Rocky Island (15 page)

“Remember that handgun we found in the captain’s cabin, in the desk drawer?”

Toby and Allison nodded in unison.

“Well,” Bock paused and took a deep breath. “That was the gun that was used to murder your father and his two crew men, Allison.”

Other than the tears that sprang to her eyes, Allison remained calm. Toby reached out his hand and she squeezed it tightly.

“A couple of the vessel’s crew have been talking freely, hoping for an easy go, I guess. They told us what happened. Do you want to hear it?”

“Oh, yes, please,” Allison replied.

“Well, your father and his crew happened on the scene as the transfer of drugs was being made and the Captain—the previous Captain, not the one we arrested—took them at gun point, using that AK47 rife we confiscated from the Mate that you shot, Toby. He forced them to his cabin, made then remove their life jackets and immersion suits and shot them. Then he towed the fishing boat out to sea a ways, hauled it around in front of the bow and broke it in two by running into it. By this time the storm was really blowing and when he dumped the bodies overboard, he hoped that they would sink. Your father and Bruce Nickerson didn’t sink. The third man—”

“Harvard Meadowcroft,” Toby interrupted.

Brock nodded. “He was caught in the stern section of
The
Smitty II
and that’s why it took so long for his body to float to shore.”

“Thank you, Jason, for telling us that. It sort of makes closure for me,” said Allison quietly. She left the room and walked slowly down to the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

“I hate having to deliver that kind of message, Toby. It’s the worst part of the job.”

“It’s okay, Jason. She knows that. It’s just that she and I were in the captain’s cabin when we explored the ship a while back and she’s thinking about having been in the place where her father died. Give her time. She needed to hear what happened. Not knowing has been on her mind. Mine, too, I guess.”

Other than that one visit from Jason Brock, nobody else visited Rocky Island for several weeks after that. Things were very quiet following the comings and goings of so many people during the previous three months. The French’s were very happy for the return to normalcy after such a long period of time.

July was always the month of the year when weather on Rocky Island was most pleasant. Toby and Allison had not planned a holiday for this summer, hoping for a Christmas break instead. They spent time outdoors every day, Allison working in her garden, Toby cleaning away the winter storms’ debris and doing routine work about the place. They took a number of picnic lunches along the shore and generally enjoyed their quiet life.

One day, when Allison was on the southwest corner of the island painting a scene of waves breaking over the reefs, Toby arrived with a picnic lunch, a blanket and a couple of pillows just before she was ready to break for lunch.

“Toby! You made lunch. Wonderful. But—why two pillows? Are we both planning a nap?”

“Nope. One is for your head, one for your backside.”

“Why do I need one for my bum?”

“Comfort.”

“You’re very kind, even if you do have ulterior motives,” she laughed, pulling off her T-shirt and throwing it at him. She wasn’t wearing a bra. “What happens if a seagull passes by?”

“Won’t bother you.” Toby was half out of his clothes. “I’ll be on top.”

“Well you’d better hurry up and get there.” Allison was arranging herself on the blanket and pillows.

The sex was as wonderful as it had ever been. They deeply loved each other and their lovemaking was caring and happy. Toby finally moved away and sat up. Just then a seagull
did
fly overhead. He watched as the bird left a present that landed right in the middle of Allison’s bare stomach. They laughed until the tears came.

“That had to be a male bird,” Allison choked on her laughter. “And a male chauvinist bird at that.”

They picked up the uneaten lunch, the blanket and pillows as well as Allison’s partly finished painting and her supplies, and thus burdened, walked naked to the house where they showered together. Toby three times rubbed at Allison’s stomach with soap.

“What in the world are you doing, darling? This is the third time.”

“But it’s so nice to rub around there.”

Allison quickly shut off the hot water and stepped out of the shower leaving her husband standing in the cold water until he could get to the tap.

