Chapter 41
iris
Iris waited until they were out on the lake and everyone was preoccupied with taking their sunset photos – and it really was beautiful, with the sun dropping slowly behind the Adirondack mountain range to the west of Lake Champlain, gilding the craggy peaks with a thousand different shades of pink and orange – before cornering Mac at the stern of the boat.
‘Jesse’s told me everything,’ she said.
Mac nearly dropped the rope he’d been busy coiling. ‘What d’you mean?’
‘You couldn’t play poker to save your life,’ Iris said. ‘Come on, Mac. You want to explain to me how you got into this mess with your father?’
For a moment, she thought he was going to deny everything.
And then his shoulders dropped. ‘I don’t even know where to start.’
‘Let’s start with money,’ Iris said.
‘How d’you know about—’
She suppressed a sigh of impatience. ‘I don’t. But money is where these things usually start, so come on. Out with it.’
Mac took off his baseball cap and ran the palm of his hand back and forth over his hair. He’d had it cut just yesterday, and bereft of his curls, his hair greyer and shorn close to his head, he looked suddenly older, no longer the boyish teenager she’d known him as for nearly thirty years.
‘It started with Covid,’ Mac said finally. ‘We’d had some lean patches before, especially after I bought out the marina from Jim Chagnon, but I managed to keep us in the black. Just about. And then the pandemic hit.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t have to tell you.’
‘You must have been eligible for a business loan, or something from the federal government—’
‘Come on, Iz. It didn’t even touch the sides.’
‘So you borrowed against the business?’
‘I borrowed against the house.’
The boat rocked slowly as the Lake Champlain ferry to New York state lumbered by. Mac couldn’t even meet her eye, twisting his baseball cap in his hands, looking guilty as hell.
‘Oh, Mac,’ Iris said. ‘I take it you haven’t told Amy?’
‘Her father gave us that land,’ Mac said. ‘We built the house ourselves. How could I tell her?’
‘How could you not tell her?’
‘As long as I keep paying the mortgage out of the marina’s account, there’s no reason for her to know,’ he said.
‘Things are picking up financially – we’re making decent money tonight, and I’ve already had a few enquiries about holding a couple of birthday and engagement parties on the Lady from parents with kids at the school.
With luck, I’ll be able to pay back the loan in a year or two. ’
Iris suddenly remembered seeing Mac and Chad talking in their cars in the parking lot the day Raylan pulled his stunt on the school roof, and the penny finally dropped.
‘You got Chad Givens to deny the permit for the gym,’ Iris said. ‘You knew the school would have to take you up on your offer to hire the Lady.’
‘I didn’t have a choice,’ Mac said, embarrassed. ‘I needed this gig.’
‘And?’
‘And?’
‘Money worries didn’t get you into this much trouble,’ Iris said.
Beneath his summer tan, Mac’s skin was grey.
‘Without Amy’s signature, I could only borrow against my share of the house,’ he said.
‘And it wasn’t enough. The property taxes on the marina alone—’ He broke off, his jaw tightening.
‘Dad said he’d lend me what I needed to get up to date on my taxes.
Enough to clear most of my outstanding debts, too.
I thought everything was all sorted.’ He gave a short bark of laughter.
‘I should’ve known. Dad doesn’t do anything for free. ’
At the other end of the boat, Kate Walker and Jenna Lincoln were marshalling a gaggle of teenagers against the railing for photographs.
They’d ignored Amy’s no parents edict and come aboard anyway.
Kate laughed as Finn picked Ashley up, his dark red curls afire with the last rays of the sun, the girl screeching in mock-terror when he pretended to throw her overboard.
Jenna knelt to get a better angle as Kate hustled Maggie and Nicky from the edge of the group to the centre.
‘That’s not the end of the story, though, is it?’ Iris said.
Come on, Mac. You know you want to tell me.
Mac looked down at his calloused hands.
‘Dad has a photo,’ he said.
‘A photo?’
‘Well, a screenshot. Of me kissing . . . someone else.’
It was the confession she’d been expecting, but her disappointment was still real. ‘Jesus Christ, Mac. What the hell were you thinking?’
‘I don’t know,’ Mac said.
‘What possessed you to—’
‘I’m not kidding, Iris.’ He spread his hands helplessly.
‘I really don’t know. I’ve seen the photo with my own eyes.
I think it’s a screenshot from our doorbell camera – Dad and I signed up to a shared family plan on the Ring app a few months ago so we could keep an eye on each other’s houses if one of us was away.
He must have got it from that. But I’m not making this up, Iz: I literally don’t remember it happening. ’
He seemed genuinely bewildered, which confused Iris in turn.
‘You’re not having an affair?’
‘Of course not! You know how much I love your sister. Things haven’t always been perfect, and maybe I’ve been spending too much time at the marina, but I love my wife. You must know that.’
Iris did know that.
There’d been a time, before she’d met Jesse, when she’d been tempted to test the theory, when she’d stood a little too close to Mac after one too many glasses of wine at New Year, when she’d let her hand rest a fraction too long on his thigh as he drove her home at night.
If Mac had ever known what she was up to, he’d gently and firmly closed it down before she’d embarrassed them both.
Iris was eternally grateful to him. The heart wants what it wants – but that doesn’t mean it can ride roughshod over everyone else to get it.
‘I’m not trying to defend what I did,’ Mac said, ‘but I swear, I don’t even remember bringing her home.
I mean, yes, I shouldn’t have bought a round for her and her friends when I bumped into them at the Taproom – none of them are twenty-one, but I remember what it was like being that age.
So, sure, that wasn’t my smartest move. But I damn sure don’t remember taking her home with me, never mind kissing her!
I must have drunk more than I’d thought, because I can’t even remember getting home myself, never mind bringing her back with me. ’
‘Or you were roofied,’ Iris said.
Mac’s jaw literally dropped.
Iris would have laughed if it wasn’t so shocking.
‘Think about it,’ she said. ‘Your father needed you to give him the dredger tonight, no questions asked, and keep it off the books so there was no record. Maybe he thought your debts weren’t enough to keep you in line. He wanted a little extra leverage.’
‘But how could he know we would—’
‘He set you up,’ Iris said.
‘That’s not possible!’
‘She’d do anything for a bit of cold, hard cash,’ Iris said sharply. ‘I thought they looked a bit too cosy at Amy’s birthday party last weekend. The vindictive little bitch probably enjoyed getting one over on her. She’s a nasty piece of work. I doubt she took much persuading.’
She was glad they were out on the lake. From the expression in Mac’s eyes, she had no doubt he’d have gone straight to his father if they’d been ashore, and quite possibly killed him.
‘Dad set me up with her just to keep me in line?’ Mac said disbelievingly. ‘It makes no fucking sense. If he and Jesse get caught, the worst that’ll happen is a few thousand dollars in fines and a slap on the wrist. What else is he so desperate to hide?’
‘Well, isn’t that the million-dollar question,’ Iris said.