Page 39 of Strangers She Knows

“Yes!” Rae pumped her arm. She wasn’t talking about the thrills of re-gapping.

Kellen rustled the pages of the diary. “I think we’d better stop here, or we’ll be here until evening and Olympia will be furious. Also—” She rocked on her bottom, numb from sitting, and winced. “Rae? Would you take this basket to Olympia?”

“Sure.” Rae was not enthused.

Kellen suggested, “Maybe you can help her make sandwiches for lunch.”

“She doesn’t like my help.” Rae took the basket and dragged her feet toward the back door.

“I wish you would help her. I’mstarving.”It was true, Kellen realized. All that running…shewasstarving.

As if Kellen’s words reminded Rae of food, her eyes got round and her step got enthusiastic. “Me, too.” She raced out the door.

“That kid. When she’s hungry, we’re all in trouble. She’s enough to make a bull elephant tremble.” Max extricated himself from the engine compartment. “Is Rae unhappy here?”

“I don’t think so. Not exactly. But she only has us. Olympia doesn’t like kids. Jamie doesn’t like anybody.”

“Then why did you send her away?” Max was darned observant…for a guy.

She placed her hand on the old refrigerator. “Max, you’ve got to look at this.”

“What is it?” He walked over and opened the door.

Stacked inside were explosives: military dynamite and rolls of cable.

Max shut the refrigerator door. Fast. “Holy shit.”

“Yes. Exactly.”

He opened the door again. “These are leftovers from…?”

“I guess from World War II when the Navy occupied the island.”

He shut the door again as if shutting it could make it disappear. “Do they still work?”

“I don’t know!”

“You were in the military.”

“We had current munitions!” She took a breath. “The Army fed us rations packaged in the Vietnam War, but the artillery was up to date!”

“Right.” He leaned a hand against the refrigerator, then hastily pulled it away. “Dynamite shouldn’t have an expiration date, should it? It’s a chemical compound set off with a blasting cap.”

“The blasting caps are in the vegetable crisper.”

“Of course they are.” He was trying to reason his way through this. “As long as the chemicals are kept dry and in a stable environment, as they have been, then we have really good explosives.”

“I believe you’re right.”

“What do you do with dynamite?”

“You blow things to kingdom come. I currently haven’t got a reason to do that. Do you?”

“Not currently.” His brown eyes glowed as he got an idea. “Hey, if Mara shows up, we could run one up her ass and light the fuse.”

“Max!” Shocked and unwillingly amused, Kellen laughed.

“You have a problem with that?”

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