“I’ll find out more before my next Carson Cove trip. I vow it.”

“Solemnly?” he said.

He walked me to the ferry and waved as it slid away. I stood on the deck in the bitter wind, sad to be returning home, scared of what I’d find there. It was like that other time years ago when I stood on the deck of the ferry, returning to my sick mother, my lonely brother. Those old feelings were still there, the way old feelings are, dusty but alive, the layers of anger and sadness and fear. This time, though, it was Cole who had somehow brought it all about, Cole who had stirred up the placid water until all that lay beneath rose to the surface, a roiled, cloudy mess.

George Samson groaned when I walked in.

“That’s so impolite,” I said.

“What has he done now?” he said. “Let me have it.”

“This isn’t about Lucas,” I said. “It’s—well, it’s about my other brother, Colin.” I took a deep breath. Why was it so painful to talk about him? I felt my face grow hot. I was embarrassed, afraid. George Samson looked confused, and I made myself keep talking. “Do you remember I had a brother who died when he was a baby? This was almost thirty years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. And he seemed honestly sorry. I wondered if maybe I’d misjudged George Samson all this time. Maybe he had a kind heart underneath his bluntness.

“And I’m not really sure how to say this,” I said, “but I’m confused about how he died exactly.”

George dropped his head into his hands. “Of course you are,” he said bitterly. “Why am I not surprised? Well, you’re going to have to talk to Marlene. I’ve worked here eleven years, as you know. So I can’t tell you anything about your brother from way back when.”

Marlene appeared as if summoned from the back of the station. She moved with the same pugnacious cheer. She made me weary. I felt like she would cheer me to death.

“Look who it is!” she said. I found it strange that we didn’t acknowledge that the last time I was here, Stephanie had been blubbering with a black eye. That was part of the code of islands, I guess. Nothing changes, stores are never renamed, children never grow up, and secrets are kept secret even after every last detail has been revealed. “Now, what can I help you with?”

“Okay, here goes,” I said. I told her about Colin, the dead brother, the baby. “It looks like there are some conflicting stories about how he died,” I said. “I guess I thought there might be a police report.”

“Oh my goodness,” Marlene said.

“We were always told our brother died of pneumonia,” I said. “But his death certificate says drowning.”