Gathering Lies Page 12

We had not locked the door; it had seemed a ludicrous idea, given that in places we had no walls. Furthermore, there was no one else on the island, so far as we knew, but us.

  Now I wished we had locked up. The footsteps grew louder, and I was pretty sure this wasn’t a rescue party. The night sky, beyond the windows, was pitch-black, and a rescue party would have had lights. They wouldn’t be walking around in the dark.

  I turned to wake Luke. Only then did I realize that while I’d nodded off, he’d gone.

  Jumping to my feet, I tossed the blanket off. My gaze flew from one window to the next as a dim figure appeared, no more than a dark, moving outline, but coming closer and closer to the back door.

  I ran to the door, where Lucy had kept a thick walking stick she’d picked up along the shore. Grabbing it, I raised it and stood off to the side of the door.

  “Luke?” I called out. “Is that you?”

  No answer.

  “Luke?” I called again, more loudly.

  Still no answer.

  A moment later the door opened, and in a split second I saw that it wasn’t Luke, but a total stranger. Raising the walking stick, I struck with every bit of force I could summon, hitting the intruder’s middle. His eyes widened in shock, then closed as he crumpled to the floor.

  7

  Everyone was up now, and gathered around the man, who was conscious but still sitting, winded, on the floor. His jeans and flannel shirt were soaked clear through, as was the camouflage jacket he wore over them. Dark hair was plastered against his forehead, above eyes that seemed just as dark. It was hard to tell in the dim illumination from the stove and my fading flashlight.

  My first impression was, a mercenary, a looter.

  But then he grinned and rubbed his stomach, saying, “Damn, woman, but you’ve got a heck of a swing.”

  “Who are you?” I demanded.

  “And where the hell did you come from?” Grace said, appearing beside me. “How did you get on the island?”

  “I didn’t ‘get on’ here, I live here,” he managed to say, grimacing in pain as he pushed himself to his feet.

  “Where?” I said doubtfully, still holding the walking stick at the ready. “We checked all the other houses on the island and none of them were inhabited.”

  “I live—or should I say, did live—in one of the cabins over on the west side. I’m Gabe Rossi. Now, if you don’t mind, who are you lovely but rather dangerous ladies?”

  “You’re the owner of one of those cabins?” I asked, ignoring his question as well as the attempt at charm.

  “I am,” he said, rubbing his stomach again, “or I was, till it got creamed in the earthquake last night. No, let me see…two nights ago now, isn’t it? I seem to have lost all track of time.”

  “You weren’t around the cabin when we checked it out yesterday,” Grace said, her tone clipped and patently suspicious. “Where were you then?”

  He shrugged. “I’m sure I don’t know. I might have been out in the woods when you came by. I lost my well water, and had to build a latrine.”

  We each knew that made sense; we’d had to do the same thing ourselves.

  “There weren’t any supplies in either of the cabins,” Grace continued in that same tone. “No food, no flashlights, no water. Both those cabins were empty. They looked abandoned.”

  “Well, I just bought the cabin a couple of months ago. Apparently, it was vacant and on the market for years. I hadn’t had a chance to stock up, and I came in on the ferry late Friday afternoon, just before the quake. I thought I’d look around, see what I needed, and go back on Monday for supplies.”

  “So you figured you’d go without food a whole weekend?” Grace said, raising a brow.

  “Well, no, I brought a few things, but—” He broke off. “Look, I feel like I’m getting the third degree or something. How long do I have to stand here and defend myself? It’s been a rough night.”

  Dana stepped forward and said, “He’s right. If anybody had treated us like this yesterday, when we were looking for some kind of help—”

  She pulled out one of the kitchen chairs. “Here, sit down. Are you hungry? We don’t have much, but we can share.”

  She went to a low cupboard where we’d stored our supplies, taking out cans.

  The newcomer took a seat. I looked at Kim, who, I thought, had probably been through this sort of thing before: strangers looking for shelter after a quake. She gave a shrug, as if to say, Could be.

