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For Chuck and Margie Marino

There’s no such thing as a perfect couple, but you come pretty close

Forever love xo

Saturday, July 7, 2018, 5:53 am

THE CHIEF

A phone call before six on a Saturday h it’s not unheard of on a holiday weekend Too many times to count, Chief Ed Kapenash of the Nantucket Police Departo sideways The er while lighting fireworks Sos are more serious One year, they lost a swimmer to the riptide; another year, a man drank ten shots of Patrón Añejo and then did a backflip off the roof of the Allserve building and hit the water in such a way that his neck snapped There are generally enough drunk-and-disorderlies to fill a sightseeing bus, as well as dozens of fistfights, a handful of which are so serious that the police have to get involved

When the call comes in, Andrea and the kids are fast asleep Chloe and Finn are sixteen, an age the Chief escaped easily with his own children, he now realizes Chloe and Finn—who are properly the children of Andrea’s cousin Tess and Tess’s husband, Greg, who died in a boating accident nine years ago—are proving to be irlfriend na the household upside down Finn’s twin sister, Chloe, has a su for Siobhan Crispin at Island Fare, Nantucket’s busiest catering company

The Chief and Andrea have divided their concerns about the twins neatly down the nant (though the Chief, aardly, presented Finn with a giant box of condole tis and alcohol The Chief has seen again and again the way the food-and-beverage industry leads its unsuspecting employees into temptation The island of Nantucket has over a hundred liquor licenses; other, sie of twelve As a summertime resort, the island has a culture of celebration, frivolity, excess It’s the Chief’s job to give the annual substance-abuse talk the week before the high-school prom; this year, both Finn and Chloe had been in attendance, and afterward, neither of them would so much as look at him

He often feels he’s too old for the enor them is most certainly beyond him

The Chief takes his phone out onto the back deck, which looks west over protected wetlands; his conversations here are private, overheard only by the redwing blackbirds and the field reat view of sunsets but not, unfortunately, of the water

The call is froeant Dickson, one of the best in the department

“Ed,” he says “We have a floater”

The Chief closes his eyes Dickson had been the one to tell the Chief that Tess and Greg were dead Sergeant Dickson has no proble news; in fact, he seems to relish it

“Go ahead,” the Chief says

“Caucasian female by the name of Merritt Monaco Twenty-nine years old, fro She was found floating facedown just off the shore in front of three-three-three Mono held The cause of death appears to be drowning Roger Pelton called it in You know Roger, the guy who does the expensive weddings?”

“I do,” the Chief says The Chief is in Rotary Club with Roger Pelton

“Roger toldin the ot here, he said he heard screa Turns out, the bride had just pulled the body out of the water Roger tried CPR but the girl was dead, he said He seemed to think she’d been dead for a few hours”

“That’s for the ME to determine,” the Chief says “Three-three-three Monomoy Road, you said?”

“It’s a coes, and a pool house The name of the property is Summerland”

Suh he has never been to the house That stretch of Monoh-rent district The people who live on that road generally don’t have problems that require the police The houses have sophisticated security systems, and the residents use discretion to keep any issues under wraps

“Has everyone else been notified?” the Chief asks “The state police? The ME?”