“It did. There’s no residual bad karma that I can tell.” That’s when it occurred to her. “Is that why you’ve stayed out here in the yard? You can’t come into the house?”
“Observant, aren’t you?”
“So the protection ritual works on you, too? I didn’t realize. It wasn’t intentional.”
“I know that. It’s your new beginning though.”
“Did Layne and Brooke get a new beginning?”
“Why do you want to know so badly? Maybe it’s better if you let it go.”
“I can’t do that anymore than Ryder can let go of his obsession with Bethany. There’s something about those boxes we found that don’t make sense. First, why would a child go to such bother to let go of their personal possessions. Some of those baseball cards were quite valuable. Layne and his father owned a baseball card store, which is the major reason I keep coming back full circle to the Jennings children. Caleb was too young to attend school. Drea would have no interest in collecting sports cards. That leaves Cooper, the oldest.”
“You want to find him?”
“I want to do more than that. I want to talk to him. But Brent has pretty much quashed my interfering. So much that I don’t want to make an issue of it.”
“Then follow your instincts.”
“Is that your way of telling me I’m on the right track with Cooper?”
“Eleanor had a warped sense of entitlement.”
“What I can’t figure out is why hide those little boxes all over the school?”
“Maybe it’s the only place he felt sure they’d be found.”
“If that’s the case, we really let someone down then, didn’t we?”
Chapter Nineteen
The next day Ethan picked up his tool belt to help his brother Brent knock out a wall inside the house that used to belong to Kent Springer Realty.
The new police station was taking shape slowly. Lilly Pierce had already started work on the wooden sign for the building. With help from Troy it would be a simple blue and white design with the words: “City of Pelican Pointe Police Department” etched on it. Above that, a series of lines signifying waves.
“You couldn’t find anyone else to help you do the work this early?”
“Every available man is getting the school ready. We’re already at the end of May with ninety days left to go. I believe Logan and Ryder are feeling the heat more than anyone else.”
Brent looked around at the new digs. “I want this place up and running within a week so people will stop dropping by my house without so much as a phone call. River’s about to get fed up and move out. Last night was the final straw.”
“Don’t tell me some drunk showed up?”
“Yes and no. All hell broke loose over at McCready’s. It seems Archer Gates stumbled into the wrong bathroom, was standing there peeing when Joy Sullivan walked into the ladies’ room. Flynn drags him out of there, out of the bar, across the street and up my steps at midnight. Archer’s blind drunk so Flynn asks me to drive him home.”
Ethan snorted with a shake of his head. “Prissie’s boy? Archer always did like his whiskey.”
“That boy is forty-two-years old with a major drinking problem. He could use an intervention.”
“What did you tell Archer?”
“That I planned to tell his mama he was out drinking again just as soon as I got him home. That seemed to sober him enough to get in my truck.”
“You know the old joke. You’re the police chief in a small town when you hold the most powerful threat of all over a grown man’s head. You’re gonna tell his mama on him.”
Brent laughed so hard he almost dropped his drill. “So very true.”
“Do you miss Santa Cruz?”
“Not a bit. Surprisingly, I like it here. And most days, when people aren’t banging on our door, so does River.”
“If you honestly think that getting an official police station will prevent folks from knocking on your door in the middle of the night, you’re delusional. When I was in that house, it happened to me all the damn time. The only way to prevent it from happening less frequently is to buy another house.”
“But I don’t want to move.”
“Then Mr. Chief of Police you’ll have to think up something else.”
While Ryder spent his Sunday morning at the farm doing chores, Julianne hung pictures on the wall, unwrapped knickknacks and finished her unpacking. When she grew tired of putting away dishes and setting the kitchen right, she drove the van over to Murphy’s Market and loaded up on groceries to the tune of a hundred dollars’ worth of food.
After putting away meat, bread, and canned goods, she stepped outside to the backyard. The flagstone patio her dad had installed made the backyard a real showplace. Her little ice cream set looked great out here but Bree’s party would surely mean that down the road she’d need to add more chairs out here for more guests.
The bank of flowers Landon and Shelby had added—tall birds of paradise dotted with gold and pink hibiscus—lined the edge of the stone. Even though it was a start, she’d want to build on the landscaping once she could afford the cost. Maybe next fall.
Watching the leaves of the summer maple sway in the breeze, she saw Scott come walking through the jungle of plants behind the property that was the garden center.
“Promise me something, will you?” she asked Scott.
“What?”
“Don’t ever stop doing that.”
“Walking into your backyard?”
“Yep. No matter what happens, make sure you always come by this house for a chat.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. I love it here. Who knew I’d ever own a house where my yard is haunted? What do you do for Halloween?”
“Ha. Ha. Very funny.”
“Just saying. If you could rattle a few chains…”
“That’s a stereotype. Do you see any chains?”
“No, but it’s never too early to get your ‘Marley’ on.”
Later, she put a pot roast in the oven for dinner, peeled potatoes and carrots to go in the pan. She called her dad and invited him to supper on Monday.
When Ryder walked through the front door, smelling like farm and man, she greeted him with nothing on but a smile.
