fifteen minutes later had seen his flashlight, dim but distinct, going steadily on and off. She had relaxed then and waited for him to return, sure she had read his signal correctly. But then—she wasn’t sure how much later—she had heard the explosion and run to the window to see the ball of fire far beyond the beach. There had been a second explosion, a second fireball, and a blaze out at sea.
Since then, nothing.
Innumerable trips to the window.
Impulses to go out on the beach and search for Glen.
Attempts to concentrate on her knitting.
And a continually growing fear.
Something had happened. She didn’t know why, but she was sure the explosions at sea had something to do with Glen’s protracted absence. But what?
It was the not knowing that was the worst. If only they had a telephone. If only the storm weren’t so bad. If only the children were old enough to stay by themselves. But there was no phone, the storm showed no signs of abating, and the children could not be left alone. Even the puppy was too young to serve as a guardian.
She was about to go to the window again when she thought she heard a car door slam. She froze where she was, listening intently. Then came the knock at the door.
Rebecca felt her heart begin to pound as she went to the door, but before she readied out to pull it open, something in her mind rang a warning bell.
“Who is it?” she called softly, not wanting to wake the children.
“Chip Connor,” came the reply. Rebecca threw open the door and stared up at the deputy, her fear growing.
“What is it?” she cried. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing’s happened, Mrs. Palmer. Well, nothing’s happened to Glen, anyway. May I come in?”
Rebecca felt the tension she had been under suddenly release; her knees felt weak. “Of course,” she said, stepping back to make room for the deputy. She closed the door after him, then went to the fire. She poked it, then turned to Chip.
“What’s happened? Where’s Glen?”
“He’s fine, Mrs. Palmer. He asked me to come out here and tell you he’s all right. He’ll be back as soon as he can.” He saw the look of bewilderment on Rebecca’s face and decided he’d better explain things. Fast. “There was an accident. We still don’t know exactly what happened,” he began, but Rebecca cut him off.
“An accident?” she said dazedly. “What kind of accident? Was it that fire? I saw a fire out in the water. Was that it?”
Chip nodded. “That’s it. A boat that was tied up in the harbor for the night wound up on the rocks in the mouth of the harbor. It blew up.”
“My God,” Rebecca breathed. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Someone may have been on the boat. We don’t know for sure yet. Anyway, when I got to the wharf Glen was already there. He saw as much of what happened as anybody. So Whalen asked him to stick around for a while.” Chip saw no point in telling Rebecca that her husband had been ordered to stay at the scene, not invited.
“Thank God,” Rebecca sighed. “You don’t have any idea of how worried I was. He should have been back, and then I saw those awful explosions, and—” she stopped talking when she saw the expression on Chip’s face.
“You mean he wasn’t here when the explosions happened?” he asked.
“No, of course not,” Rebecca said. “Didn’t he tell you?”
“He didn’t tell me much of anything,” Chip replied. “Where was he?”
“He’d gone down the beach to check on the old house—the one the Randalls are going to move into. Missy—our daughter—thought there was someone in the house this afternoon, so Glen went down to check on it. He must have seen the explosions from there and gone to the wharf.”
“How long was he gone? Before the explosions, I mean?”
“I’m not sure,” Rebecca began. Then she realized what Chip was getting at. “My God, you don’t think Glen had anything to do with those explosions, do you?”
“Of course not,” Chip said immediately. “But I want you to tell me exactly what happened.” He got out a notebook and a pencil, then saw the look of fear in Rebecca’s eyes, the same fear he had seen in Glen’s eyes earlier. He smiled at her reassuringly. “Mrs. Palmer, you don’t have to answer any of my questions if you don’t want to. But I hope you will. I want to put down in this notebook, right now, everything you can