Harbour Falls
Page 36
Helena stepped back, breaking our embrace, but keeping her hands on my elbows. “Are you OK?” Her blue eyes, looking somewhat troubled, swept my form.
“I’m fine,” I replied. “But is everything all right with you?”
“Uh.” Her hands dropped to her sides, and she glanced meaningfully to Adam. “There was, uh, something I had to look into over in Harbour Falls.” Her eyes darted to Adam’s once more, and she added, “Something to do with my mom.”
The whole exchange was odd, and I turned toward Adam, but his expression quickly morphed from worried to unreadable. Okaaay.
I asked Helena, “You mom’s fine though, right?”
She nodded, and the subject was dropped. Everything went back to normal, and we spoke for a while longer.
After she left, Adam and I went upstairs to begin packing for our trip to California. At first he and I discussed only our plans for the trip, but then, as I tossed a pair of jeans into the open, and very overflowing, suitcase on Adam’s bed, I ventured, “Did Helena seem a little off to you?”
“She seemed fine,” he replied, maybe a little too hastily.
“Why was she looking at you like that?” I asked as I attempted to zip up my too-full suitcase.
Adam gently tugged the zipper from my hand, turning me to face him. “Maddy, you know Helena and her mom have been through a lot. Do you remember her stepdad?”
Of course I did, so I said, “Yes.”
“Helena still worries about her mom,” Adam continued. “Even though everything’s been fine since that man took off.”
I recalled how Helena’s horrible stepdad—her mom’s second husband—had skipped town one day, after years of abusive behavior toward Helena and her mother. Since Adam had been such close friends with Helena, because of Nate, I was sure he’d been privy to even more than what was common knowledge among the Harbour Falls townsfolk. It had probably been worse than everyone imagined.
“I shouldn’t have said anything,” I said quietly, feeling like I’d somehow intruded.
Adam put his hands on my shoulders. “Hey,” he said, “you can ask me anything, you know this, right?” I nodded, but Adam looked sad. “Maddy, there’s so much more I want to share with you, but it’s not my story to tell.”
It made me love Adam even more to see how much he valued his friends. I couldn’t help but smile at him. “What?” he said.
“I just love you,” I replied, wrapping my arms around him.
“I love you too,” he whispered, leaning down to kiss my neck. “So what’s next?”
Something about Adam’s tone of voice, I knew he was asking something important. Could he finally be asking about my staying?
Sucking in a breath, I dared to whispered, “What do you mean?”
Adam straightened, and his eyes met mine. “What’s next for us, Madeleine?” he replied, pulling me closer. “Where do we go from here?”
“You tell me,” I countered, lowering my gaze.
Time stood still, while I waited for Adam’s response.
Quietly he whispered, “I want you to stay. I don’t want you to leave the island. Stay for the winter at least.”
I nodded, but Adam wasn’t finished. “I never told you what my surprise was going to be the day you ended up down at the lighthouse.” Adam winced, I supposed at the memory, still fresh, of what I’d endured.
Curious to find out what he’d been planning, I said, “So what was the surprise?”
“You know the room next to my study?” Though I’d never been in it, I nodded. “Well I cleared it out a couple of weeks ago, changed some things around. That night I was going to ask you to help me get it ready…” Adam trailed off.
“Ready for what?” I asked, now more curious than ever.
Adam’s eyes, such a clear blue today, met mine. “I wanted you to have a room here all to yourself where you could write. I still do. I know you can write at the cottage, but you should have a spot for when you’re up here.”
I loved the idea, and I was touched he’d thought of it. I told him as much, and asked, “So what are you asking, Adam?”
“I want you to stay here on the island and write your book. Spend the winter here. We can spend it together, and hopefully I can convince you to stay even longer. Will you stay?””
My heart soared. “Of course I’ll stay.”
Adam walked me backward to the bed, where he pushed the suitcase off with one hand. Clothes tumbled out and to the floor, but neither of us gave it much thought. We were too engrossed in one another as we fell onto the downy comforter, quickly tossing our own clothes to join the pile on the floor.