His mouth dropped open. “You know, I almost brought Marty home for dinner tonight.”
She tilted her head with a coy smile. “Hmm, from now on, it might be better to call first.”
“I see that,” he said, wrapping her up in his arms. “I need a shower. I smell like cows.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. Any objections to taking care of that detail before dinner?”
His mouth had gone dry at the sight of her. “I’m having trouble thinking at the moment.”
“Good,” she said, taking his hand and leading him up the stairs. “For what I have in mind we don’t have to say another word.”
That night as they took a walk on the beach, Ryder spotted an older model blue Nissan van with peeling paint, parked near the pier.
“That’s strange. That vehicle wasn’t here earlier.”
“I don’t remember seeing it when we set out on our walk either, which means it hasn’t been here that long.” As if reading his thoughts, Julianne squeezed his hand. “You’re on edge. I doubt Bethany would be driving a car like that one.”
Ryder approached the driver’s side, realized an unshaven man sat slumped behind the wheel. On closer inspection, he saw a woman in the passenger seat in the same pose. In the backseat, he could make out a couple of small heads buckled in child car seats. There were boxes packed in the back along with visible toys and household furnishings. Ryder relaxed his demeanor. It was obvious a family of four had found a place to sleep for the night. He tried to backtrack out of the driver’s line of vision but the guy came fully awake.
The look of sheer terror on the man’s face indicated to Ryder the stranger thought he’d done something wrong and feared trouble. Instead of leaving it a
t that and walking away, Ryder decided to take an approach Scott might approve. “Are you guys okay?”
The man rolled down the window. “I didn’t realize we were breaking any laws by parking here. We just needed a place to sleep without getting hassled.”
“Are you visiting the area?”
“Just passin’ through, mister. I lost my job six months back, couple months ago we lost our apartment, been on the move ever since.” The man extended a hand. “The name’s Gavin Kendall.” He bobbed his head toward his now-awake passenger. “And this is my wife, Maggie.”
Ryder shook the man’s hand, noting the guy couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, the wife, a couple years younger. “You don’t have a place to live?”
Kendall shook his head. “We don’t.”
“Where were you headed?”
“We usually just stay on the move. Sometimes we hang out at the library if the town has one. You guys don’t.”
“What type of work do you do?”
“Are you kidding? I’ll do any job you got.”
From a few feet away Julianne had been eyeing the sleeping boy and girl in the backseat. She’d guess they were preschool age, maybe three and four years old. All at once an idea hit her. Stepping up to Ryder’s side, she introduced herself to the parents. “I’ll be the new principal at the school in the fall. Ryder, there’s always plenty of work to do out on the farm, don’t you think?”
“More than. Would you be willing to do farm work?”
“I’ll scrub toilets if that’s what it takes to feed my wife and kids.”
“Great. But I need to get an okay from one of the bosses before I make any offers. Knowing Cord and Nick, I don’t think there’ll be a problem.”
Ryder turned to Julianne. “There’s a little cottage just sitting empty on the place. It’s where the original caretakers used to live. They could stay there for a while.”
She took out her cell phone. “Any objections to my calling Nick now?”
“This late?”
“I don’t see letting these kids spend another night trying to sleep while buckled into their car seats, do you?”
“Good point.”
As the Nissan van followed them out to the farm, Ryder wanted to know what Nick had said.
“That if the couple has kids we shouldn’t waste time getting them out of the car and into a place with a real roof over their heads. So I figure we all take a chance on the adults, hope they don’t steal you blind at the first opportunity they get.”
Taking his eyes off the road for a second, Ryder spared a glance at her. “The teacher who emits sunshine wherever she goes has doubts about the family behind us?”
“Why does everyone think a teacher is Miss Perfect? I’m not. In my profession I see deceit all the time. I’m surrounded by it. Kids who tell me the hamster chewed up their homework. Little round cherub faces that stand in front of me and swear they left their reader at the vet’s office where they had to take their dog after it got hit by a car. I’ve been lied to by parents. Little Joanie would never pull out another little girl’s hair. Little Johnny would never shake down other boys in the bathroom.”
He busted out laughing. “You lead a hard life, Ms. Dickinson.”
“Don’t I know it,” she commiserated. “So just because Gavin Kendall says he’ll work at the farm, doesn’t mean I trust him to do it.”
“Don’t worry, Sam and Silas run a pretty tight ship, they’ll keep an eye out for any red flags.”
While Ryder and Julianne wondered whether or not they could trust the Kendalls, Gavin and Maggie were wondering the same thing about the couple in the car up ahead.
Driving off into the middle of the night behind a strange truck, the pair, whose luck had been awful lately, had a hard time believing someone could befriend them by letting them sleep in an actual house.
“Maybe it’s a trick. What if they’re leading us out into the countryside in the dark to slit our throats and take everything we own?” Maggie said, alarm rising in her voice.
“The woman claimed to be a principal. She looked trustworthy enough.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
“True. I tell you what, if we get out here and there’s no farm, I’ll step on the gas and high-tail it out of there. How’s that sound?”
