Page 31 of Tangled Past
“That’s actually a decent metric.”
“I’m at . . . maybe fifty percent.”
“That’s up from earlier,” he said. “We’ll take it.”
She huffed a tiny laugh.
Rachel placed a mug of coffee on the table. “That’s the real deal for you. No decaf. I need you to be alert.” She disappeared into the kitchen and busied herself wiping down the counters. She was deliberately giving them space while staying withinearshot. Asa took a bite of the sandwich to keep her off his back, then set the plate on the coffee table.
“I talked to Will about the dispatcher,” he said. “We’ve got a name at least.”
Maya’s gaze sharpened. “You do? Who?”
“Margaret Cormier,” Asa said. “She worked as the dispatcher back then. Two months after my dad’s murder, she left. No forwarding address. She just left the force and disappeared.”
Maya’s fingers tightened on the mug. “Like she was running from something.”
“Or someone,” Asa said. “Will pulled old HR files. She didn’t have family on the island. No disciplinary actions. Good record. Then—gone. Margaret had to be the one who put out the ‘loose ends at the Hardesty barn’ call that night.”
“And then she disappeared.” Maya sighed. “Do you think he scared her off? Threatened her like he did you and me?”
“It’s possible,” Asa said.
Rachel slid the grilled cheese Maya had barely touched closer. “Eat,” she ordered. “Therapy and homicide talk work better with carbs.”
Maya managed a faint smile before her eyes drifted to the fire, the flames reflecting in their depths. “I remember being in a small boat,” she said softly. “I sat in my mom’s lap. She held me tight. Someone else must have been there steering the boat, but I can’t see them. I can feel my mother’s hand on my hair, smell her perfume. There’s wind. Water. The boat motor is loud—it drowns almost everything else out.”
“You’re on your way to the island?” Asa prompted, keeping his tone light.
She nodded. “It’s dark, but there are pinpricks of light in the distance. I think that’s Hope Island. She keeps telling me, ‘We’re almost there, baby. Almost safe.’” Maya’s voice wenthoarse. “She says a man named Raymond promised we would be.”
Asa’s throat tightened. “My father. He must have spoken to her before she came over. Maybe through Margaret. Maybe directly.”
“She trusted him,” Maya whispered. “I can hear it in her voice. She’s terrified, but when she says his name, it’s like she’s found something solid to hold on to.”
“Sounds like him,” Asa said, a bittersweet ache rising behind his ribs. “He had that effect. Especially on people who were in over their heads.”
“What if my mother witnessed something on the mainland? Maybe a murder?” Maya asked. “She might’ve been the only one who could identify the killer. What if that’s why she ran and ended up here?”
“It’s possible.” Asa shook his head. “I’d say we should check my father’s old case files, but the fire destroyed everything from that time.”
“What about his personal possessions?” Maya asked. “Maybe whatever brought them together wasn’t connected to a case here on Hope Island.”
He shrugged. “I’ve gone through everything, all his personal papers. There’s nothing.”
Maya shut her eyes for a moment, as if bracing against a wave.
“What else do you see?” he asked gently. “Just you and your mom on the boat?”
“Yes, there’s no one else. Just us. She’s holding me in her lap because I keep shivering. I have the rabbit—my rabbit—in my arms. She keeps looking over her shoulder, back toward the dark. Like she’s afraid someone’s following us, even though I don’t hear anything but the motor and the water.” Her shoulderstightened. “She whispers, ‘He won’t find us here. Not if we get to Raymond first.’”
Asa’s jaw clenched.Not if we get to Raymond first.So she’d come to his father as a last resort. To the place the killer would least expect her to go.
“Then my memories jump,” Maya said, opening her eyes. “Every time. Straight to the barn. To your father. To the killer’s words.”
Which didn’t make sense. What happened between those two events? The dispatcher had sent Asa’s father out in the rain to protect Maya and her mother.Loose ends. Why had she used those particular words? Asa remembered seeing lights on in the Hardesty house even though no one had lived there in a while.
She swallowed hard. “I’ve tried to back the story up to where my mother was with me in the barn, but nothing.” She shrugged.
