Windward Secrets

by K. A. Davis

  “Where exactly are you headed?”

  There was an uncomfortable pause until Claire leaned toward Caroline’s window. “We thought we’d check out Blackbeard’s for a little nightlife.”

  “Ladies. It’s Sunday night, off season; there’s no nightlife anywhere in Haworth.”

  “Oh,” Caroline said, innocently. “Can you suggest somewhere else?”

  O’Reilly lowered his flashlight. “No, I can’t. If you turn around and go home, we’ll call this a warning and there won’t be a citation.”

  “Yes, of course. We’ll go right home officer. Thank you,” Caroline said, appropriately humble.

  “Go a little farther and there’s an area where you can turn around. Turn on your lights and be careful! I’ll follow you back to the house,” the deputy said, before returning to his car.

  “Geez, I feel like I’ve been scolded by one of my sons,” Caroline said, looking over her glasses for the headlight control.

  “What the heck is he doing out here?” Diane asked. “You’d think there would be more to do in town than out in the middle of nowhere.”

  Claire was provoked. “I think it’s one, strange coincidence that he was out here the night Wendell was cleaning out his secret room. Do you think he was standing watch for them?”

  “If he was, do you think he would have let us off so easily?” Diane asked.

  Claire thought for a moment. “No, you’re right, if he had seen us coming out of Wendell’s drive, I don’t think he would have let us go.” Then turning to Caroline, “did you notice exactly when he started to follow us?”

  “I didn’t see his light until we were past Windward Cottage and I didn’t see him while I was waiting for you. He must have come along the shore road after I picked you up. Hopefully, he just thinks I’m a dumb, woman driver.”

  Caroline pulled the car into the drive at Windward Cottage. Deputy O’Reilly pulled in behind her, backed out, and turned toward Haworth.

  “I wonder who the man was with Wendell and where they were taking the stuff.” Claire thought out loud, walking toward the house,

  Opening the front door, they were greeted by Ike and a warm fire.

  “Drew’s back and we have a fire again. How interesting,” Claire said.

  “Really Claire? How can he be with Jill, and here starting a fire at the same time?” Diane responded.

  Caroline sunk down into the sofa and looked thoughtfully at the fire. “It’s the house.”

  Claire and Diane looked at her curiously.

  “There’s nothing menacing about the fire. Whoever, or whatever, could burn the house down around us if it wanted. It’s trying to comfort us.”

  Diane sat down beside Caroline. “I think you’re right. All of the unusual things like the beds that weren’t supposed to be made, the coffee was started and the table set for breakfast, and the locked room becoming unlocked. These aren’t things that could harm us. Caroline’s right, they’re signs of hospitality.”

  Claire opened the door for Ike to come in and then turned back to her friends. “I’m glad you’re finally seeing the light. Now do you believe me about the house?”

  Ike followed Claire as she slowly walked around the room. Stopping in front of the fireplace, she touched the smooth wood of the mantle and the rough surface of the stone. Next, she fingered the stair balusters like a harp and ran her hand down the banister.

  Claire turned toward her friends. “All of these strange things are a woman’s touch. Right?”

  Caroline and Diane nodded in agreement.

  “Where are you going with this Claire,” Diane asked.

  “Well, I don’t think a little girl would think to make beds, start fires, and especially place binoculars where we could find them.”

  “And?” Jill encouraged Claire to go on.

  “If you were a mother of a lost child, what would you do?”

  “Never give up trying to find her,” Diane answered, sadly.

  Claire pointed at Diane. “Exactly! I think Mrs. Carter is here too. She’s the one trying to help us. I bet she’s the woman we’ve seen on the widow’s walk.”

  Caroline and Diane watched as Claire continued her inspection. She touched different objects and finally stopped in front of the bookcases containing the games. When she turned, she had a Monopoly game in her hands. Setting it down on the table, she removed the game board and placed it in the center of the table. She lifted the Chance cards, shuffled them and placed them face down in the Chance rectangle on the board. She did the same thing with the Community Chest cards.

