The Saint Paddy's Promise

by Kathi Daley

  “If it is okay with him.”

  “I asked him, in the event that was what you decided to do, and he was fine with it. He said he’d cook us all a gourmet meal after. He’ll just need a head count and any menu requests you have.”

  “I’ll get both to you in plenty of time. I’m thinking just wedding party and family members. At first, I wasn’t sure about the idea, but Mike seemed really relieved. I know he hates to speak in front of crowds, and we plan to write our own vows. I think he will be able to relax and enjoy both the ceremony and the reception if we do it this way.” Bree leaned forward and hugged me. “Thank you so much for helping us figure it out.”

  I smiled. “Happy to help. Did you go ahead and reserve The Lakehouse for the reception?”

  “Mike is going to stop by there today to put down a deposit. Now that we have that figured out, we can start planning the other details. Mike wants to do BBQ for the reception. At first, I wasn’t so sure that would be right, but I could see that the food and band were the most important things to him, so we divided up the tasks. He is going to decide on the music and the food and I am going to take care of the flowers and décor. He doesn’t care about the color scheme, so he said I could pick that as well.”

  “I’m so glad you worked it out.” My cell pinged. “I need to get this.”

  Bree nodded. “Of course. Go ahead.”

  “Hey, Jennifer Anne,” I said. “Did you speak to your grandmother?”

  “I did, and she would like to speak to Gwendolyn. If she really does turn out to be her Patrick’s sister, she said she very much wants to meet her. Are you sure you have the transportation worked out?”

  “Tony has a friend with a jet. I’ll tell him to make the arrangements. I’ll call you back in a while with the time and everything else. It will be a very long day. I hope that Elizabeth is up for it.”

  “She seems determined to get her answers after all this time, so I think she is willing to do whatever needs to be done. She can sleep on the plane if the trip tires her.”

  “Okay, wonderful. Tony will make the arrangements.”

  Chapter 10

  Saturday, March 23

  The flight from Missoula to Seattle was a fairly easy one. Tony had rented a car and arranged to meet Gwendolyn at her hotel at around one. I could see that both Jennifer Anne and Elizabeth were nervous. I guess I didn’t blame them. If Gwendolyn was really the sister of Elizabeth’s Patrick, the meeting would be an important one for everyone involved.

  “You said that Gwendolyn is a writer,” Jennifer Anne said as we made the drive from the airport to the hotel. “Do you know what she writes?”

  “Women’s fiction,” Tony responded. “I didn’t have time to read any of her work, but I did look her up. She is fairly well known.”

  “I’m impressed that she took time out of her busy schedule to speak to us.”

  I smiled at Jennifer Anne. “If it does turn out that you are her grand-niece, I imagine this meeting is as important to her as it is to you.”

  “And if Nana’s Patrick is a different Patrick altogether?”

  “Then at least you will know. Tony did ask Gwendolyn if Patrick had been in Montana before he died and she said he was, so my guess is that the man who fathered your mother was indeed Gwendolyn’s brother.”

  “Did she say how Patrick died?” Jennifer Anne asked.

  I noticed that got Elizabeth’s attention. To this point, Jennifer Anne hadn’t asked, and I hadn’t volunteered the information, but I supposed it was better to get it out of the way now rather than later. “He went to the bank to take out some cash for his trip back to Montana. He was mugged.”

  “Oh God.” I could see the shock in Jennifer Anne’s expression. “I didn’t realize he’d been murdered.”

  I glanced at Elizabeth. A stream of tears ran down her face.

  “Gwendolyn told me that after Patrick came home, he met with their father and told him of his plans to move out west to be with his one true love. The two argued, and in the end, their father cut him off. Patrick wasn’t going to be swayed, so he sold his car as well as his other belongings and deposited the checks. When he was ready to make the trip back to Montana, he went to the bank to take out the cash and was jumped shortly after leaving it. He might have resisted. No one knows for sure. All that is sure is that his body was found in an alley, he had fatal stab wounds to his chest, his wallet was missing, and the bank receipt from his withdrawal was in his pocket.”

