The Night Mark(61)

“You are seriously strong,” she said.

He shrugged. “Not too many ninety-pound weaklings survive fourteen years in the navy.”

Faye watched from the end of the bed as Carrick ran his hand along the wall, the floor and the floorboards. He knocked on the floor a few times, dull thuds like one would expect. Then he knocked again a few inches over and the sound was sharper, hollow.

“Here we go,” he said. He pressed on the board here and there, and one end lifted an inch. Carrick pressed again and pulled the board all the way up.

“See anything?” she asked.

“I see room for stashing something. But nothing’s down here.”

“He must have gotten whatever it was. Money maybe?” she asked.

“Maybe. Not enough room to hide much else down here.”

“Why would he go through my drawers if he wanted whatever was in that hidey-hole?”

He put the board back in place and stood up.

“Maybe he didn’t find what he was looking for and went digging for anything he could find?” Carrick said, shaking his head.

“When Hartwell was here yesterday he seemed to want to come upstairs pretty badly. And did you see the way he was looking through the books?”

“You think Hartwell ransacked your room just to find a book?” Carrick asked. “Doesn’t seem like much of a bookworm to me.”

“Then what do you think he was looking for?”

“I don’t know,” he said. Then something seemed to occur to him, something that scared him. “If it was Hartwell... You don’t have anything with your real name on it, do you?”

Was Faith not Faith’s real name? Made sense. Who would go into hiding and keep their real name?

“Not that I know of.” Maybe she did have something with Faith’s real name on it. How would she know if she didn’t know her own name? “Why?”

“Hartwell said he was in Boston a week ago.”

“So?”

Carrick stared at her. Faye understood immediately. Carrick had been stationed at the Boston Light. Carrick had visited Marshall while he was living in Boston. That meant Faith also lived in Boston.

“Boston,” she said. “You think...”

“I don’t know what to think.”

Carrick sighed, rubbed the back of his neck.

“Hartwell asked a lot of questions yesterday about us being alone out here,” Faye said. “Then somebody tore through my drawers and under the bed while we were in the barn. If someone was after me, that someone could have taken me while you were up at the light and I was dead to the world with the door unlocked, right?” At least, that was what Faye wanted to believe.

“That’s true,” Carrick said. “And Hartwell didn’t seem too happy to find out that the Landrys had been transferred eight hundred miles away while he was up north. Jack Landry had four little ones and a fifth on the way when they were sent down to the Keys.”

“I’d start bootlegging, too, if I had five kids,” Faye said. “Or stashing money or alcohol for a bootlegger.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Carrick said. “But I’d feel a lot better if we changed rooms. Just in case.”

“Or I could stay up with you tonight, at the lighthouse.”

Carrick glared at her, eyebrow arched. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

“I recall, against my better judgment, mind you, what happened last night.”

“What happened last night could happen again up there or down here. Every night we’re alone together on an island, Carrick.”

“Yes, but you sleep at night and I work at night. If you work at night while I’m working at night...we might not get much work done.”

“Would you rather I stay down here at night alone?”

“No.”

“So I can come up to the light tonight?”

“No.”

“Carrick.”

“Fine. You can come up tonight. Bring a blanket and a pillow, and you can sleep up there while I’m working if you get tired.”

“Or I can help you.”

“You want to help me man the light?”

“I want to do something,” Faye said. Work had always given her happiness and purpose to her days. She needed that if she was going to survive this time. “Back in my old life I used to take pictures.”

“Pictures?”

“I had a camera.”

“I had no idea. You took photographs?”

“I did. I was pretty good. And I miss it. I need something to do other than housework. Even Dolly sews clothes in her free time and decorates. I’m sure she helps with the lighthouse, too.”

“Dolly? Help at the lighthouse?” Carrick laughed. “She’s so scared of heights, when I offered to show her the light you would have thought I’d asked her to kiss a snake.”

“Okay, then... How about me? I could be assistant keeper. Hartwell said the lighthouse people wanted to send you one.”

“I don’t know about this.”

“Didn’t I hear you tell Hartwell that women help with lighthouses all up and down the coast?”

“Well, yes. I was only trying to shut him up about getting an assistant. Fewer people out here with you here the better.”