Vision of Darkness by Tonya Burrows Page A

I’ll help Wade finish picking up.”
    John Jr. took a step toward his truck and hesitated, gazing up at the house. “Maybe you should come stay with me. I don’t like the thought of you up here by yourself during a storm.”
    “I’ll be fine. Besides, I won’t be by myself. Wade’s right out in the carriage house if I need help.”
    “Yeah, but Wade’s …” He looked at the side yard, where Wade stood at the edge of the cliff, a coil of rope over his brawny shoulder as he stared out over the beach as if dumbstruck. John Jr. grimaced. “Wade’s retarded.”
    “John!”
    “Well, dammit, I hate to say it as much as you hate to hear it, but we both know it’s the truth. Just because Dad refused to have him tested and officially labeled doesn’t make it any less true. If the storm gets bad, you can’t count on him not to freak out on you.”
    Pru sighed, knowing he was right. Wade was sweet and tried his hardest to be helpful, but he was like one of those big, dumb dogs that jumped at his own shadow. In a crisis, he’d be no help, but she didn’t think the storm rumbling toward shore now counted as a crisis. She shooed John Jr. toward his truck.
    “We’ll be fine. It’s not the first storm I’ve weathered in this lighthouse and it won’t be the last.”
    “It’s the first for him. Maybe I should hang around tonight…”
    “You wanted your pride, John, so let the man have his. God knows, he doesn’t have much else.” She gave him a reassuring hug. “You’ve spent your whole life looking out for Wade. You’re a good brother, but he needs some independence. The carriage house is the perfect place for him to get it without being completely on his own.”
    He frowned. Pru held his face in her hands and kissed the furrow that worry had gouged between his brows. “Give it some time. He may decide he doesn’t like being on his own and move back in with you, but let him make that decision, okay? I’ll check up on him tonight and if there are any problems, you’re only a phone call away.”
    John Jr. looked at Wade again, still stuck in the same spot at the edge of the yard with his mouth hanging open. The wind whipped Wade’s unkempt hair around his face as the first drops of rain fell, but he didn’t seem to notice, transfixed as he was by whatever he saw down on the beach.
    John Jr. sighed and opened the door of his truck. “I get that he wants privacy, I do. What I don’t understand is why he wants to stay here, of all places. No offense.”
    “None taken.” Pru crossed her arms as the wind pierced her coat and raised goosebumps on her skin. “I think he just wants to be closer to Cappy.”
    His gaze strayed toward the lighthouse tower, then jerked away. “Yeah. Well.” He climbed into his truck and started the engine, then leaned out. “Any problems, call me.”
    “Sure thing. Hey, John?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Thanks. You’ve been great about this whole reconstruction, considering Cappy….” She let the sentence trail away, unsure of how to finish it. Killed himself sounded too harsh. After all, she was talking to the man’s child. It had to be hard to know his father was so tired of life that he willingly climbed to the top of the tower, looped a rope around his neck, and jumped to his death.
    John Jr. tried to shrug it off, but his eyes darkened and he stared at his steering wheel for a long moment. “It’s what Dad would’ve wanted. He loved this place.” He wagged his head as if to shake away the memories. “I’ll be back tomorrow to get that stump out of here and fill the hole.”
    “No, it can wait until Monday,” she started to say, but he’d already shut the door and put the truck in drive.
    She waved goodbye, then edged up to the hole. It was deeper than she expected, bordered with jutting rocks and broken roots. Triton ambled to her side and gazed into the hole then up at her as if to say, what’s this?
    “No.” She snagged his collar, got down on her knees and