Chapter 39
“Give it up, Hooper,” Detective Chen yelled at her partner from the deck of the lobster boat she’d commandeered.
Barnaby was at the wheel now—he’d insisted—while Gabby backed up Chen with the detective’s personal firearm.
It hadn’t surprised him that Gabby knew how to shoot; he loved learning new things about her.
If they could just get safely through the next moments…
When Gabby had recited the key passage from Marianne’s journal to him, he’d recognized the location immediately. The lonely pine tree brooding over the ocean, creating a dark reflection if the day was calm. It wasn’t far from where he’d climbed up the rocks after that long-ago kayak accident.
They’d raced across the bay toward that spot and sure enough, there was Tamara, kneeling on the ground with a shovel, while Hooper stood over her with his gun.
“We know what a piece of crap you are now,” Chen shouted. “Disgrace to the fucking badge. Let that old lady up. We found the treasure and it’s not here. You lose, loser.”
Barnaby had to admit he liked Chen’s style.
Hooper swung his gun toward the boat. Barnaby wrenched the wheel so if Hooper fired a bullet, it would hit the tempered glass windshield or the fiberglass of the cabin, and not the exposed human beings on the deck.
Hell, he figured it was his lucky day. He’d already survived a bullet wound and an explosion, so bring it on.
“That treasure belongs to me!” Hooper shouted. “I got a hostage here. Hand it over and she won’t get hurt!”
Barnaby activated the bullhorn built into the boat’s security system. “Tamara, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
Tamara tried to get to her feet, but Hooper pushed her down. It made Barnaby’s blood boil to see her treated like that.
“If you harm her in any way, you will pay.” The way his voice boomed through the bullhorn made his threat sound even more dire. A whole new magnitude of Carmichael.
“I’ve lost everything already. You can’t do anything to hurt me.”
What a heartbreaking statement; Barnaby might have been sympathetic if the man didn’t have a gun to Tamara’s head. Or near her head, anyway.
Was Tamara inching away, ever so subtly? He thought she might be. “Do you want Fiona to see you like this? Threatening an old woman? She told me that she cared for you. I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to get hurt. But if you harm Tamara…”
A stricken expression came over Hooper’s face. “Just give me the treasure and I won’t have to hurt her.”
The more he talked, the less he seemed like the Hooper who had first arrived on the island. Genial, easygoing, a good dude who liked his beer—that had been Barnaby’s first impression. Now his true self was being revealed as a desperate, isolated, unstable man.
Someone Barnaby didn’t want anywhere near his grandmother.
Tamara was now a good half a foot away from Hooper. She still held the shovel. Barnaby watched as she carefully adjusted her grip. He shook his head. Don’t do it! Too risky! But he couldn’t make his gesture too obvious because Hooper might notice.
“Backup is coming,” Chen yelled. She was braced against the railing, riding the rise and fall of the waves as if they were rodeo horses, even though there wasn’t much chop at all.
Chen and boats did not get along. He gave her a lot of credit for holding strong despite her seasickness.
“Luke is on his way, along with the entire volunteer fire department and anyone else he could round up. You’re already done.
Best thing to do now is cooperate and hope the DA is kind. ”
“Just give me that treasure and I’ll disappear. I know how to do it. I did it before.”
Just then, Tamara made her move. She swung her shovel hard, right into the back of Hooper’s knees. The man buckled forward and landed hard on his knees. She drew the shovel back again and whacked his hand, the one with the gun. The weapon flew through the air and landed a few feet away.
“Come and get him!” she shouted to the boat, brandishing the shovel near his head. Then, to Hooper, “I’ll hit you again if you move!”
Holy smokes. Barnaby pushed the button to release the anchor chain, turned off the engine, and dove off the boat. His leg complained, of course, but he ignored it.
In a few strokes, he reached the rocks. The act of pulling himself out of the water felt like history repeating itself.
All those old frustrated emotions came pouring back.
He saw them, like a river running past him, then let them flow on by.
He wasn’t there anymore. He was here. His feet on the ground, his heart wide open.
He was Barnaby Carmichael, and he was now okay with that.
