Harlequin Superromance November 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2
Page 80
“Be that he?” Heather put a hand over her heart. With her other hand, she took the stack of pictures Mia offered.
She scrutinized each one. “Yes. Yes. I can see it.”
Mia wondered what she saw.
When Heather came to the picture of the flag she leaped up and waved the picture of the coat of arms.
“Where did you get this? You have no right to this.”
She shoved Daniel’s pouch back at him and grabbed the bag with the buttons and took off down the street with the photos clutched in her hand.
“Okay, that was odd.”
“Heather, wait,” Daniel called after her but she marched on.
“Why do you suppose she got so angry over the photo of the coat of arms?” Mia asked.
“I would guess she has one like it. For so long people have been ignoring or denying the claims of the Lochs.” He turned toward Mia with an eager smile.
“What? You have that fanatical anthropologist look.”
He held up his fist, turned his hand over and opened his fingers. A button sat perched on the palm of his hand.
“You stole one of her buttons?”
“I borrowed it, so I’m sure she’ll at least open the door when I follow her to the museum.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” she asked.
“If you would police the crowd in your building. I think I can get Heather to let me borrow the button.”
“She likes you Daniel.” She touched his cheek. “We all like you.”
Back inside the building they were all gone, or it seemed that way until she heard footsteps and voices upstairs, and after a minute, downstairs.
The four women came down from upstairs laughing.
“This is such a great adventure, Ms. Parker,” one of the women said. “We’ve each picked out our rooms, so we hope you get the bed-and-breakfast up and running quickly.”
Dr. Donovan returned just then with the Owens and the students in tow.
He pulled Mia aside. “Dr. MacCarey seems to be right about there being nothing more here to explore, but it would be a shame to have the remodeling process destroy anything more. I’m sure you understand that there needs to be a further investigation of the whole building.”
“There is no treasure here, Dr. Donovan.”
He didn’t do a fake shocked look very well. “The history of Maine’s early days may be at stake here.”
“My livelihood is already at stake. I need to get work restarted now.”
“Soon. I think we can get things restarted here soon.”
“Soon was last week, Dr. Donovan, and a week more is disastrous for this project.”
“Ms. Parker. I have the authority of the state to take this building away from you if I see fit.”
“Excuse me, Dr. Donovan.” Mrs. Owen put a hand on Dr. Donovan’s arm. “My husband and I need to leave, but we’d like to speak with you first.”
“I’ll be right with you. Ms. Parker, it was nice to see you again,” Dr. Donovan said.
With that, he turned and followed the Owens outside. Shortly after, the rest of the crowd filed out. The students jumped into the short dark-haired student’s beater of a car and chuffed off down the street.
Alone once again, Mia took a seat outside on the bench with a view of the harbor. Birds flew overhead, sunlight sparkled off the water, children laughed in the park just up the street and cars passed by her. No matter what happened to her, where she ended up, she would never forget the view of life from this old bench.
Last night she had gone over every possible source of money available to her. Even if she drained her retirement account to the bottom and charged every credit card to the max, she couldn’t hold off the bill collectors for long.
The only thing left to do was to get the prep work done by Monday morning so Markham could get his people there.
If the university wanted to take her to court, the worst that could happen was they would force her into bankruptcy sooner. A nice quiet jail cell was starting to sound good to her right now.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and Mr. Markham himself answered. “Mia Parker here. You can start work on Pirate’s Roost on Monday.”
When she pocketed her phone, she gulped down a couple of sharp breaths. She knew she was truly skating close to the edge now and when she saw Daniel coming back up the street, she stood to meet him.
He could not be a part of this. He’d lose everything he’d worked so hard to hold on to the past several years.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
Daniel pulled the small plastic bag with the buttons from his pocket. “I was going to give this to the students, but I see they’re gone.”
“What did you say to Heather to get her to go outside with you?”
“I told her I believed her and that I might be able to prove it.”
“Daniel, that was so nice of you. I doubt anyone has ever given her that kind of validation.”
“She’s, as you said, an interesting lady, and she follows a strict set of her own rules.”
A thought occurred to Mia. “You let her keep the ring as collateral.”
“She was only going to go so far with trusting me.”
“She still would not have entrusted those with just anyone. She believes you, too. Does she know you could be her cousin?”
“We’d had enough sharing for one day.”
“Could you prove that with DNA analysis? Or does that come under the ‘would I, could I, should I’ conundrum?”
He stared into her eyes. She was sure the question had come and gone without consideration.
She knew she should at least step away, but she could not. She wanted to stand there forever, bask in his warmth, his scent, crave his touch. “You have to leave Bailey’s Cove, now.”
“I do?” He felt it, too. “I thought I’d read more of the records.”
