She nodded, wishing the guy was more hard-nosed. She watched him walk back to his table, stopping at three more tables on the way. She looked at Tyler and raised her hand to stop him. “No, I can’t work for him. I don’t have any ID I can use. I doubt he’d want to pay me in cash.”
“Damn,” he said. “I didn’t think of that. I just finally realized that the more he saw you, he just might put you together with the Rebecca on TV.”
“It’s okay. I’ll write up an article or two and give them to him, tell him to see how the readers like them, then we can talk. He shouldn’t get suspicious then. I don’t need the money. I’m not going to starve. It’s just that I do need something to keep my mind busy.”
“Are you any good with computers?”
“I guess I’m what you’d call a functional genius, but a technological moron.”
“Too bad. Since I’m a small-time consultant, I don’t need any frills, either.”
The night was clear and warm, with just a slight breeze off the Atlantic. The stars were brilliant overhead. Becca stood by Tyler’s Jeep, staring up at the sky. “Nothing like this in New York City. I could get used to this real fast, Tyler. Too bad you can barely hear the ocean from here. The briny smell is fainter, too.”
“Yeah, I found I missed it so much I had to move back, and so I did just a couple of years after I finished my master’s degree. But you know, more and more young people leave and stay gone. I wonder if Riptide will still be here in another twenty years or so.”
“There are lots of tourists to boost the economy, aren’t there?”
“Yes, but the entire flavor of the town has changed over the past twenty, thirty years. I guess that’s progress, huh?” He paused a moment, staring up at the Milky Way. “After Ann went away, I thought I wanted to leave Riptide and never come back—you know, all the memories—but I realized that all of Sam’s friends are here, all the people who knew Ann are here, and memories aren’t bad. I can work anywhere, and so I stayed. I haven’t regretted it. I’m glad you’re here, Becca. Things will work out, you’ll see. The only thing is winter. It’s not much fun here in January.”
“It’s not much fun in New York, either. We’ll see what’s happening by January. I don’t understand about your wife, Tyler. Did she die?”
She wanted to take it back at the look of pain that etched lines around his mouth, made his eyes look blank and dead. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, it’s all right. Of course you’re curious. Everyone else in town is.”
“What do you mean?”
“My wife didn’t die. She just up and left me. She was here one day, gone the next. No word, no message, nothing at all. That was fifteen months, two weeks, and three days ago. She’s listed as a Missing Person.”
“I’m very sorry, Tyler.”
“Yeah, so am I. So is her son.” He shrugged. “We’re getting by. It gets better as the time passes.”
What an odd way to put it. Wasn’t Sam his son, too?
“The townspeople are like folk everywhere. They don’t want to believe that Ann just up and left Riptide. They’d rather think I did her in.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I agree. Now, Becca, don’t worry. Things will get better. I’m an expert at things eventually getting better, particularly when they can’t possibly get any worse.”
She sure hoped he was right. They made a date to go to the gym together the following day. His wife had just walked out—on him and on her own little boy? That had to be incredibly tough for both of them. Why did folks want to believe he’d kill her?
Three nights later, on June 26, Becca was watching TV, not to see if she was still a footnote in Governor Bledsoe’s ongoing story, but to check in on the weather again. The most violent storm to hit the Maine coast in nearly fifteen years was surging relentlessly toward them, bringing with it forecasts of fifty-mile-per-hour winds, torrential rains, and the probability of immense property damage. Everyone was warned to go to shelters, which Becca considered doing for about three minutes. No, she wasn’t about to leave. Being with other people up close and personal as one would be in a shelter would put her at greater risk of being recognized. She didn’t think many of the Mainers would even consider leaving their homes. They were incredibly tough, only nodding philosophically when discussing the incoming storm.