An hour later, as we lay spent in one another’s arms, Adam asked, “What are you thinking about?” His hand toyed with my hair as I lay sprawled across his bare body.
“My next book,” I replied, lifting my head to rest my chin on his chest.
“Hmm,” he mused, eyebrow cocked. “Another mystery, I presume?”
Adam knew I’d decided not to write about the Harbour Falls Mystery, but it appeared he still expected me to pen a mystery of some sort. Crawling up so that my face was inches from his, I ran my hands through the sable locks I loved so much. “No,” I answered, “I’m thinking about writing something a little different this time.”
“Different?” Adam murmured, brushing my hair back from where it lay draped around us. “Different how?”
“I think I’m done with mysteries for a while,” I stated. “I’m going to write a love story instead.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked, flipping me easily so I lay beneath him. Above me, he moved his body suggestively against mine. “And what inspired this?”
Breathless, my lips found his, showing him who—not what—had been my inspiration. Within seconds we were one, and as we moved together, I knew that no matter what kind of creative love story I came up with, it was never going to be as amazing as this one right here.
Epilogue
On a snowy afternoon in early December, Adam and I returned from California. We’d stayed longer than expected; hanging out at my house in LA, dinners with Katie and my other friends out there, and just generally sharing with Adam all of my favorite things about Los Angeles. And then we’d traveled up to San Francisco, where we spent Thanksgiving with his parents. Trina and Walker even flew out to meet us, so it turned out to be quite the Ward family holiday.
But now we were back, back on Fade Island. I was too tired to schlep down to the cottage, so I decided to spend the night at Adam’s place. In truth, we’d spent so much time together it felt weird to go our separate ways. But go our separate ways we did, because, despite my opting to stay at his place, Adam ended up getting pulled away by business, as usual. Nate had stopped by to tell him he’d missed a lot, so they’d left together to presumably get Adam up to speed.
This was how I found myself curled up in front of a roaring fire in Adam’s living room, going through a stack of mail Nate had handed to me before he’d left with Adam. Some of it was mine and some belonged to Adam, so I began the task of separating the pieces into two piles. Not surprisingly, my pile was significantly smaller.
Stifling a yawn, I continued to go through the bills, letters, even a few early Christmas cards. Adam Ward. Adam Ward, Adam Ward, the man sure did get a lot of mail. Finally, I reached the final item, a letter, addressed to me. When I noted the return address, despite the heat from the fire, I shivered. It was from Willow Point. And there was only one person I knew who currently resided at Willow Point, Ami.
I fought the urge to toss the envelope into the fire, but curiosity was getting the best of me. Besides, it looked innocuous enough. I couldn’t imagine what reason Ami would have for contacting me, especially since the last time I’d seen her she’d been trying to kill me. So yeah, I was a little wary. But at Wi
llow Point Ami was receiving treatment for her mental issues. Maybe this was part of some recovery process. Offer an apology of some sort to help the person move on, that sort of thing. So without further ado, I tore the letter open.
Two photocopied newspaper pages tumbled out. Upon further inspection it appeared both were identical, and both were from the same little-known newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The one that had published the article detailing Adam’s suspicious stock trade from several years earlier that had brought him under the scrutiny of the SEC. In fact, these were exact duplicates of the one I’d found in Adam’s desk drawer. How bizarre. The only difference was that these were not yellowed, not originals apparently. My heart hammered in my chest. How had Ami found this article? And what would it mean that she had? God, had her ex-lover, Chelsea, told her what Adam had once done—traded on insider info? And why had Ami sent two?
I took a closer look at the two photocopied pages, put them side by side. On first glance, they appeared identical. I scanned each page furtively, awash in a feeling of queasiness. OK, same page, same edition, same date. All the surrounding articles were identical too. But it was the article detailing Adam’s stock trade from all those years ago that differed. So they weren’t identical after all. One page was an exact copy of the newspaper page I’d found in Adam’s desk drawer, the other told quite a different story.
Sure, it detailed the particulars of Adam’s fortuitous stock trade. But there was absolutely no mention of any wrongdoing. No words of suspicion, no reference to an SEC investigation. Nothing. In fact, it was actually a rather glowing write-up of Adam. More in line with the kind of thing one might expect from a small publication such as this one. So what the hell did it mean? What was going on here?
