Darkness First (34 page)

T
he meeting broke up a little after eleven. Maggie asked McCabe if he wanted to stick around for a while. Spend a little time together. Just relax and shoot the shit for a few days. She could take him up to Bog Pond and teach him the fine art of fly-fishing, which he'd often expressed interest in learning. McCabe said he wished he could but, no, he had to get back. He'd already left his daughter Casey and Kyra, the woman they both lived with, on their own for far too long.

Maggie nodded. ‘You're right,' she said, ‘I understand.' She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Thank you for everything. Please give my love to your women. Both of them.'

‘Maggie?'

‘What?'

‘I love you, you know,' said McCabe.

‘I know you do,' said Maggie. ‘And I know you love Kyra as well. But that's all right. We both love you.'

McCabe climbed in the T-Bird, put the top down and headed out of the parking lot for home. Maggie stood on the sidewalk, watching him go, until the car turned the corner at the end of the block and disappeared from sight.

Then she joined her father, who was waiting for her in the red Blazer. They started back to Machias.

On the way, Tom Shockley called. As predicted, the Chief was basking in the glow of having
a huge case
, as he called it, that had been
totally screwed up
by Ed Matthews and the MSP, cleared by two of his own PPD detectives. In fact, he said, he couldn't wait to hold a press conference and let the whole world know what a great team he had. What incredible talent Maggie and McCabe represented.

Maggie cringed through most of the conversation. She thanked him for his praise but said little else in response except to urge Shockley to hold off on any press conferences till things settled down a little. He said he'd think about it. She doubted he would. He then told her she'd earned some extra time off. ‘At least a week,' he said. ‘We won't count it as a vacation. Just a reward. Unofficially, of course.'

The time was a gift and she thanked him. She badly wanted to spend some with Savage. Get a real sense of how bad things were with his illness. Tell Harlan about it. Try to get the two of them to reconcile their differences, though she wasn't sure that would ever be possible. Discuss her father's treatment options with Emily.

She also knew there would have to be an official inquiry into Harlan's killing of Sean Carroll. She wanted to assure Harlan that she didn't think, under the circumstances, that any charges against him would be filed.

It'd also be nice to see Trevor and Cathy and her nieces. And, if truth be told, she would enjoy a little fishing. Especially if she could get Savage, or maybe Harlan, or maybe even both of them, to go up to Bog Pond with her.

A
nya, Emily and Tabitha were all waiting for them when Maggie and Savage got back to the house around 1:30. Unfortunately, Harlan wasn't. He'd told Emily he wanted to start repairing the damage the police search had done to his house. Maggie believed it was more likely he wanted to avoid seeing his father.

Maggie passed by the living room, where Emily and Tabitha were sitting side by side on the couch, their backs to the door, where she was standing. She stood for a while, silently eavesdropping.

Em asked Tabitha to tell her the story of what had happened. At least the parts she knew about. Tabitha did. By the time she had finished she was sobbing.

Em put her arms around the little girl and hugged her, an action which must have made her cracked ribs scream with pain. But if it did she ignored it. ‘It's terrible about your sisters and your parents,' she said. ‘I can't tell you how sorry I am.'

‘The problem is,' said Tabbie through her tears, ‘I don't know where I'm supposed to go now. My whole family's gone. And I don't really believe it's to a better place. I don't think it's to anywhere at all except under the ground. I don't have any uncles or aunts. What am I supposed to do? I'm only eleven years old, you know. I can't get a job or anything. I sort of wanted to stay with Harlan but I don't think he wants me to.'

‘I think that would be difficult for Harlan,' said Em. ‘But maybe you could stay with me at my place for a while.'

Tabitha looked up at the doctor, who was even taller than the lady cop. She was even taller than Harlan. ‘You'd let me do that?'

‘Yes, I would. In fact, thinking about it, I'd like very much to have you with me.'

‘Are you sure?'

‘I'm sure. But, if you like, we could say we're just trying it for a while to see how we get along.'

‘You think it would be okay?'

‘We'd have to get approval from the Health and Human Services people but I don't think that would be a problem.'

‘I don't know,' said Tabitha. ‘I'm a little weird. Everybody says so. You might not like me.'

‘That's all right,' Emily smiled. ‘I'm a little weird myself. And I think I'll like you fine. But I should warn you, right now I only have a small apartment above my office, so we wouldn't have much room to begin with. You'd have to sleep on a pull-out couch. But I'm in the process of buying a wonderful house right on the water in Roque Bluffs and, if it worked out and you decided you wanted to stay, well there'd be plenty of room for both of us.'

‘Would that make you my mother?'

‘You'll always have your real mother. I wouldn't try to replace her. But I could be kind of a substitute mother. But only if you wanted me to be.'

Tabitha didn't say anything.

‘Tell you what,' said Emily. ‘Why don't we drive down to Roque Bluffs this afternoon and take a look at the house. If you like it there, then we'll give it a try. Deal?'

Tabitha got up and put her arms around Emily. She was still crying but it looked like things were about to get a whole lot better in her life. ‘Deal,' she said.

Maggie turned away before either of them saw her, embarrassed to have been listening in. It was better to let the two of them have this time alone. She went up to her room. Opened her laptop and checked her emails. Nothing of any interest except one from Billy Webb. The road trip would be over in a week and he'd be back in Portland. He hoped she'd have dinner with him.

She still longed to have someone in her life but, whoever it was she longed for, she knew it wasn't Billy.

‘Thanks for the offer,' she replied. ‘But I think I'm going to have to say no. You're a nice guy, Billy, and I like you, but I just don't think things are going to work out between us.'

She closed the laptop, went downstairs to the fridge and got herself a cold bottle of Geary's. After she popped the top she went out to the porch. As she sat sipping she turned her mind away from her so-called love life to the most pressing problem of the moment. How she was going to spend her week off.

I
'd like to thank the many people who gave freely of their time educating me about life in Washington County, Maine and the drug problems that are rampant there. These include, in no particular order: Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith, who never tired of answering my endless questions; Detective Sergeant Tom Joyce, formerly of the Portland Police Department; Sergeant John Cote of the Maine State Police; Sergeant Richard Rolfe, Washington County liaison with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency; Dr Julia Arnold, a family practitioner in Whiting, Maine; my friend Curtis Rindlaub, a skilled mariner and co-author and publisher of
A Cruising Guide to the Maine Coast
; Natalie Brown of the Eastport, Maine Port Authority; Dr Bud Higgins and Dr Anne Skelton of Maine Medical Center; Pathologist Dr Erin Presnell of the Medical University of South Carolina and veterinarian Dr Jeff Robbins, a fellow islander, who went out of his way to educate me on the effects of animal tranquilizing drugs. Finally, I should mention that, while many of the details described in this book about Washington County and the towns of Machias and Eastport are accurate, I have changed others to suit the tale I am telling. This is, after all, a work of fiction.