Forbidden Guest House novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: The Marina

I hung up the phone very carefully.

Then I went to the office and looked up my own account history.

May 19, 10:42 p.m. Policy canceled. Device: iPhone.

I knew where I was on May 19 at 10:42 at night.

I was asleep on Erik's couch, because he'd said he'd make me dinner and then ordered a pizza.

He had asked to borrow my phone to check a score, because his was charging.

I sat at Gran's desk and didn't move for a long time.

Leif found me there.

He'd washed most of the soot off. His beard was still singed on one side.

"What is it?"

I told him.

He didn't say anything for a while.

"Where is he on Saturdays?" he finally asked.

"The marina. Every Saturday since he was twelve."

"Then that's where we go."

"We?"

"You," he said. "I'll hold the coffee."

Saturday at the Loon Lake public marina was the closest thing the town had to a parade.

Trucks backed boats down the launch ramp one after another. Kids sold nightcrawlers out of a cooler. Half the town stood on the fishing pier pretending not to watch the launch.

Erik was at the end of the main dock with a brand-new wake boat.

Black and silver, with the dealer's sticker still on the windshield.

Three of his golf friends were loading a cooler onto it.

Leif leaned against a piling with the coffee.

I walked out on the dock in my work boots, with soot still under my nails.

"Nice boat," I said.

Erik turned around and smiled.

"Babe. You look like you slept in a fireplace."

"Somebody set my boathouse on fire Tuesday night."

The golf friends stopped loading the cooler.

On the pier, a few heads turned.

"I heard," Erik said. "That's awful. Old wiring, probably. That place is a tinderbox."

"It was gasoline. The fire marshal found the cap."

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