“That ought to cool you down, my love,” she laughed. He threatened revenge.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

When the DOT helicopter made its regular run in mid-August, an extra person stepped off the aircraft. The man introduced himself to Toby as Arthur Stemple, the Superintendent of Marine Installations for the Atlantic provinces. Toby invited him to the house and introduced him to Allison.

“I came on business, but I didn’t want to give you prior warning because I didn’t want you to worry about why the Superintendent was making a visit. I don’t believe I have ever been here before in my tenure in office.”

“Not since I’ve been here anyway, and yes I might have had a concern or two. I take it that you have no complaints.”

“On the contrary, I came to offer you another job, a promotion, Mr. French.”

“Really? What are you asking?”

“I’m asking you to consider making application for the position of Inspector of Lighthouses for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. You would be based in Yarmouth, have a government vehicle and either helicopter or boat transportation to outports in Newfoundland.”

“That would mean considerable travelling,” said Allison.

“Not as much as you think. Maybe two weeks a month, but not all in one chunk. The salary would be roughly twice what you are now earning. Of course the downside to that is that you would be responsible for your own housing.”

The three continued the discussion for more than an hour before Toby asked, “When would I have to make a decision?”

“We would need your application by October 15. Quite frankly, there is no other candidate for consideration at this time. The appointment would begin next April first.”

Stemple rose to leave. “Think it over. Work it out between yourselves. Here are the application forms. If you have more questions, phone me at my office in Halifax.” He shook hands with both Toby and Allison. “I have enjoyed meeting you both. I hope that you will apply. I really do.”

The two did talk it over, seriously, over a period of several days. It was Allison’s thought that finally made the decision for them.

“If we lived on the mainland, and in Yarmouth, Toby, we could have a family.”

“You want a baby?”

“We’ve been married for more than six years. I’m thirty-one and the biological clock is beginning to tick. I’ve been happy here on Rocky Island, but I’ve been thinking that maybe I really would like to have a child, or children. But as we have always said before when the subject came up, this is not the place to be pregnant, or to raise children. How do you feel about it?”

“Let me think about it for a while, okay?”

“A while” was three days. As they lay in bed on the third night, Toby said quietly, “I think you’re right Allie. If you can stand my being absent for as much time as Stemple suggested, I would like to take the job and yes, I would like to be a father as well as a husband.”

“Oh Toby dear, that’s what I was hoping you would decide. Thank you.”

There was a silence. Then, “I’m going to go off the pill tomorrow. If I’m going to get pregnant, I would like it to happen here on this island.”

Toby pulled her close. “If it’s a boy, we’ll call him Rocky.”

*

Toby sent his application for the position of Inspector of Lighthouses for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland by the next helicopter supply flight. When he told Luke Hepburn what he was doing, the chopper pilot pulled up short in his walk to the aircraft.

“Really? Would you believe that all of us on this crew have been transferred to Newfoundland in January. You get that job and we’ll be flying you around over there. Good luck, Toby. I hope your application is successful.”

“I’ll take that as a good sign,” Allison told Toby when he relayed the news. “If I’m going to get pregnant, you’d better get that job or we’ll be having a baby on Rocky Island.”

When the October helicopter flight brought Toby an official letter from Arthur Stemple confirming Toby’s appointment, the celebration took the form of a celebratory meal followed by another try at making Allison pregnant. The French’s decided to cancel their plans for a Christmas vacation and take the month of March as a time to spend getting ready to settle into a new life in Yarmouth.

Toby expressed a concern about the cost of buying a house and furnishing it. His wife reminded him of something he had forgotten to consider. “Toby love, did you remember that I have an investment portfolio with more than a quarter of a million dollars from the sale my paintings. There’s no reason why we can’t sell off some of that and build or buy a house without even thinking of a mortgage.”

“But that’s
your
money, Allie.”

“You silly, wonderful man, that’s
our
money. And I intend to continue painting and selling pictures.”