  Caroline and Diane got up from the sofa and joined Claire at the table. “What are you doing?” Diane asked.

  “We used to play Monopoly on rainy days,” Claire replied, softly. She picked up the little, silver, players’ pieces and cradled them in her hand. Picking up the racecar, she placed it on the corner of the board that said ‘GO.’ “Will was always the racecar. He loved speed.” Next she placed the top hat on ‘GO.’ “David liked the top hat because he thought he was debonair,” she smiled. “Patty liked the iron because she said she could hit David over the head with it. I was the thimble because Mom was always trying to teach me to sew; she never succeeded.” Another grin and Claire continued. “Betsy was the shoe. She hated it because it was a baby shoe, and she said she wasn’t a baby.” A tear trickled down Claire’s cheek as she placed the tiny shoe on the corner of the board. “How could I have forgotten this? We played for hours. We would even leave a game in progress for several days.”

  Pushing herself up out of the soft sofa cushions, Caroline walked across the room to Claire and placed her arm around Claire’s shoulders.

  Claire reached across the board and drew a Chance card. She turned it over and laughed. Holding it up to show the others she said, “We’re safe. This is a get out of jail free card.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Monday

  Claire and Caroline were sitting at the kitchen table when Jill entered looking radiant.

  Caroline smiled. “You had a good night didn’t you Jill?”

  “Yes. We had a lovely time.”

  Claire sat with one elbow resting on the table and her chin in her palm as Jill poured herself a cup of coffee.

  Diane was next at the coffee pot. “What’s on the agenda for today?” she asked, turning toward the others.

  “Well, I’m going to walk with Drew,” Jill said, with a dreamy look on her face.

  “Geez Jill, you’re acting like a teenager,” Claire said.

  “I feel like a teenager,” Jill replied. “And, I like it!”

  Claire shook her head. “When you take Ike back to Drew today, I think you should take his bowls and food.”

  Hearing his name, Ike’s ears perked up and he tilted his head looking at Claire.

  Jill was surprised. “What do you mean Claire? He’s not coming back tonight?”

  Claire looked at Diane and Caroline. “Tell her about last night,” she said, nodding toward Jill.

  Diane and Caroline took turns telling Jill how they felt about the strange happenings in the house. “We think we’re safe. It’s been very generous of Drew to let us have Ike at night, but it’s time to cut the apron strings… or rather leash… and let him go home where he belongs,” Diane concluded.

  Jill still looked puzzled. “What about Wendell?”

  “Wendell would be a fool to try anything. He may have even left town. We saw him taking what we think was the evidence out of his house last night.”

  “Well, if you’re sure,” Jill said, bending down to pick up Ike’s bowls. She washed them and put them into the canvas bag along with his food.

  Claire leaned over to Ike and buried her face in his neck. “Good bye, sweet boy.” When she finally let go and sat up her eyes were full. “Oh damn, all I seem to do any more is cry.” Reaching for a tissue she said to Jill without looking at her. “Please, go.”

  Jill opened the door and called Ike. “Come on, boy. Your dad misses
you.” Ike slowly walked out the door hanging his head. Jill looked back at Claire and tried to smile, but the lump in her throat forced her to swallow instead.

  Caroline reached over and patted Claire’s hand. “It’ll be okay. You have a few more days to see him again.”

  Diane cleared her throat and blinked several times. “And, you don’t even like dogs.”

  ***

  “This might actually be fun,” Claire said, as they drove toward Barnstable. “The GPS says it’s three hundred feet ahead on your right.”

  Diane pulled into a mini mall and looked for the scuba shop. The parking lot was nearly empty and she was able to park right in front of the store.

  “You want what?” the young man said, at the counter.

  “We would like to rent snorkeling gear and wetsuits,” Claire repeated.

  “You realize this is not exactly snorkeling weather?” The young man looked, up and down, at the two women standing in front of him.

