“Yes, he was,” Evan answered for him while Tommy reassumed some of his usual smirkiness.
“Pretty sure of yourself, Reynolds.”
“Shut up,” he and Cassie snapped at the kid in unison.
“So you picked Andrea up from the island?” Evan prompted.
“Andrea. Yes. She was asleep on your beach when I came around. I just wanted to see if there was anything you needed.”
Tommy scowled, his smirk wiped right off his face with the one allusion.
“Oh and to tell you your mother was in town, though she seems to have disappeared somewhere.”
“Probably with your old man,” Tommy muttered, earning a shocked look from Cassie.
“What!”
“My mother?” Jesus, what else did he need? He ignored the information. “Whatever. So when you saw Andrea, you offered to take her back to the mainland?”
“She asked me to once I’d mentioned that thing about her looking like whoever that guy was flashing a picture around of. She said she was going to go with you, but you’d left before she got up.”
The little liar.
“And when you got back to town, then what?”
“Nothing. She headed to the train station. That’s it.”
“Did she say where she was going? Anything?”
Cassie shook her head and she and Tommy traded a look that said they were surprised he didn’t know.
“And this guy who showed up here? You’d seen him before?”
“Like Cassie said, he had a picture of the girl,” Tommy took up the narrative, “and he was flashing it around the bar tonight. Somebody said he saw her with Cassie, which is why I came over here.”
Cassie took another shaky breath and Evan realized the poor girl was still really shaken up.
“Look, I’ll go down to the police station. I want to see what I can find out about this guy even though I have a sneaking suspicion I know who he works for. And I’ll tell the cops you’ll be down in the morning to give your statements. Okay?”
Cassie nodded.
“Where’s your father anyway?”
“In Portland.”
Tommy had that look again, but Evan’s mother working her wiles on some local grocer was the least of his concerns right now, even though he had no idea what the hell she would be doing here now anyway.
“He is, Tommy! I don’t know what you’re suggesting!”
“Nothing,” the boy soothed.
“And he’s going to freak when he finds out about all this,” she added. “He’s just going to freak.”
“I don’t think you should leave her by herself,” Evan told Tommy, earning a surprisingly reluctant look. So he added, “This thug, whoever he was, was probably alone, but we don’t know that for sure, do we? Just to be safe, why don’t you take Cassie to your place?”
Cassie blushed scarlet and Tommy glanced conspicuously away.
Ah, young love. Whatever. He’d leave them to it.
“Or I can take Cassie with me back to the island.”
“Fuck you.” Tommy pulled the girl to his side.
Right. Like he thought. He smiled. “Okay, do a favor for me too, would you? Can you take my dog for a few days? I don’t think I’m going to make it home for a bit, things as they are.”
“Yeah, sure,” Tommy said.
“Name’s Bingo.”
Cassie dropped down to the dog’s side and petted him. “Since when did he get a name?”
“He’s a good guard dog,” he lied to Tommy. “So anyway, if you hear anything from Andrea, you call me,” he told Cassie. “Got it?”
“Of course. But why would I? I mean, isn’t she your…your…”
“Yeah, she is. And the infuriating woman is going to admit it if it’s the last thing I do.”
* * * * *
When Reynolds left, Tommy and Cassie were alone again, and now that all the excitement had died down, pretty awkwardly given Reynolds’ instructions, which did make sense after all.
“So, ah, I’ve got a place on Rivers Street, right on the water.”
“I know where you live, Tommy. God! Although I’m probably the only girl in town who’s never been there.”
She stomped back to her bedroom and came out again in two seconds flat in a fucking two-piece bathing suit, white with little pink polka dots.
He almost groaned as she pulled a sundress over it and slipped on flip-flops. “I know you have a natural cove there too where you swim naked with whatever slut you have with you, but I prefer a swimsuit, if you don’t mind. Come on. Let’s go. I’ll text my dad in the morning and explain everything. I don’t want him worrying all night and rushing back here.”