The Tell Tail Heart

by Cate Conte

  Then I realized she was turning off the road. But where was she turning onto? I peered into the darkness ahead, trying to get my bearings. We’d crossed out of Daybreak Harbor a while ago, and we were now on the west side of Turtle Point, heading into Fisherman’s Cove, where there wasn’t much but coastline. There had been no other cars on this road the entire time we’d been out here except for one lone pickup truck that had passed us in the opposite direction about ten minutes ago.

  “What do I do?” Val asked, panicked.

  “Just drive past,” I said, sliding down low in my seat. Logic told me Thea would never be able to see inside our car, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

  “She’s turning onto some private road.” Val slowed a bit, giving her plenty of space to pull off. I risked popping my head up to look. She seemed to be going down some old beach road. If she wanted a walk on the beach, she could’ve simply gone to the beach right in Daybreak Harbor, behind the hotel she’d tried to break into. This seemed like a lot of work.

  “Drive past and then pull over,” I said to Val.

  She did. “What now, Mulder?” she asked, sarcasm dripping from her words.

  I frowned at her, even though she couldn’t see me in the dark. “Well, Scully, haven’t you learned yet that Mulder was mostly always right?”

  “Mostly being the key word,” Val muttered.

  “I’ll be back. Stay here.” I pulled up the hood of my parka, opened the car door, and stepped out.

  “Wait! Where are you going?”

  “To see where she’s going. I’ll be right back.” I quietly shut the door behind me and jogged back toward the turnoff, thankful I’d worn my comfy and toasty, if boring, UGGs and mostly dark colors. It was freakin’ freezing out here, and the sleet hitting my face felt like tiny knives. At least it wasn’t flooding, but if the winds didn’t let up, the potential for that overnight was huge. I tugged my scarf up higher to protect my face as I cautiously approached the street—driveway, really, but at least it was paved—down which Thea’s car had disappeared. I paused at the bend. I could see brake lights ahead.

  Keeping to the scant tree line, I moved quickly down the beach road. I could hear the waves in the distance. Where did this road lead, other than the beach? Why this particular beach? She had to be meeting someone.

  The car shut off abruptly, leaving the road now in complete black. I probably wouldn’t be able to see what she was doing even if I got closer. I paused about a hundred feet behind her car, not sure what to do next. Then a lantern or something flooded on ahead of me, illuminating what appeared to be a small structure. A house? Out here? What was this? Fascinated, I inched my way forward, keeping myself about as low as her car. A quick flash of light as she opened her car door and got out, heading toward the light. As my eyes adjusted, I realized it was more of a trailer. But not a mobile home–type trailer. Like something you would pull behind a truck, but really large. I squinted into the darkness, wishing the visibility were better. Thanks to the jury-rigged floodlight I could see the trailer was white, and it looked old.

  And then a person stepped out of the trailer, waiting as Thea approached. I stopped dead in my tracks, unsure of what I was seeing. If it weren’t for the hat, I would’ve sworn my eyes were playing tricks on me. But the hat was real. A full-on, leopard-print knit hat.

  It was Leopard Man.

  But that wasn’t even the most shocking part. What was shocking was the man who emerged right behind him. I had to blink twice and dare to take a couple steps closer to be sure.

  It was Grandpa Leo.

  Chapter 40

  I froze, not quite believing what I was seeing. I blinked a couple times to make sure. Yep, it was still him. Grandpa. My grandpa, the former chief of police. No wonder he hadn’t called me back. I’d been right. He was helping Leopard Man hide out. Or at least that’s what it looked like. And that I could understand.

  But Thea Coleman was now in the picture. And that didn’t sit well with me. I remembered him saying he had the situation with her handled. Was this what he’d meant?

  What on earth was he doing here? What was this place? Why was Leopard Man here? But more important, it looked like I’d been right. Leopard Man and Thea Coleman did know each other. I didn’t know what that meant, but it felt bad. Icky. I’d thought Leopard Man was a friend.

  Swallowing the hurt, I tried to position myself behind the barren trees lining the driveway in case they could see me, which was kind of unlikely in this nasty weather given that I didn’t have a lightbulb over my head, but still. And I watched.

