Page 69 of Lost Cause
Abby chuckled. “We just work together.”
“Too bad.” Ellie let go of Abby’s hand and wrinkled her cute little pug nose. “He’s pretty.”
Griff snorted. “Out of the mouth of babes.”
“What does that mean, Daddy?” Ellie asked.
“I’ll explain it to you later.”
“I’ve never been called pretty before, but I’ll take it.” Gabe laughed heartily.
Abby shook her head. “Where’s Sam?”
“She went straight to her lab to test the lichen.”
“Then I need to get over there.” Abby turned to Griff. “Victor appreciates your invitation for dinner, but he’s pretty tired and wants to stay back at his cabin. I promised I’d bring him a sandwich. Could I impose on your hospitality even more and ask you to make one, then take it to him?”
“Sure,” Griff readily agreed. “If your buddy here can watch the kids while I deliver it.”
“Watch the kids!” A look of sheer terror widened Gabe’s eyes. She’d never seen him express fear before. Not in the many dangerous situations they’d found themselves in, and here hewas afraid of two little children. “No. No. Not a good idea. For any of us. I assure you. You don’t want me to be in charge of children.”
Griff laughed. “No experience with kids, huh? Then maybe you can deliver the sandwich.”
“Take a short hike, sandwich in hand. Knock on the door. Hand it over. Yeah. I can handle that mission for sure. If I can resist the sandwich.” Gabe’s panic receded, and he grinned.
She didn’t let him relax for one second before asking another favor. “Burke will want to meet with Sam too. Can you babysit Victor while we’re gone?”
“Yeah, an octogenarian who doesn’t move at the speed of light like little kids is in my wheelhouse too.”
“Then I’m off.” Abby opened the door.
“Tell Sam not to be late for dinner,” Griff called after her. “When she gets in her lab, she doesn’t want to leave.”
Abby nodded and quickly exited before Ellie could try to stop her. She paused outside to text Burke about meeting her at Sam’s lab after Gabe got to his cabin, then she set off.
“Hold up,” Gabe yelled, catching up to her. “I thought you might want to know. I had quite the conversation with the ferry captain on our way back to the mainland tonight. I asked if he knew of anyone out of the ordinary recently visiting Lemoine.”
“And did he?”
“Yep. He said over the years he got to know Lemoine’s regular visitors. He thought we should know about one woman, though she’s a regular visitor. She’s a local botanist. He said something seemed off about her.”
“Botanist?” Where could this be going?
“The captain said her name is Dr. Melanie Shore. He got the feeling she initially came to answer questions Victor had about the island, but then they became friends.”
Could she have something to do with the lichen found in the library? “Did he mention how long she’d been coming and when she last visited?”
“He wasn’t certain when she last visited, but he said she’s been a regular since he’d taken over as captain. That’s twenty-five years. The captain before him said she was already a regular. It seems odd to me that no one we questioned has mentioned her. I think she’s worth looking into. Maybe she knows something more about the lichen Sam found.”
“I’ll mention it to Burke to see how he wants to proceed.”
Gabe let out a long breath. “Now, back to my babysitting duty, right after I fulfill my role as a DoorDash delivery guy.”
“I’ll try to find something more interesting for you to do, I promise.”
He shrugged. “It is what it is.”
As he walked back to the cabin, she hurried to the training facility and skirted around the building to the back. The lab started out as a tiny room in this building, but quickly outgrew the space. Gage built an addition not only to provide a bigger lab but an exterior entrance too.
