12

IF LONNIE AND GARRETT WERE going to get on that island, they’d need transportation. A standard kayak wasn’t feasible for Lonnie. He was wider than the cockpit. At an outfitter Garrett knew on the outskirts of the city, he purchased two solo kayaks, one with an open cockpit for Lonnie. He paid for them with an RCMP voucher. Tuttle was going to love that.

He took the boats straight to Sarah’s. She wasn’t home, so he went out alone for a test run. When he got back an hour later, she was waiting on the pebble beach by the wharf.

“I was thinking about calling the police,” she said, as he pulled up and stepped out of the boat. “But then I remembered you are the police and I couldn’t very well report that you were missing to you.”

“Elementary, my dear Watson.” He shook off his life jacket and tossed it and the paddle into the boat. Then he pulled the kayak above the high tide line.

“What happens when you get the bionic foot wet?”

“Never a good thing, but it stands up pretty well under most conditions.”

“Where have you been?”

“Doing a little recon out beyond Heron Rook Island.”

“There’s a storm supposed to be coming in,” she said. “Leftovers of that hurricane that hit down in Florida. One of them anyway. Been a busy season that way. You don’t want to be out when something like that makes landfall.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “You’ve done a lot of kayaking then?”

“Long time ago, when I was in my twenties. Fact is I was kind of into it. Kayaked around the entire province of Nova Scotia. Took three years. I got so I could replace a broken rudder cable in a gale.”

She looked suitably impressed. “So what sort of recon were you doing?”

“I’ll tell you in exchange for a scone and a cup of tea.”

Inside, Sarah went about making tea while Garrett put an obscene slab of butter on his scone.

“I’ve actually got two avenues that might require a little boating,” he said. “One is checking out an island on Lake Micmac in Dartmouth, whose owners probably don’t take kindly to trespassers.”

“And the other?”

He stared out at the ocean. “We can’t catch those SOBs in a Coast Guard cutter. They can hear us coming for an hour.”

“So you’re going to sneak up and ram them with your kayak? Good plan.”

“Well, you got the ‘sneak up’ part right. Not so sure about the ramming part.”

“You won’t do that alone, will you?” The concern in her voice was real.

He stopped eating and looked at her. “No, I won’t. Probably Tom and maybe one of my cousins will go along. Anyway, nothing can happen until we get the next tip. Then, we’ll see. But …”

“What?”

“Would you go for a paddle with me this weekend, take along a picnic, maybe check out that whale?”

She brought his tea over and put it on the table. Then she lingered, putting one hand on his shoulder. “Are you asking me out on a date, Garrett, or just wanting company to help you find the whale? It’s been a long time and I can’t really tell.”

He looked into her eyes and studied the set of those thin lips. Then very slowly, he pulled her down and kissed her. She hesitated at first, then relaxed and put the requisite amount of effort into it.

When they separated, she stood up, her hand still on his shoulder, but squeezing a little tighter. “I guess that means it’s a date, huh?”

“Pretty and smart is my favorite combination in a woman.”