THIRTEEN
Sanitize
Harper stared at what had become of Bernie’s house and tried not to let it overwhelm her. She put her hand on her hip and took a deep breath.
“It’s really not that bad,” Daniel said from behind her, sensing her unease and trying to calm her. “It’s mostly junk thrown around. We can pick that up, no problem.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” She nodded to convince herself.
Daniel brushed past her, carrying a box of cleaning supplies she’d brought from home. “Do you want to start with the living room, since that looks a bit easier than the kitchen?”
The kitchen wouldn’t have been so bad if the sirens hadn’t emptied the fridge. Apparently there wasn’t much in there, but a jug of milk had been spilled on the floor for nearly a week, along with some fresh veggies that had begun to rot in the heat.
“Why don’t you take the living room?” Harper suggested. “I’ll start with the kitchen.”
“I can help you,” Daniel offered. “I mean, that is why I came out here today.”
“I know.” She smiled at him. “But you’re already helping me enough. I think I can handle scrubbing up some sour milk.”
Harper’s father had gone to see the lawyer yesterday to sign the papers. The lawyer had made a special point of meeting Brian on a Saturday since it was hard for him to get off work during the week. The house wasn’t theirs yet, not officially, but it was only a matter of the papers being processed. So Harper thought she’d get a jump start on cleaning the place. She’d asked Daniel to help her, since she needed a boat to get out to the island and they were working on being friends.
The police had released the crime scene a few days before, but there was still yellow tape stuck to the door and around the trees where they’d found the body. Other than that, the place didn’t look like it had been disturbed much since Harper had seen it last, so she wondered how much digging around the police had even done.
If they did any fingerprinting, Daniel and Alex would have to make up a story. Gemma and Harper had plenty of reasons to have fingerprints there, since they’d both been out to Bernie’s many times.
But Harper wasn’t too worried about that. She, Alex, and Daniel had come up with an alibi for that night, which they’d already told the police: they were arguing with Gemma, and then she ran off with Penn, Lexi, and Thea.
Alex and Daniel could easily come up with logical reasons for being at Bernie’s place. Alex had visited with Gemma once, maybe. And Daniel delivered groceries to Bernie.
Both of those excuses would work, and the police would probably go back to pursuing the three unidentified sets of prints in the cabin. Harper seriously doubted the sirens had ever been fingerprinted.
“So are you moving out here, then?” Daniel asked, drawing Harper from her thoughts as she scrubbed milk off the kitchen tiles.
“What?” She glanced back to see him picking up all of Bernie’s books and putting them on the shelves.
“Now that you own the place, I was wondering if you’re going to move out here,” Daniel said. “Is that what we’re cleaning it up for?”
“No, I’m not moving out here.” She’d gotten the milk off the floor, so she stood up and wrung out her washcloth in the sink.
“Why not?” Daniel asked. “It’s a nice place.”
“No, I know. I just…” A strand of hair had come loose from her ponytail, and she tucked it behind her ear. “I’m leaving for college soon. And even if I wasn’t, there’s too many memories here.”
“Too many memories?” Daniel had finished putting all the books back on the shelf, and he moved on to uprighting the coffee table. “Aren’t they mostly good memories?”
“Well, yeah,” she said. “But that last night was…”
She grabbed a garbage bag so she wouldn’t have to talk about the last time she’d been here, when she’d seen Bernie’s dead body and the horrible monsters attacking her and her sister.
“So what are you going to do with this place?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t know,” Harper replied as she filled the bag with spoiled food and the garbage strewn about the floor. “Sell it, I guess.”
“Sell it?” Daniel scoffed. “Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t your dad just move out here?”
“He can’t,” Harper replied. “I mean, I guess he could, but he can’t sell his house, and he can’t really afford the upkeep on two places, especially on an island like this.”
“Why can’t he sell his house?” Daniel asked.
“He has, like, three mortgages on it,” Harper explained. “Nine years ago my mom and I were in a car accident, and she had a ton of medical bills. It was a drunk driver with no money or insurance, so all the bills fell on my dad.”
