by Joyce Lavene
“It was good, except for the murder investigation. I tried to take a few clues from what you’d said about Captain Lucky needing money to get out of town.” He sighed as he sat down with his warmed up fish stew. “Tuck and I paid a few visits to all the local people who loan money or keep some big poker games going. We figured maybe Captain Lucky owed some money to one of them. None of them knew him. Are you sure that’s what he told you?”
I sat at the table with him. “That’s what he said. I’m sorry you didn’t get a lead from that, but maybe it’s someone on the mainland. Wouldn’t it be odd that Captain Lucky ran a gambling ship and didn’t do his gambling right there?”
Gramps shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t want to do it at home, so to speak.”
I stopped him before he took his first bite of stew. “We’re going out to dinner around six with some friends of Mary Catherine’s. I thought you might want to go.”
“It would look bad for the chief of police to be out eating dinner when he hasn’t figured out who killed a popular figure in the community. I’m just grabbing this to keep going. But thanks, honey. Have a good time.”
“People don’t expect the chief of police not to have a life because he’s working on a case. You can’t go 24/7 on it.”
He grunted. “I know this business, Dae. I’m doing what I need to do.”
I told him about Tim and Trudy. He didn’t seem surprised.
“Tim told me all about it. I’m glad your grandmother and I ran away to get married.”
“You ran away? I didn’t know that. Were your relatives against your marriage or something?”
“No. We both came from large families right here in Duck. Neither one of us wanted the big deal marriage everyone wanted us to have. No one had the money for it either. It was easier just getting in the car and going to Wilmington.” He smiled. “I think we enjoyed it more too.”
I covered his hand with mine. As long as I could remember, that soft look had come into his eyes when he mentioned Grandma Eleanore. I knew he still loved her.
“Missing Pieces almost sold out today.” I changed the subject. “I thought I might go through the attic and see what I can find.”
“Good idea since most of that junk up there is yours anyway. They could’ve had you on one of those hoarding reality shows when you were a teenager. You know what’s good. Get rid of the rest if you can. There were big crowds at the parade today. I’m glad for the town, but we were really stretched thin with the murder investigation too.”
“There’s a marine biologist on vacation here. I was telling her about the weird ocean stuff on the ship around Captain Lucky. What would you think if she took a look at it to see if she can identify any of it?”
“I don’t see what it could hurt, but I’d want to see her credentials first to make sure she’s not a journalist or something. The company that owns the Andalusia is really worried about this affecting their operations here. It’s not helping that they have to be closed down for the investigation either. I hope those crime scene people from Manteo finish up there tonight.”
“Great. I’ll tell her. Thanks, Gramps.”
I asked him how Chief Michaels was doing and his terse reply was, “As good as can be expected.”
“I’ll try my best to get over there tomorrow. Chris sent flowers from the town.”
Grabbing a cookie from the jar on the cabinet, I started upstairs.
“When were you planning on telling me about the naked man in the parking lot?”
“There wasn’t much to tell,” I lied. I definitely didn’t want to talk about seafolk with him.
“I didn’t see any calls to the police department about it, Dae. I wouldn’t even know except that MC told me. I think you should’ve reported this.”
“Gramps, you know how crazy some people get on vacation. He didn’t try to hurt me.”
“But she said he showed up here and followed you to the parking lot.” He frowned. “I haven’t had any other calls, but I want you to file a report first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Couldn’t this be my report?”
“No.” His mouth was tight. “I can’t believe you’d even ask me that. Go to the police department. It’s in the same building as your office. It’s not that hard.”
“This is what I remember about my grandfather being sheriff of Dare County,” I said. “I never got away with anything.”
He chuckled, breaking the tension. “And you never will. See you tonight or tomorrow, honey. Take care.”
Treasure was sleeping on one of the stairs. He followed me to the attic and walked carefully across the dusty floor, lifting his paws and shaking them every time he encountered a dust bunny.
We rarely used the attic. It was storage for all the old things we didn’t want but couldn’t bear to throw away. I was pretty sure there were still things up here from Gramps’s childhood and definitely from my own.
I switched on the overhead light. It barely made shadows in the large room. It was hard to search for anything in particular up here since I wanted to look at everything.
My great-grandmother’s wedding dress was still stored in a pretty trunk. It even had her flowered headdress and a yellowed lace veil. I picked up her tiny satin shoes and marveled at the size of her feet. Mine were so much bigger!
Touching her things without gloves was a pleasant experience. I saw her and my great-grandfather getting married in the old chapel by the sea that had once stood on the beach. I wasn’t present there, like I was with Grandma Eleanore, but it was fun.
There were two good mantel clocks that I remembered finding when I was in my early twenties, before I’d opened Missing Pieces. I didn’t know who they had originally belonged to—I couldn’t touch things back then and learn their past.
They were harmless enough once I touched them. One had belonged to a retired shop owner in Charleston and the other to a widow in Newport News.
Gramps was right about the large amount of missing things that I’d found and stashed up there. Some of the items came from walks on the beach—a carved ship in an old bottle and a diamond engagement ring.