  After a moment I took a seat across the table from him. “Did you see someone else outside?” I asked. “Another man?”

  “No, no one at all. I was shocked to find even you here.”

  Grace sat at the end of the table and continued to look on suspiciously. Throughout, Timmy had been silent, hanging back behind the others. She did not join us at the table.

  “Timmy,” I said, “do you know this man?”

  She shook her head, but didn’t meet my eye. “No…no, I don’t.”

  “I’m sorry, I’ve never had a chance to meet any of my neighbors,” he said to her. “I just bought the Arnold place. Do you know Dave Arnold?”

  Timmy nodded slightly. “Yes…yes, I know Dave.”

  “Did you know he sold his cabin?” I asked her.

  Timmy shook her head. “I’m not sure. I don’t remember.” She walked away, holding her hands over the potbellied stove as if to warm them.

  I stared after her, then back at the man who had introduced himself as Gabe Rossi.

  “What are you doing wandering around the island at this hour?” I said.

  “Well, I saw a fire over on the north side, and went to check it out. It was smoldering by the time I got there, so it was too late to do anything. Damn mess, though—must have been a pretty big house.”

  “It was. It belonged to a friend of mine.”

  He reached into his pocket. “Well, then, maybe your friend would like to have this. I found it on the ground nearby.”

  He held his hand out, and in his palm was a gold, heart-shaped locket. I took it.

  “Look inside,” he said.

  I didn’t have to do that to know what was in the locket. I’d seen it around Jane’s neck every day since she’d come here. One evening on the way to dinner she had shown me the photographs inside—a little girl on the left, a boy on the right.

  I looked around for Jane, but she had gone outside—to the latrine, Grace said. “Dana went with her.”

  I slipped the necklace into my shirt pocket, thinking I’d give it to her later.

  Amelia came to sit at the table, and asked Gabe Rossi if he had a radio. The one that we’d left at Ransford with Jane—our one source of information from the outside world—had gone up in flames with the house.

  “I brought a Walkman radio with me on Friday,” Gabe said, “because I like listening to music on the ferry. It was still on my belt when the quake hit, so I didn’t lose it then, but I set it on my porch railing earlier this evening while I was chopping some fire-wood. A stupid move. It fell off the railing, and a ton of wood just collapsed right on it. Smashed it to pieces.”

  “You had it till just a few hours ago, though?” Jane asked, coming inside and sitting beside him. It was the first thing she’d said to anyone since we’d arrived back at Thornberry, but she clung now to Rossi’s every word.

  “I did,” he said, “and I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but from what I heard last night, we’re better off here. Things are a mess in Seattle. Not only in the city, but for miles around. There’s looting in the streets, and people are being shot.” He shook his head. “Godawful shame. Seattle, I’m afraid, just wasn’t prepared for this.”

  “Did you bring a cell phone with you?” Jane asked eagerly, her fingers going around his arm.

  “I did,” he said. “But I’m afraid that’s gone, too. It was on a table in my cabin at the time of the earthquake, and half my ceiling fell on it.”

  At the sight of her crestfallen expression, he added, “B
ut you know, I’ve been through earthquakes before. In fact, I was in Japan when the quake hit Kobe. I may be able to be of some help to you.”

  “Or another mouth to feed,” Grace muttered.

  “True,” he admitted, smiling. “But it seems you could use an extra hand around here. I can help repair things, and it looks like you don’t have enough heat.”

  “The hoses from the fuel tank to the house got crushed,” I said. “And the fireplace is gone. We’ve been using the woodstove, but it’s too big a room, and there are far too many openings for the wind to come through.”

  “Well,” he said, the grin coming back again, “it just so happens, I can fix hoses to fuel tanks. I can fix all kinds of things.”

  “Swell. We ask for a rescue team and get Tim the Toolman,” Grace muttered.

  “Pardon me?” Rossi said, giving her a sharp look.

  “Nothing.” She folded her arms and turned away. One thing about Grace, she seldom swerved from the role she seemed determined to play—that of a boor, a lout, a churl.