I flipped one page over and found a printed note on the back, a personal note from Ami. It read:
Which one is real, Maddy? Did you not wonder why only a tiny newspaper in Cambridge would publish a sensational story involving insider trading, especially if the accused was a wealthy, brilliant MIT student? Would a story so big remain undiscovered? Silly girl! Did you really think Adam would allow you to just happen upon the biggest secret of his life? Put those fine investigative skills back to work. Trouble is brewing. Helena knows something. I suspect Adam does too. And your dear lover’s future may depend on you uncovering the real truth. There’s just one catch: don’t tell Adam anything. Not just yet. Come visit me at Willow Point—I’ll give you the next piece of the puzzle. Tick tock, the clock is ticking. Hurry, Madeleine.
See you soon!
—Ami
I stared at the note for ages, the crackling fire filling the silence. Was this some kind of a sick joke? After all, Ami was messed up. But, in my heart, I knew it wasn’t.
One of these articles was genuine, and the other was obviously a fake. But if the SEC article was the fake one, meaning Adam had never been under scrutiny, then why had he hid that version in his files in the locked desk drawer? Had he, as Ami seemed to elucidate, allowed me to find it? I’d suspected as much at first, but then I concluded the unlocked drawer was Adam’s way of letting me uncover what Chelsea had held over his head. Had this not been it? Had he never even been under investigation? Perhaps he had just lucked out in the trade that netted him millions. It would explain why I’d never come across any mention of an SEC investigation. And Ami’s words rung true. How could a story so big remain hidden?
But how in the hell did Ami Dubois-Hensley know about all of this? Had she somehow been in on the ruse? Had the article been a decoy? Something to throw me off from discovering the real secret Adam held? And did this real secret have something to do with Ami? What did she mean by “trouble is brewing”? And how in the hell did Helena play into all of this? The meaningful glances Adam and Helena had thrown each other’s way that day she came over were now looking suspicious.
And if the SEC stuff was all just a smoke screen—one Ami had obviously been in on from the way things were looking—then Adam had never actually told me what Chelsea had been blackmailing him with. And if he’d cooked this up as a diversion, then whatever it was, it had to be something far worse. And that chilled me to the bone. So, yeah, I certainly would be putting my investigative skills back to work. And soon.
In fact one of the first things on my agenda was going to be a visit to my one-time best friend and, more recently, the person who’d attempted to kill me. That was bad. But what was worse was that now I’d have to go to the creepiest place in all of Maine—Willow Point.
Look for another Harbour Falls Mystery—Willow Point—in 2013.
Acknowledgements
It’s been a crazy, fun ride getting Harbour Falls ready for publication. Writing the story was only half the battle, one I couldn’t have done without the support of family and friends. And lots of Red Bull. Seriously though, I can never thank my parents enough for their encouragement and belief in me. A special acknowledgement goes out to Soul, Biel, Stephie, Lusi, Rosa, Michelle, and so many others for all the encouragement for me to keep writing, especially early on. And a huge shout-out goes to Laura for too many things to list.
Thank you to my Create Space team, especially my editor, Barbara. And a special thanks to Damon at Awesome Book Covers for putting together an amazing cover design. Also over at Awesome Book Layouts, thank you to Benjamin for some very awesome print and e-book layouts, and for being patient with my endless emails and questions.
Finally, to Tom, I couldn’t have done it without you. You got me through the rough patches and are always a sounding board for ideas. I appreciate that more than you’ll ever know. And here we go again…
About the Author
S.R. Grey is the author of Harbour Falls, first in the Harbour Falls Mystery trilogy. She resides in western Pennsylvania. Grey has both a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Robert Morris College, as well as an MBA from Duquesne University. And though she enjoys working in sales and consulting, her true passion lies in writing. Other interests include reading, traveling, running, and cheering for her hometown sports teams.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Look for another Harbour Falls Mystery—Willow Point—in 2013.
Acknowledgements
About the Author