“We left the motel early and ran through a rainstorm, making the ferry by the skin of our teeth. But the boat didn’t push off on time, and then Clancy calmly walks on board, grabs our stuff, and escorts us off. I thought for sure we were being taken into custody, but he took us home with him and made us pancakes.”
“He arrested you and then made you breakfast?”
“No. It wasn’t an arrest. His uniform was covered in rain gear and he didn’t flash his badge or anything when he got us off the ferry. He just took us to his Jeep.”
“And he knows who you are?”
“We haven’t exactly had time for a heart-to-heart about it, but I know he does. I can see it in his eyes, like he’s worried about me. He told me he wanted us to stay. He told me to trust him.”
Hal groaned. “Hold up. I don’t get it, Evie. What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m not completely sure.”
“Uh, yeah. So what is your immediate plan—to stay there until the FBI has come and gone?”
“I don’t have a plan.”
“Sweetie, I’m not sure this is such a great idea. Are you putting your fate in this cop’s hands? Do you really trust this dude?”
Evie had no idea how to answer that question. There was no logical reason why she should, and yet . . . “I don’t know if I trust him, Hal. But it’s the best offer I’ve had today. Do you have a better idea?”
No comment.
Once she promised Hal that she would check in with him that night, Evelyn went back out on the deck, and continued to stare across the sea.
* * *
Clancy opened the front door and encountered silence. No little girl running barefoot down the hall. No Evie.
She was gone.
He tossed the costume bags on a chair and simply stood there. He let the emotions slam into him like a rough shore break, hitting his chest so hard that it knocked the air out of him. Up until right that moment, Clancy hadn’t realized how desperately he wanted her to be here.
And now what? He was afraid for Evie and intensely sad for Christina. Why did she run? Why didn’t she even give him a chance to help her? Immediately, Clancy began playing it out in his head—maybe he could still find her before the FBI did, and at the very least be a friendly face and a shoulder to cry on when the feds took her into custody.
Enough.
Evie left because she didn’t want his help. She never wrote to him all those years ago because she didn’t feel the way he did. It was all pretty simple. But dammit, it hurt like hell. It felt like torture to see her after all this time, only to watch her disappear again.
Yeah, his thoughts wandered to her, the stone-faced harpy, and he had to laugh at himself. So it had come to this—eighteen years on, Police Chief Clancy Flynn now stood in his own living room, revving up to give the mermaid the beat-down she deserved.
“Still having fun with me, huh? Never found anyone as satisfying to screw with? Is that it?” He didn’t know where to look because, well, the fountain was a mile away. So he just spun around and looked everywhere. “Don’t you think I’m all paid up now—principal, penalties, and interest? Give me a fuckin’ break!”
He shoved his ball cap in place and turned to go, catching a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye. Off to the left, on the deck beyond the dining room double doors, he saw a ripple of a blue-and-white-striped shirt.
She was here.