Harbour Falls (A Harbour Falls Mystery #1)(54)

“It doesn’t matter. I know now, that’s what counts.” I put my hand over his. “We can talk more about everything tomorrow.”

“Uh, actually we can’t,” Adam said. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

I resisted the urge to groan. I was beginning to hate all these business trips of his. But after suppressing my irritation, I asked, “Where are you going? Boston?”

“No, I have some more business down in DC.”

“When will you be back?”

Adam hesitated. “Not until Thursday evening.”

“Oh,” I sighed.

Four long days with no Adam. And then I caught myself. I was definitely starting to rely on Adam’s presence far too much. But when Adam reached over and pulled me to him, I didn’t resist. A few heated kisses later, we reluctantly pulled apart and said our farewells until Thursday.





Later that night I woke up, and when I couldn’t get back to sleep, I padded down to the living room. After lifting the loose floorboard, I pulled out the case files and paged furiously through the reams of material with renewed interest. The past twenty-four hours had been eye-opening, and surely that was contributing to my current case of insomnia.



There had been Helena’s tale of why Trina hated Chelsea; J.T.’s attack that had, if nothing else, highlighted his substance abuse problems and anger issues; Adam’s confession that Chelsea had indeed been blackmailing him; and then my dad’s theory that Chelsea may have been hiding her calls from Adam. On top of all that, now I had to come to grips with the fact that my former best friend was a mental mess. Little wonder my mind was in overdrive.

I sat down, right there on the hardwood floor, and began to reread the files. When I reached the particulars of Chelsea’s last visit to Billy’s, I was reminded that I’d not heard anything from Jimmy. Obviously a return visit to Billy’s was in order. Maybe Jimmy had misplaced my cell number, or maybe he’d forgotten all about the alleged photo of Chelsea kissing some blonde girl. In any case a little reminder—and possibly another cash infusion—might be enough incentive to get him moving.

There was something about the blonde mystery woman that was bothering me. There had been no reported rumors—like with Chelsea and J.T.—about Chelsea and this individual. Adam had known about J.T. and Chelsea for quite some time. And he had been made aware of the other random men, and the drugs. Had he known about the mystery blonde as well? Or had Chelsea kept that part of her life successfully hidden?

I knew I should have just asked Adam, but I was reluctant. What if that night at Billy’s had been a one-time event? Or what if Jimmy had lied about what he’d overheard Chelsea and the mystery blonde saying? Hell, he could have made the whole thing up. Besides, hadn’t Adam made it clear he didn’t really care to discuss the things I was uncovering in this investigation?

That seemed strange too. Unless he didn’t really anticipate I’d discover anything that hadn’t already been reported in those files. If that were the case, then it only served to make me want to dig deeper and solve this damn thing, once and for all.

Somewhere along the line this investigation had become much more than “research.” Now it was personal.





Early Monday morning my father called. Yes, as expected, he’d found out about what had happened with J.T. O’Brien. It took nearly twenty minutes to calm him down. The only good thing that came out of it was that he reluctantly agreed Adam had saved me from further harm. I guessed it made him feel better about me staying on the island, because he didn’t threaten to come over and drag me back home. Although, I half-expected that to still happen.

On Thursday I drove down to the dock. Dressed in some raggedy jeans and an old flannel shirt that I knew would make me fit right in at Billy’s, I was all set to pay Jimmy another visit. As I made my way to the waiting ferry, I inwardly groaned when I noticed Jennifer Weston was at the helm. I was in no mood to deal with her today.

“Oh yay,” I muttered to myself as I stepped aboard.

Jennifer appeared to be as excited to see me as I was to see her. “If it isn’t Madeleine Fitch.” Sarcasm dripped with every word as she purposely blocked my way. “Must be my lucky day,” she snapped.

Pushing past her, I took a seat. “Back to the mainland so soon?” she continued, starting up the ferry. “Running low on people to press charges against? Or is island life just too boring when your rich boyfriend isn’t around to beat the piss out of someone?”

OK, so it was clear Jennifer had taken issue with the J.T. incident. No surprise there. She obviously still had feelings for him. Ignoring her comments, I rummaged through my bag, searching for the book I’d brought along to pass the time.

Without warning the ferry lurched forward uncharacteristically, and Jennifer shot me a look of satisfaction, surely pleased at startling me. “J.T. was right about you, you know,” she said.

“Oh, this ought to be good,” I muttered, pulling out my book.

Jennifer snickered. “We had a bet on how long it was going to take for you to end up in Ward’s bed.”

I rolled my eyes. What was it with her and J.T.? I hadn’t even slept with Adam…yet. Well, I’d slept with him in the literal sense, but I was sure they meant more. Just the thought of it, when it did happen though, brought a secret smile to my lips.