Page 49 of Strangers She Knows

Almost normal?Max mouthed to Kellen.

Kellen smiled, but a little tightly. Rae was right, she and Max didn’t often fight; maybe the tension on the island was getting to them, too.

On the other hand, maybe she was angry because he had been a jerk.

Rae skipped back to the box that held the kit. “Can I open it? Can I?”

That got Max’s attention. “Wait! Rae! That’s got a lot of little parts and we need them all.”

“I’m not going to spill it.” Rae sounded irritable, too.

Kellen walked over to the wall where the mattress stood, looked at it, garish with roses, stained and dirty—and kicked the hell out of it. Front kick, side kick, left foot, right foot, turning kick, backward kick.

Dust flew.

She couldn’t keep it up; her legs trembled from the effort of running and kicking.

So she started punching, palms out, clenched fists, boom, boom, boom, knocking the stuffing out of the old mattress, and loving it.

“What’s Mommy doing?” Rae asked.

“Getting out her aggressions,” Max said.

“Practicing my fighting skills,” Kellen corrected him without a trace of a smile.

A female figure, silhouetted by the sun, stepped into the wide open doorway. “What are you people doing in here? In this garage? Why aren’t you at the house?”

Kellen recognized her by her figure, tall and curvaceous, and her attitude, hostile and all-knowing.

Rae looked up from the spark plug Max had placed in her hand. “Hi, Mrs. Conkle.” She didn’t use her usual cheerful Rae voice; in one visit, Jamie Conkle had convinced Rae to step carefully around her.

Kellen stopped pounding the mattress and walked toward Jamie. “Max and Rae are rebuilding the pickup.” She didnotsay,None of your business,although that was what she thought.

“Why?” Jamie held their basket of the day’s produce over her arm. “Why would you rebuild that…thing?”

“We can’t all have the talent for gardening.” Max sounded like he had his jaw clenched.

“It’s a petroleum-burning engine, the only one on the island. We don’t need that kind of environmental smog-maker here. We have the electric golf cart.” Jamie radiated indignation like a halo.

Deliberately Kellen turned the subject. “What did you bring us today?”

Jamie would not be diverted. “Really, you shouldn’t try to bring that thing back to life. The internal combustion engine is to blame for all of today’s problems.”

“That’s a sweeping statement.” Kellen put her hand on the basket’s handle.

Jamie resisted for a moment, then released and stepped back. “Rethink the truck. On Isla Paraíso, we’re saving the environment, not destroying it.”

Kellen leaned forward so she was face to face with Jamie. “We’ll worry about that when he gets it running.”

Jamie leaned back, then flounced away.

Kellen watched her go. Amazing how Jamie made her feel inferior, privileged and resentful, all at the same time.

Jamie stopped, looked up, pointed.

At the same time, Kellen heard a helicopter coming in fast and low.

Her heart started pounding.Why were they here?Was it good news at last?“Coast Guard,” she called to Max.

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