Harbour Falls (A Harbour Falls Mystery #1)(85)

Things were really starting to happen, but I wouldn’t rest easy until the picture was in my hands. If there was any hope of pulling this off without Adam finding out what I was up to, I had to tread carefully and pay special attention to every detail. Otherwise he’d put a stop to it. Now I wished Adam wasn’t returning later in the day, as it was going to make things trickier to get off the island tomorrow. His first full day back, I was sure he planned on spending it with me. But I had to get to Harbourtown, even if it was just for a short period of time early in the day. Therefore, I needed a plan to prevent Adam from catching on to what I was up to. I ran my fingers over the keys on my cell. Nate said Helena was in Harbour Falls…

Inspiration struck.

I hastily typed a text to Helena, explaining that I was going to be in Harbourtown tomorrow. I asked if she wanted to drive over from Harbour Falls and meet me for lunch. Of course I planned on telling Adam we’d be having lunch closer to Helena’s mom’s house to hopefully allay any suspicion.

After I hit send, I crossed to the living room window. As predicted the rain was starting to lighten up. But brisk winds were blowing the freshly fallen leaves, spinning them into tiny tornadoes that hinted at a bigger storm to come. A feeling came over me with a sudden ferocity, a feeling of dread. Closing my eyes I breathed in deeply, chalking up my skittishness to the Halloween heebie-jeebies. Strangely enough, though, it was at that exact point things started to get, well, strange.

First Helena didn’t respond for a solid hour. Usually I never had to wait more than five minutes for her to text back. Odd. And then the only thing she wrote in her return text was: Why are you going to be in Harbourtown?



The tenor of the text was off. Helena never asked questions like that, nor did she write such short, clipped replies. Something was wrong. Did Helena suspect something? How could she? Knowing how easy it was to misread the intent of the written word, I brushed it off.

With my fingers on the keys, I contemplated my reply. Helena wouldn’t be running into Adam over the next twenty-four hours. Hmm. My thumbs flew over the keys, I texted that I needed to go to Harbourtown to pick something up for Adam. Hoping she’d not ask what, I hit send.

Another lengthy twenty minutes passed, and then Helena texted: Let’s meet at the little Italian bistro on the corner of Leaf and Ninth. I think the name is Peppio’s. Is 2 o’clock good?

I knew the restaurant—it wasn’t far from Billy’s—so I confirmed with a return text, and then I placed the cell next to me on the sofa.

Well, that was unusual. Maybe Helena had been distracted, seeing that she was at her mom’s house and all. Apparently something was going on there, especially with the usual calm and cool Nate acting so tense earlier.

From the cushion next to me, my cell buzzed once again. This time it was Adam.

“Hey,” I answered, smiling, even though he couldn’t see me.

“Hey,” he replied curtly.

I ignored his seemingly annoyed tone and asked, “How’re things going? What time do you think you’ll be back?”

Adam cleared his throat. “Yeah, about that…” He hesitated. “Uh, I won’t be back until tomorrow.”

I glanced out the window, and though it was already almost dark, the rain had stopped completely. “Why aren’t you coming back tonight?” I pressed. “The storm passed.”

“It’s not the weather, Madeleine,” he snapped. “Something has come up that I have to take care of.”

“OK,” I said softly, cowed by his sharp tone.

Adam sighed, and I could imagine him running his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry, Maddy. I’m just stressed out with wrapping up this deal.”



“It’s fine,” I replied, even though I did feel slighted. “I understand.”

We talked awhile longer, but there was something off throughout the rest of the call. When I hung up, I felt even more alone. Everyone was acting strangely—Helena and now Adam.

I tried to see the bright side of the situation. I mean, I hadn’t had to mention my lunch plans with Helena to Adam. He didn’t even need to know that I planned to go to Harbourtown. He’d obviously been in a bad mood, and there’d been no point in exacerbating the situation. Hopefully I could take care of my business tomorrow at Billy’s, meet Helena for lunch to preserve my cover story in case it ever came up, and be back on the island before Adam even returned.

But I couldn’t help but wonder if Adam’s bad mood was truly a result of his stressing over the Boston deal. He was usually in high spirits when discussing anything related to the deal—assuring me it was as good as done. Until today.

So what could have happened to have made him so agitated?





I slept fitfully that Halloween night, my sleep plagued with nightmares…

I’m down by the lighthouse, and bloody waves of water crash over the black rocks. Red over black, red over black. And then I’m back at the café, and J.T. is attacking me, only Jimmy’s voice is in the background, whispering the threatening words J.T. had said to him. And then suddenly J.T. is gone. But Jennifer is there, seated at a table and drinking cappuccino. When I turn away from her sneering face, I notice there are more women, all seated at the tables. Helena, Trina, even Lindsey. Only instead of cappuccino, they’re drinking champagne from fluted glasses. Strawberries are scattered all over the tables, the chairs, the floor, everywhere. And the women are laughing…at me.