Chapter 25
Standing in the darkness near the docks, watching as moonlight played in the waves along the boats, Hannah called Eleanor, pressing the phone to her ear and telling herself to breathe.
Julien hung back behind her, his arms crossed, watching over her.
She had to learn to trust people more, to lean on them when they told her they cared for her.
Maybe Julien was her first chance at real, unending love.
Maybe Nantucket was her first chance at community.
Maybe she was doing the right thing. Maybe.
But when Eleanor answered the phone, Hannah’s voice shook with panic. “Okay,” she said, before Eleanor could say anything else. “But I don’t want him to die. Please, Eleanor.”
Eleanor didn’t speak. Rather, she hung up, leaving Hannah in yet another moment of panic, her legs shaking beneath her. Julien hurried up behind her to take her into his arms.
“I’m going to call the cops,” Hannah said.
“Not Nantucket cops, but mainland cops. Maybe he took her to Boston or New York or…” Her thoughts reeled.
She knew that Kendall probably had bank accounts all over the world, that he could set up shop wherever he wanted.
Every time she imagined Kendall handing Minnie that blond wig and telling her to put it on, she wanted to throw up. How could he do this to their daughter?
But just then, just as Julien prepared to sway her one way or the other, Hannah’s phone rang again. It was an unknown number, an area code she didn’t recognize. But Julien saw it and said, “It’s the mainland. Answer it.” Hannah did.
Thank goodness she answered it. It was the call that changed everything.
“Mom?” Minnie’s voice was so small and frightened, coming to Hannah from who-knew-where. “Mom, I’m scared.”
Hannah nearly melted on the spot. “Honey, where are you?”
Minnie began to sob. They were enormous, heart-wrenching sobs that took Hannah out of her body. “I’m in the bathroom. At a hotel,” she said finally, gasping. “Dad’s staring is freaking me out, and all these cops just broke in. They’re arresting him.”
And it was true, Hannah realized now, because she could hear the brash voices, ordering Kendall around. Hannah ached with the need to be there for Minnie.
“Mom, I’m so sorry,” Minnie whispered. “I wasn’t thinking. I don’t know why I let it all happen like it did. Mom, I’m so, so…”
“We can talk about it later,” Hannah told her. “Stay on the phone, but tell the cops that you’re in the bathroom, that you want to be taken to the station. Call me when you get there.”
“Okay,” Minnie breathed.
Hannah squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus enough for both of them. She heard Minnie banging on the bathroom door to alert the cops to her location. She heard the screech of the door, then Minnie saying, “My mom's on the phone. Can I say goodbye to her before we go?”
Someone else grabbed the phone. “Is this Hannah Moore?” he asked. Hannah was amazed that he knew her name.
“It’s Hannah Moore,” she affirmed. “Please, take care of my girl. And tell me where you’re headed.”
The cop told her that they were in a little town about an hour north of Boston called Portsmouth, New Hampshire. “A crummy hotel,” the cop stated. “But we’re taking them to the station. You can pick your daughter up there after we file a report. But your husband, we’ll have to keep him.”
“Yes,” Minnie breathed. “Please, keep him.”
“Until the state of Florida comes to pick him up,” the cop added, then hung up.
Hannah stood, mind boggled, her arms hanging on either side of her. She gaped at Julien, realizing that she was on an island in the middle of the Atlantic, that she didn’t have the capabilities to get to the mainland tonight. All the ferries were finished and wouldn’t begin till tomorrow morning.
Julien seemed to know what she was thinking. With a tilt of his head, he said, “Come on.” He took her hand in his and led her to the far end of the dock, to a smaller, speedier ferry. Hannah stalled, watching as he lowered the ramp.
“You can take that?” she asked, glancing at the sailboats, wondering if there was a better and more legal option.
“Sailing on a sailboat would take three to four hours,” Julien said. “The ferry takes an hour. I’m guessing you want to be there sooner rather than later?”
Hannah nodded, then hurried aboard, following Julien to the cockpit.
As he worked, he explained that he’d been a ferryboat driver for a good seven years before he’d trained as a harbor master.
“I know these waters like the back of my hand,” he said, before turning on the engine, then hurrying down to untie the boat.
Slowly, he brought the ferry out onto the black, open water and sped it toward Hyannis Port.
