Chapter 26
“Quite a story.” Tina had been jotting notes the entire time he relived that incident, which he hadn’t thought about much since then.
Summer had ended soon afterwards, they’d gone back home to Worcester, Massachusetts, and regular school life had taken over.
The next summer, Granny was sick so they hadn’t gone to Sea Smoke, and the summer after that Jack got a job as a lifeguard.
The next time they went to Sea Smoke, he’d barely seen the Clyde crew, who were mostly out on the water fishing all summer.
“I’d forgotten about it, to be honest. I guess Jessie saved that water pistol all those years. She’s funny about objects like that. She says they hold energy.”
A wave of longing for his quirky little sister swept over him. Where are you, Jessie?
“What energy do you think it was holding for her?” Tina asked.
“I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe power? Protection?”
Tina got to her feet and prowled around the room. He’d learned that was her favorite way to brainstorm. She liked to move her body while she thought. “So is it a warning, then? She wanted you to know that Seth Baker is armed? That’s what Marigold suggested.”
He shook his head. “That might be part of it, but not all. For Jessie to choose this object in particular, it was very deliberate. I have a couple ideas. One, the Clydes. Benny Clyde was at the Bloodshot Eyeball the day of the shooting. They could easily be involved somehow. Two, those old bunkers. They were built during World War II and they have underground tunnels, an observation tower, storerooms. The land belongs to the Island Trust and there are ‘no trespassing’ signs everywhere, maybe even security cameras. Maybe something’s going on there. ”
“Do the Clydes know about the bunkers?”
“I mean, do lobsters have shells? Of course they do. We used to sneak in there and play cops and robbers.”
“Maybe they’re playing cops and smugglers now,” Tina said thoughtfully. “That would explain the federal operation I’m not supposed to touch.”
Jack liked watching her mind work. “Yeah. Wouldn’t be surprised, knowing the Clydes.”
Lightkeeper Bay had always been a haven for smugglers, ever since the days of Prohibition, and even earlier.
It was so easy to hide from the Coast Guard, although today’s technology made it more challenging.
The Coast Guard couldn’t patrol all of the Maine shoreline, let alone the thousands of islands; that would be impossible.
And then there was the fog. So easy to slip away under the cover of darkness and mist.
The Canadian border wasn’t too far, relatively speaking. Was Adam working with the Clydes to smuggle something into Canada? Or from Canada?
“What do you know about smugglers in the Maine islands?” he asked Tina.
“I know there’s a long history of it. In the old days, goods were smuggled in to avoid tariffs, and during Prohibition there was lots of liquor smuggling. These days, it’s more about drugs. We’ve made some big fentanyl arrests.”
Fentanyl. Shit. What if Jessie had stumbled into a fentanyl operation? She disliked pharmaceuticals, and took her anti-anxiety meds only reluctantly. What if she’d threatened to report them to the police and they’d decided to silence her?
He shoved aside that doomsday scenario. His gut told him Jessie was still alive, and dammit, he was going to stick with his gut.
“Then there’s cocaine, meth, marijuana…” Tina went on. “There have even been cases of human smuggling. It’s on the uprise, folks smuggled in over the Canadian border to work in illegal grow operations or other commercial enterprises.”
Jack made a mental note to relay these interesting nuggets to the writers room at Dark of Night. “What about guns? Maybe that was Jessie’s message with the toy pistol, that they’re smuggling guns.”
Tina cocked her head, thinking that over.
“There have been a few busts of gun smugglers in Maine, but they’re mostly straw purchases.
Our state laws are a lot looser than those of New York or Massachusetts, and most of the guns purchased illegally here end up in other states.
But I don’t think the islands play a role in that.
Most gun smuggling in Maine is intertwined with drug smuggling, kind of an exchange sort of situation.
Drugs come into the state, guns go out. This is all speculation until we get something solid. ”
He slumped into a chair and ran a hand through his hair. They were so close…to something…he could feel it. And yet it was all so opaque.
Tina came over to him and crouched before him. “I know this is frustrating. But you did well.” She gestured at his notepad. “You recalled a lot of details and now we have several things to follow up on. This is progress. I promise.”
He deeply appreciated her effort to cheer him up. “I just feel like we’re missing something.”
“We probably are. That’s why we keep turning things over until we find the connections.
Celine and Adam, the Night Light murder, the Clyde clan, Celine on her yacht, possible smugglers, not to mention Mark Peterson and someone setting your car on fire.
That tells me he’s got something to do with this, somehow. ”
“Should we go back to the hospital and check his visitor logs?”
She shook her head. “I can do that over the phone. I say we head back to Sea Smoke Island.”
“You think Jessie might be in those bunkers?”
“The thought occurred to me, yes. Maybe she knew Adam was going to stash her there and grabbed the only item at hand that would point to that. I’ll text Marigold, but she’ll need some backup for that. I wouldn’t want her going there alone.”
She rose to her feet and began tossing things into her overnight bag. He watched her for a moment, his heart swelling with thanks that someone with her smarts and dedication was on his side. Not to mention that lithe, dynamic body now bent over her bag.
“So you think we should go right away?”
The shift in his tone, the rough edge of lust in his voice, had her glancing back over her shoulder. “I mean…yes? No? Quickie?”
“Quickie it is.”
It was up-against-the-wall quick, down-and-dirty hot, and it seared through his system like the reset he needed. Let’s do this. We got this. Whoo, baby!