Dawn in Eclipse Bay

dull.”
    “I can see that.” Claire got to her feet. “Well, at least you’ve got Gabe Madison looking out for you. Things could be worse.”
    “There is that.”
    “I’d better be on my way. I can see you’ve got other things to worry about than my little scene in the Crab Trap. Promise me you’ll be careful.”
    “Don’t worry, I will.” Lillian rose and followed her out into the hall. She got Claire’s coat out of the closet and handed it to her. “You said you had something you wanted to tell me.”
    “What? Oh, yeah.” Claire shrugged into her coat. “But it seems a little petty compared to this stalker business.”
    “What was it?”
    “It’s about Marilyn. I’m no shrink, but like I started to tell you before Gabe phoned, I really do think she may be a bit paranoid. When you add that to the fact that she’s a very determined woman who always gets what she wants, well, I just think you might want to watch your step around her, that’s all.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’ve got something she wants,” Claire said.
    “What’s that?”
    “Gabe Madison.”

    “Well, shoot and damn.” Mitchell watched Gabe disconnect the phone. “We’ve got ourselves a problem here, don’t we?”
    “Maybe. I sure don’t like the fact that Witley has disappeared.”
    Mitchell watched him for a moment. He’d seen that same look of focused determination back when Gabe had been a twelve-year-old kid doing his homework at the kitchen table. Nothing had changed, Mitchell thought. Gabe was a different kind of Madison. But not that different.
    “Wasn’t talking about Witley,” Mitchell said. “We’ll get that sorted out. Meant this situation between you and Lillian.”
    “Situation?”
    “Way it looks to me, you’re in up to your neck and sinking deeper by the minute.”
    Gabe navigated a turn, accelerating smoothly on the far side. “What are you talking about?”
    Mitchell absently massaged his arthritic knee. He tried to remember if he had taken his anti-inflammatory medication. Things had been a little busy today.
    “Had what you might call a chat with Lillian,” he said.
    “I heard about that. Stay out of this, Mitch. My relationship with Lillian is none of your business. You don’t have the right to interfere.”
    “I’m your grandfather. Course I’ve got the right.”
    Mitchell watched the road. There was very little traffic now that they had left the city behind. The last of the daylight was evaporating. The white lines on the pavement marked the path into the darkness.
    He braced himself for the old memories. No matter where he was or what he was doing, they always came back to haunt him for a while at this time of day; the point when the oncoming night could no longer be ignored. He knew from long experience that once the transition to full dark was made, the specters would fade. They would not return for another twenty-four hours.
    When he was home it was his custom to handle the ghosts with a shot of whiskey. But tonight he had nothing to take the edge off. He would just have to deal with it. Wouldn’t be the first time.
    From out of the depths the phantoms arose, right on schedule. The scene was a twilight-shrouded jungle drenched with the smell of death and gut-wrenching fear. The worst part had been knowing that the night was inevitable and that there was no hope of rescue until dawn.
    He and Sullivan had made it through that hellish night together because they had both understood that their survival depended on staying in control of the panic. They had both understood the need for absolute silence and absolute stillness. Side by side in the unrelenting darkness, they had somehow managed to reinforce that grim knowledge in each other without words or movement of any kind. And without words or movement they had managed to keep each other from slipping over the edge into that place where the fear took over and got you killed.
    At dawn, he and Sullivan had still been alive. A lot of the others had not been so lucky.
    He wondered if Sullivan went through the same ritual every evening. Waiting. Knowing the night was inevitable.
    “What, exactly, did you say to Lillian?” Gabe asked.
    Mitchell watched the light disappear, unable to look away. “Just told her flat-out that it looked to me like you were fallin’ for her in a big way and that I didn’t want her to stomp all over your heart.”
    “Those were your exact words?”
    Mitchell thought back to the conversation in