The fall hurricane season came and, for a change, went without any great happenings. The storms all moved out to sea before getting into the latitudes of Rocky Island and all that the South Shore of Nova Scotia felt was some winds that were a few knots higher than normal and some rain. Toby went about his regular fall chores of getting the place ready for winter. He mourned a little bit that he was doing it for the last time, but said nothing to Allison whose excitement was rising by the day. She completed the painting she was doing on the July day when Toby had so amorously interrupted her, and he declared it to be one of the best she had done. The surf spraying over the reef and the gulls hovering above were so real he could almost feel the spray in his face.

“Which gull did the bombing?” he asked, and they both exploded into laughter again at the memory.

Early in December Allison asked Toby at breakfast whether he would mind if she went to Yarmouth on the next helicopter flight to do some Christmas shopping. “I could also look at the housing market, and visit my mother in Barrington for a day. I’ll get Nick Atwood or somebody to bring me back.”

“No, I don’t mind. But I’ll miss you. Just don’t pay Nick five hundred dollars for the trip.”

Allison laughed. “Hey, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck like that guy from New York.” She shook her head. “Greed sure did him in, didn’t it? A multi-millionaire and he had to go after that last one million.”

“‘The love of money is the root of all evil,’” Toby quoted. “He’ll be in prison for most of the rest of his life, unless he’s either lucky or lives to be a very old man.”

Toby did miss his wife very much. This was only the second time in their married life that they had been apart, and he wondered what life would be like when he was travelling around, inspecting lighthouses. He supposed that he would get used to it. But he slept very little and made his daily walks last longer during her absence.

On the third night Allison was away, she phoned in great excitement. “Toby, I found a house today that will be available March tenth. The owner’s company has transferred him to Scotland of all places and he wants to sell the house and the furnishings, everything, rather than ship all the furniture and appliances overseas.”

“What kind of a house it is and how much?”

“It’s a three year-old brick bungalow with three bedrooms, finished basement, a sixty by eighty foot lot, and the furnishings and appliances are better than those we have on the island. If we don’t like any of them, it won’t be difficult to replace them. And it’s right across the street from a church, and Toby, guess who the minister is.”

“Couldn’t. I don’t know that many ministers.”

“It’s the man who married us—Mr. Campbell.”

“Sounds good so far. But what’s the asking price for this marvellous place?”

“Toby, you aren’t going to believe this: two hundred and ten thousand total—two hundred for the house and ten for the furnishings.”

“Go on! What’s the catch?”

“No catch. Housing in Yarmouth is not moving much, and this guy wants to get things settled now so he can make plans for his move to Scotland. Toby, I hope you don’t mind but I phoned your dad yesterday and asked him to come down and have a look at the place and he says we could be getting a steal. He was really enthusiastic.”

“No, of course I don’t mind. My dad knows about houses. Can you arrange to buy it now while you’re there in Yarmouth, or do I have to be there, too?”

“Your dad says I can make all the arrangements. I wasn’t going to tell you, but I’m going to see a lawyer tomorrow and I have already phoned my agent in Boston to transfer the money to our account here in the bank in Yarmouth. I was that sure you’d say yes.”

“You mean you were so sure you could persuade me, you schemer. Go ahead. Make the arrangements. I’ll sit down and think about all this. When are you coming home?”

“When I get this business all signed, sealed and delivered,”

“Well it had better be before Christmas!”

“Don’t be silly. Probably in another eight or ten days.”

“That long?”

“I’ll have to spend half a day and overnight with my mother. I miss you, Toby darling. I love you.”

“I miss you, too, and love you very dearly. See you as soon as you can get here.”

Toby missed Allison’s homecoming. He was out on his early morning walk and didn’t hear the fishing boat arrive on the other side of the island. When he got back to the house and went inside to make breakfast, the first thing he saw was Allison’s suitcase and a box of parcels sitting on the kitchen floor.

“Allie? You here?” he called.

“In the bedroom.”

He walked swiftly down the hallway and stopped in the doorway. There was his wife, glowing with the cold from the boat ride, lying in bed. She threw back the covers and revealed her naked self.