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“What were you doing so early?”
“I, well, I went to see my girlfriend.”
“Oh.”
“Not like that!” He actually blushed. “Um, her dad doesn’t know about us. He, um, well, she’s not ready to tell him. She met me at the park at four in the morning, just to talk. She’s been having nightmares and called me in the middle of the night.”
“Nightmares?” Catherine asked.
“Yeah. Ashley—Ashley Dunlap. She witnessed theWater Lilyexplosion and she saw Neil—well, it was awful, and she doesn’t want her dad to know she’s having nightmares about it. So she called me, and I walked over. I only live a mile away, and I don’t have my own car.”
Dunlap. Exactly what Kara had told them last night.
“How long were you with Ms. Dunlap?”
“Forty-five minutes, maybe. It was cold, and I had to get ready for work—I’m a janitor at the school in the mornings, then I work at a restaurant near the pier most days, and then when they need me I go out to the fish warehouse on the other side of the island, usually weekends.”
John Rasmussen was right—Bobby seemed to be a responsible, hardworking kid.
“Did you see anything when you were walking by West End? A person, hear a boat, an argument, anything out of the ordinary?”
He shook his head. “No. It was quiet. I saw a guy walking his dog. I think only one car passed me the entire walk home. I didn’t go to West End—I was on the street. After my brother—well, you know that my brother and his girlfriend got in trouble there last year.”
“Yes, we know.”
“You talked to him, right? He said he was going to talk to you today.”
“We did.”
“And he’s not in any trouble, right? Craig wouldn’t do this. You have to believe me.”
“At this point,” Matt said, “we’re in the middle of our investigation and I haven’t ruled anyone out.”
“Fuck.” Then he cleared his throat and mumbled, “Sorry.”
“Has anyone with Island Protectors said or done anything that made you suspicious?”
“Donna said we didn’t have to talk to you.”
“You don’t. You don’t have to say anything. That’s not going to stop us from investigating.”
“I like Donna, she’s great, but if I knew anything about anything, I’d tell you. I swear. And I don’t. Everyone is nice, everyone just cares about the environment. All we want is to protect our island.”
“Do you believe that West End is violating environmental laws?”
“I don’t think they care about protecting the environment, you know? I mean, they don’t have to actually violate the law to not do more to stop polluting our water. The fuel leak two years ago was serious, but they just act like business as usual. But that doesn’t matter—no one I know would do anything like this.”
“What about a new person? Someone who showed up this summer maybe—not a local or someone you know.”
He shook his head, then hesitated. “Well, there was this woman last night. I’d never seen her before.”
“What did she look like?”
“Um, short—I mean petite, I guess you say. Short blond hair. Glasses. She talked to Donna for a while after, but I didn’t talk to her. Jane did. Jane Hicks. She’s a stylist at my mom’s salon. I know her pretty well.”
“Did this stranger have a name?”
“I don’t know. But I saw her walking away from the library. She didn’t have a car or anything. Does that help?”
