so well. Never an argument. She was fond of all of them, but she wasnât a one-man woman. One at a time, yes.
Now it was time for another one.
The room off the kitchen that used to be the pantry was her office: iMac computer, printer and phone.
She sat down and got online. She began to scour through local nursing homes and recent obituaries. She bent intently over the keyboard, clicking and scrolling with her mouse, her search spanning numerous websites, until the Internet connection, inevitably, died on her.
None.
No. None today.
Widowers were a lot harder to come by than widows.
Too bad she wasnât a man. Sheâd seen many women that she bet would be ripe for the plucking.
She called what she was doing research, but it was really her own form of online dating.
Chapter Four
Am I computer dating?
Hy had begun asking herself that since sheâd become involved in an online back-and-forth with an intriguing keyboard pal several weeks before. Sheâd tired of her work on the village website and had slipped onto Facebook.
Over the winter, sheâd discovered Facebook in a dull moment when the weather had raged outside, the snow suggesting a glass of wine and a virtual tour of sunnier places where she might escape for a week or two.
Before she knew it, sheâd clicked on Facebook, established a page, and become hooked. That is, she checked into the site first thing in the morning and once at night. She posted occasionally. Friends trickled in, including some very old pals sheâd lost track of. And, since she knew the site could be good for business, sheâd posted and shared a link to her late motherâs back-to-the-woods bestseller, A Life on the Land. It was written in ink made from nature and the drawings sketched with charcoal from the woodstove. Life in the woods had cost Hyâs mother, father and grandfather their lives. It had nearly killed the infant Hy when a bush plane her grandfather flew in to rescue his daughter and granddaughter crashed on a remote and frozen lake. Her motherâs manuscript had been strapped to the infant Hyâs life jacket.
The book hardly needed promoting. A coffee table edition some years back had brought on a resurgence of popularity and provided a steady flow of income to Hyâs nest egg.
There was a steady flow of friend requests from people who knew, or wished theyâd known, her mother. More came from others whoâd put two and two together and identified Hy as the woman connected with the series of murders at The Shores, now world-famous, not for its beaches, but for its air of mystery.
Hy found it fairly easy to sort out the weirdos from the genuine friends.
But she wasnât quite sure how to categorize him.
Heâd popped up after A Life on the Land had gone into another new edition.
âIâm a great admirer of your motherâs book and work. If she had lived, Iâm sure she would have been an inspiring advocate for the environment. I was only a few months old when she died â hardly in a position to form opinions about the woman and her work. What I know, I know from later, when I read her book and understood the depth of her experience.â
Though he was a bit cagey about his own background and current situation â his Facebook site didnât tell much â Hy considered him genuine enough and accepted his friend request. She now listed âFinnâ Finnegan among her friends, one of about forty Americans. To her surprise, she and Finn had begun corresponding regularly, sending messages nearly every day.
One thing Hy did know about Finn. He was good-looking. A shock of thick black hair. Burning blue eyes. And he was single.
Or so it said in his stats.
Am I online dating?
Chapter Five
Frank Webster was driving across the causeway behind a moving truck. Frank himself had just a modest van, with which he made deliveries around this end of the island. He wondered where the truck was