“I mean, with us. You and me.”
“Oh.”
Damn. Had he called this all wrong? Was he the only one feeling sort of emotional in this moment? Hadn’t they formed a real connection, or was he completely off?
She lifted herself on tiptoe and brushed her lips against his. “You might be right. Or it could be one of those crisis bonds. We won’t know until we’re on the other side of this. Can we talk about it then?”
“Yeah. Of course.” He felt a little foolish that he’d brought it up when he should be on the road to Harbortown. He started to turn away, but she yanked him back with a quick tug on his arm.
“Hey. You be careful too. Call me the second you get there. Whatever you do, take no action until we talk. Got it?”
“Got it.”
She kissed him then, and he caught her against his chest, and wished with every bone in his body that he didn’t have to let her go. He thought of Jessie, and how happy she’d looked with Seth. Happier than he’d ever seen her. Was this how she’d felt?
Something came back to him then, something Celine had said on the yacht. Does your sister always look this happy?
But Tina was already pulling away, focused on her next move in the investigation. So he smiled and gave her a salute and got into the beige Sentra and drove away from her.
It was strange to feel this inversion of how things were “supposed to be.” Wasn’t the woman “supposed” to be more sentimental? The man more action-oriented? Maybe the concept of “supposed to” didn’t apply to Tina Chen. She was her own unique person, and if he wanted to be with her, he’d have to understand that. And maybe the concept of “supposed to” wasn’t helpful to anyone. Maybe it was best to take things as they were and not try to force them into another shape. In fact, he was pretty sure that was something he’d learned from Jessie, who was her own very unique person.
The drive to Harbortown only took two hours, but it seemed much longer since his damn brain kept going through every possible scenario—a truly special kind of torture, especially since he had ten seasons of Dark of Night episodes to give him plenty of nightmare material. Women had been held captive in at least nine episodes, and had been rescued alive in only six of them. He didn’t like those odds even if they were based on a TV show, not actual reality.
To distract himself, he turned on the radio and found a news station out of Portland. Maybe the Benny Clyde story had made its way to the media by now. Only really big island news got any attention from the local media. It cost money to send reporters out to the islands, so it rarely happened. But if it was murder…
At the top of the hour, the local news headlines came on.
“Was it murder on the high seas? A Sea Smoke Island fisherman was found dead today,” said the newscaster. “The body of Benjamin Clyde, known as Benny, was discovered by a lobsterman in a large holding tank used for temporarily storing lobsters. Authorities say foul play is suspected, but so far have made no arrests. The outer islands have historically been notorious for long-running feuds over lobstering territory, with the Clyde family often in the midst of those disputes. But up to this point, those conflicts have stopped short of murder. We have a reporter on his way to the scene, and will have more details as they develop.”
Jack thought about the rough-edged boy he’d known, with his metal band t-shirts and shoes that were always too small because he kept having growth spurts. In the Clyde crew, he’d been the funniest, a real clown. Jack had thought he was hilarious. He remembered laughing until he peed at Benny’s imitation of a lobster on weed.
Who would dare to attack Benny Clyde—or any Clyde? Everyone knew he’d have a whole posse of cousins backing him up. It would be like going after a mob boss. You’d best not miss.
He’d bet his next contract that no islander had done this, or even anyone from a nearby island. The Clyde family was feared, sure, but also respected. They often spoke up on local fishing issues. Their input held real weight. And then there was the issue of retribution. No one would want that smoke coming at them.
He called Luke, surprised when the constable actually answered.
“I just heard the news about Benny Clyde.”
“Yeah, it’s a shocker. You heard it on the news? Everyone and his brother’s been calling.” Luke sounded rushed, and no wonder.
“I don’t want to keep you, but I just wanted you to know that I think there might be a connection to my sister’s disappearance. She left a message for me that could implicate the Clydes.” He didn’t mention that the message was in the form of a plastic toy gun.
“Look, I appreciate it, but this entire investigation is out of my hands. I’m not in any kind of loop. They barely told me they’d ID’d the body.”
“Who is they?”
After a long pause, Luke said, “I probably shouldn’t tell you, but they’ve pissed me off, so here goes. It’s a joint task force. ATF is involved, and also some Canadians. It’s cross-border.”
“Cross border…so, smuggling?”
“It’s a good guess.”
“Smuggling what? You know Benny Clyde. What sort of thing would he get involved with? Guns? Drugs?”
“The thing about the Clydes is they’re hard to predict. I don’t see them being interested in transporting either guns or drugs. It would have to be something unusual.”
“Unusual…” That struck a chord with Jack. The idea that he and Tina had discussed, hard-to-get pharmaceuticals, maybe that was it.
