“You didn’t leave your contact information with the manager, so she called me a little while ago. She let me know that Marcy Bassinger checked out of the hotel. The housekeeping staff checked the room and said that it didn’t look like anything unusual was going on in there. It sounds to me like she knows she’s being pursued and she got frustrated, so she left,” he says.

  “Or that she doesn’t want anyone to find her because she’s still in a dangerous mindset,” I say.

  “There’s no way for us to tell that right now,” the detective says. “But knowing that she expressed that and is still not responding means we can consider her an at-risk person. We’ll continue considering her a missing person and trying to find her unless she contacts us or her family.”

  “Have you checked her banking records again to see if there are any transactions that might track her movements?” I ask.

  “We have warrants out and are waiting for them,” he says.

  “All right. I’ll let you know if I can find out anything else.”

  As we’re leaving the police department, I call Bruce, wanting to tell him about the conversation I just had with the detective. He doesn’t answer, so I call Clayton.

  “Hey, Dean,” he answers.

  “Hey. Are you still at your father’s house?” I ask.

  “No,” he tells me. “I left a little bit ago. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” I tell him. “I was just trying to get in touch with him. Can you have him give me a call if you talk to him?”

  “Sure. Did you find out anything from the detective?” he asks.

  “She checked out of the hotel,” I tell him.

  “She checked out? So, where is she?” he asks.

  “I don’t know,” I tell him. “The investigation is still ongoing.”

  “All right. Please keep me updated,” he says.

  “I will.”

  My phone rings again within a few seconds of me hanging up, and I think it’s going to be Bruce, but instead, I see Celeste’s name on the screen.

  “Hey, Celeste,” I say.

  “What are you doing in about an hour?” she asks.

  “Nothing that I know of,” I tell her. “I’ve been dealing with this investigation all day, but I think I’m done for the evening.”

  “Good. Even more reason for you to relax a little. I’m on the mainland and was thinking we could catch up with a drink.”

  “That sounds good,” I say. “Where?”

  “There’s a place called The Pub,” she says. “Meet me there.”

  “The Pub,” I repeat. “See you soon.”

  “The Pub?” Xavier asks when I hang up. “Is that just a reference to a singular business of its type in the vicinity, or is that the actual name of it?”

  “The name,” I tell him.

  “Do you think they had a drawing of several things going in the area and just labeled it as ‘the pub’ and then forgot to give it an actual name?” he asks.

  I chuckle. “I think that’s as good an explanation as any.”

  Since we have a little bit of time, I go back to the hotel to change clothes before heading for The Pub. We’re a little bit early, and I don’t see Celeste anywhere inside the small bar when we arrive. There is someone there, however, who catches my eye. I walk up to the bar and step up beside Stephanie Bassinger.

  “Hi, Stephanie,” I say.

  She looks at me suspiciously as she reaches for the drink the bartender is holding out to her.

  “Are you following me?” she asks.

  “No,” I say with a slight laugh. “I’m actually here to meet up with a friend, but she isn’t here yet. I just noticed you were here, and I thought I’d come say hello.”

  “Oh.” She shakes her head, closing her eyes briefly. “I’m sorry. That was ridiculous of me. I’m just under a lot of stress right now.”

  “I completely understand,” I tell her. “You’re going through a difficult situation right now. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Thanks,” she says, taking a sip of her drink. “Did you go talk to the detective again?”

  “I did,” I say. “Your mother checked out of her hotel. As of right now, we don’t know where she is, but she is being considered a missing, at-risk person. We’ll continue searching for her until we find her or one of you hears from her and knows where she is, or at least that she’s all right.”

  She nods. “Good. I feel like it’s been a battle just to get anyone to listen to us.”

  “We’re listening,” I say. “We’re trying to find her. But you might be able to help. She left the hotel but hasn’t gone home, which means she’s somewhere. Can you think of anywhere that your mother particularly likes where she may want to visit while she’s taking a breather from her regular life for a little while?”

  “My mother loves the water,” she says. “She has always enjoyed being near the water. She likes taking the family’s boat around the bay or across to Twilight Cove. Did the detective say if her car was still at the hotel?”

  “He didn’t say,” I tell her.

  “If it’s not there anymore, she might have ferried across to Twilight Cove. She really likes it over there. It’s different from Echo Harbor. There’s a lot more excitement over there. I can’t really think of anywhere else that she would want to go.”

  “Do you have any family that she might want to visit? Aunts or uncles? Friends that she might be able to stay with for a while?” I ask.

  “No family except for my grandmother, my father’s mother, but she wouldn’t go to her. They don’t dislike each other necessarily, but they don’t have the kind of relationship that my mother would go to her in this kind of situation. They are definitely not close like that. And she didn’t really have friends. There are people she talks to sometimes, the neighbors and stuff, but there isn’t anybody she would want to go spend time with or who would take her in. That was part of what she talked about left the times before when she. She kept saying that she’d wrapped her whole life around my father and didn’t have any life or anything of her own. I think she is really lonely,” she says.