Maggie blew out a nervous breath. “Okay. But that could be too late. Just in case, I’m digging out the craft scissors I carry in my handbag for emergencies.”
“I hate to tell you but those won’t do much damage. I have my pocket knife though.”
“That’s something, I guess.”
When Gavin spotted the Taggert Farms sign, his jaw dropped. “Isn’t that the kind of milk we used to buy for the kids?”
“It sure is. Do you really think these people are on the level?”
“We can only hope. God knows, it’s about time our luck changed.”
Getting the Kendall family settled into the caretaker’s cottage—a box of a house painted bright cheery red with white trim—turned out to be a treat for Julianne and Ryder. Watching Maggie and Gavin with their kids, the care they took to get them out of their seats and then bundle the boy and girl up to their shoulders—went a long way to dissipate the skittishness. Maybe it worked on two fronts. Both sides seemed to relax with each other.
“This is a real farm,” Gavin said to Ryder. “You weren’t scamming us.”
Ryder chuckled realizing the young father had been just as nervous as he’d been. “Nope, it’s quite an operation.”
“Why the house is as cute as a button,” Maggie noted with the still-sleeping little girl hugged up to her chest.
Ryder led the way up to the porch, opened the door, flicked on the light. “The electricity’s on, but no one’s lived here since a friend of mine found his own apartment. Because of that I can’t guarantee how many layers of dust there is on everything.”
“That’s okay. We can get it clean,” Maggie said eagerly.
“There are only two bedrooms but it has a large, fully functional kitchen at the back and a working fireplace in the living room,” Ryder went on. “You’ll find sheets in the linen closet. Blankets should already be on the beds.”
“Are you sure our staying here is okay with the owner?” Gavin wanted to know. “This isn’t what we expected.”
“Positive,” Julianne assured him. “We called him and he didn’t hesitate. As Ryder told you already the place has been sitting here gathering dust. Now let’s go into the kitchen and see if there’s anything on hand to eat for breakfast.”
As soon as the light came on, Maggie let out a gasp behind her. “Oh, this is precious. Look at the size of this kitchen, Gavin. It’s truly beautiful.”
“I… We don’t know what to say.”
“Except thank you,” Maggie said her voice beginning to tremble.
Julianne went to the fridge, which was empty except for a bottle of ketchup and a jar of mustard. She opened the door to the pantry, frowned. “There’s cereal but no milk, canned goods but not much else. Tomorrow’s Memorial Day and Murphy’s Market will be closed. Ryder and I will bring you over some supplies from his place to get you going until Tuesday morning. Right now, settle in and get a good night’s sleep. Be sure to come back into town for the fireworks tomorrow night. The kids will get a kick out of them.”
She’d no sooner got the words out of her mouth when Maggie broke down in sobs and rested her head on her daughter’s. “Thank you. Thank you so much. We’ll work to stay here. Both of us will.”
Gavin reached out for his wife’s hand despite the little boy snugged in his arms. “For… How long? How long do we get to stay?”
“Do you know anything about milking cows?”
“Not a thing. But that don’t mean I can’t learn. I normally work as a machinist, done some construction work, too. I’m good with my hands.”
“Okay. Then you’ll start work on Tuesday.”
“I’ll start tomorrow if it’s all th
e same to you,” Gavin insisted.
“Will filling out an application on Tuesday pose a problem for either one of you?”
“No, not a bit.”
“Okay, then get a good night’s sleep. There’s enough work on a farm to keep you both here until you get ready to move on.”
“Mister, whatever job you got, we’ll do it.”
Ryder slapped Gavin on the back. “Get your kids to bed and we’ll talk tomorrow.”
Once back in the truck, Julianne sat in the passenger seat, met Ryder’s eyes. “Is it just me or did that feel good? Really good.”
“If anyone had told me six months ago I’d be helping out a homeless family I wouldn’t have believed them. I was pretty self-absorbed with my own troubles. I’m beginning to realize how Scott feels about this town and why Nick and Jordan encourage people to settle here.”
Caught up in a pleased state of excitement, she rolled on, “Do you realize those children might be my future students? I hope the cynical side of me doesn’t rear its ugly head again because Gavin and Maggie seem like nice people.”
“With a ton of rotten luck. Let’s go get them the food we promised.”
The next morning, Julianne decided on the spur-of-the-moment to hold a barbecue on the front lawn. She used two sawhorses with a sheet of plywood leftover from the renovation to set up for her outside table, covered it with a bright blue sheet. She made phone calls to friends letting them know her plans and told them to pass it on.
“I can’t think of a better way to thank everyone for all the hard work they’ve done to get me here,” she told anyone who thought she’d lost too many brain cells for having such an event on short notice.
“The only problem we might have is running out of food. I didn’t really put too much planning into this.”
When Perry Altman got wind of her worries, he had hamburger meat delivered to her doorstep along with his own special batch of coleslaw with a note that read: This should feed another fifty people.
By noon word had spread. By two people began to drift into the yard. Not a massive crowd because most had already made their own plans with family and friends. But the small group who did show up included kids running around and old-timers who set up posts to play horseshoes.
Last Chance Harbor Page 25