves with me? I’m trying to get more details about what Andy knew.

There’s a chance he saved her life by kidnapping her.

But let’s not tell the Highgroves that. I want them worried and eager to please.

Let me handle that interrogation, okay?”

“Mmm.” Her sound of agreement sounded more like a purr. Warmth radiated from his hand across her skin and through her limbs.

Goddamn it. She was going to have to do something about this ridiculous attraction. Either pursue it and see where it went, or flee the island once again.