Then Annie blurted out, “Has anyone seen Rose? I was wondering if she joined one of the search teams.” Then, so it wouldn’t seem as if Rose were a suspect, Annie added, “I’m only trying to keep track of our tenants.”
“She left last night,” Lucy said.
Annie thought she must have heard her wrong.
“She left?” John asked before Annie could. “Where’d she go?”
“I don’t know. When the cops went to search her room, she said the ‘ruckus’ was too hard on her nerves.”
No one spoke.
Then John said, “I thought I asked everyone to stay on Chappy.”
Annie didn’t remember he’d been that specific. Then again, she might have been too mentally drained to have been listening closely.
“I don’t think she left the Vineyard,” Lucy said. “She said something about going to West Tisbury. Besides, it was kind of late. She would have missed the last boat off the Vineyard.”
“But not theOn Time?” Earl asked.
“I don’t think so. The last trip off Chappy’s at eleven now, right?” Lucy asked.
“Yup, it’s winter,” Earl said.
“I’m pretty sure she left before eleven.”
John turned to Annie. “When we’re done here, would you mind checking with the captain to see if Rose went over?”
“No problem.” She didn’t tell him that Rose was on her list; she hadn’t told him about the woman’s skittishness around Rex or the supposed incident in the chef’s room with the invisible mouse. What else hadn’t she shared? She tried to think straight but couldn’t seem to.
John told them he and Linc were nailing down a couple of leads but nothing to get excited about yet. The only lead Annie knew of was the note. She wondered what he was holding back, or if he’d thought that by saying a “couple” of leads, it would give them hope that Bella would be found soon.
She knitted and purled her fingers together, trying to calm the gymnastics in her mind.
He told them to be vigilant and, again, to call or text if they heard or saw anything, whether or not they thought it was connected. “I want to find her before nightfall. That’s it for now. Thanks, everyone.”
Claire and Lucy headed back to the kitchen. Earl said he’d go find Taylor and Jonas; later, when he picked up Abigail, he’d have her go with him to make the rounds to the volunteers and distribute lunches to them. Then he’d put her in the kitchen so that Claire could go home and take a nap. And maybe he’d do the same.
After they’d left and John and Annie were alone, he told her he was going to meet with the Staties.
“Do you really have a ‘couple’ of leads?” she asked.
He kissed her good-bye and said he’d share stuff with her later. Then he left before she had the chance to tell him about Rose and Rex and the questionable mouse.
* * *
The air had chilled; the sky was heavy with low clouds. As Annie walked to her Jeep to fulfill her latest duty, she prayed it wouldn’t snow, at least until they’d found Bella. If there was a storm, she didn’t think she could bear wondering whether Bella was somewhere warm, somewhere sheltered. Especially a nor’easter, like the one that had pummeled Chappy the night she’d arrived on her doorstep. When the power had gone out. And Annie could not get help for the tiny baby because the internet wasn’t connecting.
Now, as she got into the Jeep, turned on the ignition, and let it warm up a bit, Annie felt as powerless to help Bella as she had that first night.
But you did it,Murphy said.You’re always stronger and smarter and more resilient than you think.
“Only because you keep telling me I am.”
She weaved around the vehicles that were scattered in all directions, then made her way onto North Neck Road and out to the main road that was blessedly paved. She reached theOn Timealmost as quickly as it took for the little ferry to cross the channel to Edgartown.
But it wasn’t there; it had just left for the other side.
Annie parked. And waited.
