Sure I must have missed something on the mantelpiece, I rushed downstairs. The fireplace had to be important, otherwise why spend the time to make a motif of it? My eyes rushed over the row of photos, a collection of seashells and a display of old postcards with views of the island, but I saw nothing new. I stepped back and looked at the fireplace as a whole. I hadn’t focused on the tiles around the opening until now. They appeared to have been custom-made and together created a scene of some trees and beyond them, the ocean. When I glanced toward the window I realized the scene was a re-creation of the view. Did that mean something?
I was so intent on staring at the fireplace and everything on it, I didn’t notice the noise at first. When it finally registered and I looked up, Dinah was at the window waving madly. I leaned toward it to make out what she was trying to say. But before I could, I heard the door snap open and the rush of footsteps.
I felt a surge of adrenaline as a deep voice ordered me to turn around slowly with my hands on my head.
I did as I was told and found myself face-to-face with a tall man in the green pants and khaki shirt of the sheriff’s uniform. He had his gun drawn, but when he saw me, must have realized I wasn’t that much of a threat because he quickly holstered it. He ordered me to put my hands behind my back. He stepped around me, and I felt the metal rings of handcuffs on my wrists and heard an unpleasant click as they locked shut. I knew it was useless, but I tried pulling my hands anyway. They didn’t move.
He patted me down checking for weapons as I tried to explain I had to get to the dock because my boat was leaving.
“I don’t think so,” he said as he marched me outside. The area had been nearly deserted before but not anymore. A couple of men in black wet suits had come up from the beach, and several golf carts had stopped by the side of the road, their riders watching. Three people in warm-up suits stood beneath a tree, walking in place no doubt to keep their aerobic heart rates from dropping while they watched me being led to the sheriff’s SUV. The commotion must have scared the cats, because there wasn’t even one hanging around. Dinah had tried to blend in with the golf-cart people. She mouthed, “I’m sorry.”
I was glad she hadn’t been caught. But I really wished I hadn’t been, either. The black SUV looked big and out of place next to the golf carts. As the deputy opened the back door, I noticed the tour trolley stopped up the road. There were only three people on it, and they were all staring at me as though I were a point of interest. Purdue saluted to the man in uniform.
Only later did I find out the caretaker had seen CeeCee on his way to the tour plaza and tried to pitch her on his services, during which time she made it clear no one from the show was on the island.
Oops. I should have filled her in on the plan.
The SUV drove slowly down the road back toward the main part of town. The roadway was lined with people. Apparently, seeing a suspect being taken in was a big event here on Catalina. I had the sudden urge to wave, like a beauty queen on a parade float. I resisted.
“You don’t understand,” I said from the backseat. At least there was no cage and no icky plastic covering on the seat like in the usual patrol cars. “I dropped my keys when I was in the house. I didn’t want to trouble Purdue to let me in since I knew he had to get to work.”
The deputy seemed unmoved and turned up toward the sheriff’s sub station. He pulled into a parking space, then helped me out and led me in the back door. A fluffy white dog stretched out on the floor got up, sniffed my ankle and then jumped up like it wanted to be petted.
I started to go for it, but the handcuffs made it impossible and I apologized to the dog. I was in some kind of office, but I saw three doors with tiny windows off to the side; a sign warned officers to stay safe by keeping prisoners locked in.
I felt light-headed. Was I going to get thrown is one of those cells? Would they give me one phone call? Who would bail me out? Would I ever get off the island?
Instead of putting me in the cell, however, the deputy sat me in a chair and scratched his head. “Okay, so you say you dropped your keys, but Purdue said you falsely said you were looking for locations for some TV show.”
I had to think fast and talk faster if I was going to get out of there. I explained that it was true that I didn’t exactly work for the show. I was just going to pass on the information to CeeCee Collins, my friend, and to the executive producer of the show, who happened to be a customer of the bookstore where I worked.
By now the dog was sitting in his lap and the deputy—Deputy A. Daniels, according to his name tag—looked confused.
“I didn’t take anything. You can search me if you want.” I stood up and turned model fashion. The young officer’s face suddenly turned very red.
“Ma’am, sit down.”
Oh no. He had misunderstood my offer. I slipped back into the chair feeling sleazy. It was probably useless to explain that I wasn’t suggesting what he thought I was suggesting. I went back to trying to talk my way out of there.
“It was just a misunderstanding. If you want, you can go get CeeCee Collins. She knows me. She’ll vouch for me.”
He sighed a few times and ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay, I’m going to do what I do when I catch the local kids making trouble. I’ll give you a warning. But if it happens again—” He pointed toward the three doors.
I assured him he had nothing to worry about. I’d only come for the day and he’d never see me again. He unlocked the cuffs and showed me to the front door. I didn’t need any help getting through it.
The lobby was so tiny there wasn’t even room for a chair, not that I cared because I was out the door in two seconds into the tiny government plaza.
Dinah was pacing out front and ran up and hugged me. “I was so worried.” She held up her phone. “I called Mason. He was ready to hire a helicopter.”
I flopped on the bench in front of the closed one-room library. My legs still felt rubbery and I needed to recover.
Officer Daniels peered out through a window and his expression dimmed. He opened the door. “I thought you were leaving.”
I thought I was, too. Until Dinah told me we’d missed our boat, which was the last one of the night. Luckily, Officer Daniels hadn’t taken me up on my offer to have CeeCee vouch for me, because she and the others had already left.
Dinah and I had no choice but to spend the night. I felt obligated to explain to Officer Daniels, who by now clearly wished I would just disappear. I promised I’d be no trouble and follow all the rules. Shaking his head, he shut the door.
Getting a hotel room was no problem, and the local drugstore provided us with toothbrushes and some extra-large tee shirts to sleep in. We shared a pizza and some ice cream and went to our room.
I called my father and asked him to continue his dog care until the next morning. We’d be on the first boat out.
I fell into the bed exhausted. The sound of the waves lulled me into a deep sleep—for a little while, anyway. Was I dreaming or was there screaming coming from the bathroom? I stumbled out of bed trying to figure out where I was and what to do about the screaming. The door was ajar so I went in. Dinah was in the dark, pointing at the toilet. There were tiny lights swimming in the water.
Dinah was rarely that jumpy, and I attributed it to the long day we’d had and set her mind to rest, thanks to more information from Adele. Although Catalina was surrounded by water, it had very little on the island, so they had dual water systems: fresh water for sinks and drinking, salt water for toilets. There were some kind of iridescent creatures that lived in the salt water and glowed in the dark.
Dinah climbed back in bed, and we both fell back asleep. Sometime later my cell phone began to vibrate and then play the royal flourish that was its ring tone. I caught a glimpse of my watch. It was 3 a.m. I sat bolt upright and grabbed for the phone. Nobody called at this hour with anything but trouble.