Island of Deceit Read Free

grandmother wouldn’t have stood for it. She’d urged Barbara to live her life.
    The one thing Dorsey wanted had eluded her. She didn’t make it back to her island.
    Five women. The investigator had found five women Elliot had conned in the last two years: Ellen Marks, Mariam Jones, Thelma Louis, Ivy Russell, and Ruby Taylor. All of their lives destroyed by one thieving family. All left devastated and heartbroken.
    No, she couldn’t work with the sheriff. She’d get their money and return it to them.
    Mud kicked up from the marsh as Barbara increased her pace. Having been here since July, she understood why Dorsey eagerly waited for Barbara to retire so they could move to Paradise Island together, and how devastated she must have been that much of her life’s earnings had been stolen by con artists, changing the way she’d planned to live her life.
    In reality, life wouldn’t have changed for Dorsey. Barbara had made and saved more than enough money to take care of them both for the rest of their lives. Dorsey knew that. But it was the principle of the thing. The fact that someone could come into her home and steal her life’s earnings without a care. That was totally unacceptable.
    Barbara sighed. Her life had changed dramatically in the last six months.
    In Philly and Manhattan, Barbara’s existence had been a constant barrage of sirens, honking horns, corner delis, cramped condos, and droves of people around all the time. At times, even she wanted to be alone. She found this place enchanting.
    Here her grandmother’s childhood home offered a breathtaking view of the Atlantic with two acres of land around her. The flow of the water was soothing to the soul, she thought as she listened to the lapping of the water and wondered what life had been like for Dorsey as a child. Dorsey had left a month after she graduated from high school. What was it about this island that made her desperately want to return after being away so long?
    Barbara guessed it was “home.” No matter where life took Dorsey, the place where she was born and raised was always considered home.
    The muddy path became too slippery for Barbara to walk, and she left the shore and headed to the country road.
    It hadn’t taken long for her to be enveloped into the community. The island matriarch, Naomi Claxton, had roped her into working on the Founder’s Day committee and into the search for her family’s golden bowl. Since the islanders didn’t really know her true identity, Barbara wondered why she was chosen. You never could tell what was going on in Naomi’s mind.
    She couldn’t refuse, though. No one refused Naomi. But shouldn’t the woman have chosen one of the islanders? With all that was on Barbara’s plate, the last thing she wanted was to get mixed up with the infighting that went with the monthly committee meetings.
    The wind increased and Barbara’s hat flew off her head. Before she could retrieve it, the sheriff’s car drove up beside her, and although it didn’t roll over her hat, the driver positioned the vehicle so that it was on top of it. She sent an irritated glance at the pain-in-the-backside sheriff.
    The object of the game was to stay as far from the law as she possibly could. She wasn’t exactly using lawful means to retrieve her grandmother’s money. Her brief sessions with the Philly PD had taught her that the only closure she’d likely get was by her own means.
    How many times had Dorsey told her that?
    Unfortunately, the sheriff was always turning up, even though she didn’t want to see him.
    â€œBetter hold on to that fancy hat or you’ll lose it,” Sheriff Harper Porterfield said, opening his door to retrieve her hat as if she were incapable.
    That man, Barbara thought in exasperation.
    â€œHoney, that wind’s strong enough to blow you away,” Harper said.
    â€œIs that right,