Читать книгу The Harbor - Carla Neggers, Carla Neggers - Страница 15

Seven

Teddy couldn’t help it—to him the ocean smelled like a bucket of barf, especially at low tide. He couldn’t get used to it. He stood at the water’s edge of the shallow cove in front of his wreck of a cottage and watched a lobster boat pull up to the lobster-pound dock, gulls swooping around everywhere. He’d once had a gull grab a ham sandwich right out of his hand.

Luke was on the phone, bitching him out. “You moron. Betsy saw you and that FBI agent arguing.”

“We weren’t arguing. He thought I was having a heart attack.”

Luke snorted. “And you believed him?”

“No, but so what?”

Teddy walked out onto a flat, gray rock, the water around it not two inches deep at low tide. It was more or less a puddle—a tide pool, he guessed it was called. It bled into a stretch of gray mud and small, water-smoothed rocks.

“Nothing happened,” he went on. “Relax. Anybody asks, I’m watching Zoe for you, making sure she doesn’t get in over her head like last year. Because you care about her. Because Patrick West was your friend and Olivia West had a soft spot for you and you figure you owe them.”

“I don’t want people to know you and I have any connection—”

“Relax, will you? You should have thought this through before you asked me to spy on an FBI agent—”

“I don’t have to listen to this,” Luke hissed.

“Nurse Betsy say anything to you? She likes to have blueberry pie on the sly, you know. Probably figures you’ll think your arteries will clog just from watching her chow down.”

“Where are you now?”

“Cooling my heels. If McGrath spotted me skulking around your ex-cop sweetie, she could have, too. I’ll go on back to town in a few minutes.”

“Be discreet,” Luke snapped, condescending, irritable.

“Why’d you agree to hire me if you’re getting cold feet this fast? Jesus—”

“Don’t get the wrong idea, Shelton. I’m not afraid of either one of them. I just don’t want them meddling in her father’s murder investigation. It’ll just make matters worse and won’t lead to his killer. McGrath has no right to stir up trouble.” Luke breathed heavily, as if he might hyperventilate. “The West sisters have suffered enough.”

Right. Like he’d hired Teddy because he was worried about Zoe and Christina West’s feelings. Teddy watched the lobster boat ease on back around the point, toward the small, protected harbor. The temperature was going down, nightfall coming earlier and earlier. He could feel the bite of winter in the air. Luke’d be heading south soon. Teddy didn’t have any firm plans, but he had no intention of spending another winter in Maine.

“I think your instincts about our Special Agent McGrath are on target,” Teddy said. “The guy’s trouble. I don’t care if the old cemeteries around here are full of his ancestors, he’s here because there’s an unsolved murder.”

“It’s been bad enough having the state investigators snooping—” Luke sighed. “I should have thrown you off my boat that night you showed up here.”

Teddy knew he wasn’t referring to the night a week ago when Luke had asked Teddy to keep an eye on McGrath, and Zoe if she came back, but to a night more than a year ago. “But you didn’t, did you?” Teddy walked backward off his rock. “You sold me a gun you weren’t supposed to sell me.”

“What’s your game, Shelton?” Luke’s voice was low, not so arrogant now. A touch of fear in it. “Because if you’re playing me—”

“Relax. Go hump Nurse Betsy. I’ll stay in touch.”

Teddy clicked off. He felt almost smug—that’d teach the bastard to try to get the upper hand with him. He went back up to the cottage, a one-bedroom with cracked linoleum and cheap furnishings, and got his truck keys and headed out. He almost ran into Bruce’s truck on its way out from the lobster pound. Teddy waved. The guy was amazing. His first instinct was to like people. He was totally undiscriminating. It’d never occur to him his buddy Teddy had an illegal arsenal in the jump seat. Grenades, semiautomatic assault weapons, so-called large capacity feeding devices.

Nah, not Bruce. He was oblivious.

Bruce slowed to a crawl and stuck his head out his window. “You play darts? Come by Perry’s later. Maybe you can beat the FBI agent.”

Teddy didn’t know what to say. “Okay. Yeah, I’ll see you later.”

