On Fire

“I’m not talking about conclusions, I’m talking about logic.” But he checked his raging emotions and softened, giving her a quick hug. “Thank God you’re all right. Let’s hope the worst is over for you. At this point I don’t give a damn anymore about Emile, but you…” He tousled her hair as if she were seven. “I care about you, kid. I’m sorry you had to go through what you did.”

“At least I didn’t know it was Sam. If I had…” She shuddered, leaving it at that.

“I know. Let’s hope the police make quick work of this. Riley, you know I have no desire to see anything more happen to Emile—”

“It’s okay, Dad. I understand. He shouldn’t have taken off the way he did.”

“Yeah. Keep me posted, will you?”

She promised she would. Her father, her mother, Sig. Emile. In their own way, they were a family, and they cared about each other. As tough as her parents were on Emile, Riley knew it pained them to see what they believed had become of him. And it frustrated them that she disagreed with their assessment. She was the only one who still refused to believe Emile Labreque had become a dangerous disgrace to his work, his reputation and himself.

Not two minutes after her father left, her extension rang.

“Don’t you have your own secretary?”

Straker. “Where are you?”

“I’m on break.”

“From what?”

“I’m learning how to feed sharks.”

“What?”

“I signed up for the volunteer-training program for people with PTSD. Abigail Granger happened to be in the volunteer office when I stopped by. I understand this program was her idea. Get them to connect with nature, toss a few fish to the sharks and they feel better about what they’ve been through. She walked me through the paperwork.”

“You’re shameless. There’s a hot poker in hell with your name on it, I swear. That program is for people with a serious psychological disorder.”

“I went to an island for six months. I connected with nature. I feel better.”

Riley gripped the receiver so hard her hand hurt. “You went to an island for six months because you can’t get along with anyone.”

“I’ve made friends with a couple of Vietnam vets this morning. Now, they’ve got real demons to fight. I didn’t want to lie to them, so I told them the score. They liked it when I told them you had a Beanie Baby sitting on your computer. You have quite the tiger-lady reputation.”

“You’re the most obnoxious man on the planet. You conned Abigail.”

“Nope. I told her I’m shadowing you because I don’t trust you to mind your own business and I needed a cover story, and she showed me to the sharks.”

“You did not.”

He laughed.

“I hate you, Straker.”

“You hold that thought. You staying in for lunch?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Okay, I’ll find out on my own—”

“Yes! Yes, I’m staying in for lunch.” She hated him, hated him, hated him. But his laugh still resonated, low and deep. He was a very dangerous man. “You?”

“Abigail’s bringing us clam chowder.”

He hung up, and Riley had to pry her fingers off the receiver.

She raced down to the volunteer office, where, indeed, Abigail Granger had ordered clam chowder lunches for her volunteers.

“Would you like some?” she asked. “We always order extra.”

Riley smiled stiffly. “No, thanks. I was just checking out a rumor.”

Straker was there. He hadn’t lied. Abigail wasn’t the sort who’d see through him. She was thirty-nine, fair-haired and fine boned, with striking blue eyes and a well-honed sense of style and grace. She never griped about anyone or anything, although she was divorced and the mother of two teenage boys away at school.

Like Bennett Granger, her deceased father, she wasn’t a scientist, but her dedication to the Boston Center for Oceanographic Studies was total. She’d taken his place on the board of directors. If she wanted to fall for John Straker’s phony sob story, she could.

“I heard about your terrible ordeal this weekend,” Abigail said. “I’m so sorry. How are you doing?”

From her tone Riley guessed she hadn’t heard that the body had been identified as Sam Cassain. Abigail had never said what she believed happened to the Encounter. Matthew Granger—her brother and Riley’s brother-in-law—was the one who knew. Emile was responsible, period, never mind that he’d been like a second father to Bennett’s two children, showing them how to tie knots and sing to the periwinkles. His downfall had left a void in their lives, too, even if Abigail repressed it and Matt raged against it.

Riley decided she didn’t really want to tell Abigail it was Sam’s body she’d found. “I’m okay.”

Abigail frowned. Her expensive navy suit, although simple, looked out of place amid the stripped-down furnishings of the volunteer office. The center had a policy of putting its funds into research, public displays and facilities that benefited its marine and aquatic population—not into plush furnishings for staff and volunteers. “I understand you were visiting Emile.”

“I spent Monday night at his place on Schoodic.”

“Riley? Are you all right?”

She attempted a shaky smile. “It’s just been a tough few days.” There was no way around it. She had to tell her. “Abigail, I heard this morning—the body I found. It was Sam Cassain.”

Abigail clutched a stack of papers with her long, thin, manicured fingers. “That’s awful. Does Henry know?”

Henry Armistead was the center’s executive director, handpicked by Bennett Granger. He’d won the board’s gratitude for his impeccable handling of the public relations nightmare the Encounter tragedy had presented. Sam’s death would give the gossip and the center’s critics fresh life—reason enough for Riley to have gone straight to him first thing that morning.

“I don’t know,” Riley admitted. “I haven’t told him.”

“I think you should,” Abigail said with certainty. “I imagine the police will want to talk to him about Sam. And reporters…” She took a breath, regaining her poise. She would think of the center first. She always did. “We need to put a strategy in place for handling the inevitable questions. Oh, Riley, this is horrendous. You know Sam was in Maine over the weekend, don’t you?”

Her head spun. “He was?”

“Yes, I thought you saw him. He stopped at the house on Friday before the cocktail party. He said he just wanted to see how we were doing.” She faltered, suddenly awkward. “Oh, dear. What if we were the last people to see him alive? How on earth did he end up on Labreque Island, of all places? It must have been an accident.”

Riley half wished she’d taken her grandfather’s cue and cleared out for a few days. Then people could have jumped to the wrong conclusions about her, too. “I have no idea, and I’m trying not to get ahead of myself with questions I can’t answer. I should have talked to Henry sooner. I’ll go see him now.” She hesitated, debating. “Will you be talking to Matt? Sig knows about Sam, but I doubt she—”

“I’ll get in touch with him,” Abigail said, briskly polite. Whatever her opinion of her brother’s marital problems, she would never say.

Riley ducked out without bringing up the topic of oddballs who might have shown up that morning for the PTSD volunteer program. She went out to the exhibits. No sign of Straker. The low lighting gave the sense of being underwater as tourists, school groups and businesspeople on their lunch hour intermingled, checking out exhibits that ran from small aquariums to the huge, multistory saltwater tank.