Shattered Identity

by Sandra Robbins

  “Are you talking about some of your battle experiences?”

  His forehead wrinkled, and he ground his teeth together for a moment before he answered. “Yes.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  He took a deep breath, and she waited for his response. “Not now…”

  She reached across the table and squeezed his arm. “You’ve helped me so much, Scott. If I can ever do the same for you, I want you to know all you have to do is ask.”

  He stared down at her hand. “I’ll remember,” he whispered. “Some things I’ve never been able to talk about to anybody but God. Maybe I’ll be able to talk about them someday.”

  “You two need anything else?” Treasury’s voice called from the back door.

  Lisa jumped up and gathered their dishes. “No, thanks. You outdid yourself tonight.”

  Treasury grinned and stepped onto the porch. She pulled the bottom hem of her apron up and wiped at the perspiration on her forehead. “Aw, go on now. It wasn’t nothing special.”

  Scott chuckled and followed Lisa to where Treasury stood. He stopped and put an arm around the elderly woman’s stooped shoulders. “Every meal I eat here is special, Treasury.”

  She reached up and patted Scott’s face. “It’s always my pleasure, son.”

  Treasury’s face beamed, and Scott kissed her on the cheek. “You’re the only one who’s ever called me son. It sounds sweet coming from your mouth.”

  Lisa bit down on her lip and hurried past the two into the house. She knew Scott’s sisters loved Treasury like a mother, and now he did, too. Her heart ached with the need to have someone care for her as Treasury did for the Michaels family.

  No one had ever called her their daughter either, but maybe someday they would. If only her mother’s journal would give her a clue where to start looking, she might find her father. Or like Scott, some siblings.

  When she returned minutes later with the diary in her hand, Scott stood in the downstairs hallway. He pointed toward Treasury’s office at the back of the house. “Treasury said we could sit in there. There may be guests in the parlor.”

  She clutched the journal tighter and preceded him into the small room. Lisa had never been in the office before, and she scanned the sparse furnishings. A desk with a computer on it sat facing the door, but it was the couch that caught her attention. A long, padded foam cushion formed the seat of the sturdy wooden frame, and decorative throw pillows graced the back. Pictures of lighthouses up and down the Eastern Seaboard sat on the desk and a table, and what appeared to be an antique barometer hung on the wall.

  Scott closed the door behind them and followed her to the sofa. When they were seated, she leaned back against the pillows and took a deep breath. “I’m almost afraid to look at the journal again.”

  “You don’t have to, you know.”

  “Oh, yes I do if I want to find out who my father is.”

  He reached out and squeezed her hand. “I’m right here with you, Lisa.”

  Her hand shook as she opened to the page she had marked the night before. She thumbed through the next dozen or so pages before she looked up. “Her next entries are short, some just a few sentences. They almost look like they were written in haste.”

  She began to read aloud, and soon her suspicions were proven right. According to the short notations, her mother was having trouble keeping the diary a secret from her mother-in-law, who hovered around her all the time. Most of the hastily jotted messages told of quick meetings with “him” at the lighthouse, which now was their regular meeting place because it had become too dangerous to be seen together. “He,” she wrote, had persuaded a park ranger friend of his to give him a key to the tower so they could meet in secret.

  She turned a page. “Here’s one that’s dated two weeks after I was born.

  “March 30, 1983.

  John left on the boat this morning, and my mother-in-law went to the village. It was the first time I’d been alone since Lisa’s birth. I still can hardly believe the happiness I feel every time I look at her. The door opened, and he walked in. It was the first time he’d seen his daughter, and I’ve never seen so much love on anyone’s face. He held her and kissed her until I was sure her face would be chapped from his lips. He only stayed a few minutes, but it was enough just to see him. He promised that soon we would all be together. Before he left, he gave me a gift—a beautiful, silver-framed hand mirror. It looks as if it might have cost a lot of money at one time, and the diamond-swirled initials E. D. engraved on the back make me suspect the mirror came from the Elena. I didn’t ask because all I care about is that he said he was giving the mother of his child something that would make me think of him when I looked into the mirror.”

  Lisa blinked back tears. “At least it sounds like she and my father, whoever he was, loved me.”

  Scott smiled. “I’m sure they did, Lisa. It’s not your fault that their lives were such a mess.”

  A distant memory tugged at her thoughts, and she frowned. “That mirror he gave her made me remember something.”

  “What?”

  “At night sometimes when I’m lying in bed it’s almost like I can hear a man’s singsong voice crooning. It says, ‘Lisa is a pretty girl.’ When I close my eyes, I can visualize a mirror in front of my face. I wonder if that was my father and if the mirror belonged to Elena.”

  Scott, who’d been leaning against the cushions, sat upright. “Elena? Who is she?”

  “From the stories I’ve heard, her name was Elena Dinwiddie. But I don’t think my mother is referring to the woman. It’s the ship that was named for her.”