  “Well, of course,” Diane said. “We just want to do a little bit. We’ll have your gear back before closing.”

  “Now listen, Aaron, you don’t need to worry. We’ve done it before and we’re good swimmers even though we may not look like it,” Claire added, looking at the name embroidered on his shirt.

  “Okay. If you’re sure.” Stepping from behind the counter, Aaron gathered everything they would need and packed it into a large box. Taking their drivers licenses for ID he wrote up rental slips and had them each sign a release of responsibility for the shop and then charged their deposits. “I need everything back no later than five o’clock today.”

  “No problem,” Diane said, as she lifted the box off the counter.

  Claire held the door for Diane who winked as she passed.

  Back in the car Claire needed to vent. “Why do young people think that after the age of forty you can’t tie your own shoe strings? Wait until they reach our age, they’ll see. There’s still lots of life in these bodies.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Jill said. “I certainly feel my age some days.”

  Diane laughed. “It’s a good thing you’re not going in the water Jill.”

  “Darn good thing,” Jill agreed.

  Diane drove directly to the rocky cove where they had found the cave. They hauled the equipment down to the beach where Claire and Diane stripped to their bathing suits and squeezed into the wetsuits.

  “Talk about a muffin top! This is a whole Bundt cake,” Diane laughed.

  Claire pulled flashlights wrapped in plastic bags out of the beach bag and handed one to Diane. “Zip this under your suit.”

  Caroline couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “Claire, really, I don’t think you should be doing this. Please, let’s just return the gear and go back to the house.”

  “Relax, Caroline. I checked the tide tables; it’s low tide. It will be easier swimming in and out this time.”

  “You have Ed’s number. If we’re not out in an hour, call him,” Diane added.

  “Oh, that’s encouraging!” Jill said.

  Claire and Diane looked down at their bodies. Each had a small, rectangular lump where their cell phones were and a cylindrical shape from the flashlights. Pulling up the hoods of the wetsuits and adding the masks and snorkels completed their ensembles. They picked up their flippers and walked toward the water.

  Jill looked at Caroline. “If I wasn’t so worried I’d laugh. They look ridiculous.”

  Claire and Diane waded into the water until it reached their waists and then slipped the flippers over their feet. Adjusting their masks they waved at Caroline and Jill and slowly disappeared under the water. The water was murky, but the swimming was much easier than the last time. With the exertion of energy the suits warmed up and it was not unpleasant as they swam around the large rocks toward the cave.

  Claire raised her head above the water at the cave entrance. Giving Diane the okay signal she pointed to the cave and swam in. Pulling off their flippers they threw them onto the sand and walked out of the water.

  “Not bad,” Diane said, removing her mask. “Actually, if the water were clearer this would be fun.”

  Claire pulled her flashlight out of her wetsuit and turned it on. Diane did the same and they moved the beams around the interior of the cave. Nothing appeared to have changed since they had been here before. Moving deeper into the cave they found a smaller cavern behind the first. It was barely high enough to stand and was empty except for mounds of sand around the sides.

  Diane looked at Claire nervously and pointed to the mounds. “Do we dig?”

  Claire gulped and nodded. “This is what we came for.”

  Kneeling down they crawled into the small cave and started to dig with their hands. Finding nothing they moved to different spots and dug more holes. Nothing.

  “I can’t believe there’s nothing here,” Claire said. “I was really hoping we would find something.”

  Diane stared at her friend. “You were really hoping to find something? What exactly did you think we would find? The only thing we would find buried in a cave would be bad! I’m relieved we didn’t find anything. Let’s get out of here.”

  Claire started to smooth the sand as close to its original shape as she could.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We don’t want anyone to know we were here?”

  “Claire stop. That’s ridiculous. What does it matter? We have everything we need and we’re going to turn it over to the State Police tomorrow. Who cares if someone figures out we were here.”