* * *

Zoe drove out to a market south of town and bought staples, like bread, juice, milk and cereal, then stopped at a farm store for local produce—Cortland apples, butternut squash, potatoes, carrots, fall spinach. She bought a jug of apple cider and a half-dozen cider doughnuts, eating one on the way back through the village.

She stopped at her childhood home, now her sister’s home, and let the engine idle while she gripped the wheel with both hands and thought about the break-in. Her father had insisted on locks on the doors. He was chief of police. He wasn’t going to make it easy for anyone to just walk in. He’d once stopped by Olivia’s with a lock for her porch door, but she distracted him with some other project—locks made her feel like she was in prison. One was enough. The logic of having locks on both her doors defeated her.

“Oh, Christ...”

The tears came out of nowhere. Zoe breathed in through her nose, trying to get control of herself. It’d been a year, and she still missed them both, her father, her great-aunt. They’d always been there. The rocks of her life. Her anchors. Everything they’d ever wanted in life was right here. She could talk Washington, D.C., and world events and federal law enforcement with Stick Monroe—with her dad and Aunt Olivia, it had always been about Goose Harbor.

Zoe wiped her cheeks with her fingertips and ate another cider doughnut.

Maybe if she stayed in town, she could make her peace with not knowing who’d killed her father, or why, or if Olivia’s death was in any way related.

I know who killed him.

“Ah, Aunt Olivia. Where’s Jen Periwinkle when we need her?”

Jen used her wits to distinguish good clues from bad clues—and there were always clues. The police had Patrick West’s body and the two bullets that had killed him. That was all.

Zoe pushed back her thoughts, her overwhelming sense of grief, and instead of driving back through town and fighting the leaf-peepers, she took the tangle of back streets, passing inns and summer houses, smaller homes owned by year-round locals, until she came out on Ocean Drive just above the nature preserve named for her great-aunt.

She turned onto a gravel road and drove a hundred yards to a parking area and visitors’ center amid a pine grove. This time she got out of her car. The air was cooler here, a slight breeze stirring. She looked up at the pine needles etched against the cloudless blue of the sky, heard birds in the distance—it was migrating season for hawks.

The preserve’s self-guided trails were open from dawn until dusk. Zoe found herself on the wide, three-mile gravel loop trail. She’d come out here to run ever since she was a teenager. After she’d resigned from the state police, she’d run the loop trail every day to train for the FBI Academy. She remembered how excited she was about her future, how her life had seemed to stretch before her. Now she didn’t know what would come next. It was enough to plan dinner. She sometimes wondered if that was why she’d responded to the rhythms of the Jericho farm, milking and feeding the goats, harvesting the garden. Even with knitting, she had to stay focused on the present.

She passed interpretive signs describing the wildlife and plant life, the geology of southern Maine’s curving coastline and broad stretches of beaches, the cluster of three small offshore islands with their tricky currents and narrow passages. There were benches for birdwatching and scenic views, but she didn’t stop for anything.

The bright yellow leaves of a dozen thin birch trees told her she was close to Stewart’s Cove. She slowed her pace, her throat tightening with tension, anticipation. It was late in the afternoon, and most of the tourists had left. She was aware that she was alone, possibly no one even within shouting distance.

Except for J. B. McGrath.

He was standing on a flat, wet rock that would be covered soon as the tide rose. It was about three yards from where she’d found her father.

“It’s a beautiful spot,” he said.

She nodded tightly, fighting the images of a year ago. Her father sprawled on his stomach. His blood had seeped into the wet sand and shallow water of the rising tide.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I saw your car and followed you. I came around the other way—I didn’t expect to beat you here.” His smile was surprisingly gentle. “No need for a sharp stick.”

She edged closer to the water. The wind caught her in the face, and she wished she’d worn a jacket. She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to focus on the cresting waves out beyond the mouth of the small cove. J.B. didn’t move from his rock. She let her gaze settle on him, realized he was a good-looking man, rugged, sexy, undoubtedly an independent type if he’d survived as an FBI undercover agent for any length of time.

“First time you’ve been back here?” he asked quietly.

She nodded. “It’s a beautiful spot. So peaceful. My father was trying to lower his blood pressure and cholesterol, so he’d taken up walking before work. But he was in uniform. CID’s inclined to think he was meeting someone, either here in the preserve or shortly after his walk. He stopped at Aunt Olivia’s that morning. She was always up early.”