“Wow.” He grimaced. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s just the way things are.”
She’d filled the garbage bag, so she stopped to survey the house. They hadn’t even been cleaning that long, and it already looked so much better. It almost looked like when Bernie had lived here.
“It will be so weird to think of somebody else living here,” Harper said, more to herself than to Daniel. “I mean, this is Bernie’s Island.”
“It’ll always be Bernie’s Island,” Daniel assured her. “No matter who lives here, this will always be Bernie’s.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the place as best they could. If Brian did sell it, they would eventually have to get rid of all Bernie’s possessions, but Harper didn’t want to do that right now. She just wanted to get it clean.
The sun was starting to set when Harper flopped on the couch and called it quits.
“I think we did a good job,” she said.
“Are you kidding?” Daniel asked, grinning down at her. “We did an amazing job. You scrubbed a ring out from the bathtub that I’m certain had been there since that tub was installed.”
Harper laughed, but she didn’t argue with him. “Hey, when I do something, I do it right.”
“That you do.”
Daniel sat down on the couch next to her, closer than he needed to, but Harper didn’t say anything. There had been little moments like this all day long, and she didn’t know how to react to them. When he’d hand her something, his touch seemed to linger a little too long. Or when he helped her lift something, he’d reach around her, nearly hugging her in the process.
She kept telling herself that he was just being helpful, the little touches meant nothing, or it was all in her head. But still, every time he brushed up against her she found her heart beating a bit faster.
There were more than a few times when she’d meant only to glance over at him and she found her gaze lingering. Especially when he’d been working in the bedroom.
The whole bed had been flipped over, the headboard smashed, the dresser completely destroyed. Bernie didn’t believe in AC, so it was about a hundred degrees in the bedroom. Daniel had taken off his T-shirt as he strained and lifted the broken wood, tossing it out an open window before he took it to the woodpile to chop up for the fireplace.
Harper had offered to help him, but Daniel had insisted that he had it under control. She’d been sweeping the living room, and she’d found herself stopping to stare at him far more often than she should have.
There was something about the way he looked when he moved. The muscles in his back and arms flexing as he lifted the dismantled furniture. And that tattoo, which Harper had first thought was evidence that Daniel was bad news, she now found so appealing.
It was a thick black tree, with the roots growing out from the waistband of his boxers that were showing just above his jeans. The trunk grew upward, over his spine, then twisted to the side so the branches extended out over his shoulder and down his right arm.
He’d once caught her staring, and she looked down in a flash, blushing, but he’d only laughed at her. Daniel said that she ought to think about getting a tattoo, and then she hurried off to clean something far away, so she wouldn’t be able to gawk at him.
“Thank you for coming out to help me today,” Harper said, now that they were finished and he’d unfortunately put his T-shirt back on. “Not everybody would want to spend their Sunday cleaning up a house.”
“No problem.” He stretched his arms out so one rested on the couch behind her, but it wasn’t exactly around her. “I told you I’m always happy to help.”
“I know, but I really appreciate it,” she said. “I needed to get out and do something instead of moping about Gemma or worrying about her or talking about her with Alex or my dad.”
“Well, I was happy to help you keep your mind off her.” He looked over at her. “And I’ll be more than happy to help you keep your mind off anything anytime you want.”
“Thanks.” She smiled when she looked over at him, but something about the look in his eyes made her smile fall away.
His arm had moved, so she could feel his hand on her shoulder. It felt strong and rough on her skin, and he was holding her, moving her closer to him as his hazel eyes stared into hers. She leaned in to him, and just when she thought he was about to kiss her, he spoke.
“We should probably get going before it gets dark,” he said.
“We should,” Harper agreed when she found her voice.
He turned away from her and rather abruptly got up and walked away, leaving Harper dismayed on the couch.
“I’m going to start carrying the garbage out to my boat.” Daniel walked away and didn’t look back.
“Yeah, um, I’ll help you.” Harper jumped to her feet and hurried after him, but he’d already grabbed all the bags by the time she reached him.
When they got on his boat, he barely spoke a word to her.