Children of the Sea 01 - Sea Witch

into the narrow lot behind the restaurant. Antonia stood by the Dumpster, smoking a Lucky Strike.
     
    She glared as he climbed from the Jeep. “You gonna tell me to quit?”
     
    Caleb wanted a drag so bad he could taste it, sweet and raw, sliding into his lungs. “I was going to ask you to blow some smoke my way.”
     
    “Ha.” Antonia exhaled obligingly in his direction. “Regina’s always bitching at me to take it outside.”
     
    “Secondhand smoke is a documented health hazard,” Caleb said, straight-faced. He leaned in to take another hit. “You do operate a public space.”
     
    “It’s my damn restaurant,” Antonia grumbled.
     
    “Which explains why you’re out here by the garbage.”
     
    “It’s the boy,” Antonia admitted grudgingly. “Had asthma when he was a baby.”
     
    “And you don’t want to set a bad example.”
     
    Antonia shrugged and ground her cigarette underfoot. “How’s the search coming, Chief?”
     
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    Caleb accepted the change of subject. “It would go faster if I had some help. I’m looking into hiring another officer. Part-time,” he added before she could say no.
     
    “Roy Miller never asked for help.”
     
    “Roy Miller is in Florida. The community is changing. Growing.
    We’re an hour and a half from the mainland, at least half an hour from the nearest sheriff’s deputy. It would be good to count on backup in an emergency.”
     
    “What emergency? I’m not in any hurry to lose another waitress.”
     
    “Maggie deserves to get her life back. I’m doing the leg-work on my own, and so far we have no ID on her photo.”
     
    “Not that I’m telling you how to do your job, but shouldn’t you be looking for a man? The guy who hit her?”
     
    “I would if I had a description. A reliable witness.”
     
    “Weren’t you there?”
     
    “I’m not a witness.” In his mind’s eye, he saw again a tall, wavering figure turn and leap into the fire. Not a reliable witness. “I never got a good look at the guy.”
     
    “Hm. He’ll be from Away, I can tell you that much.”
     
    Caleb’s attention sharpened. “How do you know? Has Maggie talked to you?”
     
    Antonia shook her head. “But the men around here . . . I’m not saying there aren’t some who would hurt a woman.
     
    They have a bad day, a bad season, they take it out on any woman fool enough to live with them and put up with it. They don’t go after strangers on the beach.”
     
    “Women are more likely to be attacked by someone they know than a stranger. Spouses, family members, neighbors. Coworkers, sometimes. I need to know who knows Maggie. ” He glanced toward the heavy metal door at the rear of the restaurant. “How’s she doing?”
     
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    “Well, she’s no cook. And you’d swear the girl never saw a cash register before in her life. She catches on quick, though, I’ll give her that.
    And she’s good with customers.” Antonia’s eyes gleamed. “Male customers, especially.”
     
    Caleb refused to rise to her bait. “I meant, how is she feeling?”
     
    “Ask her yourself.”
     
    “I’ll do that.” He limped toward the entrance.
     
    “Where are you going?”
     
    He glanced over his shoulder. “Inside. To pick up Maggie. ”
     
    “She’s gone,” Antonia said.
     
    A bad feeling settled in the pit of Caleb’s stomach. Tension gripped his neck. “Gone where?”
     
    “How should I know? She left as soon as her shift was over.”
    Antonia’s gaze was almost pitying. “Must be fifteen, twenty minutes ago.”
     
    “I told her I was meeting the ferry.”
     
    Antonia shrugged. “Maybe she doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
     
    He knew that. Damn it.
     
    When he found her, they were going to have a little talk about this habit she had of disappearing every time he was a few minutes late. He was a cop, damn it. He didn’t punch a clock like—well, like everybody else. Maggie had to learn to accept that.
     
    Sherilee never had. In the brief months they’d actually lived together before Caleb’s deployment, his ex-wife complained he was never there for her. She objected to the late nights, the canceled dates, the interrupted phone calls. The fact that even when he wasn’t working, he checked out on her sometimes in his head. In his heart.
     
    No wonder the marriage hadn’t stuck.
     
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    Caleb dragged in a quick, frustrated breath.
     
    Neither had Maggie.
     
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Thirteen
     
    SHE HAD RECOGNIZED HIM.
     
    The thought