He snatched up Hooper’s gun and tucked it into the back of his pants. It was no longer needed; he saw defeat in Hooper’s posture, slumped on the ground.
“Nice work, Tamara,” he murmured as she dropped the shovel. “I didn’t know you had that kind of strength. I guess all that gardening pays off.”
“I do believe it’s all the time I spent in the pokey.” She gave him a cheerful smile. “I did four pushups every hour. I might call it the old crone workout.”
Gabby rowed Detective Chen to shore, where Chen retched for a moment, then pulled herself together enough to put handcuffs on Hooper and read him his rights.
Barnaby wanted to get Tamara up to the cottage for some tea and recovery, but she’d used up all her energy bonking Hooper, and insisted on staying right where she was until reinforcements arrived.
He didn’t argue, since his leg needed a rest.
So they all stayed put by the lonely pine, which seemed to whisper secrets to them in the wind.
“Mind if I ask Hooper some questions?” Gabby asked Chen.
Chen gestured her assent. “I think you’ve earned your exclusive. You have until Luke and the others get here.”
Gabby crouched down next to Hooper, sullen and sweaty without his baseball cap, which had gotten knocked to the ground by Tamara’s blow.
“I read about that plane crash in Alaska,” she said gently. “How did you survive it? Is that when you became Hooper instead of Keith Garner?”
Hooper shrugged one heavy shoulder. “Frigging miracle, or a curse, I don’t know.
I got thrown into some trees, guess they broke my fall.
I woke up all alone. I didn’t know where anyone else was.
I never saw them. I hiked until I reached a river.
Floated down it on a log raft to a village.
I’d lost my ID, lost everything. I didn’t want to be Keith Garner anymore.
Keith Garner was cursed. So I started over. ”
“Why did you come back to Sea Smoke?”
“Why shouldn’t I? The Carmichaels don’t own this island. I wanted that treasure. I deserve it after everything I went through.” His voice rose, his face reddened.
Gabby kept her tone sympathetic. “You sure survived a lot, my gosh. What an incredible story. So you became a police officer, just like you always wanted. Then you transferred to Maine so you could find the pirate treasure. Is that right?”
Hooper gave a grudging nod.
“So why did you kill Amelia?”
“She was a fucking bitch,” he spat. “She bought our house and made us live in that goddamn shack.”
Barnaby started toward Gabby, wanting to protect her, but Tamara held him back with a touch on his arm. Gabby was on a roll with this interview, and he was handcuffed, after all, with Chen standing right over him.
“I needed a victim, and who cared about an old hag?” Hooper continued. “I just wanted people to think Tamara did it.”
“And was that so you could get revenge because of Fiona?”
Barnaby had to give Gabby credit for keeping her composure during this impromptu “interview” with such an unstable and unhinged man. She was really good at her work—he’d known that, but now he was seeing it in action.
“That witch had no right,” Hooper growled. “What about me? What about what I wanted? Nobody cared because I was a nobody.” He said the word “nobody” with a deep, bitter despair.
“A nobody? Did someone tell you that?”
“They didn’t have to. In this world you don’t count for anything unless you have money. We had money from the Carmichaels, then they cut us off.”
“Is that because they found out about you and Fiona?” Gabby’s sympathetic tone brought another torrent of words from Hooper.
“I loved her. She loved me. I refused to dump her like they wanted. She tried to break up with me but I knew they were controlling her. After we had to sell the house, after I graduated, I begged my family to stay longer. But then John Carmichael paid my father to move us to Alaska. That’s power. That’s money.”
In the silence, the sound of waves lapping against the rocks could be heard, and from the direction of the road, the drone of engines. The cavalry was arriving. Gabby’s time was almost out.
“No wonder you wanted to find that treasure, then,” she said softly. “If anything could make a person somebody, it would be finding that treasure.”
Hooper stared at the ground, his jaw flexing.
Chen hauled him to his feet. “Let’s get this show on the road. I’m sorry to tell you, but that pirate treasure isn’t going to save your ass.”
The life came back into Hooper’s eyes. “You really found it? Where? What’s in it?”
“Guess you’ll have to listen to some Dirty Rotten Bastards to get the scoop.”