Read Online Dark Nantucket Noon by Jane Langton - Free Book Online

like.”
    â€œA snake? In the sand?”
    â€œProbably just some optical effect. Maybe those interference bands they talked about, just before totality.”
    Homer pondered, looking out the window at the Methodist Church across the street. “According to your statements, you all stayed together at the top of the lighthouse, shoulder to shoulder, during the eclipse, and none of you except Helen went down until the whole thing was over. How could you be sure everyone was under your eye the whole time?”
    â€œWell, there wasn’t much room to stand in up there. We were all jammed together. And besides it wasn’t even dark in there during totality, because that blasted light went on behind us. There we were all flooded with light, trying to squint out the window at the eclipse. The whole thing was a big flop.” Dick Roper laughed and slapped the top of his desk. “Somebody should have thought of that, but none of us did.”
    â€œYou saw Miss Clark approaching the lighthouse? But you saw no one else, either coming or going?”
    â€œNo, I didn’t see anybody else. As soon as we got up there and looked out, we saw her coming, and then of course we all kept staring at her. It was just before totality. There was a kind of—oh—a weird sort of feeling in the air. You know what I mean, don’t you? You saw the thing too, didn’t you?”
    â€œI did,” said Homer gravely. “I know what you mean.”
    â€œSo when this girl came in sight it was—it was—well, ‘magic’ is the only word I can think of. It was as if she came up out of the sea, like a mermaid or something. I mean, she was beautiful. She looked an awful lot like that picture of Venus on the half shell, you know the one? Half naked, that’s the way she looked, with bare legs and bare feet and her skirt blowing off her and soaking wet. It looked like she’d been in the water. I can remember saying ‘Wow,’ or something like that. And when she got close to us she suddenly reached up and took off her sunglasses—and there was this glowing face, and she was running toward us, stretching out her arms. I mean, it was all I could do to hold myself back, and I’m an old married man. I tell you, it was like a goddess coming up from the sea.”
    â€œAnother goddess,” murmured Homer, feeling oddly satisfied that Kitty was still in the running with Helen Green in the goddess department. “And then Helen went down to meet her?”
    â€œYes. When the girl took off her sunglasses Arthur Bird recognized her and said her name, and then Helen suddenly started ducking down the trap door. ‘I’m going to bring her up here,’ she said, or something like that.”
    â€œDid anyone try to stop Helen from going down? Those stairs are tricky, aren’t they? Kind of dangerous?”
    â€œWell, yes, they are. Letty said, ‘Now be careful on those stairs,’ or something of the sort. Of course the lights were on down there, because we turned them on when we came up.”
    â€œDid you hear screams from down below when the sun went into total eclipse?”
    â€œWell, no, we were making too much noise ourselves, I guess. I was cursing because the light had turned on behind our backs, and Letty was squealing, and so was Arthur Bird.”
    Homer leaned forward and glared fiercely at Richard Roper. “Can you think of any reason why anybody— anybody —would have wanted to kill Helen Green?”
    â€œOh, heck, no. I mean, she was very much admired. Respected. After all, she was an island girl. The last of the Boatwrights.”
    â€œThat’s right, she was an orphan, wasn’t she? Her parents died in the Andrea Doria disaster.”
    â€œYes. And the Boatwrights were a really old family, one of the first to settle on the island. Proprietors. We Ropers went right on increasing and increasing, but the Boatwrights kept