Harbour Falls (A Harbour Falls Mystery #1)(51)

“Yes, but maybe she was calling someone other than some drug dealer from these other phones.”

“Like who?”

“Maybe she was calling a lover,” my dad said, his face reddening.

I was just as embarrassed as my dad. We never talked about those sorts of things.

I quickly said, “So she was calling, er, someone else.” I paused. “And you think she was protecting herself—and that person—from the authorities?”

“Not from the authorities.” My father held my uncomprehending gaze. “This is where my second theory comes into play.”

My ears perked up because, when it came right down to it, the mayor really was incredibly wise. “The flaw in the first theory is that we’re assuming Ms. Hannigan was being proactive in case the authorities ever caught up to her. But based on all her prior behavior, I think we can safely say she viewed herself as being above the law.”

That much was true. Chelsea had done plenty of illegal and immoral things with no regard for the consequences.

“What are you getting at, Dad?” I asked, kind of at a loss.

“By not using her cell phone, Ms. Hannigan was behaving as if she had every expectation that those records would be seen, seen by someone other than the police.” My father looked at me pointedly.



I swallowed hard. “Who would have been checking her cell records, Dad?” I asked meekly, afraid that I already knew the answer.

“My guess? Her husband-to-be, Adam Ward.”

“But she called him from the pay phone at the bank,” I protested. “Why didn’t she just use her cell to call Adam? What was the point of using the pay phone?”

“I wondered that as well,” he said. “But maybe she was originally planning to call someone other than Mr. Ward from that pay phone and then had a change of heart once she started to dial.” I bit down on my lip, while my dad added, “After all, we still don’t know why she detoured to Harbour Falls. It seems she was planning on doing something there and changed her mind at the last minute.”

This was good stuff. Very plausible. I wanted so badly to share with my dad what Adam had told me about the strange things Chelsea had said to him during their short exchange. Asking him to tell her to not do something, telling him she’d turn around and go back to the hotel if he’d just tell her he loved her. But I couldn’t betray Adam’s trust. Not this soon after he’d been so forthcoming with me.

And what was Chelsea doing in Harbour Falls anyway? Maybe my dad was right. Maybe she’d originally planned on calling someone else from that pay phone and then changed her mind at the last second. It certainly fit with her bizarre, cryptic comments to Adam that night.

The rest of my dad’s theory made sense too. If Chelsea truly suspected Adam was checking her cell records, then by using pay phones that night she could be certain he’d see only what the police had ended up seeing: No calls were made from her cell phone.

But Chelsea had been trying to call someone. It had to have been someone she spoke to often. Why else would she have attempted to make those surreptitious calls that night? And Adam, if he’d been working on tracking that person down through her cell records, must have suspected she was in contact with someone she was hiding from him. But who could it have been? Not J.T., Adam knew all about him. So who?



By blackmailing him, Chelsea had taken away something Adam was used to having—control. Maybe he’d been leveraging to catch her in her many lies, so he could turn the tables and get out from under her hold. It was starting to look like Adam and Chelsea had been playing a game of cat and mouse, with Adam closing in on her. If only she’d used her cell that final night…

“Honey,” my dad said, breaking me out of my reverie. “Are you OK? You look a little peaked.”

I pushed my hair behind my ears. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about what you said. I think you may be onto something.”

“Well, the most important thing is” — I met my dad’s concerned, fatherly gaze— “for you to continue to steer clear of Adam Ward. Any man with that much power is capable of anything.”

Too late for that, and time for a subject change. I nodded distractedly and glanced up at the television, mounted on the wall, where the football game was in progress. “Look, Dad, I think we just scored!”

That was all it took, and the mayor, thankfully, dropped the subject. The game soon ended, and my dad paid the bill, and then we headed back to the house.

I knew it was only a matter of time before my dad found out about my relationship with Adam. I couldn’t keep it from him indefinitely. I was certain he’d also soon hear about what had happened at the café with J.T. And then he’d probably push for me to give up on the investigation and move off of Fade Island. But I was in way too deep. I wasn’t about to give up. Not now.

I dropped my dad off at the house. But before I started back to Cove Beach, I detoured over to the bank on the edge of town, the one where Chelsea had made that last call. There really wasn’t much out here. Besides the bank, there was a sub shop, a small neighborhood where Sean and Ami lived, and Hensley Discounters, Sean’s family-owned business.

First I pulled into the bank parking lot. A patch of unkempt grass and weeds occupied the space where the pay phone had once stood. It was quiet out here, especially today, since the bank was closed. I glanced around, but I knew there were no answers out here.