The Sweetest Summer: A Bayberry Island Novel by Susan Donovan Page A

with me from the mainland this year. Does the police department have extras?”
    On one hand, Clancy was pleased that Island Day merchants felt comfortable coming to him with their questions and concerns—small-town cooperation was what had made the event so successful over the years. Unfortunately, he had to tell the owner of “Mâché Madness” in Provincetown that the police department didn’t stock rain shields for vendor tents and hadn’t yet found a way to control the climate.
    She groaned in frustration and hung up on him.
    “You’re two minutes late, great leader.”
    Clancy chuckled as he moved through the open doorway of the department’s conference room. “Yeah, sorry about that, Officers.”
    Deon raised both his eyebrows. “First day and you already look like you got a beat-down.”
    Clancy nodded. “I did, indeed. Chip, you ready with roll call?”
    “Yes, Chief Flynn.”
    As Chip read aloud every name on the beefed-up police roster, Clancy checked his laptop for bulletin updates. But his mind wasn’t on police work. It was on the lovely, and inexplicably familiar, Cricket. After all the drama at the dock that afternoon, he decided he needed to know a little more about the standoffish visitor. It was simple enough to find out she was staying at the Sand Dollar, and that’s where he’d start in his quest to dig a little deeper. Once he was caught up on paperwork.
    Within ten minutes, everyone had been brought up tospeed on the day’s events, the status of ongoing investigations, and the two men in the lockup waiting for transport to the mainland. Precisely at seven p.m., Deon and Jake switched over to assigned patrol, Doug and Will were on station duty and would provide backup where it was needed, and Lowell and Cam would be off duty, getting some much-needed sleep. The last item on the agenda was updating the team on the custody-related kidnapping out of Maine.
    “Good job today, gentlemen. Everyone have a safe evening. I’ll be in the office a bit longer, then reachable by radio or cell, as always. Chip will handle the overnight roll call. See you tomorrow.” He prepared to head out.
    “How’s the little boy from the dock?”
    Clancy shrugged, wondering how he would answer Jake. What could he say? That he knew the kid’s aunt but couldn’t figure out how? That the woman had some kind of effect on him? That seeing her today felt like a punch to his gut? “I really don’t know,” was his answer. “Haven’t talked to the kid or his aunt since it happened.”
    “He seemed fine,” Chip said. “I got there right after it happened and all the witnesses said the boy popped up and started treading water. Never even panicked. That’s one tough little man.”
    Eventually, the room cleared. Clancy wandered down the hall to his office. He put his feet on the desk and rocked back in his chair, hands behind his head. He decided now was the time. He needed to step back, away from the glare. He would soften his gaze and keep his mind occupied with police business. And sooner or later, it would come to him. The Cricket situation would solve itself.
    The phone rang. It was Rowan. “Hey, Clancy. You doing good?”
    “Never better. And may I just say that you were stunning as the Safe Haven Mermaid Queen today. And my man Ashley looked dapper at the helm of the Oceanaire float.”
    His sister laughed, amused by his intentional mispronunciation of Ashton’s name. Clancy had enjoyed yanking his chain since their first meeting, and saw no reason to stop.
    “Yeah, well, thanks so much,” Rowan said. “I’ll pass it along to Ashley.”
    “So what’s up?”
    “I’m almost afraid to ask, but . . . any word from Duncan?”
    “Nah, but you know how he is.”
    “Yeah, unfortunately. I thought Ma was going to have a heart attack last year. I just don’t want her to get all worked up again.”
    The thought had crossed Clancy’s mind, too. Their mother had worried all last summer about Duncan