  “Did the family know about Nana?” Jennifer Anne asked.

  “I don’t know,” I answered. I looked at Tony. He shook his head and informed us that Gwendolyn hadn’t said one way or the other.

  By the time we arrived at the hotel, we had settled into silence. When I saw how white Elizabeth’s face had become, I began to question whether this trip to Seattle had been a good idea. Whether it was or not, we were committed, so I plastered a smile on my face and took Elizabeth by the arm. Jennifer Anne took her other arm and the three of us followed Tony, who walked ahead to open doors, inside.

  “Gwendolyn?” I asked a well-dressed woman who was waiting in the reception area for us.

  When the woman looked up and her mouth dropped open, I knew.

  “You look just like him.” Gwendolyn stood up. She wrapped her arms around Jennifer Anne.

  Jennifer Anne looked shocked at first; then she released her hold on her grandmother and hugged the woman back.

  Gwendolyn took a step back. She placed a hand on Jennifer Anne’s cheek. “You have his eyes. And his smile.”

  Jennifer Anne turned toward her grandmother. “Nana has been telling me that since I was a little girl.”

  Gwendolyn turned to Elizabeth. “You must be the woman who won Patrick’s heart.”

  “Nana has had a stroke and cannot speak well,” Jennifer Anne said.

  “Of course,” Gwendolyn said. She took Elizabeth by the arm. “Let’s have a chat, however we manage to get that accomplished.”

  Tony and I sat back as Gwendolyn, Jennifer Anne, and Elizabeth got to know one another. Patrick never had told his sister the name of the woman he had fallen in love with, or any way to help identify her. All he’d told her was that he’d met the other half of his heart and planned to build a life with her, following the dreams they had developed together rather than the plans that had been handed to him. He’d been sorry about the rift in his relationship with his father, but in the end, he’d realized that a clean break was the only way.

  Gwendolyn had always wondered about the woman Patrick had planned to marry. All she knew was that he’d planned to return to Montana, but Montana was a big place, and without more information, she had no way of contacting Patrick’s one true love about his death. He hadn’t mentioned the pregnancy, but Elizabeth assured Gwendolyn that he hadn’t known about it.

  By the time they had to head back to the airport, Gwendolyn had arranged to come to Montana for a long visit with her newly found great-niece once her book tour was over. It was a teary but happy farewell before we got back into the rental car.

  “Thank you so very much,” Jennifer Anne said to Tony and me as we flew home. Elizabeth was sound asleep. “I can’t tell you how much this means to both Nana and me. To think that I’ve had this other family out there all this time.”

  “Other than Gwendolyn, are there other relatives you hope to get to know?” I asked.

  “Gwen has children and grandchildren. She assured me that they will all be thrilled to meet me. Patrick’s parents are dead, but he had another sibling in addition to Gwen, a younger brother who is still alive. Gwen is going to arrange a family reunion of some sort in the near future.” Jennifer Anne glanced fondly at her grandmother. “I know this has been a lot for her to take in, but I think that she has found solace in her grief over losing Patrick now that she knows he meant to return to her and has met his sister.”

  “Do you think that your annual trips to the bench in the park on Saint Patrick’s Day will come to
an end?”

  “Probably not,” Jennifer Anne answered. “Nana gave up on the idea that Patrick would show up a very long time ago. I think the trips were more of a way to remember what they’d shared. If I have to guess, as long as she has breath, she will make the trip.”

  I had a feeling Jennifer Anne was right. Not all the mysteries Tony and I tackled had a happy ending, but it felt to me as if this one had ended about as well as it could have.

  Chapter 11

  Monday, March 25

  Monday started off with a bang when Mike stumbled over a clue in the murder investigation that seemed to put a whole new spin on things.