  I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. It seemed like hours that I stood there behind the inadequate tree cover, afraid to move, the whole scene frozen in front of me, dimly lit by a flickering light that looked like it had been strung up by some bungee cords. Really it was probably seconds, because there’s no way they would’ve stood out in the rain and sleet like this for a long time. It occurred to me that I might want to text Val, though I really wasn’t sure what to say. Numbly, I reached into my pocket for my cell phone.

  But when I pulled it out, the balancing crystal my amazingly balanced mentor, Cass, had given me came out with it, hit the ground, and rolled away.

  “Crap,” I muttered. I really didn’t want to lose that crystal.

  I knew it was unrealistic that he’d heard me, given the wind and the slashing rain, but I swore I saw Grandpa peer out in my direction. I wouldn’t be surprised. He’d always had superhuman hearing. When we were kids and lived in the house, I remembered times when my sisters and I were whispering up on the third floor about the secret crush we had on some boy, or whatever other critical information we didn’t want the adults to know about, only to go downstairs where Grandpa had been the entire time, and he would casually let some reference to our conversation slip.

  To this day I never figured out how he did that.

  I realized I was still holding my breath and I felt kind of dizzy. I exhaled as quietly as I could just as Leopard Man and Grandpa both stepped to the side, like a receiving line. Leopard Man held the door for Thea, and she slipped past both of them and went inside. Grandpa followed. Leopard Man turned to go in after them, then paused and looked back at the road, almost like he could sense me there. He may have looked right at me. I held completely still, and so did he, and a few painful seconds ticked by. Then he turned and followed them inside.

  I swallowed, taking my first full breath since they’d come out. I dropped to my knees and felt around for my rock, not wanting to use my flashlight app but not wanting to leave it behind. But it was way too dark and the rock must’ve rolled farther than I thought. Plus, my hands were about to fall off from the cold. I couldn’t stay forever and look for it. I had to get out of here before Grandpa decided to leave and either spotted me running up the driveway or spotted Val’s car on the street. I counted to ten just to make sure they weren’t coming back out, then turned and booked it back down the road and to Val’s car. Luckily, she hadn’t left me. I slid in, out of breath. “Let’s go,” I said.

  “What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you, but let’s get out of here.”

  Val obliged, shoving the car into drive. She banged a U-turn, heading back to Daybreak Harbor the way we’d come with a minor tire screech. I winced. So much for the stealth undercover operation. But at least it gave me a minute to regroup and figure out what to say to her. Because I certainly didn’t want to say anything about Grandpa until I processed that a bit. And perhaps confronted him. I wasn’t sure yet.

  But Val wasn’t giving me long to think. “So?” she demanded as soon as she’d turned the corner on what felt like two wheels.

  I looked out the window, though I couldn’t see anything, and chewed on my lip. I didn’t want this to be true. Whatever this was. That was the problem, wasn’t it? It was all a bunch of crazy speculations. I didn’t know why the woman who’d thrown my life into turmoil with her crazy claims to my cat had turned up at Leopard Man’s
doorstep. Was that even his doorstep? What was that place? Leopard Man didn’t live anywhere, as far as anyone knew. Which I knew was a little unrealistic. The winters out here got cold. I mean, we weren’t even in winter yet and I’d been about to freeze to death standing out there in the sleet and wind. I didn’t care how warm his fuzzy coat was—living outside wasn’t fit for anyone. But I’d always been a sucker for the mystique of certain things, and I never really let myself wonder about the technicalities of his situation.

  Regardless, it looked like Leopard Man and Thea were friendly. Heck, it was a party of friendly, considering Grandpa’s presence.

  But it could be something very different. Maybe she was terrorizing Leopard Man. Maybe she was here on the island with an evil partner and whoever that was had threatened Leopard Man with a weapon if he didn’t do whatever dastardly deed she demanded, possibly involving covering up evidence from a crime scene. Or maybe she was acting alone but blackmailing him for something, so he was at her beck and call until she got what she wanted.

