Page 31 of Light of Day (Sea Smoke Island #1)

“So we were right,” Luke told Heather when they were back in the truck. “Based on the evidence Andy collected, this island was settled much earlier than when the hotel was built.”

“I think we’re getting somewhere, finally. But I agree with Lily. I don’t think Andy’s the bad guy.” Heather fastened her seatbelt and pulled out her phone. “I’m airdropping all these photos to you.”

“Want to go back to my place and look through them?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

Really, he just wanted to get her back into his bed.

She laughed. “Very smooth.”

“I know. I really have a way with the ladies.” He winked at her as he started his truck.

“Of course you do. It’s the man-in-uniform thing. Maybe also a rich kid thing. And then there’s the hottie thing. I’d say you have a few things going for you.”

“Is that a yes?” he asked hopefully, making her laugh again.

Just then her phone buzzed. “Hang on. I set my phone to alert me if any priority emails came in.” She pulled it from her pocket.

“It’s from Gabby!” Scanning it quickly, she said, “Phew. She’s fine.

She says she’s not worried about any of that and is just focused on putting together the most explosive episode our podcast has ever done. ”

“Nice.”

“Yes. This lets you off the hook, too. No more interview required.” She fired off an answer, then put away her phone and sighed.

“I really hate it when Gabby and I are fighting. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, phew.

It reminds me of my mother. Do you know that she threw my clothes off the dock once after a fight? ”

“Seems wasteful.”

“Yes, especially because she knows I don’t like the ocean. She knew I wouldn’t jump in to save them.”

“You don’t like the ocean?”

“I love looking at it and being around it. I just don’t want to get in it,” she explained.

“My friend Ellen dived in and collected almost everything. I still miss my Benetton crop top that I loved.” She went quiet for a moment, as if something had tugged at her memory, but then she shook it off.

“Did you catch that ‘feeble-minded’ reference?”

“Yes, I did. Andy must have been talking to someone who knew about the Hennessy stories.”

She nodded in agreement. “We need a list of historical society members. I think someone told him that story to scare him.”

“I’ll get a list asap.” His heart went out to the boy. Who would put such terrifying thoughts in his head?

Heather cracked open the window, letting in fresh evening air.

The slightest hint of smoke drifted in. Someone must be roasting marshmallows.

“I did a little online research, and back then, anyone who seemed slow was called feeble-minded. That would include neurodiverse people like Andy, even though he’s perfectly intelligent. And you know what else?”

“Shoot.”

“The eugenics movement was popular at that time. The idea was to only allow people with ‘desirable’ genes to reproduce. They wanted anyone who wasn’t quote ‘normal’ to be locked away in an institution so they wouldn’t taint the rest of the gene pool. Very cruel and uninformed, if you ask me.”

He felt the same, and could well imagine how such a threat would affect Andy. “So this younger man at the historical society was scaring him with a version of the Hennessy story and giving him nightmares. What for?”

“I bet he was trying to manipulate Andy. Maybe he intended for him to hurt Gabby, but Andy’s so kindhearted that he tried to rescue her instead.”

That theory actually held up for Luke. Andy did have a kind heart. And he was definitely terrified. “That would also explain why he had such a big meltdown. I was worried that we were the ones who triggered it.”

“Me too,” she admitted. “I went from being furious with him to being worried about him.”

He slowed his truck as they reached his house. Something didn’t look right. He switched off his headlights and crept closer, trying to figure out what had triggered his alarm bells.

“There!” Heather pointed at the east side of his house, where a figure in dark clothing was running across the lawn in the direction of the woods.

At the same moment, a flicker of orange inside the kitchen caught his eye.

“Stay here.” He flung open the door and ran at full speed toward his front door, barely getting his keys out in time to unlock the door.

Smoke poured from the direction of the kitchen.

There was a fire extinguisher just inside the kitchen door, if he could get there before the flames reached it.

He grabbed a blanket off the couch and dashed toward the kitchen. Maybe he could smother the flames before they got too big.

Covering his mouth with one arm, squinting against the smoke, he felt his way toward the fire extinguisher. There it was—thank God. He pulled the trigger and aimed the foam toward the glimmer of orange visible through the plumes of smoke. In a few moments, the fire was out.

His kitchen was a soggy, charred, foam-covered mess. But his house was still standing.

Heather appeared at his elbow. “Are you okay?” she asked, out of breath.

“Yeah. Someone broke in and started a fucking fire.”

She tugged at his arm. “We have to go.”

“I need to clean up this mess?—”

“No. We can do that later. I called the volunteer fire department and the dispatcher told me the fire truck’s at my mom’s café! She said they think it’s arson!”

“Jesus.”

He sorted through options. If he left, his house would be unguarded. The arsonist could come back and finish the job. But Heather needed to get to her mother.

“Hang on, let me grab a few things.”

Ever since he’d become constable, he’d had to think about certain things in a more responsible way.

He kept all his important papers locked in a mini-safe, which he grabbed now, along with his laptop, phone charger, and Izzy’s favorite stuffed seal.

She left it at his house to watch over him, she claimed.

Maybe it had done its job, because if they’d arrived a few minutes later, this entire house might have been gone.

He ran out to his truck, where Heather was already strapped into the passenger seat, her cell phone on speaker. “All I know is they sent the fire truck. I’ll meet you there, okay? Be careful, Mom.”