  “I’m sure that would be frustrating,” I say. “But it also means the places she might have gone are much more limited. Without people all over the place, it’s less likely she has gone too far. That helps.”

  Stephanie finishes her drink and sets the glass on the bar. She tosses a couple of bills beside it.

  “I hope so,” she says. “I have somewhere to be. Call if you can think of anything else.”

  She gives a little wave and heads out of the bar. I watch her, not sure what to think.

  “That seemed really strange,” I say. “I don’t know what it was, but there was something off about that.”

  “She changed tenses,” Xavier says. “She talked about her in both present and past tense.”

  “I noticed that,” I say. “I feel like she knows more than she’s telling me. Maybe her mother actually has gotten in touch with her but asked her not to tell her father. That would explain why she was as hesitant as she was about us getting involved in the investigation. If Marcy was serious about leaving her husband, she might be getting things into place and making plans to leave. She doesn’t want Bruce to know what’s going on, but she’s kept in touch with Stephanie so that she wouldn’t worry.”

  “But not her son?”

  “She might not feel like she can trust him not to mention it to his father,” I say. “I don’t know. I still don’t know what’s going on, but there was something strange about that conversation.”

  I don’t have any more time to think about it, as I see Celeste waving at me from across the bar.

  She comes over, and we embrace.

  “It’s so good to see you,” she says.

  “It’s been far too long,” I say. “We shouldn’t let that much time pass without catching up.”

  “That’s for sure.”

  I notice that she was coming from the opposite direction of the door.

  “Were you already here? I didn’t see you when I looked around,” I say.

  “No, I actually came in a couple minutes ago and saw you talking to someone, so I dipped into the restroom. Who was that? Someone who might be joining us?” she asks, looking around like she’s trying to find Stephanie.

  “No,” I tell her. “She’s actually the daughter of the woman my case is about. She just happened to be here when I got here, and so I was filling her in about some things I found out since I last spoke to her.” I gesture toward Xavier. “But I do want to introduce you to Xavier Renton.”

  “Nice to meet you,” he says.

  “You too. So, I guess you’re Dean’s partner, keeping this one in line,” Celeste says.

  “Yes,” Xavier says.

  “Not exactly,” I say at the same time.

  We’ve been through this before. Xavier has told quite a few people he is my life partner. Honestly, I could do much worse than Xavier, but I’m still trying to get him to understand they are thinking something very different than he is. At this point, he very well could be doing it just because he thinks it’s funny to see me try to decide if I should clarify or just let it go, but since he is the master of the poker face, I will never know.

  “Want to grab a drink and find a table?” Celeste asks.

  “Sure,” I say.

  Celeste gestures at the bartender, who comes over to take our orders. She orders a wine, I ask for a beer, and Xavier finishes the round with a Shirley Temple, extra cherries. We go to a table and sit down.

  “So, tell me about this case,” Celeste says, taking a sip of her wine. “Anything interesting?”

  I give a half shrug. “I don’t really know. It’s a missing person. She was last seen by her family a few days ago and hasn’t been responding to any of their calls, text messages, or anything. She stayed at a hotel for a couple nights and was caught on security cameras picking up food deliveries and walking in and out of the lobby, but now no one is sure where she is. Her daughter said she thinks it’s possible she might have gone over to Twilight Cove. She apparently loves water and is known to take the family’s boat over to the island sometimes.

  “Why don’t you come over to the island in the morning?” Celeste asks. “I have to come back for another quick errand first thing, but I can meet you at the dock and ferry back over with you. That way, I can kind of show you around, and you can check to see if the woman is over there. What do you think?”

  “That actually sounds perfect,” I say.

  “Does it though?” Xavier asks.

  “What’s wrong, X?” I ask.

  “A ferry, Dean. You know what is under a ferry?”

  “Water.”

  “And what is in the water?” he asks.

  “I don’t know.”

  “That’s exactly the answer that makes it a problem,” he says. “We don’t know what’s in the water, and you want to go gliding over it.”

  He slides his hand through the air like he’s replicating the ferry going over the top of the water. I look at him, and he darts it across again.

  “You can stay at the hotel,” I tell him. “It’s all right.”

  He takes a breath and lets it out slowly. “No, no, I should do this. It might be an adventure.”

  I can almost hear Cupcake’s voice saying the words. She’s made such an impact on Xavier’s life it’s almost hard to remember what it was like before we met her. Almost.

  “I guess we’re doing this, then?” Celeste asks, holding out her hands toward Xavier and me like she’s offering each of us a chance to argue again.

  “We’re doing this,” I tell her.

  “Perfect. I’ll let you know in the morning about what time I’ll be ready to head back to Twilight Cove. I’m excited to get you over there. I know you’re working, but I hope I’ll get at least a little bit of time just to show off the island to you,” she says.

  “We can probably work that out,” I say.

  We chat for a while longer before calling it a night. The day has caught up to me, and I know tomorrow is unlikely to get more leisurely. We say good night to Celeste outside the bar, and as we’re walking toward the car, my phone rings. It’s Bruce Bassinger.