  “Let me get this straight,” I said. “The sample from subject K was a clump of hair with follicles intact that have been linked to the murder of a teenage girl that occurred more than twenty years ago?”

  “Yes. I’m not sure how Brick got the information required to access the evidence found in the cold case, but the DNA profile for subject K was provided by him, and he then asked the lab to compare the other four samples to the profile provided.”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Brick knew the murdered girl.”

  “It was his sister. Darlene Brannigan was murdered in 1997. She was just sixteen at the time. The medical examiner found a clump of hair clutched in her hand. It was not hers and was assumed to have belonged to the killer, but a match was never found. The police in Iowa, where she lived, initiated a massive manhunt, but none of the leads they picked up panned out, and eventually, the case went cold. Obviously, Brick never gave up his search for his sister’s killer. Given the fact that there were four DNA samples that he wanted tested against the original, he must have narrowed it down to four suspects. It looks as if whoever provided sample L was the killer.”

  “So how do we figure out who the samples belonged to?” I asked Mike.

  “I have no idea, but if I were to guess, figuring out the answer to that question will provide us with the answer not only to who killed Darlene Brannigan but who killed Brick.”

  “Do either of the other samples match DNA in the law enforcement database?”

  “I’m working on it,” Mike answered. “Even if the individuals who provided the other samples aren’t the person Brick was looking for, knowing that they were suspects could provide us with a clue as to who the fourth individual tested might have been.”

  “Yeah, I get that. Maybe all four were friends, or they all attended the same party, or they all lived in the town where the murder occurred. I need to get going on my route, but if you need help, or if you come up with new clues, call me right away. Tony is at home working on a video game he is creating with Shaggy, but I’m sure he’d be willing to help out as well. He may not answer the house phone if he is down in the clean room, but you can always email him or send him a message.”

  “When you get back to the post office at the end of the day, maybe you could ask around about the box Brick somehow took possession of even though it wasn’t officially delivered. I’m not sure it is even important at this point, but the box was postmarked from Iowa, which is where Brick’s sister was murdered, and that was also the state from which the hand-addressed letter we can’t find was sent. I figure whatever was in the box could provide a clue, and someone must know something despite the fact that no one will admit to giving it to him.”

  “I’ll ask around. I’m sure whoever gave the box to Brick just doesn’t want to get in trouble for not following protocol.”

  I thought about the fact that Brick’s sister had been murdered as I went about my route. I’d known the guy for a lot of years, but nothing that he had ever said had led me to believe he’d been living with something so horrible in his past. I supposed that murdered sisters weren’t something that would come up in everyday conversation, and our relationship had been more of a casual one than a close friendship. But still…

  I thought about the locals Brick had been close with. People he might have confided in. Brick seemed to know a lot of people, and there was a whole group who hung out at the bar on a regular basis, but I couldn’t think of anyone I would say was a close-enough friend he might have confided in. Brick did have a full-time bartender named Rodney, who I supposed he might have told things to. They spent one-on-one time together while they cleaned up after closing or setting up before opening. I supposed Rodney would be as good a person as any to start with. The bar had been closed since the murder, but I knew that Rodney could be found almost every weekday afternoon at the bowling alley, where he worked as a lane mechanic. The bowling alley wasn’t on my route, but I figured if I made good time, I could stop by during my lunch hour, which would need to be a half hour today with all the distractions I’d already had.

  “Okay, Tilly, we need to make up some time, so we are in and out. No stopping to chat.”

  Tilly barked her agreement. I put my head down, grabbed the next stack of mail, and headed into Pete’s Pets with a drop-and-run on my mind.

  “Hey, Tess, Tilly,” Pete said.

  “Morning, Pete. I’m in a rush today, so I can’t stop to chat. Have a good rest of your day.”

  “Thanks; you too.”