  “I’ve never heard of the ship. What do you know about it?”

  Lisa searched her memory for the story she’d heard the islanders talk about all her life. “Back in 1922, during a big storm the remains of a ship washed up on Diamond Shoals. It was the Elena out of Maine. It was on a return voyage from South America with a full cargo hold and a fortune in money for the goods sold down there.” She took a breath. “It took several days for the storm to die down enough so that anybody could board it. When they did, there was no one on board and all the cargo was gone. But they did find a note stuck in a bottle in a cabinet in the galley.”

  “What did it say?”

  “It said that pirates were about to board the ship.”

  Scott’s eyes grew wide. “Was that the truth?”

  Lisa shrugged. “No one ever found out what happened to the Elena. It’s still a mystery today.”

  Scott leaned back. “Wow! Pirates and a ship missing its crew, money and cargo. That sounds like something that might have happened when Blackbeard sailed these waters.”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, but by that time he’d been dead for two hundred years.” She stared back at her mother’s words. “But how would my mother have thought that mirror had come off the Elena? That shipwreck happened over thirty years before she was born.”

  Scott thought for a moment before he jumped up, hurried to Treasury’s computer and sat down in the desk chair. “Hey, why don’t we look up the Elena and see what we can find?”

  Lisa hurried over to stand behind him. “I think they have an exhibit about it over at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum on one of the other islands.”

  Scott typed the name in the search engine and navigated to the site. Lisa leaned over his shoulder and stared at the page that displayed photos of the battered ship on the beach. He pointed to an article at the bottom of the page. “Look at this. It says there are several theories about what really happened aboard the ship. One is that crew members mutinied and divided up all the valuables on board. Then they rowed ashore in lifeboats, leaving the boat to sink. The other one is that rumrunners who actively smuggled liquor along the Eastern Seaboard during the days of Prohibition bo
arded the ship, robbed it, then killed the crew.”

  Lisa walked back to the couch and sank down. Pirates and rumrunners? What possible connection could her mother have to people like that? The cushion next to her dipped, and she knew Scott had eased down beside her.

  “Lisa, what’s the matter?”

  “First I find out my mother was an unfaithful wife. Then I discover she has some connection to thieves and murderers. I think I’ve opened Pandora’s box, Scott. It would have been better if we’d never found that diary.”

  He put his arm around her, and they leaned against the couch’s cushions. A few days ago she’d been filled with excitement that she was about to start a new life somewhere else, but those feelings had vanished in a downpour of violence and heartbreak.

  If it would ease her fears, she would grab the few clothes she had left and board the ferry to the mainland tomorrow. But that wouldn’t help. Her unknown assailant might follow her. Then what would she do? In another place, there would be no one who cared enough to help her. At least here she had a strong support system.

  Leaving would have to come later. For now there were too many unanswered questions. Two unknown identities tied her to this island. One belonged to her biological father and the other to a killer. The revelation about her father had taken away the name she loved. The other person wanted to take her life. She couldn’t leave until she discovered the names of both.

  NINE

  The thoughts that had kept her awake half the night drummed in her head the next morning as she sat at her desk. Across the room Deputy Lewis glanced at his watch every few minutes. With a reputation as one of the most aggressive lawmen in the county, he had to hate his assignment of playing nursemaid to a police dispatcher. Thanks to Brock and Scott, however, Sheriff Baxter had agreed she needed someone with her at all times.

  She smiled in his direction. “Have you heard from Deputy Clark this morning?”

  He glanced up from his paperwork and nodded. “I called in while I was on the ferry. They said at the station he’d had a good night and might get to go home today.”

  “That’s good.” At least Deputy Clark survived. Her heart still ached for Wayne Simms and his family. She stared into space. “They’re having a memorial service today for Wayne at the church he attended in Greenville when he was growing up.”

  “I heard one of the ferry workers talking about that. They said his wife was really taking his death hard,” Deputy Lewis mumbled.

  Lisa glanced at him and winced. He looked absorbed in the papers before him and probably didn’t have a clue that his brief reply had pierced her heart. He couldn’t know that she blamed herself for Wayne’s death. It would have been better if she’d run into that house ahead of him to answer the phone. At least she wouldn’t have this terrible guilt.

  The front door opened and jerked her thoughts back to the present. Travis Fleming strode in and headed toward her desk. She hadn’t seen the island’s most successful businessman in weeks. Travis might be in his mid-forties, but he looked years younger. He pulled his Oakley sunglasses off and propped them on his head.

  “Good morning, Travis. What brings you to the sheriff’s office today? I hope you don’t need help from the police.”

  A frown wrinkled his brow. “I was on my way over to the marina to meet your cousin, who’s bringing one of my charter fishing boats back from the mainland this morning, and thought of you when I drove by the station. I thought I’d take a few minutes to stop in and let you know how sorry I am about all the problems you’ve had.”

