Five Days in Summer

lost and found somewhere here on the Cape.”
    Ted carried their bags to Henry’s boat, Everlasting Love . The bottom half had been newly painted a high-lacquer forest green, with the top half a blinding white. And there was Henry in his sun hat, denim cutoffs and rubber flip-flops. He wore his ear-to-ear smile and threw open his arms for Daisy.
    Marian had just gotten the bracelet clasped on when Daisy flew toward the boat. She leapt over the twofootgap between the dock and the slim starboard deck of Everlasting Foolery . Her scuffed white sandal landed squarely an inch from missing altogether and she catapulted herself into Uncle Henry’s arms.
    The silver charm bracelet promptly fell off her wrist and clattered down onto the deck.
    “My bracelet!” Daisy shouted.
    “Will you look at that.” Henry picked it up. “I can fix that for you lickety-split, back at the house.” He put the bracelet in the front pocket of his shorts.
    Marian took Ted’s hand and carefully stepped on board.
    “It isn’t hers,” she told her cousin. “If you fix it, do it right. As soon as we get back to the Cape we’re going to find its owner.”
    “That’s right,” Daisy said. “And that lady you’ll be finding she’ll be me .”

Chapter 6
    Emily felt the sway and swish of water. She felt herself buoyed by planks of damp wood. And the smell. Mildew. Salt air.
    Her right side was numb. Her arms hurt, pulled behind her, bound at the wrists with what felt like heavy rope. Her legs were cinched at the ankles. Her skin stung from chafing. Had she fought?
    She remembered putting the groceries into the car. She remembered looking up at the sky. Dizzy. Something pressed against her face, a burning smell in her nostrils.
    Her eyes were blindfolded and she couldn’t see. Not a speck of light. Her mouth was sealed by a thick band of tape that pulled at her skin.
    Her underpants were wet. There was a stinging rash between her legs.
    Her mind jumped backward and landed nowhere.
    That sick stranger from the store had noticed her. He did this. She wanted to reach out of her bindings and kill him first. She was a black belt — she could do it. Or was she out of practice? It had been years.
    Where was the bastard? Had he dumped her here for later?
    What about the kids?
    What time was it?
    Maxi had an ear infection; she needed her medicine.
    Let me out, I have to go.
    How many times had she promised Sam bad guys weren’t real? David knew better but Sammie was still young enough.
    She shouldn’t have lied to her children.
    She shouldn’t have gone out without a bra.
    She rolled her body to see if she could move, jostle off the bindings, find out if there was any give. He had bound her tightly but she managed to propel herself onto her back. Stuck. Hands crushed. She felt the warmth of blood flowing into her right side and a sharp tingling. She couldn’t move. She lay on her back, feeling her arms and hands give way to numbness, as if some kind of electric parasite was shifting through her body. She tried to rock to her other side but it was useless.
    A creak across the cabin.
    Another creak. A footstep. Two.
    Another step.
    She could see him in her mind — the corn man, white jacket, white face, flickering eyes — and her stomach rose. Vomit lurched up her throat but couldn’t get past the tape. She swallowed it down. Some of it backed up her nose and she felt the seizure of suffocation. She forced herself to swallow hard, keep swallowing. She visualized her trachea and stomach and willed them calm so she could swallow the rest. Then she blew her nose hard and the vomit in her sinuses spit out onto her face. The smell was horrible; she could hardly breathe.
    He stopped walking.
    Her muscles quickened against the bindings. She felt her skin tear as her wrists and ankles swiveled to find a weakness somewhere. He must have been a fisherman, good with knots.
    She was his catch.
    This wasn’t happening.
    He was walking again, slowly, walking toward her. He stopped inches away. Stood there. Was he watching her? Did he enjoy this?
    She threw her stomach muscles into a spasm and propelled her body forward. She was sitting. If she could sit then she could find a way to stand. And if she could find a way to stand, she could hop. And if she could hop, she could use her head to poke around for a way out.
    Except he was right there. Standing next to her. She could hear him breathing.
    She couldn’t allow herself to stay trapped here when