  “I hope I’m not calling too late,” he says. “I didn’t realize I had my phone ringer off today and missed your call. Clayton just stopped by and told me that you were trying to get in touch with me.”

  “Not too late at all,” I tell him. “Thanks for calling me back. I just wanted to tell you about talking to the detective again. I already let Clayton and Stephanie know, so I suppose they’ve probably told you that Marcy checked out of the hotel already. Now it’s a matter of tracking her movements again. The detective is considering her an at-risk missing person, so we will continue to look for her unless something changes.”

  “What do you mean unless something changes?” he asks.

  “Unless somebody hears from her or we’re able to track her and see that she really is just taking some time to herself,” I say. “But speaking of tracking her, I was wondering if you might be able to help me with that. The detective has warrants out to access Marcy’s banking records, but they might take a little bit of time. Could you tell me what kinds of transactions she’s made since she’s been missing? Do you have a shared banking account?”

  “We have a shared account, and each of us has our own personal accounts,” he explains. “I can check the shared account and let you know what I see.”

  “That would be fantastic,” I tell him. “Can I just wait on the line?”

  “Sure,” he says. “Let me get my computer.”

  I listen to the sound of him clicking on his computer for a few seconds before he comes back.

  “It just shows where she took money out of the ATM. That must have been the transaction that you saw the security footage of,” he says.

  “And you don’t know her information to check her account?” I ask.

  “No,” he tells me. “That is completely her private business, just like my account is mine.”

  “All right,” I tell him. “Please pay attention to the account and let me know if there are any other transactions.”

  “I will,” he says. “Thank you, Dean.”

  The next morning, while Xavier and I are having breakfast downstairs at the hotel, I get a text from Celeste letting me know she will be at the ferry dock in forty-five minutes. It gives us enough time to finish eating and get what we need from our hotel room before heading over there. My primary purpose for going over to the small island community is to work, but I find myself looking forward to the visit.

  I’ve heard a lot about Twilight Cove and want to see for myself what it’s really like. Xavier and I finish eating and go up to the hotel room to get ready before heading out to the dock. I can tell he’s nervous. I don’t know if he feels better about the idea of being on a boat while also in a car or if that presents some sort of barrier to him surviving what he seems to believe is an inevitable attack from a mythical underwater creature.

  Xavier would be the first to admit that it isn’t the most logical or realistic of fears, but as he’s told me before, the state of fear is both the most rational and irrational a human ever is. It doesn’t matter if what you fear exists in the minds of others; if you feel there is a threat, the only rational thing to do is to experience fear. And yet, the fears that some people have, the threats they perceive, can be seen by others as wholly irrational.

  He recognizes that it seems irrational to be afraid that some sort of large creature is going to come out of the water and consume him when no creature of that type has ever been documented in the area and the chances of it happening are infinitesimally small. And yet, he is also acutely aware of the animals that have been proclaimed extinct and yet are then found, and the vastness of the underwater realm means it cannot in any way have been exhaustively chronicled by humans, so the threat feels very real to him. Therefore, it is only rational for him to feel fear when he is near the water.

  I got to hear this entire explanation when we rode a standing ferry during our vacation in Florida. But putting him on a vehicle ferry is a totally new experience for me, so I’m not sure how he feels now.

  We get to the dock and follow Celeste as she drives onto the ferry that will usher us across the water to Twilight Cove. It isn’t a terribly long distance, so I’m hoping even if he is more afraid at the concept of traveling in a car, at least Xavier can get through it without too much difficulty.

  When we’ve reached the dock on the Twilight Cove, we follow Celeste off the ferry.

  As we’re pulling away from the area surrounding the dock, she says, “A lot of the main area of town is blocked off to traffic right now, but it’s all really walkable, and since I’m assuming that’s the area you’re most likely to be searching, we can park in the public lot and go from there.”

  “We can do the whole town on foot?” I ask.

  “Not all of it. But the furthest away parts are residential, schools, those kinds of things. I doubt you would need to get to any of them, but if you do, you can always just come back for your car. It might be a bit tricky getting around today, but you can manage it. The lot is right up the way. Just follow me,” she says.

  She doesn’t explain why it would be any trickier to get around Twilight Cove today than any other time, but I follow her to the lot, along with many of the other cars coming off the ferry, and pull into the spot beside her. We climb out of the car and meet her around the back as a seemingly never-ending line of cars continues to stream into the lot. Some squeeze into every available bit of space while others continue further into the island. I assume they’re heading for the further regions of the island or are locals. It seems we were lucky to get the place on the ferry that we did. The lot is rapidly filling, and it looks like people are either going to be told they have to continue to the island or get turned away.

  “What’s going on with all these people?” I ask. “I’ve heard Twilight Cove is a cute place to explore, but I didn’t realize it was this much of a tourist draw.”

  “It doesn’t get like this except around holidays,” Celeste tells us. “The island is very big on holiday celebrations, and people come from all over to experience the decorations and the festivities. Mardi Gras is a favorite for the town and the visitors. With it coming up tomorrow, people are coming to be a part of the preparations and stake their claim on space for the events happening.