Free Summer Secrets by Barbara Freethy Page B

articles had been about the race itself: winners of each leg; time handicaps, and weather conditions. Nothing that helped his cause.
    He turned to the first page. The headline stated FIVE RACERS LOST AT SEA .
    Tyler had read a little about the storm but hadn’t thought much about it, since the McKennas had come through unscathed. Now he wondered if that storm had caused some trauma. Ashley seemed to have a surprising fear of the water. His mind darted back to the bottle of pills that had fallen from her purse. The label had read Xanax which he knew to be an anti-anxiety medication.
    Tyler skimmed the article, but there was no mention made of the McKennas or the Moon Dancer. Instead, the article focused on a boat that had capsized, losing all but one of her entire crew to the raging sea. Turning the page, he found more reports on the storm, quotes from some of the sailors.
    “The winds were screaming. It was a scene from hell.”
    “The waves were three stories high. I couldn’t tell if I was on the boat or in the water.”
    “There were Maydays and distress calls everywhere. Flares popping up all over the place, like the Fourth of July. We were no longer racing. We were simply trying to survive.”
    Tyler wanted a quote from one of the McKennas. He wanted to know what they had been thinking, what they had been feeling. It sounded terrifying. Certainly something that could bring on a water phobia, maybe even a need to drink, he thought, his mind turning to Caroline and to Duncan. But what about Kate? She didn’t have any noticeable vices or inconsistencies. Had the storm or the race itself affected her in some way? He’d have to find out. Mark was counting on him.
    He wondered if Kate had somehow connected him to Mark. It seemed unlikely; they didn’t share the same last name since Mark’s stepfather had adopted him. But she’d obviously been on the Internet. What else had she come up with?
    Tyler shook his head. Too many questions, not enough answers. The second notebook focused on the end of the race. There were photos taken of the Moon Dancer’s arrival in Castleton, most of which he’d seen before.
    It occurred to him that a week had passed between the official end of the race and the McKennas return to Castleton. It must have been a strange few days, anticlimactic for sure, but what else? Had the McKennas simply sailed home, gotten off their boat, and said good-bye to sailing forever? According to Kate, that was the scenario. He studied the girls’ faces as they waved from the deck of the boat. They looked weathered, exhausted, and completely overwhelmed. He supposed those were natural responses to a race that had gone on for eleven long months. But he knew something else had happened during those eleven months, something no one wanted to talk about.
    Turning the page, he found a photo of Ashley and a young man. The caption: Sean Amberson welcomes home high school sweetheart, Ashley McKenna.
    Amberson? Wasn’t that the name of one of the men lost at sea?
    Tyler flipped back to the article on the storm, tracing the names of the five sailors lost with his finger. The final name was Jeremy Amberson. The brother of Ashley’s boyfriend? That was an interesting connection. Sean Amberson sounded like someone who might have insight into the McKenna family, especially Ashley. If he couldn’t get answers from the McKenna sisters, maybe he could get them from their friends.

Chapter Five

    “Ready?” Kate asked, watching Ashley take a deep breath before boarding the sailboat. “They’re waiting for you.”
    “Thanks for coming with me. I know you should be at work,” Ashley said.
    “It’s fine. Theresa handles the store as well as I do. Although I hate to admit that. You know me, control freak to the end.”
    Ashley nodded, but Kate could tell her sister wasn’t listening. Her mind was wrestling with the task ahead of her. It saddened Kate to see her once-courageous sister battling simple and often imagined