“I care because it’s interesting.I don’t care enough to smash anyone over the head about it!”
Joe shuffled his boots in the dirt.“Well, I suppose that’s a fine line for some people.”
I stared, and my mouth did the guppy opening and closing thing again before I could finally get the words out.“Not fornormalpeople!”
Joe looked uncomfortable.“Outsiders never understand.You see the quaint cottages and the sweeping views of the ocean and think that Dauntless Island’s history is just a little footnote, something to buy on a postcard from the museum and then forget about.But for us it’s living history.Our identity.It’s in our blood.”
I drew a breath and tried to understand what he was saying.“You’re saying I’m thinking like a historian, when I really need to think like an anthropologist?”
“It’s not just history to us,” Joe said.“It’s who we are.It’s two hundred years ago, but it’s personal.”
There was something in his quiet certainty that was unassailable.I sighed and shoved my glasses back up onto my nose.“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay!I mean, I don’t get it, but okay.I’ll let you do the talking.”I peered at him.“Why are you helping me?”
“Because you asked me to,” he said, but I thought I saw his cheeks pinking up a little.It might have been the sun though.
“Okay, but you’re the lighthouse keeper.You work for the Transport Department.But back in there you told John Coldwell to put the word out that you wanted to know who assaulted me.And he looked like he was listening to you.”I shook my head.“No offence, but why would he listen to you?”
“You still don’t get it, do you?”he asked, and this time the quirk of his mouth turned into an almost-grin.“I’m Red Joe Nesmith, direct descendant of Josiah Nesmith.That means something on Dauntless, Eddie.”
“So you’re like royalty or something?”I asked slowly, because I couldn’t believe I was actually posing such a ridiculous question.
He shrugged.“Or something.”
“Holy shit.”It made a stupid amount of sense.“You are.You’re like the true king of the island, aren’t you?You’re Aragorn and I’m… I’m your Sauron!”
“My Sauron?”he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“It’s the bad guy fromTheLord of the Rings.”
“I know what it’s from, Eddie.We have books and TV here and everything.”He rolled his eyes and snorted.“Come on, let’s go and see Mavis.She knows everything that happens on the island.”
* * *
“Have you heard, Red Joe?”Mavis exclaimed as he pushed the door of the shop open.And then, seeing that I was bringing up the rear, she clamped her mouth shut.
“Heard what?”Joe picked up a packet of Minties on the way to the counter.He set them down and dug in his jeans for his wallet.“About Henry Jessup’s diary, or that someone attacked Eddie last night because of it?”
“Both,” Mavis said, peering around him to get a look at me.“I told you to mark my words, didn’t I?”
“You did, Mavis,” he said.
Mavis narrowed her eyes at him.“You trimmed your beard.”
Joe’s flush was back.“Yes.”
“Hmm.”Mavis looked at me, and then back to Joe.“Suits you.”
“Thanks.”He cleared his throat.“Did you see anyone going up to the point last night?”He glanced at me.“Mavis lives above the shop.You can see the whole village from your living room, isn’t that right?”
“Better than the television,” she said.“And, no, I didn’t see anyone.Well, I saw Emily Barnes going down to Fisher Harry’s house, right when the rain started, but of course she’s seeing Fisher Harry’s eldest, Little Harry, and I didnotsee her coming back again.”She pressed her lips together disapprovingly, as though young people sneaking out to see one another was anything new.“And I saw Short Clarry going to the museum, and Young Harry Barnes came by late to get cigarettes, even though I’ve told him a hundred times I close at seven so that I can watch my stories.But once the storm really hit, I closed my windows and went to bed.If anyone was out after that, I didn’t see them, and I didn’t see anyone going up to the point at all.”
She looked down at Joe’s packet of Minties and then back at him pointedly.
Joe reached for a pack of beef jerky and laid it on the counter.