  “One down and a whole block to go,” I mumbled as I headed into Cartwright’s Furniture. Fortunately, Mrs. Cartwright was on the phone when I came in, which allowed me to zip in and out with no more than a friendly smile. The flower shop never really took long because the owner wasn’t much of a talker, and there was a line at the ice cream store, thanks to the good weather. I was zipping right along, making up time, when I came to Hap’s place. I always stopped to chat with him and couldn’t quite bring myself to execute the drop-and-run there, so I plastered on a smile and prepared for a very brief conversation.

  “Morning, Hap.”

  “Tess, Tilly. I hoped I’d be free when you came in. Any news about Brick’s murder?”

  “Mike is working on it.” I placed his mail on the counter. “I know that you chatted with Brick from time to time. I wonder if you knew of anyone he was particularly close to? Anyone he might share stories about his past with, or confide in about his actions in the present?”

  “Someone who might know if he had something going on in his life that would have gotten him killed?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Do you know Luke Warner from Warner Construction?”

  I nodded. “I know who he is. I can’t say I know him well.”

  “Luke and Brick went fishing sometimes, and Luke hung out at the bar pretty often. I can’t say for sure that they shared secrets, but both of them were single, and it seems to me that they hung out about as often as I saw Brick with anyone else.”

  I thought about Luke. I knew he’d moved to White Eagle a few years back. Initially, he’d worked for a longtime local who had been putting up buildings in the area for decades, but eventually, he set out on his own, and it seemed he was doing pretty well. “Do you happen to know how Brick and Luke knew each other?” I supposed they could have just met at the bar, but it didn’t hurt to ask if there was a more specific connection.

  “Brick told me he knew him from Iowa.”

  “Iowa?”

  “That’s where Brick was originally from. He mentioned being raised on a farm in some little town I don’t remember the name of. When he was a teenager, his parents divorced, and he divided his time between his father’s farm in Iowa and his mother’s place here in Montana.”

  “So Brick knew Luke when they were kids?”

  Hap nodded. “From what I remember Brick telling me.”

  “Do you know how Brick ended up here in White Eagle?”

  Hap shook his head. “Not exactly. Brick mentioned that his mother moved to Missoula after the divorce, so I imagine he might have visited here during that time. I also seem to remember that he lived in Spokane for a while. Spokane isn’t all that far away. He might have come to White Eagle to fish or ski. It seems to me that he moved here about fifteen years ago. I don’t know if there was a compe
lling reason for him to do so, or if he just liked the place.”

  “Did Brick ever talk about his family, other than that his parents were divorced?”

  Hap shook his head. “Not really. I guess he had a sister, but he said she died when she was a teenager. It seemed to be a sensitive subject with him, so I didn’t pry.”

  “Thanks, Hap. I’m not sure if Mike is on to something or not, but every little piece of information we are able to dig up seems to help put things together.”

  “Guess that’s the way it works. You just keep collecting pieces until you have an answer to the whole puzzle.”

  By the time I finished the east side of Main it was lunch time, so I returned to my Jeep and drove to the bowling alley, where I hoped to find Rodney. If he didn’t have the answers I was looking for, I’d try to track down Luke after I’d completed my route for the day.

  The bowling alley was small, with just eight lanes. When I didn’t see Rodney right away, I assumed he wasn’t there, but I’d come all this way, so I figured I’d ask. “Rodney around?”

  “In the break room.”

  “I need to talk to him. Is it okay if I go back?”

  The man shrugged. “Sure. Whatever.”

  I thanked him and headed down the short hallway to the room where the employees took their breaks and the lockers for the serious bowlers were kept.

  “Hey, Rodney.”

  “Tess. What are you doing here?”

  “I was in the area and decided to stop in to see how you were doing. I know you and Brick were tight.”

  “Were being the operative word.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say.

  Rodney went on, saving me the effort of having to come up with a way to phrase my next question. “I guess you heard that Brick fired Dover.”

  “Yes, I had heard.”

  “Brick said he stole from him, but I know he didn’t. I have no idea what had gotten into Brick, but I do know that at the end, he seemed to have totally lost it.”