“You too, honey. What is wrong with people? Who’d want to burn down the Bloodshot Eyeball? It’d serve them right if I just closed the place up. Where would those idiots get their morning coffee if I did that?”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time.”

“You don’t understand, kiddo. Even if the insurance company pays for repairs, it’s hard to get anyone to do the work. Everyone’s always busy at the fricking Lightkeeper.”

Heather shot Luke an apologetic glance, but he just shrugged.

He knew how the islanders felt about the hotel; it was a love-hate relationship.

It brought in money, but most of that money went to the Carmichaels.

Meanwhile, it ate up resources and labor and kept property taxes high.

You’d never find him defending the hotel.

“One step at a time,” Heather repeated. “Let’s not panic yet.”

“Oh yeah? You going to stick around and help this time?”

Even Luke could hear the anxiety in Sally McPhee’s voice.

“I will. We’ll get through this. It’ll be alright. See you in a few minutes.” She ended the call. “My mom said she heard someone prowling around our house about half an hour ago. She scared them off with her rifle, but…I’m thinking you should call Carrie.”

Jesus Christ. She was right. The Bloodshot Eyeball, his house, the McPhees’ house…there was definitely a pattern. He hit Carrie’s number on his iPhone.

“There’s some weird shit going on tonight. Keep an eye and ear out for anything out of the ordinary. Is Frank still up?”

“Frank’s gone. For good.” He could tell that Carrie had been crying. “Turns out he has a girlfriend on the mainland.”

“Shit. I’m sorry. So it’s just you and Izzy there?” He didn’t like that, not at all. “Listen, why don’t you go stay with your sister for the night?”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t really know yet. Someone started a fire at my house, and the Bloodshot’s also on fire, and I think me and Heather might be targets, along with people close to us.”

“You’re overreacting. Everything’s perfectly fine here, except for Frank leaving.” She gave a muffled sob. “Besides, people on this island know better than to threaten us. My brothers would just about kill them.”

She had a point; her brothers had cornered him after Carrie had gotten pregnant. He’d barely managed to convince them that he’d already proposed to her.

Heather gestured for Luke to hand her his phone. “Carrie. This is real. We only have one fire truck on this island, and if someone decided to start a bunch of fires, there’s no way they could all get put out. Just be on the safe side and take Izzy to Olivia’s house. Promise?”

“Heather?” Carrie sounded more alert now that Heather was on the line. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, we’re heading to mom’s right now. Please do what Luke says.”

“Okay, but quick question—are you guys seeing each other?”

Heather shot Luke a glance full of laughter. “I wouldn’t?—”

“Because you’d be a great couple, and if you aren’t already considering it, you really should. I’ve been worried about Luke. He deserves someone really smart and fun, like you.”

“Carrie!”

“Okay, I’m going. But we’re still having coffee Saturday, right?”

“Hope so. I’ll text you.”

Shaking his head, Luke started up the truck and sped in the direction of the Bloodshot Eyeball. “Prepare for an earful about Frank. And some matchmaking.”

The dark woods sped past, punctuated by the occasional lamppost and twinkle of porch lights. “I have to ask…with Frank out of the picture, would you and Carrie…?”

“What? No.” He shook his head emphatically. “It took us over a year to figure out how to be good exes. Neither of us would mess that up for anything. Besides, we never should have gotten married. We weren’t a good match, and we were way too young. The only good thing we did together was have Izzy.”

“That’s a very important ‘good thing’.”

“The most important. And she would have been enough, I mean, we both would have tried to make it work, but then Frank showed up. I think we both jumped on the opportunity for an exit ramp. We talked it through a lot. How to co-parent Izzy. How the finances would work. How to create a world that Izzy would be happy in. Things are good now, but it’s taken a lot of work and communication. ”

“And sacrifice,” she said thoughtfully.

“How so?”

“You could have gone back to your family. That was what they wanted, right? Your dad wanted you to work for him instead of being our favorite island constable?”

“Yes, but that was never an option. I needed to stay close to Izzy. I don’t consider that a sacrifice at all. I don’t miss the hotel or that world.”

“How about your family? All those brothers and sisters.”

“Half-brothers and sisters. We were never close. Carson and Fiona and Barnaby are all from Dad’s first marriage. I’m from his second. My mom remarried and lives in California now. I spent a lot of time with her growing up.”

“And the twins? I can’t remember their names.” He was surprised she knew as much as she did about his siblings, but islanders did like to talk about the Carmichaels.

“Rufus and Ruby are from his third marriage. They’re in college now and busy all the time. We text a little. I keep in touch with Barnaby the most. We hang out when he’s on the island, which isn’t often. Carson…he’s always been a dick and never liked me.”

They passed Lost Seal Cove, where occasionally a harbor seal popped its head above water, took one look, then headed back to sea.

Local legend had it that silkies had once used the cove as their changing rooms, leaving their pelts behind while they transformed into humans and roamed the island.

That made Luke think of the “School for the Feeble Minded” stories, which had also been passed down as a scare tactic.

Was it possible the silkie stories were also based on a kernel of truth?

“How much of a dick?” Heather was asking. “Carson, I mean. Would he…”

“Set my house on fire? Scare Andy?” He finished the thought for her. “I sure as hell hope not. But in the end, he’d do whatever my father asked him to. Or he’d direct someone else to do it, more likely.”

“What about…murder?”

Luke wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question.