The same kind Ashley was always pulling out of her pockets to get her hair out of her face quickly. Someone took her. Christopher hated the feeling sinking into his bones. Certainty was a cruel sort of torture.
He stared, unseeing and unblinking. What if he’d been wrong about everything? What if the fire and tonight’s explosion hadn’t been Zach? Perhaps worse, Christopher needed the other man’s help. Zach knew too much. Could he harness his gossip for good? “Mr. Willie, I need to go to the sheriff. Can you please check on everyone inside?”
“Do you need me to come with you?”
In that moment, Christopher almost said yes. He didn’t have any friends, none besides his wife. But he could count on a few people. And the groundskeeper was one of that select number. “I’ll be fine. Please, look after the Inn.” Without waiting for acknowledgment, Christopher slipped out of the forest, crossed the lawn, and jogged to his car, glad he’d taken his keys with him when he’d left his office.
He drove at top speed, reaching the station in a few minutes and bolting out of the car to bang with both fists on the locked door.
A uniformed deputy approached the glass door with a puzzled expression. He unlocked the door and pulled it open a crack. “May I help you?”
“My wife…” Christopher panted. “She’s missing. Abducted, I think. Are the two men arrested at the Inn earlier still in custody? Were they bonded out?”
The deputy shook his head. “No. They are still here.”
“I need to speak with them. I think they have information about my wife.”
The door shut.
For a second, Christopher considered pushing his way inside. Getting thrown in jail alongside the trespassers would only delay him. He needed help. Now. He had to save her.
Then, mercifully, the door opened inward, and the deputy waved Christopher inside.
The door shut behind him, and he could hear murmurs coming from an open doorway. Following the sound, he spotted Lonnie and Zach in the holding cell.
Lonnie sat on a metal bench, his back against the wall.
Zach rested his forehead against the bars, straightening as Christopher entered view. “Are you coming to drop the charges? We can’t get anyone to answer our calls tonight and bail us out. Did you call a town meeting? Lure everyone away from their phones?”
“You don’t…” Christopher stopped. For once, he had more information than his nemesis. He would savor the victory if it wasn’t so bittersweet and tinged with even more ignorance. “There’s been an explosion.”
“What?” Lonnie gasped.
“The rest of the lighthouse was obliterated. Like that.” Christopher snapped his fingers.
The men turned pale and green.
Was it fear? Relief? Worry? Christopher hoped for a little of each. “What were you doing there? Setting explosives?”
“Never. We were trying to get photos of Soupy,” Zach said.
Christopher rolled his eyes. “On the island, you said you were digging for the treasure. Pick a lie and stick to it.”
Zach pulled a little toy out of his back pocket. “It’s true. We thought we could stage something to help launch the legend.”
Christopher crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m supposed to believe you now?”
“It sounded childish. Hunting for treasure was the better reason if we were going to be arrested for trespassing,” Zach said. “It’s why we brought shovels. I could only find a garden trowel.”
If that was their excuse, it was pretty slim. “Where is Seth?” Christopher asked.
“Elise asked him to meet her by the old sawmill dock. It’s a full moon,” Zach said.
“The Prim family reported a couple odd occurrences over that way,” Lonnie added. “She’s not part of what we’ve been doing.”
“Weren’t those sightings all related to a sturgeon?” Christopher’s patience, already stretched thin, was near to breaking.
“Soupy isn’t harming anyone.” Lonnie shrugged. “Helping a friend isn’t a crime.”
