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“I’m not! This is real, it’s happening. My dad is going to find out...that I...” She couldn’t say it.
Bobby hugged her tight. “Baby, don’t do that. It’s going to work out. I promise.”
“You don’t know that. And it’s not just the pictures or the FBI... What if something happensagain?” She didn’t want to think about it. Watching the boat explode, seeing the bodies flying in the air, had been the worst thing that ever happened to her, other than when her mom died.
“Ash, don’t do that to yourself. Did the FBI tell you if there was a lead or something?”
“Not really. They mostly asked about what Whitney and I saw, what we remembered, if we saw anything suspicious, things like that. I wish we had—I wish we could help find who did this. Maybe the pictures will help...” She put her head in her hands. Her dad was going to ground her forever if he found out she had been volunteering for Island Protectors. He just didn’t understand how important this was to her!
“The FBI talked to Donna today, too,” Bobby said.
She jerked her head up. “They don’t think she did this!”
“I don’t think so. Craig just said that the FBI and sheriff went out there today and Donna was pissed off. Are you coming to the meeting tonight?”
“I want to, but—”
“We’ll skip the social hour. Your dad goes back to the restaurant after you guys have dinner, right? Meet me after that.”
She bit her lip. She shouldn’t, especially on top of her dad giving that memory drive to the FBI. But she’d made a copy and she needed to get that to Donna. Maybe Donna would figure out what was going on and prove that no one in IP had anything to do with this.
“Whitney won’t rat you out, will she?”
“No—I’ll tell her I’m just going on a walk with you. She thinks we’re romantic. Okay, I’ll meet you. But we can’t stay late.”
He kissed her and she hugged him. She loved Bobby so much, but her dad wouldn’t understand. He was good friends with Ted Colfax, so the Martins were off-limits because of what Craig had done. It had been stupid, Craig knew that, and Bobby had nothing to do with what his brother had done—why couldn’t her dad separate them in his head?
Bobby had taken the last year to save money for college, but he was leaving for the University of Washington this fall. She planned to join him there next year, but she was going to miss him when he left. Still, when she went to college her dad would have nothing to say about who she dated.
That thought didn’t make her feel good. She loved her dad so much and she hated keeping this secret from him, but he could be so damn stubborn about things. Especially boys. “We just have to be careful,” she said. “I don’t want my dad to even suspect, especially now.”
“I wish you’d come clean with him,” Bobby said. “I don’t like sneaking around.”
“I don’t, either, but you’re nineteen and graduated last year and he’s weird about things like that. Plus, he knows about Craig and the dock and has seen you protesting... I don’t want to make him mad.”You don’t want to disappoint him, either.Ashley didn’t like when her dad was angry or upset, but sometimes, his quiet disapproval was worse than anything.
“I don’t want to hide how I feel all summer.”
“Let me think about the best way to tell him, okay? Maybe...when this whole thing is over and the FBI tells him that no one at IP had anything to do with that awful bomb.”
He kissed her. “Text me when you’re leaving tonight, and I’ll meet you outside the library.”
“I love you, Bobby.”
He hugged her tightly. “I love you, too, Ash. It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
11
Matt walked into the conference room and said, “Quick debrief. It’s after six, and we have a lot on our plate tomorrow.”
He glanced around. Catherine was writing on the whiteboard, Ryder was at the table on his laptop.
“Ryder, what are you doing here? Kara said she took you back to the house.”
“I showered, drank water, and found a juice bar walking back here.” He held up a disgusting-looking green smoothie, half-gone. “I feel good, sir. I promise.”
Matt didn’t expect anything less from Ryder, but he didn’t take what had happened lightly. “The gas company is still investigating, but they confirmed carbon monoxide and that it came from the heater. With no one going in and out since Friday, all windows closed, it built up. It was stronger in the bedroom, which is why Deputy Redfield was affected more.”
“Accident or intentional?” Catherine asked.
