Dark Harbor Read Free Page A

after a couple of minutes, a 1938 Ford station wagon appeared, pulled up next to the airplane, and a man of about sixty got out. He was tall, skinny and weathered. Stone felt a wave of deja vu. It was the same car and the same man who had met him at the Bangor Airport when he was eighteen.
    “It’s Stone, isn’t it?” the man asked.
    “It is, and it’s Seth Hotchkiss, isn’t it?”
    “You’ve a good memory, Stone. Been a long time.” His accent was distinctly Mainer.
    “It certainly has,” Stone replied, shaking the man’s hand.
    “We don’t have taxi service around here until next week, when the summer folk start arriving,” Seth said, “so I just came out. I expect we can get you all in the wagon.”
    “It’s beautiful, Seth,” Stone said, admiring the old car.
    “Dick had it restored over at Rockland last year; they did a fine job. She’s like new.” He loaded their luggage, and Stone got into the front seat with Seth while the other three crowded into the rear seat.
    “We’re booked into the Dark Harbor Inn,” Stone said.
    “Nah, I told your secretary to forget about that. They don’t open until next week. You’ll be staying at Dick’s house. There’s plenty of room. We’ll put two of you in the guest house and two in the main house. You’ve never seen the place, have you?”
    “No, I stayed in the old family place.”
    “That barn,” Seth said. “I’m glad I don’t have nothing to do with it no more. It was a chore, just keeping it standing. Caleb’s got three men doing what I used to do over there. Dick brought over me and my wife, Mabel—she’s new since you were here—when he built his house, and we live in a nice apartment over the garage. We’re comfortable there, but I don’t know what’ll happen to us now.”
    “Rest easy about that, Seth,” Stone said. “You’ll be kept on as always. Dick provided for that.”
    “How do you know about that?” Seth asked.
    “I’m Dick’s executor, and I’ll see that his wishes are carried out. He left me the use of the place for my lifetime and that of my heirs.”
    Seth nodded. “You married? You got any heirs?”
    “Not married, but I’ve got one heir, a boy. I hope you’ll get to meet him.”
    “We can still give a boy a good summer up here,” Seth said.
    They were quiet for a while. “Do you know what happened, Seth?” Stone asked finally.
    “I know what I saw, and I don’t put the same light on it that the sheriff does,” Seth replied. “I’ll tell you about it after we get everybody settled.”
    They drove through downtown Dark Harbor, which consisted of a few scattered houses and one business, a general store/real estate office/newsstand/ice cream parlor. It was astonishingly the same as it had been twenty years before.
    They continued on past the Dark Harbor Inn, took a right and shortly drove through the gates of Dick Stone’s house.

    Chapter 4
    THE HOUSE WAS a perfect shingled New England dwelling with two front facades—one facing the front gate, the other facing the little harbor—with a garage wing big enough for four cars and a staff apartment and a guest house to one side of the main house.
    Seth drove over to the guest house and unloaded Lance’s and Dino’s luggage. “We’ll put the fellers here,” he said, “and the lady over in the main house. That okay?”
    Holly nodded. “Fine with me, Seth.” She glanced at Stone, who pretended not to notice.
    Seth showed Lance and Dino to neat little rooms, divided by a sitting room with a TV and a fireplace. “Mabel will have some lunch for you in half an hour,” he said.
    They got back into the wagon and drove the few yards to the main house. Seth carried the luggage upstairs and put Stone in what was, obviously, the master and Holly into an adjoining room, which seemed meant for guests. “Lunch is in half an hour in the kitchen,” Seth said. “I’ll leave you to get settled.”
    “I’ll come down with you, Seth,” Stone said.
    “You