Every Vow You Break - Peter Swanson Page 0,94

Abigail on the sand. “Sit on the ground, okay, and keep your arms above your head.”

“Okay,” he said, and awkwardly lowered himself onto a hump of grass at the edge of the beach. Once he was settled, Abigail picked up the phone. The screen was asking for a four-digit passcode, but on the lower left was the word EMERGENCY, and when she pressed it, the phone dialed 911.

“Where are we?” Abigail said quickly to the man, once she heard the ring in her ear.

“What?” he said.

“What location are we at? What street?”

Before he could answer, she heard a click, then a female voice. “Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?”

“I’ve just kayaked from Heart Pond Island,” Abigail said into the phone. “There are men there, they were trying to kill me. I’m at …”

She looked over at the man, who was sitting cross-legged, his arms still above him, and he said, “Hannaford Point on Cape Elizabeth.”

She repeated the information to the woman on the other end of the line, then answered more questions, the dispatcher assuring her that a patrol car was on its way. After Abigail ended the call, the man said, “You kayaked here from Heart Pond Island?”

“Uh-huh. You know it?”

“I did some work out there a few years ago. I’m an electrician.”

“For Chip Ramsay?”

“I don’t remember. Maybe. What happened to you?”

“Bad marriage,” she said, then laughed, realizing that she sounded a little hysterical.

“Can I put my arms down now?”

“What’s your name?”

“James Pelletier.”

“Go ahead and put your hands on your knees. I don’t really trust you yet, James.”

He lowered his hands slowly and placed them on his knees. Abigail, without thinking, lowered herself to the damp sand, but kept the rifle pointed in the man’s general direction. “Where will the police car come from?” she said.

“The road’s right behind that line of trees. There’s a little dirt parking lot. We’ll see it coming.”

Sitting down had been a mistake. Abigail could feel the exhaustion flooding through her limbs, and she wondered for a moment if she’d be able to stand up again.

“I really thought you were going to shoot me,” James said, shaking his head.

She looked at him, still waiting for his hand to move swiftly into the pocket of his hoodie, whip out a gun, and put a bullet through her head. She didn’t think it was going to happen, but why wouldn’t it?

“Ever heard of a green man?” she said.

“A green man?”

“Yeah, what does it mean to you?” She studied him, and suddenly he looked fearful again.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“What about Silvanus? That mean anything?”

He shook his head.

Flashing lights suddenly penetrated the hazy gray of dawn, and Abigail could make out the cruiser pulling into the parking lot. James turned his head.

Holding on to the rifle, Abigail planted a hand by her side to push herself upright again, and she felt something embedded in the sand under her palm. Cold metal. She picked at it with her fingers, realized it was a ring, and glanced down at it. Holding it up for him to see, she said, “Your wife’s ring.”

“Ha,” James Pelletier said, smiling.

For the first time in a long time, she thought she might actually live.

She was shaking uncontrollably in the interrogation room when they wrapped her in a blanket and told her to wait for one minute. There had been a brief discussion when she’d been brought in through the reception area over whether she should go directly to the hospital, but Abigail was able to convince the desk sergeant that she was fine, and that she wanted to report a murder, that she’d go to a hospital right after she filed her report. It was clear they thought that she was on drugs, at least that the patrol officer who drove her from the shore to the police station thought so. He asked her several times what substances she’d taken in the previous twenty-four hours. He’d asked in a purposefully calm voice that had made Abigail want to scream at him.

When at last a plainclothes policeman came into the interrogation room, he held two cups of coffee and handed one to her. He was wearing a blue suit and a maroon tie, and when he sat down his stomach pushed out against his button-up shirt so that Abigail could see the T-shirt he wore underneath. He introduced himself as Detective Mando, then indicated a camera in the corner of the room and told Abigail that she was being recorded.

“There’s been a murder on Heart Pond Island,”