Throughout, Hannah sat beside him, checking her phone nonstop to see if Minnie had called.
She prayed that one of the cops was a woman, that the woman would see her daughter, make her a cup of hot chocolate, and wrap a blanket around her shoulders.
She prayed that they wouldn’t let Kendall say anything else to Minnie.
Oh, she could just imagine how he’d gotten Minnie off the island.
Kendall had always been so manipulative, so good at drawing a boundary between Minnie and Hannah.
She wondered if, during his time away from them, he’d been on a beach somewhere, plotting his kidnapping of Minnie.
She wondered if he was disappointed in himself. She hoped he was.
Still, she was grateful that Eleanor had decided to take Hannah’s suggestion to have him arrested and charged for the crimes he’d committed, rather than doing away with him.
Hannah wasn’t sure what to make of the older woman's criminality.
But she understood that without Eleanor, Minnie would have been lost, maybe forever.
Hannah owed Eleanor and the rest of the Legacy Club everything.
Did that mean she was going to help them kill people?
No. Maybe she could find a way to lessen their damage while maintaining their commitment to “peace,” or whatever they called it.
Maybe Hannah could be a beneficial part of the next chapter of Nantucket.
Throughout the journey across the water, Julien frequently checked in on her.
He told her where the snacks and water bottles were, and they had a little dinner of crackers and peanuts.
Hannah wasn’t sure if she’d ever be hungry again.
Every few minutes, she whispered to herself, “She’s all right.
She’s okay.” But she knew she wouldn’t be able to breathe fully till she had Minnie back home and safe.
Before they pulled into the harbor, Julien got on the walkie-talkie with the harbor master at Hyannis, explaining the situation.
The harbor master gave them a dock to land on and came over to help them tie up and welcome them.
Like Julien, the harbor master had a rugged face, both sunburned and salt-burned.
He and Julien smiled at one another in recognition.
“We’re going to need a car for the night,” Julien told him.
“You can borrow mine,” the harbor master said. “As long as you drive me home before you head out.”
This seemed reasonable. During the drive to the harbor master’s two-story, Julien and he talked shop, while Hannah gazed at the darkness outside, realizing that she hadn’t been on the mainland since they’d moved to Nantucket. It felt as though they’d been living on a fantasy island.
After the harbor master went inside to his wife and children, Hannah got into the passenger side and directed Julien the rest of the way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The app said it would take two hours and fourteen minutes, but Julien promised her he was a safe, fast driver and could get them there in less than two.
Hannah found that she could hardly speak throughout the drive.
Occasionally, Julien flicked through the radio stations, finding oldies from the ’80s and the ’90s.
Once, a song Minnie loved, “Crash” by Dave Matthews Band, came on, and Hannah had to tell herself not to cry.
When they finally pulled into the police station, it was a little past midnight.
It felt as though they’d been traveling forever.
Julien parked, and they scrambled out and into the brightly lit waiting area, where a woman sat at the front desk, typing a report on a computer.
The woman was in her forties, with thick glasses and bushy blond hair.
She took one look at Hannah and said, “You look just like Minnie! You must be her mother.”
Hannah’s heart broke.
Regina led Hannah into a side room, where Minnie was bundled in blankets.
A half-eaten sandwich and a mug of hot chocolate sat on a table beside her.
And when Hannah shook Minnie awake gently, so gently, Minnie scrambled up and wrapped her arms around her.
She burrowed her face into her mother’s shoulder and said, “Mommy, I want to go home.” She hadn’t called Hannah “Mommy” in years and probably never would again.
Eventually, Hannah gave a limited statement, one that had nothing to do with the Legacy Club and what they knew.
She told them only what she could have known—that Minnie had called her from the bathroom of the hotel, that she’d thought Minnie was with friends and her boyfriend all day.
“My husband disappeared and kidnapped my daughter,” she said aloud, testing it. She couldn’t believe it was real.
At one thirty that night, Hannah, Julien, and Minnie checked into a hotel.
Julien got his own room, leaving Hannah and Minnie to their own devices.
Exhausted, Hannah and Minnie collapsed in the shared queen bed, curling up together.
When they woke up, dawn spilled through the curtains, and Minnie rolled over, rubbed her eyes of sleep, and said, “I’m starving. ”
Hannah knew it was time to start living again. This was their cue to move on.