“Did you have a chance to ask her what they discussed?”

“Her revised obituary. Dad thought she was morbid.”

J.B. smiled and moved off his rock, his shoes sinking into the wet sand. He joined her on the packed, dry sand of the short stretch of beach. “I understand the police don’t believe his body was moved. He was shot here.”

“The shooter could have come in by boat or by land—it wouldn’t be hard to stay concealed. At that hour, lobster boats would be out or heading out, but they’re in deep water this time of year.” She sighed, bile rising in her throat, and she wished she hadn’t eaten so much, could feel the pie and doughnuts churning in her stomach. “It’s not for me to investigate my father’s death. That was made clear to me last fall.”

“You run roughshod over everyone?”

“I just wanted answers. At first people understood, but when the investigation stalled—” She broke off, dropping her hands to her sides. “It wasn’t an easy time. In CID’s place, I’d have done the same thing. I’d resigned. I was on my way to Quantico.”

“Losing your father and aunt the way you did must have pulled the rug out from under your life. I’m sorry.” He shifted away from her, and for the first time she noticed the three-inch scar on his jaw, just below his left ear. He’d been a split second from becoming the subject of a murder investigation himself. But he glanced back at her and asked, “Teddy Shelton—you know him?”

His question caught her by surprise. “Not really. He worked at the lobster pound last summer—I think he’s renting a cottage from Bruce. Why?”

“He popped up on my radar screen today. It’s probably nothing. You must want some time here on your own. I’ll see you around.”

Zoe didn’t stop him. She’d get his Teddy Shelton story out of him later. He walked back up to the trail, falling in with a trio of seniors, and she didn’t move until they were out of sight. Then, shivering in the chilly ocean air, she sat on a three-foot boulder and watched the tide slowly roll in, the two smallest islands visible offshore, just the northern tip of the largest, Sutherland Island, visible. They were mostly rock and evergreens, but their rugged look was deceptive. Their thin soil actually made them very fragile, easily damaged by careless hikers and kayakers. Luke Castellane’s father, Hollywood director Victor Castellane, had bought Sutherland Island years ago—the nature preserve wanted to add it to its onshore acreage.

Zoe stared at the short stretch of beach, not breathing, seeing herself a year ago when she realized there was no hope, her father was dead. She hadn’t known if the shooter was still nearby, if she was in danger, but she hadn’t been able to make herself respond like a law enforcement officer—it was her father dead before her.

She could still feel the water seeping into her running shoes as she ran out into the cove, screaming at a lobster boat down toward Sutherland Island. It turned out to be Bruce Young’s.

It occurred to her then and had stuck with her for the past year that her father’s murder had something to do with her. Was she supposed to find his body? It was no secret she ran in the preserve. Had she told him something in the weeks before that ultimately got him killed? Had a case she worked on when she was with the state police come back to haunt not her, but her father?

In the first weeks of the investigation, the state detectives had looked into all those possibilities. But there was nothing—no lead, no potential lead—that connected back to her.

So, what about Teddy Shelton?

She doubted it took much to pop up on McGrath’s radar screen, but still.

She leaped suddenly up off the boulder, as if she’d been bitten by a spider, but it was just nervous energy, restlessness. She’d spent the last two months milking goats and knitting. Why hadn’t she come back here sooner? She was convinced now, just as she was a year ago, that the answers to her father’s murder didn’t lie outside of Goose Harbor. They were here, in her hometown.

I know who did it....

Then again, maybe she was letting herself be misled by a dying old woman’s ramblings.

“Damn.”

She took a breath and walked back up to the trail. The three-hundred-acre preserve was her aunt’s legacy, as much as her Jen Periwinkle novels were. Olivia had had a long, good life. It was some consolation. Her father’s was cut short, in midlife. He hadn’t even had a chance to fight back. For him, Zoe’s only consolation was that he hadn’t suffered—the coroner said he’d most likely died almost instantly.

The first murder in Goose Harbor in thirty years.

She glanced back at the cove, the afternoon light waning as the tide washed over the sand and rock. There were worse places to die.