Until The Ride Stops

“You know Evie and I have an extra room in our apartment downtown. In case you’d like to escape the heat in the employee dorm. You’d have your own shower. Air conditioning. A fridge full of whatever you want.”

“And the privilege of living with two newlyweds who are disgustingly in love. One of whom is my boss.”

“I’m not really your boss.”

“I didn’t mean you,” Caroline said. “And I like the employee dorms. My friends are there. It’s a short walk to work. If there’s any serious action going down, I’m right there ready to get in it.”

Scott’s frown deepened. “Those dorms are a fire hazard. I’m trying to tolerate them for one more season knowing they’re being replaced this fall,” he said. “I may burn them down myself in October.”

“My brother, Mr. Fire Safety, would burn something down?”

“It would be a good training session for the fire department. Can never get enough training.”

Caroline shoved her tray aside and uncapped her bottle of water.

“I probably shouldn’t be eating this greasy food. If the rain stops, I’m going to go for a run along the water downtown later.”

“Are you worried about passing the running test for the police academy?”

“Not worried about passing. I want to beat all the other guys.”

Scott laughed. “You probably will.”

Caroline leaned back in her chair and crossed one leg over the other. She watched her brother shovel in his food.

He wore his Starlight Point Fire Department uniform. His name tag said Chief Bennett, a promotion he’d earned through a combination of his education, experience and a heroic rescue of Evie Hamilton from a burning building the previous season. No doubt, her brother was a hero. He’d always been hers.

He worked part-time for the city of Bayside’s fire department, acted as the fire inspector for new construction in the city and led the department at Starlight Point. His inspector’s job was a major area of conflict between him and Evie when they were working through the hotel renovation plans last summer, but they’d both managed to come out with their dreams intact. And he might be able to help his little sister, too.

“Do you have access to construction plans from a long time ago?” Caroline asked.

Scott glanced up from his plate. “How long?”

“1985.”

“That depends on a lot of things. What’s in the plans you want to see?”

“A roller coaster. The Loose Cannon that was here for just that one season.”

He shrugged. “The museum in the town hall back in the Wonderful West probably has pictures of it. You could start there.”

“There aren’t any,” Caroline said. “I looked.”

Scott crossed his arms and gave her the big brother look. “Is this how you’re spending your summer?”

“A girl was killed on that ride. Maybe you could ask Evie what she knows about it.”

“The Hamiltons didn’t own this place in 1985, and I don’t plan to ruin dinner any night this week by bringing up what is probably a sore subject.”

Heat crept over her neck and face and her heart hammered. Of all people, she would expect her brother to understand her quest for justice and answers. “The girl who was killed, do you know who she was?”

“Should I?” Scott looked perplexed but interested.

“The Knights who live down the street from Mom and Dad’s old house.”

“The Silent Knights?”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “Do you know why they were so quiet and reclusive, why they moved to Yorkville years ago? They were trying to get away from here. It was their daughter who was killed. She was only twelve. And they never found out what caused the accident. They never got closure or justice. It’s not right.”

“How do you know this?”

“They told me a few weeks ago when I was helping Mom and Dad move. I was wearing a Starlight Point sweatshirt while I was hauling stuff to the moving van. I guess they decided to say something before our family moved away for good.”

Caroline swirled a fry through a puddle of ketchup. Her jaw was tight and she couldn’t look at her brother. “She was only twelve,” she whispered.

Scott reached over and squeezed Caroline’s hand. “Sometimes you have to let things go and move on. No matter how hard I enforce fire safety codes, it won’t bring back our sister. And no matter how doggedly you seek justice for every crime, it won’t—”

“Hey, you two.” Evie stood at their table holding a dripping umbrella in one hand and two pudding parfaits in her other. She put the parfaits in the center of the table. “You look like you need these. I could see you were bickering clear over there.” She cocked her head, indicating the cafeteria line.

“We weren’t exactly squabbling,” Scott said. He moved over a chair and made room for Evie to sit. As soon as she did, he put an arm around her and kissed her temple.

“Very cute,” Caroline said. “And thanks for the dessert.”

“Is your brother harassing you about becoming a police officer, living in the fire hazard employee dorms or both?”

Caroline gave Evie a lopsided grin and dug into her dessert without responding. Evie already knew the answer. It was nice that she’d shown up when she did. Caroline and her brother had had this conversation before. They used to be more in tune, both of them using their chosen profession to right an old wrong. But Scott had changed in the past year, letting the tragic death of their older sister, Catherine, go.

Caroline was afraid to let it go, afraid she’d forget the sister she’d never even gotten a chance to know.

* * *

DOWNPOURS ON CONSTRUCTION sites were the worst, Matt thought as he gave up and sent his crew home after lunch on a relentlessly rainy Tuesday. He sat in his truck for half an hour, refreshing the radar on his phone over and over, but it was no use. The rain might move off and make a beautiful evening, but the work day was doomed. Judging from the rivers running through the mud, the next few days weren’t going to be pretty.

Matt drove through the gate onto the outer loop, turned on his truck’s flashers, and ran back in the rain to close and secure the gate. As he snapped the lock together, he saw a familiar figure dashing across the road with an umbrella.

Caroline appeared to be leaving the marina gate and crossing over to the employee dorms. She wasn’t wearing her uniform and Matt realized it must be her day off.

He dashed back to his truck and pulled onto the road to head to his office. Caroline didn’t really live in those old dorms, did she? Somehow, he’d imagined the sister-in-law of the owners living in the Hamilton compound or in the luxury employee dorms. Which didn’t seem to exist, now that he thought about it.

It would be a few hours before he saw his own small house in Bayside. His crew couldn’t pour footers and prep the site for the new ride, but he could always find work to do at the construction office.

The Shooting Star/Super Star roller coaster was not the only project Bayside Construction had going on. For the sake of the family business, he needed to prove he could juggle multiple projects without dropping one.

Through his office wall, he heard his stepfather coughing. He ignored it for a few minutes out of habit, something he’d gotten sadly used to over the past year. After hearing body-wracking coughs for almost ten minutes, though, Matt went to the small office kitchen and made a cup of tea with a healthy dose of honey. He walked into Bruce’s office and set it quietly on his desk.

“Sounds like you need this,” he said.

“It’s the damp weather. I’d say it’s the damn weather, but your mother doesn’t like that.”