“I finished them. And I found a couple of fascinating things. Archibald Fletcher bought the doors for the church, and they were installed just before the baptism of his first grandson. My guess, a bribe to the priest. The chief said to thank you for your help.”
He gave her a speculative look. “I also planned to have the students collect the granite pieces, if you’re finished with them.”
“I am.”
“I’ll send them back and I’ll get more pictures for you. Heather insisted on keeping the ones I brought for you.”
“And I’ll keep you posted on how things are going if you like.”
“I’d like that,” he agreed easily.
He leaned in and kissed her on the mouth, a sweet lingering kiss, a reluctant goodbye kiss, an “I’m going away forever” kiss.
She forced her hands to stay at her sides. If she put her arms around his neck, it would be all over for her heart.
He turned and walked toward his car.
“Goodbye,” she whispered into the salty breeze. She would most likely see him again, Dr. Donovan would most likely be arranging that, but she expected to feel less and less for him as time passed. Distance in this case would let the heart settle into a solid routine of beating without breaking.
She thought she heard the little angel on her shoulder sputter out, “Yeah, right.”
* * *
DANIEL FOUND THE STUDENTS back in the lab, each on a computer writing a collaborative report on the site visit while it was still fresh in their minds.
“Today or tomorrow, you need to go back to Bailey’s Cove and collect the granite shards.” He reminded them that these were not pieces of rock but delicate gems and should be treated as such. “And take another set of the four photos.”
They all stood. “Yes, sir.”
Then he took the buttons from his pocket. “Se
e what you can do with these.”
They crowded around.
“Are those the buttons missing from the clothing?”
“You tell me.”
He placed the bag of buttons on the counter and left the three of them giddy with the prospect of solving more mysteries.
He wanted to be that eager about something again, he thought as he bypassed his office and headed straight to his condo.
When he had the information about the buttons, he would tell Mia that Heather Loch had shown him a flag with the same image. A flag she said Liam Bailey flew on his ship.
He didn’t realize why he had gone to his condo until he found himself sitting on the balcony in the sun, drinking orange juice and thinking of Mia Parker.
* * *
MIA CHIPPED AWAY at more of the plaster. To work again felt so good. As soon as Daniel had left, she went home, dressed in her old clothes and came back to restart the demo. The contractor would arrive with his crew on Monday and expected to build out and finish the Roost. It had all seemed so easy when she had three people to help her.
Who was she kidding? It had never been easy.
The day of the crypt discovery, the demo had been about twenty-five percent completed. The wall would be another twenty percent.
The sun had slid down, indicating it was past noon when she looked around behind her. She had been working for several hours. The ladder abandoned outside the building by the intruders had come in handy as Charlie and Rufus had taken theirs back to use on their new jobs.
The Dumpster that had sat out back collecting nothing now had a modest layer of old wallpaper with plaster and some of the lath still stuck to it. Modern insulation mixed with a variety of degraded materials. Mia did not care to think about the abandoned mouse nest on the bottom.
Two fishermen from the bar, Whiss Carmody and Bill Schroeder, moseyed in after work. Before sending them away, she had contemplated asking them for help, but being here meant she was technically breaking the law. She couldn’t let anyone help and thereby break the law for her sake.
As she went out to dump more debris, she realized the sun had set. She supposed she should be hungry, but she had eaten an apple and a yogurt for lunch. That should be good enough for a while longer.
When her phone rang again, she ignored it, three times. She thought she should be tired, but the methodical prying and chipping, pulling of nails and pulling down insulation had almost gotten easy, until as some point she sat down on her bucket and she could not get up.
She rested for a while, stripped her gloves off and pulled her phone from her pocket.
She sighed. 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. Five more days to get this done. She could do it. She had to do it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE SOUND OF her alarm at six o’clock was fully distressing since rolling over and reaching the bedside table seemed out of the realm of possibility.
“Shut up. Shut up.” Clocks did not listen, at least not the one she had. She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and reached for the off button.
Two toaster tarts today, and a yogurt. She’d need her energy. She made a peanut butter sandwich and took it with her.
As she went flying out her door she ran smack into Monique.
“Don’t you even think about it. You don’t answer my phone calls, but you’ll have to knock me to the ground to get around me.”
Mia smiled at her friend. “What’s on your mind so early?”
“Lenny.”
There was a topic Mia didn’t think she should push aside. “Come on in.”
Monique sat at the counter while Mia made a cup of tea for each of them. When they were sitting side by side and her friend had said nothing, just sat there and looked sad, Mia asked, “Are you going to tell me what’s up, or do I have to guess? Oh, wait. I’ll guess. You and Lenny had sex and he disappointed you terribly. Or you found out that if you got married his mother was moving in. Or... Well, I give up.”
“He said he loved me.”
Joy and utter heartbreak swamped Mia at the same time. “And that’s not wonderful?”
