murder on our hands or that we’re looking for him on the island. He’ll be gone on the next ferry and we might lose him altogether.”
“What makes you think he didn’t leave the day after the murder?” Myrna asked.
“I don’t think he got what he wanted,” Slade said. “He stuck around because as far as he knows there is no murder investigation going on. He feels safe. We want him to continue to feel that way.”
“I’m on it,” Willis said. He straightened away from the doorjamb, preparing to head out.
“One more thing,” Slade said. “Good work on these alibis. I know that some of the people on that list were very low profile. I’m impressed that you were able to confirm their whereabouts on the night of the murder.”
Kirk reddened a little. “Yeah, well, I’ve always liked working on a computer.”
“Good skill to have on this job. Get back to me as soon as you’ve got some information on the island guests.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kirk turned and went briskly down the hall. A moment later the front door closed behind him.
Myrna gave Slade a knowing smile. “Young Officer Willis has certainly developed a lot more enthusiasm for the law enforcement profession since you arrived on the island. I think he’s starting to feel like a real cop.”
“It’s his first murder investigation,” Slade said. “The experience tends to have that effect.”
“Actually, I think it may be the first murder investigation we’ve had on the island since Letty Porter decided she’d had enough of her husband getting drunk and beating up on her. She got him drunk one last time, drove him to Death Wish Point, and pushed him off. They never did find the body. That was almost twenty years ago.”
“What happened to Letty Porter?”
“She’s still here. Has a cabin out on Higgins Road. She’s in her seventies now. Chief Halstead was new on the job at the time. He was never able to prove murder. Not that he tried real hard. As far as everyone around here was concerned, George Porter had it coming. He was one mean drunk.”
Slade leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the desktop. “She killed once.”
“Forget it,” Myrna said. “Take my word for it, Letty Porter has absolutely no interest in antiques. And knowing Letty, even if she had wanted to kill Gaines for some reason, she would have used the nearest blunt object.”
“All the same, see if you can find out where she was on the night Gaines died.”
“Okay.” Myrna glanced at her watch. “It’s not quite four o’clock. I can take a run out to her place right now.”
“Do that.”
Myrna started to step back from the doorway. She hesitated. “You know, I’m starting to get a little worried about Devin and Nate.”
“Wasn’t this the day of the big treasure hunt?”
“Yes, but they left early this morning,” Myrna said. “I expected them back by lunchtime. They’ve only got a few energy bars and some bottled water with them. They’re thirteen-year-old boys. They should be starving by now.”
“Maybe they’re living off the land.”
“Trust me, a few summer berries wouldn’t do it for boys that age. I called Nate’s mom a short time ago. Laurinda said she had expected them back earlier, too, but she wasn’t worried.”
“You are?”
“Devin’s a city kid. He doesn’t know his way around the island.”
“Nate does.”
“I know.” Myrna nibbled on her lower lip. “I’m being overly protective, aren’t I?”
“He’s a growing boy. He needs to spread his wings. This island is a lot safer place to do that than the big city.”
“I know that, too.”
“But you’re still worried.”
“It’s just that I’ve had this weird feeling since this morning.” Myrna sighed. “There are some dangerous places on the island. Steep cliffs. Rip currents in the coves and inlets. What if one of the boys fell?”
“The other would have come back to town to get help,” Slade said.
“What if they tried to get through the fence and got lost inside the Preserve?”
“When was the last time an island kid got through the fence?”
Myrna sighed. “It’s never happened as far as I know.”
“The fence works, Myrna,” Slade said.
At least it did when it came to keeping out those with no measurable levels of talent, he thought. Devin, with his newly stirring senses, might have been tempted to try to get inside but Nate would not have made it. If Devin had managed to get lost in the Preserve, Nate would have raced back to town to report the problem.
“There are other things that can happen to a couple of kids alone,” Myrna said.
“It’s okay to worry,” he said.
“Gee, thanks for that, boss. I feel so much better now.”
“Sorry,” Slade said. “That wasn’t very reassuring, was it? Look, Devin said that he and Nate were going to Hidden Beach to do their treasure hunting. They would have taken Merton Road. You could drive out there and see how they’re getting on for yourself.”
“Are you kidding? I can’t check up on Devin. He would be absolutely mortified if I did that to him in front of Nate.”
“True. I’ll tell you what, I’ll drive out there and take a look.”
Myrna looked inordinately grateful. “Thanks, Chief. I really appreciate this.”
Slade looked at Rex. “Let’s go, buddy.”
Sensing a new adventure, Rex chortled, grabbed his clutch, and bounded up onto Slade’s shoulder.
Slade looked at Myrna. “It has been suggested that hanging out with a dust bunny who carries a purse might have a negative impact on my image as a hard-core crime fighter.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Myrna said. “It’s a very nice clutch.”
Chapter 19
NATE GRABBED DEVIN’S ARM. “DID YOU HEAR THAT?”
“Ouch.” Devin winced. “Yeah, let go, man. That hurts.”
They were sitting side by side, their backs against a massive granite rock. Nearby a waterfall splashed into a pool. It was late afternoon but night fell fast and early inside the Preserve. The last of the sun had vanished a few minutes ago and a deep twilight was descending.
The plunge through the weird energy fence had been bad for both of them, although Devin suspected that it had frightened Nate more than it had him. Nevertheless, they were now facing the prospect of spending the night inside the Preserve and he was not looking forward to it any more than Nate was.
At least there had been no sign of the two smugglers. The really bad part, Devin thought, was that they did not have a flashlight. They hadn’t had anything to eat for hours. He thought wistfully about the packs they had left on top of the cliff above Hidden Beach.
“There’s that creepy noise again,” Nate whispered. “Maybe it’s those two guys.”
Devin stared hard at the dense darkness between the trees. Nate was not imagining things, he decided. Something had moved in the shadows. He could have sworn that for a couple of seconds he saw a pair of glowing eyes but it was hard to be certain because whenever he concentrated with all of his energy it seemed to him that there were a lot of small, strange things glowing in the dark around them. He’d realized very quickly that Nate could not see all the scary glow-in-the-dark stuff so he had decided not to mention it. Nate was already freaked out enough as it was. One of them had to stay calm.
“No,” he said. “It’s not the smugglers. If they had found us they would have shot us by now. You heard them back there at the cove. They said they couldn’t follow us into the Preserve.”