  Though, on second thought, she did seem to be listening to Gabe Rossi’s every word.

  “We accept your offer of help,” Jane said, brightening for the first time since the quake. She touched Rossi’s hand with her own. “We accept all the help you can give us. It’s lucky you’re here.”

  “Fortunate, indeed,” Amelia added.

  I wondered if they were right. Had we lucked out in having Gabe Rossi show up at our door? Or would he, as Grace seemed to think, turn out to be a burden?

  Already, Dana was feeding him, even though we had little to spare. And Jane was looking at him as if he’d arrived amidst a blare of trumpets announcing the Second Coming—despite the fact that he had no radio, no telephone, and nothing much to offer except perhaps a few skills as a handyman.

  I had an eerie feeling about the way this man had landed on our doorstep, and how easily the women, except for Grace and myself, seemed to welcome him. Amelia tittered as Rossi told her how much he loved her poetry. He’d read several books of her verses, he said, and quoted a few lines from one. She actually blushed.

  As Rossi turned to me, I thought I saw something in his eyes, some slight hesitation. “My guess,” he said, “is that you’re the one in charge here.”

  “I don’t know that anyone’s in charge,” I responded. “We’re all just pulling together.”

  “Oh, don’t be shy,” Dana interjected, smiling. “Sarah’s a lawyer. She thinks more logically than some of us. That’s why we put her in charge.”

  “Really, a lawyer?” Rossi said. “Where do you practice?”

  I stretched and gave a yawn, ignoring the question. “You know, it’s almost dawn. Why don’t we see if we can get some more sleep before the sun comes up? We can talk later.”

  “Good idea,” Grace said, giving me a look. “I’ll take my shift now.”

  “Shift?” Rossi asked.

  “Lookout,” Grace said pointedly. “In case someone else just happens to wander on by.”

  “Oh, I don’t think that’s very likely,” Rossi said, smiling, “but I guess it couldn’t hurt. Why don’t you let me take that shift for you?”

  “No, thanks. I’m awake now.”

  “But you must have had a difficult day,” he insisted. “Let me help out, while you rest.”

  “No,” Grace said emphatically. She turned to me. “Where the hell is Luke, anyway?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve been wondering that myself.” Where would he go in the middle of the night? And why hadn’t he returned?

  “Maybe we should look for him,” Grace said.

  In part, I agreed with her. He’d been gone far too long. On the other hand, I was pretty sure Luke could look after himself. And since when had Grace taken to worrying about him?

  “He might have gone back to his house, to check it out,” I said. “In fact, the more I think of that, the more it makes sense. Let’s give him till dawn. If he’s not here when the sun comes up, we can go looking for him.”

  “Luke?” Gabe Rossi asked. “Is that another member of your group here?”

  “He’s a friend of Sarah’s,” Dana explained. “He washed up on shore yesterday. It was his house that burned down.”

  “Dana,” Grace said.

  “What?”

  “You don’t have to blab all our affairs to an absolute stranger like that.”

  “But I’m not! I was just telling Gabe—”

  “And may I point out that you don’t even know Gabe.”

  “Well, you don’t, either, Grace,” Dana said.

  “I know about men,” Grace retorted.

  “Grace!” Amelia said.

  “I’m just being honest,” she answered. “We don’t know a thing about this person. He says he’s the owner of that cabin. He says he came in Friday night on the ferry.”

  “You don’t believe him?” I asked, as the newcomer sat watching us argue about him. “What makes you think he’s not telling the truth?”

  “Nothing but my tailbone,” Grace snapped, “which always aches when there’s some animal around that could bite me in the back.”

  Gabe Rossi grinned. “I promise not to bite you in the back, Grace. Though I must say, it is a lovely back.”

  Amazingly, Grace’s face turned a deep shade of pink. Stunned, we all turned to look at her. Never for a moment had any of us considered Grace’s back—or that it might be attractive in any way, let alone “lovely.”

