Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts

Author:Nora Roberts
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Standing on the widow’s walk, Essie McVee marveled. The day shuddered with dead gray February, cold as the lash of a frozen whip, and still the view spread like wonder.

The sea and sky, both that broody, bored gray, couldn’t erase the breadth of it or the power of the rocky coastline with the incessant flick of icy water.

She smelled pine and snow, breathed air so cold and damp it felt like she swallowed chipped ice. Far to the right, the buildings of painted clapboard formed the village and a path of trampled snow wound through trees with white-coated branches.

Far off, the lighthouse stood, a beacon of color and joy against the stubborn winter gloom.

Below the house, a rickety pier, with some worrisome gaps, cut on an angle through a break in the rocks.

“You’ve got a dock.”

“Yeah, such as it is. I’ve got a boat shed, too. No boat. Mrs. Dorchet sold it after her husband died. I might get one. A boat. Maybe.”

“A boat.”

“Maybe. I’ve already got the shed and the pier. It seems like I should have the reason for them.”

She looked up at him, remembered the sorrowful boy on the bench at the park, the young cop learning his way, the partner she’d gone through doors with. The friend she’d found bleeding.

Now this. A man looking out at what was his.

“It’s not a shithole, Reed.”

He grinned. “Needs some work here and there, but nope, not a shithole.”

“How’s it feel to be chief?”

“I’ll let you know next month. I’m making some progress, finding my feet. For the most part, people seem to be reserving judgment on whether or not the off-islander can make the grade.”

“You’ll make it.”

“Yeah, I will. It’ll be quiet for the next couple of months, so more time to find my feet, get to know who’s who and what’s what. And take control at the station house.”

“Any issues there?”

He made a noncommittal grunt. “The current chief’s got my back, and that helps. The deputies, the dispatcher, they know what’s what, and things are in a kind of lull during the transition. Got some quirks, like anywhere, but they’re solid enough. The best of the bunch is the lone female.”

“Do tell?”

“Smart and tough. A little bit of a hothead, but I can work with that.”

“Beware the office romance.”

“What? Oh no.” Laughing, he shook back his disordered mop of hair. “Hell no. Not my type, and I’d be her boss on top of that. Boss—ha ha. Anyway, she’s about forty, divorced, and hooked up with an island plumber. Then there’s Leon Wendall. Former navy—petty officer. Seven years on the force here. Likes to fish. His wife of thirty years is a teacher. Three kids, one granddaughter.”

“Seven years? And they brought you in over him?”

“He’s not a boss,” Reed said with a shake of his head. “Doesn’t want to be. He’ll keep his eye on me though. Guaranteed. We’ve got Nick Masterson, thirty-three, newlywed. He’s competent. His family owns the Sunrise Café. His mom keeps the books. And we finish the full-timers with Cecil Barr.

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