Eclipse Bay

“I’ll tell you what I’m looking for, if you’ll promise to keep it quiet.”
    Jed raised one hand as he went down the hall. “Word of honor.”
    “I want to see if whoever covered the story mentioned the fact that Kaitlin Sadler was seeing someone other than me that summer.”
    Jed came to a halt in another doorway and gave Rafe a quizzical frown. “Everyone knew she was seeing other men. Hell, you knew it. It was no big secret that she was running around.”
    “I just want to see if the names of any of the other men she dated came up in the course of the investigation.”
    “Aha.” Jed’s hand tightened on the edge of the doorjamb. He gave Rafe a knowing look. “You want to see if there were any other serious suspects besides yourself, don’t you? What is this? You think maybe one of her other boyfriends really did push her off the cliff that night?”
    “I haven’t got a single thing to go on here, Jed. I’m curious, that’s all. Are you going to let me see those old papers or not?”
    “Sorry. Force of habit. Come on, I’ll get you set up on the machine.”
    A short time later Rafe found himself seated in front of a microfilm reader, scanning eight-year-old editions of the Eclipse Bay Journal . He paused when he came to the front-page headline that had been printed the morning after Kaitlin’s death: LOCAL WOMAN FOUND DEAD AT HIDDEN COVE .
    “That’s it.” Jed hung over his shoulder, one hand gripping the back of Rafe’s chair. “I didn’t cover the story. I was busy writing up the piece on Thornley’s reception at the institute.”
    Rafe glanced at the byline. “Did you know Ben Orchardson well?”
    “No one knew him well, but I learned a few things from him. He was a halfway decent reporter in his day. Worked for a couple of the big-city dailies for several years. But he had a problem with the bottle. Wound up here at the Journal for a while, but Ed had to let him go after a few months.”
    “Is Orchardson still around?”
    “Are you kidding? He was sixty-three when he covered the Sadler story. He retired and moved away just before I married Connie. Haven’t heard from him since he left Eclipse Bay. I remember him saying something about heading for Mexico or maybe Costa Rica where he could live like a king on his Social Security check while he wrote the great American novel. Doubt if he ever sobered up long enough to buy a computer and go to work, though.”
    Rafe read through the first story that had appeared, searching for names other than his own. The first one that leaped out was Hannah’s. He paused to study the short paragraph that had covered his alibi.
    Hannah Harte, daughter of longtime Eclipse Bay summer visitors Hamilton and Elaine Harte, stated that she had been with Raphael Madison at the time of Sadler’s death. “We met on the beach near Eclipse Arch a few minutes after midnight,” she said. “We talked for a while. Then he walked me home. It was a long walk. We arrived shortly before two.”
    The words were simple enough, but they had cost Hannah a lot at the time, Rafe reflected. He could imagine what her parents had had to say about the events of that night. But that was Hannah for you. Not a woman to stay silent when she had something to say.
    Jed leaned closer. “Something I’ve always wondered about…?”
    The story jumped to an inside page. Rafe advanced the film. “Yeah?”
    “Is talking really the only thing you and Hannah Harte did that night on the beach?”
    Rafe leaned back and met Jed’s eyes. “Yes.”
    Jed straightened quickly and took a step back. He cleared his throat. “Hey, just a reporter’s natural curiosity, you understand.”
    Rafe turned back to the article and continued reading.
    Yates said that he is still investigating Sadler’s movements on the night of her death. “No one seems to know where she went or what she did after Madison got out of her car near the Arch. No one has any idea why she was on Hidden Cove Trail at that hour of the night. The trail is closed at sunset. There are no lights…”
    “Whatever happened to Chief Yates?” Rafe asked as he went on to the next story. “Is he still around?”
    “Didn’t you know? He died of a heart attack a couple of years ago.”
    “Wonder if there’s any way of getting a look at his old file on the case?”
    “The new chief of police is named Sean Valentine. He’s a solid guy. He’ll probably let you look at the old files, but I doubt that you’ll find