Nora went straight to Cal. She laid the notebook, the bolt, and a photograph of the hatch on his desk and watched the strength leave his shoulders. He did not deny any of it. Instead, he sat down slowly, as though age had found him all at once.
He told her he and Thomas had gone out together the night Thomas vanished. Thomas had wanted to mark the bad stretch before summer visitors filled the cove. They took ropes and a buoy, meaning to do quietly what the harbor committee kept postponing year after year.