I held the ring to see who it belonged to. It was a beautiful, expensive ring that I was sure someone hated to lose. I immediately felt cold and shaky, my usual response to holding anything I could get information from.
It was surprising when I saw that the ring belonged to Mrs. Euly Stanley. It had been her engagement ring.
I smiled at the image of a much younger Euly Stanley as she allowed her suitor to put the ring on her finger. I blinked my eyes once I knew where the ring belonged and put it in my pocket to be returned the next time I saw her.
Curiously, there was very little emotion behind the ring. It had nothing to do with age. Many of the things I found had very passionate emotions lodged in them even though they were hundreds of years old. Mrs. Stanley was a little cool toward her husband when he gave her the ring. She didn’t dislike him, but she didn’t love him either.
There were many boxes of unusual rocks and seashells that I’d found. I took one of those boxes with me too. Seashells were getting harder to find along the beach. This was a good collection of them to sell to tourists.
There was the old organ that hadn’t worked as long as I could remember. And an ironing board that was covered with someone’s old dress. Gramps had told me the story about how that came to be here, but while an amusing family anecdote, it was hardly salable material.
I found a small wood trunk and opened it carefully. There were a few old pictures in it, a crumbling flower, and a pink garter.
From the pictures, I knew this was Gramps and Grandma Eleanore’s runaway wedding. There were several postcards from Wilmington and one very clear shot of the young couple. They were posing, from the looks of it, immediately after they were married.
I sat back on my heels, feeling the strength of their love and the pull of this moment in the past. There was also a strange aura of warning that made me drop the picture o
f them. I couldn’t define what it was—like a cloud in my mind. But I knew I would have to come back to it later.
Putting everything back in the trunk, I put it in my growing pile to take downstairs.
By the time I was finished in the attic, I’d found some interesting family heirlooms, possibly the most important of them—my mother’s youthful treasure box with the rainbow unicorn inside. There was also a plastic bracelet, and her tickets to the carnival Grandma Eleanore had referred to.
One of the tickets was an entrance to see the Amazing Anthony, the psychic that I might use as a guide to help me speak with my mother and warn her against going home the night after our fight when I was in college.
It took me about thirty minutes to take everything downstairs from the attic, with a follow up shower to get all the dust and cobwebs off me. I figured I’d have to borrow the golf cart to transport all of it to the shop the next day. By that time, I’d have everything shined up and polished. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad day at Missing Pieces tomorrow after all.
I changed clothes, wearing a long, cotton wraparound skirt in a vivid shade of blue. My white top was casual but dressy and showed off my tan as it draped off one shoulder. I put on a little lipstick and ran a comb through my hair. That was as good as it was going to get.
Treasure meowed from the bed as I put on a new pair of white sandals.
“I’m so sorry, but things have been hectic. I’ll take you to Missing Pieces tomorrow for sure. And Baylor won’t be there. Okay?”
He didn’t sound moved by my promises. Instead he jumped down from the bed and wandered into the hall. He looked carefully both ways, still not liking Mary Catherine’s cat springing out at him with no warning. I’d thought he might just have to get used to Baylor being around, but when I married Kevin and moved to the Blue Whale, he wouldn’t have that problem.
I carefully looked around myself as I went down the familiar stairs to the kitchen and living room. The house was old and worn, but it was everything I’d ever known. It wasn’t going to be easy going to live with Kevin, but I hoped the perks that came with it would be worth it.
As I walked to Wild Stallions, I chided myself about getting old and set in my ways. I was reluctant to give up my childhood home for a wonderful man, possibly a family of my own, and the great old inn that was a remarkable spot.
“I don’t know what more you could ask for,” I said to myself. “As changes go, this one could be awesome.”
Peggy and Steve were fun to chat with over dinner. Her work trying to create plants that would help feed the world—and her reluctant stories about working as a forensic botanist to solve murders—were fascinating. Mary Catherine, as usual, added her own brand of charm to the conversation and talked about recent families she’d enlightened about their pets.
I told stories of pirates and treasures and even did a small example of my ability by guessing that Peggy’s watch had been a gift from her father.
Kevin and Steve barely noticed that we were there at all. Their conversation was intense and quiet but only between them. Peggy muttered that we should have made them sit farther apart at the table. Both men looked up when we laughed at that.
All the while, I kept my eyes on the setting sun and the smooth gray water of the Currituck Sound, watching for a head to bob up or a large tail that cleaved the water.
Chapter Twelve
After dinner, Peggy and Steve went back to their friends’ house where they were staying. Mary Catherine hung around, trying to decide if she should stay to see the merman.
“Perhaps four of us might be a bit much for Tovi.” She stared over the edge of the boardwalk where the kayaks launched. Hundreds of fish were jumping out of the water trying to get her attention.
“I don’t know. He says he knows humans. He must know we think there’s safety in numbers.” I smiled at her.
“She might have a point,” Kevin said. “Whatever he has planned might not happen if there are too many of us around to stop him.”
“I don’t think I can convince Tess not to be there,” I said. “She’s waited all her life for this.”
