Page 45 of Light of Day (Sea Smoke Island #1)

At the east wharf, Gary had already cast off his stern line when Luke commandeered his vessel.

Which was a fancy way of saying “asked if he could use it for an hour or two.”

“Ayup,” Gary said amiably. “I’ll be at the bar. That bartender they got sure is a treat for the eyes. Always a pleasure delivering lobsters here.” He ambled back up the dock toward the hotel.

The rest of the group piled into the boat—Detective Chen, Gabby, and Sasha.

“Does anyone know how to pilot a lobster boat?” he asked them.

Everyone shook their heads, and Luke regretted letting Gary disappear. Maybe it was for the best; he knew where the caves were and could get them there the fastest.

Darkness was falling fast across the water, turning the familiar shoreline into a wild foreign land.

“Everyone keep your eyes out for any movement, anything that looks out of place, anything colorful,” he instructed the rest as he steered the boat away from the dock.

“What was Heather wearing?” Gabby asked.

“A red gym-type jacket with a white stripe down the arms, kind of shiny, over a tank top with spaghetti straps. Tight jeans. Boots.” The image of him pushing up her top to expose her breasts came back to him with physical force. He shoved it aside.

“Good memory,” Gabby murmured, then winked at him. She was on her feet, holding tight to a grab bar mounted near the cabin door.

No comment.

“Listen, Gabby. I know my family’s in the thick of this. But I take my job seriously, and?—”

“And I’m here to make sure he doesn’t fuck this up,” Detective Chen added.

Gabby tucked her windblown hair behind her ear. It was loose now, no longer in the disheveled twists from that morning he’d spotted her in his shed. “I called you, didn’t I?” she said levelly. “Heather trusts you, so I took a chance.”

After about ten minutes of motoring around the point and down the shoreline, a shout came from the open deck of the boat. “I see something!” called Sasha.

A moment later, she shrieked and hit the deck. A gunshot rang out, followed by a splash.

Chen ran to help Sasha. “I’m okay!” she called. “There was someone in a kayak. Two kayaks.”

“Everyone get down and stay down,” Chen ordered. She pulled out her service weapon and crouched behind the port gunwale of the boat.

Luke swung the boat around so it faced the direction the gunshot had come from. He found the switch for Gary’s outside light and turned it on. The beam lit up the water and the two kayaks speed-paddling toward the caves.

“Stop paddling and put your hands in the air,” Chen yelled.

“Fuck you!” Carson’s voice.

Luke pushed down the Plexiglas window—no easy task since they always got gummed up with salt—and shouted, “Carson, it’s over. Your big plan is busted. Better cut your losses before you make things even worse. You just fired on a police officer. Dad won’t be able to bail you out of this one.”

“Get the fuck off my ass, traitor!” Carson paddled faster. What was his plan? To get into that cave and hide out? Was there a bigger network of caves than Luke knew about?

Luke maneuvered the boat so he was between the kayaks and the shoreline. Carson evaded him; he was an expert paddler, after all, who’d nearly competed in the Olympics.

“Carson, your only chance right now is to come clean. We arrested Amy Lou Westbrook. She’ll testify that you knew what Denton was researching.

I know you’ve been spending time with Andy Highgrove.

You manipulated him, scared him with stories about schools for the feeble-minded.

Jesus, Carson. Don’t you think our family has caused enough harm? Why do you want to add to it?”

“You’re such a fucking pussy,” Carson yelled. “Always were.”

Another gunshot rang out. The bullet dinged off a piece of hardware somewhere on the boat.

Luke changed tactics.

“Fiona, are you out there? You always were the smarter one. You know there’s no escape here. If you tell me where Heather is, I’ll make sure they go easy on you.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Fiona’s lighter voice could barely be heard over the sound of the engine. “All I did was give your girl some dry clothes. She’ll tell you. Carson did all the bad stuff.”

Relief bloomed in his heart that apparently Heather was okay, wherever she was.

“What about Denton Simms?” Chen yelled. “You tried to strangle him, didn’t you? I bet we can match your DNA to the traces we found on him.”

Which hadn’t happened, but Fiona wouldn’t know that.

“It’s not what it…Luke! Tell her. I’m not a murderer.” Fiona’s voice was closer; she was paddling toward them now. It was hard to track both kayaks in the dark when he could only illuminate one.

“Come onboard and we can sort it all out,” he said.

But as she paddled toward them—he heard the dip of her paddle in the water—another shot fired. She cried out and the bow of her kayak bumped into Gary’s boat.

As Chen fired in the direction the shot had come from, running cover for him, he jerked the throttle into idle and ran to the back deck, crouching low.

Another bullet winged above his back as he reached over the side.

In the bobbing light from the running lights, he saw Fiona holding her arm, moaning.

With her uninjured hand, she unsnapped her spray skirt and reached toward him.

He wrapped his hand around her arm and muscled her onboard.

She collapsed onto the floorboards. “Carson killed that man,” she spat.

“I was just trying to scare him into telling us who he’d found, what descendants, but Carson came and injected the poor dude with something and rolled him off a cliff. ”

So Denton had died to protect Sasha Mackey. But once he was dead, her name had come out thanks to his will. No wonder Gabby had fled the island to go find her.

Luke knelt next to Fiona, but the boat’s rocking made it hard to see the extent of her wound. “Why? Why’d Carson do that?”

“He doesn’t like not getting his way.” She coughed up some saltwater and spit it out.

“Jesus, Fiona.” His heart broke at the reality that things had come to this. Sure, he’d been mostly out of touch with his family, but he’d never imagined she and Carson—and Celine—would go this far. “Why would you get into this mess? Was it Carson’s idea?”

“Are you being a constable right now? Or my brother?”

Good question.

“He’s a constable, and a damn good one,” called Chen, right before firing another round into the ocean.

Normally, Luke would have appreciated that compliment. But right now, it was bittersweet. “Constable.”

Fiona sighed. “I guess I should probably have a lawyer then.”

“Yes.” With a heavy heart, he had to agree.

“I winged the other one,” Chen called. “No more shots fired. Let’s snag him while he’s out.”

The other one. She meant his other half-sibling…the murderer.

He’d snag Carson, all right. But first…“Fiona, here’s your last chance to redeem yourself. Where can we find Heather?”