Dark Water: A Siren Novel by Tricia Rayburn Read Free Book Online

blame me?” Oliver asked.
    “Not even a little—and I can’t thank you enough.” Paige gave them quick hugs. “How about a tour? I’ll show you what we’ve been working on and fill you in on my other plans.”
    Paige winked at me as she hooked one arm through Betty’s and led her into the dining room. Oliver followed close behind. As they rounded the corner, out of sight, I heard one last exchange.
    “Paige, dear, it’s so quiet. Where is everyone? I thought we agreed to stay open during this process.”
    “Grandma B … we
are
open.”
    I checked my watch as I returned to my post behind the hostess stand. It was twelve fifteen on a Tuesday. The restaurant should be packed with locals, part-timers, and tourists. It should be filled with the sounds of dishes clanking, silverwarescraping, and the kitchen door swishing open and closed as harried employees flew through. But save for us and the staff, it was empty. The only sounds came from hammers and saws.
    Paige had said Betty’s Chowder House wasn’t the only local business suffering, and according to the newspaper, she was right.
    AFTER SUMMER OF STORMS, WINTER HARBOR BRACES FOR DROUGHT
    As July 4—and the official start of the season—approaches, Winter Harbor retailers and restaurants are pulling out all the stops. In addition to the usual Maine-related merchandise and the freshest lobster to be had anywhere on the East Coast, businesses are offering discounts, coupons, and other incentives to jump-start visitors’ vacations
.
    There’s just one problem. The visitors, it seems, have gone elsewhere
.
    “Last summer, lines twenty people deep started at noon and lasted till midnight,” said Eddie Abernathy, owner of Eddie’s Ice Cream. “Now I’m giving away free cones every hour just to get people in the door … but the door’s not opening.”
    “It’s strange,” added Nina Poole, manager of Waterside Beachwear. “This time last year, the minute we displayed a swimsuit in the window, someone came in to buy it. Now we’re lucky if someone glances our way as she passes by.”
    Local real estate has also taken a hit. Last year’s addition of the high-end Lighthouse Marina Resort and Spa prompted some out-of-towners to invest early in what seemed to be a burgeoning tourist boom. The resulting buzz led to a 100 percent increase over the previous year’s sales as well as a healthy jolt to the local economy. Business owners, simultaneously shell-shocked and giddy, scrambled to keep refrigerators and shelves stocked. For all intents and purposes, the summer was poised to be Winter Harbor’s most profitable yet
.
    And then the rains came
.
    “Who can blame them?” said Captain Monty, owner of the town’s namesake marina. “Between the insane storms and bodies washing ashore every other day, it’s amazing so many people lasted as long as they did. Heck, if this hadn’t been my home since the day my momma shot me out and wished me luck, I’d have steered toward calmer waters, too.”
    The economic downturn is unfortunate—especially since recorded rainfall has been consistently below average the past ten months, and the sun has shone every day since Memorial Day. It appears that those who were brave enough to weather the storms will likely be rewarded with ideal conditions this summer
.
    As for those who weren’t?
    “It’s their loss,” said Paige Marchand, granddaughter of Bettina Marchand, who founded Betty’s ChowderHouse, a local institution, in 1965. “Even covered in a foot of water, Winter Harbor’s still the prettiest place on earth.”
    “Where’s your sign?”
    I looked up; the quick motion made my head pulsate slightly. I slid a menu over the newspaper as a young woman crossed the lobby.
    “I’m sorry?” I said.
    “Your sign.” She held up a paper map, the kind with stick figures and cartoon drawings that the Chamber of Commerce hands out. “According to this, this is where Betty’s Chowder House should be. Not a