“I’m just going home,” Mary Catherine decided. “I suppose Horace will be gone until late.”
“Probably so.” I told her about our encounter at the house. “He takes being chief as seriously as he did being sheriff. He won’t rest until he knows what happened to Captain Lucky.”
Kevin nodded. “That’s his job. I’m sure you wouldn’t want him to be any different with it.”
Mary Catherine and I smiled at each other.
“All right then. I’m going home to read a little and give Baylor some extra attention,” she said. “I’ll see you later, Dae. Be careful. I’ve heard that the seafolk can be impatient with humans and even ferocious.”
“I will.” I saw Tess coming toward us on the boardwalk. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
Kevin was going to stay. “I’ll sit in the corner, and he won’t even know I’m here. I don’t want to leave you alone with him, Dae.”
“She won’t be alone,” Tess said. “I know about what we’re dealing with. I won’t let either of us get into any trouble.”
“Thanks but I’ll feel better if I stay. I suppose this is something you’ve always hoped for, seeing a real merman.”
“Oh yes. A lifetime fascination for me.”
“I promise not to disturb your study of the undersea life.”
“That’s fine, Kevin,” I finally told him. “I don’t think two extra people will bother Tovi. He seemed very outgoing. Let’s go inside. I told him I’d wait for him there.”
We went into Missing Pieces, and Kevin was as good as his word, sitting in a chair toward the back of the shop while Tess and I sat on the burgundy brocade sofa. I left the front door open for my guest, my heart starting to beat faster as I realized he could be there at any time.
“Maybe I should put on some water for tea,” I said nervously.
“I doubt Tovi will want our tea,” Tess said. “I’m sure his diet is much different than ours.”
“Do you have any idea what antargatis means?” I asked her. “A friend of mine heard it mentioned, and we were wondering if it has anything to do with seafolk.”
“It’s a very old term for what may have been the first seafolk,” she said. “I’ve never heard them referred to by that name—only in text books. Where did your friend hear it?”
A gust of wind blew in from the sound. Pairs of people laughed as they walked, arm-in-arm along the boardwalk in the twinkling lights that came on right after sunset. Scents of cooking food mingled with the smell of the water.
And then there was a figure in the doorway—not Tovi.
“I am Lilly, Tovi’s sister. Are you Dae O’Donnell?”
I stood up and approached her.
Lilly was similar to her brother in height but had a smaller build. She was pale too, and her eyes changed color. But she had long greenish-tinged white hair that ended around her waist. She was as naked as Tovi had been.
“I’m Mayor Dae O’Donnell,” I introduced myself. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“And I’m Dr. Tess Horner.” Tess put out one hand to the mermaid.
Lilly looked away, possibly not recognizing the custom.
“I apologize that my brother couldn’t be here. He was kept away and asked me to come in his stead. What is it that you wish of us?”
Tess giggled, but immediately put a hand over her mouth.
“Tovi was talking to me about the death of a friend of mine—Captain Lucky,” I said. “We were going to meet to talk further about it.”
She held her pointed chin high and stared at me coldly with her ever-changing eyes. “Your captain was even less than human and deserved to die.”
I saw Kevin slowly get to his feet and stand beside his chair.
“Surely you don’t mean that,” I suggested to her. “You didn’t even know Captain Lucky. Tovi was worried that we might think one of yo
ur people killed him. Do you know anything about that?”
Lilly was looking at Kevin but didn’t back down. “No doubt my brother killed him so that I would not need to.”
“Why would your brother want to kill him?” Tess asked.
“Because he made a fool of me.” Lilly turned sharply toward her. “Humans and my kind were never meant to meet. Do not summon one of us again with the coral horn. Only disaster and death can come of it.”
The three of us watched as Lilly turned and ran off the end of the boardwalk. Her splash attracted curious eyes as Tess, Kevin, and I looked off the side rail.
“Look there!” Tess shouted. “I see her.”
Kevin’s eyes followed where she pointed. We both saw the large blue and gold tail come out of the water as Lilly dove down and disappeared.
Tess put her hand to her forehead. “Oh my God! I can’t believe it. I finally saw a mermaid.”
“At least you saw a woman you believed to be a mermaid based on what Dae told you about a merman,” Kevin said.
She rounded on him. “I took pictures. Did she look human to you?”
He shrugged. “There are lots of different-looking humans, Dr. Horner, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
“I know what I saw. I knew what I was looking for,” she argued. “We’ll get more proof. You’ll see. Even skeptics like you will be convinced.”
There were a few of the same blue, orange, and gold scales that I’d picked up from the pier the day Captain Lucky had died. I pointed them out to Tess who immediately put on gloves and opened plastic cases she’d had in her bag to take samples.
“What happened to the seafolk being friendly?” Kevin asked as we went back into Missing Pieces.
“Tovi was friendly, in a way. Obviously his sister, not so much.”
“I know you and Dr. Horner feel like this is a miracle, but I still think it’s a scam. It’s possible Lilly actually killed Captain Lucky and is setting us up to think a mermaid did it. You said the death looked like it was staged, Dae. She might have killed him and then come up with this idea to get out of it.”