The Lost Night by Jayne Castle Page A

Shadow Bay Books jangled brightly. Charlotte Enright, the proprietor of Looking Glass Antiques, entered. Rex, Slade’s dust bunny companion, was on her shoulder. Rex had his favorite object, a small, elegant, and very expensive antique clutch purse in one of his six paws. He chortled excitedly at the sight of Darwina and bounded down to the floor.
    He scooted across the bookshopand into the café at the rear. Darwina waited for him on the windowsill, and he hopped up to join her. She graciously gave him part of the day-old cookie that she had been munching. They murmured to each other.
    Although Rachel had unlocked the front door of the shop, the Closed sign still hung in the window. The official opening time was nine. It was only eight thirty. Jilly Finch, Rachel’s part-time assistant, had not yet arrived. Rachel and Charlotte and the dust bunnies had the premises to themselves.
    “Young love in bloom, do you think?” Charlotte asked. She nodded toward Rex and Darwina.
    “Or a hot fling,” Rachel said. She went behind the counter to pour some tea. “Hard to say with dust bunnies.”
    “Or humans, at least at the beginning,” Charlotte said. “Takes a while to figure out what’s really driving a relationship at first, doesn’t it?”
    Amusement and friendly commiserationgleamed in her hazel eyes. Rachel gave her a rueful smile. They had met and become “summer friends” in their teens. Their families had vacationed on the island and they each had aunts who had been local residents.
    After graduating high school, however, life had taken them in different directions. Charlotte had gone to college and eventually pursued a career as a dealer in paranormal antiques. Rachel had studied crystal healing at the Harmonic Enlightenment Academy and moved on to practice at the Enlightenment Institute until she had decided to try to find a place for herself in the mainstream world.
    Now they were both back on Rainshadow and it was as if their friendship had been in hibernation during the time they were apart. It had blossomed immediately when their winding paths had brought them back to the island.
    “No need to be subtle.” Rachel put two cups of tea on the counter. “I’m well aware that the news that Harry spent the night at my place is the chief topic of conversation in town this morning. I fed him breakfast and kicked him out of the house as soon as I could, but Hank Levenson, the fish guy, drove past just as Harry was pulling out of my driveway in that big SUV of his.”
    “Hard to disguisethat vehicle. Everyone in town knows it belongs to Harry.”
    “So true.”
    “How did he end up at your place?” Charlotte asked.
    “He went into town for dinner. When the storm hit, he decided to turn around but there was a tree down on the road. At least that’s the story I was given.”
    “Do you doubt it?”
    “Let’s just say that I’m sure there probably is a tree down on the road to the old gatekeeper’s cabin. Whether or not the road was impassable is an open question.”
    Charlotte smiled. “Meaning?”
    “Meaning that if Harry did give me a story, he would have made certain that it would hold up under scrutiny.”
    “Well, for what it’s worth, Slade says there are several trees down on various roads.”
    “Okay.”
    “And to be fair, if he couldn’t get back to the cabin, it’s not like Harry would have had a lot of options,” Charlotte said. “Your place was the closest.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “I can tell that you are not entirely convinced.”
    “Huh-uh.”
    Charlotte smiled. “That was a really bad storm.”
    Rachel folded her arms on the counter. “I thought about posting a banner outside the shop window today that reads NOTHING HAPPENED LAST NIGHT but I decided it would be a total waste of time and energy. Also, not entirely honest.”
    “Oh, wow.” Charlotte’s eyes widened behind the lenses of her stylish glasses. “Something
did
happen?”
    “Yes, but don’t get too excited.I fed him