  But then what was Grandpa doing there?

  And if she was blackmailing him, what did she want? JJ? Something from Jason Holt’s hotel room? Why was she here?

  I needed to figure out who this Thea Coleman was, and fast.

  “Maddie!” Val practically shouted in my ear.

  I jumped. “Sorry, sorry. She drove down to some little trailer. And Leopard Man opened the door.”

  Val turned to look at me. I couldn’t see her, but I felt her eyes piercing the side of my head. She almost drifted into the other lane.

  “Watch out,” I said.

  She jerked the wheel back. “Why was she with him?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Do you think he’s in cahoots with her?”

  I suppressed a smile. “Do people still say ‘cahoots’? Have you been reading Nancy Drew to get ready for our adventure tonight?”

  “Oh, shut up. I’m serious.” Val turned the windshield wipers up higher and cranked the defroster.

  “I don’t know, Val. I don’t know how he knows her, or why she’s here, or what she wants, other than JJ. Believe me, I wish I did.”

  “Do you think we need to talk to Grandpa about it?”

  “No.” It came out so fast I knew she was suspicious. I stared straight ahead, but I could see her head snap toward me out of my peripheral vision.

  “No?”

  “Not yet,” I said. “He won’t want to talk about it anyway. That’s his friend. He shut me down when I asked about … all this.” And whatever was going on—unless it was a blatant breaking of the law or something that would hurt his family—he would look out for his friend’s interests. At least, that’s what I thought.

  “So is that where he lives?” Val asked. “Leopard Man? What kind of trailer was it? Like, a manufactured home? On the beach?”

  “No. It’s like a … trailer trailer. I’m not an expert, but it looked like a trailer for horses or something. And I have no idea if he lives there. Who would live in a horse trailer, though? Anyway, I was just as surprised to see him as I was to see her with him.” Not to mention Grandpa, but that was a whole different conversation.

  Chapter 41

  “You went where?” Ethan asked, pulling plates out of the cabinet for our sushi. Good thing he’d gotten cold food. And he’d been sweet enough to pick up enough for all of us. Val and I had arrived home to find Ethan dozing off on the couch. He’d stashed the sushi in the fridge to wait for us. Now that was love.

  Or he was just really tired and wanted a nap.

  “Where’s Grandpa?” Val called from the living room, where she was hanging her coat in the closet. “I haven’t seen him all day.”

  I turned away so no one would see my face as I pulled my own coat off.

  “I haven’t seen him. Why are you so wet?” Ethan asked from the kitchen doorway, noticing my dilemma as to where to put my sopping coat and scarf.

  “Long story.” I gave up and hung them off the closet door, hugging myself to try to stop the shivering. Even with the heat blasting at me in the car, I still felt chilled to the bone. Partly the weather, partly the sights, I was sure.

  I turned the heat up, for once not caring about the giant heating bill that would surely be waiting for me next month, then put the kettle on for some hot tea while Ethan put the plates out.

  “So what happened? Are you ever going to tell me?” Ethan said finally, looking from one to the other.

  Val told him about the events that unfolded at the yacht club and how Craig had shown up. She told this part with a sideways glance at me, which I ignored.

  “And then he took them both down to the station to talk. I have no idea what happened after that.”

  “Huh,” Ethan said. “Then what?”

  “I’ll let Maddie take that one.” Val picked up a California roll and popped it into her mouth.

  I pushed a salmon avocado roll around on my plate, finally picking it up and dipping it in my wasabi-laden soy sauce before eating it. I always felt so awkward trying to eat sushi, especially when the rolls were so big. I used the excuse that I needed to chew a lot to stall for time. “After that we saw Thea Coleman’s car and we followed her,” I said when I finally swallowed.

  Ethan looked puzzled by this. “Why would you do that?”

  I shrugged. “To try to find out stuff.”

  “So what’d you guys find out?” Ethan asked in his matter-of-fact tone.