  Claire sat back on her heels. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

  Back in the main cave they took out their phones and snapped photos of the interior of the cave and everything it contained.

  Caroline and Jill ran to the water’s edge with relief when they saw the snorkels appear around the rocks like miniature, submarine periscopes.

  “Thank God,” Jill said. “I couldn’t have waited much longer.”

  Claire and Diane swam close to shore and removed their flippers. Standing up they walked to the beach.

  Jill and Caroline stared in amazement and then burst out laughing.

  Claire removed her mask. “What’s so funny?”

  Caroline could hardly talk. “How can two post-menopausal women go swimming and come out pregnant?”

  Diane and Claire looked down at their fat abdomens and patted them as they had when they carried their babies. “Miracles never cease,” Diane said, raising her chin in an aloof attitude.

  The foursome walked to the beach bag containing towels and dry clothes. As Caroline and Jill watched Claire and Diane slowly unzipped their suits and removed large round plastic bags.

  “What in the world is in those?” Jill asked.

  “Blankets from the cages,” Claire answered. “We’re hoping there might be some DNA that can be retrieved.

  Caroline gazed at her friends in awe. “You two really do think of everything, don’t you?”

  Getting out of the wetsuits when they were wet was even harder than getting into them. Quickly they dried and pulled on jeans and sweatshirts.

  “Let’s head for home. There’s nothing more we can do,” Claire said.

  “Do you really mean that Claire,” Jill asked.

  “Yup. The party’s over. Elvis has left the building. There’s nothing left to do but give the information to the police.”

  ***

  Back at Windward Cottage, they settled in for a quiet afternoon reading on the back porch each in her favorite rocker.

  Caroline broke the silence. “Somehow it seems unnatural to actually be relaxing.”

  She no sooner said the words than Diane’s phone rang. “Hello. Hey Ed,” she said, with a huge smile and left her chair for the privacy of the kitchen. Ten minutes later she returned looking a little flushed.

  “Is that a blush we see on your face?” Jill asked.

  Diane grinned and nodded. “Wow. This does feel good doesn’t Jill?”

&n
bsp; “Sure does. Welcome to the club.”

  Caroline kept her head down reading her book.

  “Sorry Caroline,” Diane said. “We really don’t mean to rub salt in your wound.”

  Caroline looked up, sadly. “Please. Be happy. It’s okay.”

  Claire brought them back down to earth. “Did Ed say anything about tracing Swift Runner’s registration?”

  Diane nodded. “The yacht is registered to a corporate conglomerate and not to individuals. Ed says he’s digging into it, but it will take a while to get to the individual names.”

  “So, Peterson doesn’t own it?” Claire confirmed.

  “Not unless he is the CEO of a huge corporation. He must know someone important who loans him the boat.”

  Claire looked disappointed. “Well, darn. I thought for sure we’d find some dirt on him if he could afford a boat like that.”

  “Afraid not,” Diane said. “He just has a wealthy friend.”

  “You’re just going to have to dislike him because he’s a jerk, Claire. Isn’t that enough?” Caroline said.

  Jill couldn’t resist. “Yeah, Claire. It’s not like you need a good reason to dislike people.”

  “Oh, come on you guys. I just have exceptionally, sensitive intuition.”

  Everyone laughed and went back to their books.

  An hour later Jill went into the kitchen and returned with iced tea and snacks. “So, where do we go from here?”

  Caroline was the first to respond. “I’m still not ready to go home. I’m going to stay the rest of the week and paint. I have some serious decisions to make. Anyone want to join me?”

  “I’m in,” Jill volunteered. “I took the time off so I may as well use it.”

  “Did you really think we expected anything less considering Drew is here?” Claire asked, leaning forward in her rocker looking at Jill.

  Jill ignored her and looked at Diane. “What about you, Diane?”

  Diane hesitated. “As much as I love being with you all, I’d really like to see Ed and spend some time with him. Would you be terribly upset if I went back to Boston?”