“Before you go,” she says, trying to act as though it is only something that has occurred to her now. “Max was telling me the other night about Mr Sanders, my predecessor. He said he disappeared one night.”
“Aye, ran oaf more like,” Tam says, disdainfully. “I widnae be surprised if somethin' was taken from the house and we've just no' found oot yet.”
Sounds like Dad, sure enough, Melody thinks, trying not to laugh as she imagines her father running across the estate with a precious relic in his suitcase.
“It seems odd, though. Rob told me that Sanders hadn't left on his plane and that he thought he might still be staying on the island somewhere. Do you think that's true?”
Then, something strange happens. Tam's usual happy-go-lucky nature seems to melt away. His face loses a little of its color, and his expression quickly turns from a smile to emotionless.
“I widnae know...”
“But you were the last person to see him alive, weren't you?”
“Aye, as far as I know,” Tam says. “But whit does that hav' tae dae with it?”
“Don't you think it's weird? A place like Talon's Point isn't that big, where could he be hiding?”
Tam shakes his head, then, he moves in closely. “Leave it alone, lassie,” he says with a grim whisper. “Leave it alone...”
Then, he turns and walks away down a cobbled lane.
Melody's heart is racing. She did not expect that.
Rob's warning is clear in her head again. Perhaps Tam is involved. He seems to know something. Above, the skies are white-grayish, and seem a distant menace than those that had almost consumed her and Rebecca a few days earlier. Melody does indeed need a walk, and so she begins.
But almost as though her footsteps are guided by another force, she finds herself quietly walking in the same direction Tam is headed. She moves along the same cobbled lane, the white cottages around her feeling closer than they have done before. The lane is empty, but Tam's unmistakable footsteps in his Wellington boots can be heard around the corner.
Slowly, Melody, she thinks to herself.
Cautiously, she moves to the corner of a cottage, the paint on its stonework flaking in places, and peeks around, watching as Tam walks further ahead. There's something about the way he's walking. It's with more purpose than usual. Melody can't help but think that her conversation is the motivator, and it has spurred some rash decision in Tam's mind.
She follows. Between lanes of cobbled stone, they pass a local convenience store, then to the sea front. All the while, she keeps her distance. She has to. If she is caught, then anything Tam might reveal under her watchful gaze will not occur.
Walking along the seafront to the harbor, Tam stops by a large white boat, easily the largest moored there – some 30 feet in length at least. Its hull is covered in spots of grime from the sea, and its name is clear for Melody to see some way back.
The Blue Elm.
Melody searches her mind for why it is familiar...
“McCorrie...” she says quietly to herself. That is the name of the Blue Elm's captain. A man Rob said was capable of ferrying Mr Sanders off the island if he chose to do so.
Melody quickly hides behind a large pile of fishing nets that have been unceremoniously dumped on the side of the dock. The smell of fish nearly makes Melody wretch. But she composes herself.
And as if the thought conjured the man up, an unshaven sailor in his forties appears from the deck. His skin is weather beaten, his hair is a mix of gray and black, and has the look of a man who lives for the open sea.
“McCorrie!” Tam says, Melody just barely making out the word but not much more.
McCorrie jumps down from the deck of his large boat and then speaks with Tam. They are too far away for Melody to make out their expressions, but Tam cuts a figure of frustration.
Melody reaches the start of a wooden walkway that charts a course towards the sea for some time, cutting the harbor in two. Other boats are silently watching from their moorings. But there is no way for Melody to get close enough to hear what's being said without being seen.
Patiently, Melody watches, and then, without warning, Tam throws his hands up in the air as if angered by McCorrie, turns his back on him and starts walking straight towards where Melody is hiding. As he approaches, Melody has no choice, she climbs down off the dock and slips into the water between two boats.
The sea is cold, but it is as good a hiding place as ever.
Tam walks by muttering as if having an argument, the wooden boards beneath his green Wellingtons creaking as he walks.
When he's far away enough, Melody peers up over the dock and sees that McCorrie has his back to her. Quickly, she climbs up, shivering as she does so, and then moves off the dock, shaking. Her clothes are soaking through.
She would return immediately to the inn and have a shower, but she sees something peculiar. Tam has moved off and is wandering up a small hill that looks down on part of the shore. At the top of it is an old red wooden barn, the paint flaking from countless years exposed to the wind rolling off the sea.
Melody looks in the other direction back to the inn and shivers again. I need to get dry...
But she can't help herself. Where is Tam going? There's nothing else up there except for that old barn, and it doesn't look like it's been used for years.
Without thinking, Melody finds herself following Tam, moving
