Free Body Search by Jessica Andersen

hasn’t been brought in from the mainland.” He leaned into the microphone. “Beyond that, if any of you experience an upset stomach, tingling or burning in your fingertips and tongue, or any other symptoms, you should come to the motel immediately. The earlier we see you, the more we can help.” He hoped.
    “Excuse me.” A man stood up from his chair in the second row. His navy trousers, white button-down shirt and capped teeth instantly marked him as an outsider. He lifted a hand. “I’d like to say a few words.”
    “We know what you’re gonna say, Roberts, and we don’t wanna hear it,” a lobster captain yelled.
    A murmur of agreement bolstered this opinion, but from his seat behind Dale on the stage, Churchill called, “As acting mayor, I’ll remind you that everyone in this assembly has the right to speak his or her piece. Even real estate developers.”
    Roberts ignored the gibe and took the podium, nudging Dale aside. “I think you’ll be interested in what I have to say, especially if you wish to leave the island with enough money to start over.”
    Dale eased his way off the stage and headed for the door. He’d said what he’d needed to say. The islanders would need to make their own decisions now. Personally, he’d take the money and run.
    Roberts continued, “I represent a group of men who are very interested in purchasing this island for development purposes.”
    “Yeah,” shouted a whiskered man in the back, “and most of us have told you to go to hell!”
    The crowd shifted and muttered, some resentful, some considering.
    Dale slipped out of the room, thinking that once the outbreak was over he might talk to Roberts about selling his parents’ place. HFH could use the money to replace the plane.
    Tansy joined him a moment later and touched his arm. “Come on. Let’s get some sleep.”
    Dale pulled away from her, and from the offer. “I think I’ll go back to the clinic and help Hazel. I’m not that tired.” It was a lie. He didn’t want to go back to his parents’ house. There were too many memories there. And he didn’t want to be alone with Tansy. There were too many memories there, as well, and he was feeling too exposed.
    “Hazel will be fine, and we both need sleep. Forty-eight hours on duty is our limit. HFH policy.” She steered him to the dirt path he’d run down a thousand times in his nightmares. The path to his empty house.
    It wasn’t until they passed the black-shadowed hedge at the far edge of the town common that Dale saw the dark figure waiting for them, heard the faint rustle of movement, and his every sense went on instant alert.
    Ambush!
     
     

 
    Chapter Five
     
    “Tansy, run!” He shoved her towards the brightly lit meeting house and turned to face their attacker. “Don’t ask, just run!”
    The shadowy figure lunged, and Dale leapt back. He stumbled over a tree root, kicked out blindly and connected, feeling a spurt of surprise when the other man went down with a grunt and didn’t get up.
    “Whaddid you do that for, boy?” The boozy voice rose up from the ground, and Dale’s gut soured at the smell of cheap beer and cheaper gin.
    He stepped back quickly and bumped into Tansy. “I told you to run,” he snapped, his voice harsh with anger and embarrassment.
    “I wanted to make sure you were okay,” she said quietly, crouching down beside the drunk. She raised her voice. “Trask? It’s Dr. Whitmore. Tansy. Can you stand?”
    Leave him there, Dale wanted to say. This is his problem, not ours. But it saddened him to think that his uncle, a man he’d once idolized, had crawled intoa bottle the day after his wife’s death and still hadn’t emerged, fifteen years later.
    If that’s what love did to a man, then Dale wanted no part of the emotion.
    “Come on,” Tansy said, “help me lift him up. We can’t leave him here. Let’s get him home.”
    Together, they hefted Dale’s uncle to his feet and turned him towards the dusty path. Trask