“I thought when a guy told me he loved me, fireworks should go off and the world should suddenly seem brighter.”
“Does that mean you don’t love him?”
“I do. That’s the hard part. I do. But when he told me it felt like good old memories and my favorite dessert. No fireworks.”
“Okay.” Mia sipped her tea.
“Don’t you see? He’s better than my favorite dessert.”
“But he’s also old memories. You have so many memories of Lenny. Well, tell me what happened.”
“It was after work last night. He said he’d loved me forever, he just didn’t want to push me.”
“Points in Lenny’s favor, you have to admit. Wait. All those times we thought he was giving us both the eye, it was only you?”
“Sorry, pal, you’re not as attractive as you think.”
Mia laughed. “So was it romantic at least?”
“Oh, as romantic as I could ever want it to be. We watched the moon come up over the ocean. He brought flowers and this.”
Monique put out her arm. Today her wrist was adorned with a sapphire tennis bracelet, Monique’s birthstone.
“The dog. How could he?”
“Don’t tease me. I know. I know.”
“Are you afraid?”
“Of Lenny? No, never.”
“He won’t leave you.”
“It’s not... Maybe it is. Oh, Mia. What should I do?”
Mia put her arm around her friend. “Give it some time. If in say, fifteen, twenty years he’s still hanging in there, maybe you should demand fireworks.”
“He’s waiting to take me to breakfast. Do you want to go with us?”
“I’m going to work.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m doing demo at Pirate’s Roost.”
“That’s great. They gave you an all-clear?”
“Not exactly. I’m just doing it because it has to be done.”
“Does Daniel know?”
“No way. I couldn’t get him into trouble. It’s just me.”
“By yourself?” Monique gave her an exaggerated bug-eyed look.
“I don’t feel right about asking folks to help me. I’m not destroying anything of substance unless a mouse nest counts.”
“Won’t you get into trouble?”
“If I find anything that has any value, I’ll stop or work around it. So far all I’ve found is old building materials and crud.”
“You can’t do all that by yourself. You have both the dining room areas, the kitchen, the hallway between the bathrooms and the kitchen.”
“I have one of the walls in the dining room almost completely finished. The one behind where the counter will be.”
“What about a chef? Any luck on hiring a new one?”
“Pfffff.”
“Translated?”
“I don’t even like to go there. I have a couple leads from the chef who quit. Otherwise I have feelers out at culinary schools.”
“Do you still believe?”
“I still believe Pirate’s Roost will be the best.”
“Sweetie, do you still believe in love?”
“I liked talking chefs better.”
“Rumor has it he was here yesterday with a whole group and you got a good long goodbye kiss.”
“That’s exactly what it was.”
“The M&Ms are being trampled by love. I believe. I believe.” Monique slugged down the rest of her tea, hugged Mia. “Don’t kill yourself working.” She dashed out the door.
Did she still believe? Of course she did. She believed for Monique and Lenny.
Before she could climb the ladder Chief Montcalm came to the door. She let him in. The teens Thompson and O’Connell followed him looking wholly contrite.
The chief stood with his hands together behind his back and looked at the two young men. Mia had an idea of what must be coming and she had to press her lips together to keep from smiling.
They stepped up to her and looked her reluctantly in the eyes. She shifted her gaze between them. “Yes, gentlemen?”
“I’m sorry for sneaking into your place without permission.” First one said it and then the other. Chief Montcalm had coached them well. “I’d like to know if I can come after school and help you,” they chorused and she was impressed.
“I would appreciate your help. I’ll see the two of you as soon as you can get here.” Maybe she could find something for them to do that wouldn’t seem like breaking the law. They could be her luggers.
“Get to school now,” Chief Montcalm said firmly.
They walked politely from the building and then ran for all they were worth.
“Thank you, Chief.”
“I’m sorry to tell you, I do not believe those boys destroyed the crypt.”
“That’s interesting.”
“We have a lead we are working on.”
“Thank you and all the police department for putting a modicum of fear and respect in that pair.”
He tipped his hat to her. “Have a good day, Mia.”
Mia. She smiled. “You too, Chief.”
Alone, Mia put on her gloves and picked up her tools. Halfway up the ladder and she realized this was going to be a long day.
The students from the university came and collected every scrap and tiny chunk of the granite. They left her a batch of shiny photos, including copies of Colleen McClure and Princess Charlotte.
Mia’s muscles had finally loosened up by the time the teens arrived after school. They came with a bag of corn chips and three candy bars. The three of them sat, semi-hiding in case the chief happened by, on the floor in the back room and enjoyed the bribe.
“You know I’m keeping your dad’s ladder—” She pointed back and forth between the two of them until Mickey raised a sheepish hand. “Until I’m completely finished with it.”