  “Thank you, Travis. It’s good to know I have friends who care.” Deputy Lewis had glanced up when Travis first entered but now appeared to be ignoring them. Lisa balled her fists and pushed to her feet. Jason Lewis might not care how she felt, but there were still people like Travis who did. She needed to remember that. “I appreciate you stopping by more than I can ever tell you.”

  He stuck his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “I can’t believe there’s someone on this island who would be malicious enough to break into your house and then try to kill you, according to Grady, by blowing up your house.”

  She sighed at the mention of Grady Teach. “There are no secrets when Grady gets involved.”

  He chuckled. “You’re right about that.” He frowned again. “Is there anything I can do to help you? If you need money for anything, I hope you know you can come to me.”

  Suddenly a thought struck her. “Do you have time to talk to me for a minute or two?”

  He glanced at his watch and nodded. “It should be another fifteen minutes or so before Jeff gets to the dock.”

  “Deputy Lewis, will you cover my desk for a few minutes?” she called over her shoulder as she led Travis to the break room. They settled on the couch, and she took a deep breath. “Did you know my f-father worked on one of your father’s boats when I was born?” She couldn’t believe how hard it was to refer to the man she’d always believed to be her father.

  His forehead furrowed as if in thought. “I may have heard that at one time, but I really don’t remember. How long ago was it when your father died?”

  “Nineteen eighty-six.”

  “I was in school at the University of North Carolina then. I really didn’t know a lot about my father’s business. My grandfather was still active in it at that time. Why do you ask?”

  “I was only three when both my parents died, and I want to know more about them. I know your father lives on the mainland now, but I wondered if he could tell me anything about my father.”

  He shook his head regretfully. “I’m afraid not. I moved him to what I told everyone was a retirement home some years ago. That’s true, except that it’s a facility that specializes in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.”

  “Oh, Travis. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  He took a deep breath. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but somehow I didn’t want the people who’d always thought him to be such an active man to know what his life is like today.”

  “I understand.”

  His eyes lit up. “But maybe I could find something in the business records about your father and the boating accident.”

  “That would be great.”

  He glanced down at his clasped hands and then back up at her. “I read in the newspaper about your mother’s diary. Does your interest in your father have something to do with that?”

  “I suppose it does. Like I said—I need to know more about my parents.”

  He exhaled and stood. “Well, I can understand that. I’ll see what I can find out.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a business card. “In the meantime, here’s my card. My cell phone number is on there. If you need anything, Lisa, give me a call.”

  “I will.”

  She walked with him to the front door and smiled as he walked out. There really was no other place like Ocracoke. Here neighbors helped each other and cared what went on in their lives. She probably would never find that again.

  Scott’s face appeared in her mind’s eye. She wouldn’t find anyone else like Scott either. Her heart fluttered at the thought that she’d be with him again tonight for Treasury’s birthday party. It would give her a chance to observe him surrounded by the sisters who had searched for him, and would also let her see how he had adjusted to life in the house where he now lived with two of his sisters. She wanted to see how families should love each other.

  Her face grew warm, and she pressed her hands to her cheeks. What was she thinking? The love that the Michaels family had for each other wasn’t something she was ever going to experience. Secrets from the past had insured that. She needed to put some distance between her and Scott before she began to wish for things that could never be. But until the killer was caught, she wouldn’t be able to do that.

 
Scott stacked the dessert plates containing the remains of Treasury’s birthday cake and followed Betsy into the kitchen. With the last present opened and dessert served, a comfortable peace had settled inside him and he smiled.

  “What are you smiling about?”

  He stopped beside Betsy at the sink and handed her the dishes. “I was just thinking how good it feels to be here with all of you. I don’t ever remember celebrating anybody’s birthday like this.”

  She set the dishes in the sink and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. “Didn’t your aunt make a big deal of your birthday when you were little?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Just another day, she’d say. I don’t think she ever gave me a present. Of course, she bought me stuff all the time, like clothes and school supplies. But somehow it never seemed right.” He sighed. “Even when I was little, I knew I didn’t belong with her, but I didn’t know where I was supposed to be.”

  She leaned with her hip against the sink and bit her bottom lip. “I say this all the time, but I’m really so sorry about all you missed out on with us.”

  He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Me, too, but we’re making up for it now, aren’t we?”

  She smiled and nodded. “We are indeed, especially since you’ve moved in with Emma and me. I wanted Kate and Brock to have a place of their own, but I wanted to keep this house. It makes it perfect having you here now.”

  “I love it, too. But then, I like everything about the island.”

  At that moment, Lisa’s laughter rang out from the direction of the living room, and Scott glanced over his shoulder. When he turned back, a mischievous grin pulled at Betsy’s mouth. “So, you’re loving everything about the island? I thought it might be a special someone who has made you seem happier for the past week.”