  I squirmed a little bit in my seat. On the one hand, I wasn’t sure I wanted to out Leopard Man to everyone, even if this was just Ethan and I trusted him implicitly. But I had a feeling Grandpa wouldn’t be happy with me if I started shooting my mouth off to everyone about what I saw, even without including the part about him. Especially since I didn’t know what any of it meant.

  On the other hand, I couldn’t lie and say I’d seen nothing. They wouldn’t believe that. And if I said I’d seen only Thea going into this weird trailer, they might encourage me to call the cops. Heck, they might anyway. Not that I would.

  “You can’t say anything,” I said. “I mean it. Like, we are so far in the vault right now that we can barely find our way out.”

  Ethan nodded. “Okay,” he said.

  “Okay. We followed her down this desolate beach road to a random lot with some tiny trailer on it. And in the trailer…” I paused for dramatic effect. “Was Leopard Man.”

  Ethan didn’t look that impressed.

  “Well?” I waited for a reaction.

  “Well what?” Ethan asked.

  “Did you hear me? The crazy lady met up with Leopard Man. Who’s our friend!”

  Still nothing.

  I leaned back, exasperated. “Does no one else see the problem with this?”

  Ethan looked at Val, then back at me. “Didn’t you kind of already know that he knew her? Or at least suspect?”

  “No! I thought she’d seen him on the street and was asking him for directions,” I said, but even as the words left my mouth I knew they weren’t true. Wishful thinking, maybe.

  “There’s probably a good explanation, Maddie,” Ethan said. “One that you definitely weren’t going to find out skulking around in the dark.” His tone was affectionate, so I let it go, despite my instincts to defend myself. “Besides, you said she’s a regular to the island. I’m sure she knows a lot of people.”

  I hadn’t really thought about it that way. It made me wonder if Grandpa did know her after all. Warning bells rang in my head as the thought drifted in. I thought back to the day she’d come to the cafe. They hadn’t seemed like they knew each other, but everyone seemed to be really good at keeping secrets lately, so what did I know?

  I sniffed. “But still. It’s weird. And I want to know why. I feel like maybe it’s a conflict of interest or something. She’s nuts, and she definitely doesn’t have my best interests at heart. And he’s friends with us, so … he shouldn’t be harboring her. She’s like a fugitive!” I avoided invoking Grandp
a’s name and wondered if anyone else might have noticed.

  “Why is she a fugitive again?” Ethan asked.

  I realized I hadn’t told them that part. I filled him in on the events of the day and Thea trying to break into Jason Holt’s hotel room. That raised his eyebrows.

  “That’s kind of weird,” he said. Ethan, the king of understatement.

  “Thank you.” Validated, I sat back.

  “Are the cops really looking for her? She shouldn’t be that hard to find if she’s out driving around,” he said.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know if she actually got into Holt’s room or if they found her and talked to her somewhere in between when Ellory threw me out and tonight when we followed her.”

  “So what should we do?” Val asked, interrupting.

  I looked at her. “I don’t think we can do anything right now. I think we need to find out more.”

  Val rolled her eyes at me. “Clearly, you have to tell Grandpa. If they’re having a secret meeting, he should know about it. Especially if she’s, like, wanted or something.”

  “No,” I said, so fast that they all looked at me a little strangely.

  “Why the heck not?” Val asked.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I just told you. We need to figure some of this stuff out first. This is his friend. It’s different this time.”

  “I still think you need to tell him. Look.” Val pushed her plate away. “That guy was sleeping here the other night when the police clearly wanted him for something. Questioning at the very least. I know Grandpa wouldn’t put us in danger, but he needs to know if this guy is up to something. I vote we tell Grandpa.”

  “Tell Grandpa what?”

  Chapter 42

  We all whirled around to find Grandpa Leo standing in the doorway. I felt the blood drain from my face and hoped he didn’t notice. Which was kind of silly, because Grandpa Leo noticed everything. No one spoke—not even Val, who’d been all brave when Grandpa wasn’t here. And I knew they were waiting for me to say something. Nobody wanted Grandpa getting mad at them. Even though he hardly ever got mad at any of us. Well, aside from me this week. So as usual, I’d been unanimously—and silently—elected spokesperson.