  “All right,” I said firmly, “this is what we’ll do. Grace will keep watch—not because of you, Mr. Rossi, but—”

  “Please, call me Gabe. You make me sound ancient.”

  “As I was saying…Gabe, Grace will keep watch, because that’s the way we set it up. There’s no reason to change that now. Meanwhile, you should get some sleep so you’ll be up to all those repairs you talked about.”

  He nodded. “I guess that makes sense. Just show me where I sleep.”

  I thought of putting him in the kitchen with us, but didn’t feel comfortable with that. If Luke had been there…

  But Luke wasn’t there.

  I took Gabe Rossi into the hallway, where Timmy and Amelia had cleared a rough but serviceable path through the wreckage of the stairs. I led him to a corner of the hall, where I gave him one of my own blankets, and held my flashlight on him so that he could see to make a “bed” for himself on the floor.

  “I’m afraid this won’t be very comfortable,” I said, “but you are dressed warmly. I think you’ll be all right.”

  “Actually,” he said, pulling off his jacket, then unbuttoning his shirt, “my clothes are soaked clear through. I wonder if you’d mind—”

  Before I could say anything, he had peeled down to skin. Standing there bare-chested, he looked like someone who spent twenty-four hours a day working out at a gym. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and for several moments I simply stared. He was, I thought, the handsomest man I’d seen in a long time. Certainly the most naked.

  When he reached for the zipper on his jeans, I blinked, coming out of my daze.

  “Would you mind?” he said, grinning.

  “Mind?”

  “Turning around? I’m a bit shy.”

  I blushed. “No, no, of course not, I can—I mean, no, I was just leaving.”

  “You were?” The grin widened. “I thought you were waiting.”

  “Waiting?”

  “For my clothes.” He held the wet shirts up. “I thought you might put them over a chair for me, near the woodstove. So they can dry?”

  I was deeply embarrassed now. And he knew it.

  Taking the shirts, I turned my back while he removed his jeans. First, there was the sound of the zipper, then Rossi jumping on one leg, then the other, as he pulled them off. Trying not to envision what all this looked like, I admitted to myself that for these few moments, at least, I’d felt less like a jaded forty-year-old, and more like the woman I used to be.

  By the ti
me he told me it was all right to look, I had myself under control again. I turned and saw that he’d wrapped my blanket around him. Taking the jeans, I said, “Sleep well,” and headed for the door.

  “I’m sure I will,” he said. “And I very much appreciate your taking me in like this. Especially since I’m clearly a desperado.”

  “I don’t know about that,” I said, turning. “I do know we’re all very tired and on edge, so if you aren’t on the up and up, I suggest you don’t try anything.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” He grinned. “To be continued in the morning, then?”

  Not knowing how to answer that, I turned and walked away.

  Laying Rossi’s clothes over two chairs, I set them near the fire. Grace was standing at the back door, pacing back and forth, clearly agitated.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Nothing. I just don’t like all these strangers showing up.”

  “I think this guy’s probably okay,” I said.

  “You do, do you? You have an instinct? Well, I don’t trust your instincts. Not where men are concerned.”

  I wondered why she would say that. Grace didn’t even know me—or about my relationships with men.

  Did she?

  When Luke still hadn’t come back a half hour after the sun rose, we decided to go out looking for him. Not that we were seriously worried. However, anything could have happened, we reasoned, between the constant aftershocks and the storm.

  Timmy decided to stay behind at Thornberry, to oversee whatever repairs Gabe Rossi was able to make. He had gotten up before the rest of us, and was already dressed in his dry clothes and working on the fuel tank when we opened our eyes.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” he explained. “Too many distractions.”

  His tone and the twinkle in his eyes implied that we were the distractions, and that we weren’t unwelcome ones. I was irritated at first by this, but when no one else seemed to mind, I decided I might be overreacting.

  Grace, who had kept watch while we slept, had figured out a way to make coffee. She’d built a small fire pit behind the kitchen terrace, and boiled water over it, in a saucepan. Then she poured the hot water over a sieve full of Folger’s, using a paper towel as a filter.