“I can’t, not with Mr. Dragon there.”
“I doubt if you’ll see much of him, he’s in jail.”
“He is?”
“Not for what he did to you, but something far more serious. I’ll tell you about it sometime.”
“I still can’t go back there-ever!” She wailed anew. “What am I going to do, I need a job?”
She looked around her shop. “Karen has left me and I need someone. Do you think you’d like to work in a flower shop?”
“Oh yes, do you think I could?”
“With a name like Hyacinth, you’re a natural.”
Doreen took his arm as they mounted the steps. “Are we at the right place, love?”
“Josh said the Biltmore.” The Four Seasons Biltmore lay just down the beach from their house, and they wined and dined there often. “Who are we to quarrel with four-star elegance, not to mention poshness, a killer view and class?”
“Does he have any idea what a private party costs here?”
“Do you?”
“My inheritance.”
“You’ve already spent that.”
“On this gown, surely, but it is nice to dress elegantly for a change. You’re handsome in your tux, dear.”
“I don’t believe you. You once said I looked nice in my birthday suit.”
“You did, love, but that was a special occasion.”
They were inside now, crossing the tiled floor under the glorious painted ceiling. “Did you know you called me DeeDee?”
“Never.”
“Oh yes you did, at the gate when I was in the tower. I heard you distinctly.”
He stopped and turned to her. “Hmm. I wanted you back, even empty-headed.”
She smiled beautifully. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I can do better. Do you remember asking Phil Van Zant how long I had to live?”
“Of course.”
“I’ve been thinking about what I’d do if he’d said I only had a month?”
“And?”
“I’d go to bed with you-and die with a smile on my face.”
“You’re right, that is nicer. What if he’d said three months?”
“Now you’re talking big grin.”
Josh greeted them. “Here you are at last, the guests of honor.”
“I still don’t know what the occasion is.”
“You’ll figure it out.”
Byerly smiled at him. “I see you bought a comb.”
Josh touched his now flat hair and smiled sheepishly. “Granddad insisted.”
Everyone was there. Addie was radiant, Lupe lovely and Mandy beautiful. Jamie even wore a suit. But mostly Byerly was drawn to the figure in the wheelchair. He went to him, offered his hand, said, “Good to see you, Mr. Kinkaid.”
The old man held on to his hand, wouldn’t let go. “I understand I have you to thank for giving my grandson back to me.”
“I don’t think he’d really gone anywhere, sir. I think you just lost sight of him for awhile.”
“Well put, Byerly. I did sort of have blinders on, didn’t I? All my fault, falling for a woman like-”
“But what would we do without them, sir?”
Josh raised his voice. “I’d like to make a toast.” He raised his glass of wine. Doreen, holding Jamie, showed him how to lift his glass of ginger ale. “To Walt and DeeDee, for helping me get back my mother and my grandfather.”
“Just see that you don’t lose us again,” Addie said.
Later, at dinner, Byerly made his own toast. “Here’s to happy endings.”
“Here, here,” Lupe said.
“It’s hardly happy,” Doreen said, “with Mandy and Jamie going back to Boston. Must you?”
“I think it’s best. Cyn Wu and I can make a life there.”
“But I’ll miss this little one so much.” Jamie sat beside her in a high chair. She put her arm around him.
“I’ll write and phone, so will he when he’s older, and we’ll visit back and forth.”
“It had better happen that way. You promised to bring him next year.”
“Are you going to be okay financially?” Byerly asked. “Is the settlement from Wright enough?”
“He was generous in the end, a lump sum I’m saving for Jamie’s education, then monthly support payments. I’ll be better off than I’ve been in years.”
He saw her frown and shake her head. “But you didn’t want it this way?”
“I never wanted him to know, let alone wreck his career.”
“He did it himself, Mandy.”
“No, that’s not right, Walter.” Doreen looked at him. “Wright would probably be headed for the White House if not for Joy Fielding. She did him in.“
He nodded. “There was no need for any of it, bringing Mandy and Jamie out here, kidnapping her-”
“Mandy was never a threat to Justin Wright.”
He looked at Karl Kinkaid. “I’m sorry, we’re not being very tactful. She is still your wife.”
“Not for long. You’re right about her, of course. Joy couldn’t imagine such a thing as this girl’s decency. In her world people are always out for all they can get. My money wasn’t enough. She had to have power, too.”
“Like putting a man in the White House.”
He didn’t have enough backbone to be a man. Easy for her to play him for the fool he was.” He shook his head. “Me, too, I guess.”
Josh laughed. “I always called her the Dragon lady. I guess that’s who she really was, at least Victor Dragon thought so.” He turned to Lupe. “Is Joy going to jail?”
“For a long time. Victor Dragon is singing big time-and not just about the Gould murder. It seems he and Joy were into lots of shenanigans.”
“Will Dragon serve time?”
“Not as long as his ex-beloved, but he’s disbarred and ruined. He also implicated Dirk, the-”
“The pancake man.” He laughed. “Are we rid of him?”
“We found him and charged him. Seems he held Harry while Joy pulled the trigger.”
“None of them are much of a loss.” Doreen asked Lupe, “How has Sgt. Brogan fared?”
She shrugged. “Not even a reprimand.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“It’s true, Walt. Buster came to his senses just in time, turned on Dragon, made the collar-”
“Thus saving his pension. Is he still giving you a bad time?”
“Some things never change. I asked him where he thought he’d be today if the Byerlys hadn’t solved his murder for him.” She imitated a deep, gruff voice. “The Bye-Byes had nothing to do with it. I had the case all solved when they butted in.”
Byerly joined the laughter, then lifted his glass. “I’d like to remember someone who couldn’t join us tonight. I asked him to come but…” He shrugged. “Let’s just say Henry Clay isn’t into tuxedos these days. We’d all scare him to death. But if poor Henry hadn’t seen and remembered a young woman’s kidnapping-”
“I’d still be in that tower-or worse,” Mandy said. “Thank Henry when you see him, will you?”
“And say Hi to him for me,” Addie said. “I may have been homeless only a short time, but I’ll remember it always and how close all of us are to the street.”
“Hear, hear.” Byerly sipped, then raised his glass again. “I’d like to make a special toast to that red-haired lady across the table.” He grinned. “With Lupe’s help, we did it.”
“I did nothing, it was all you two.”
Doreen laughed. “Very well, we’ll take the credit-for one thing especially. If we hadn’t taken Jamie in, they would have found him eventually and-” She shuddered.
“God knows what would have happened to him. You’re right there, darling.”
“I suppose you two are going into the detective business now,” Lupe said.
“It was sort of fun for Walt and me. We might-”
“Not on your life. We’re goin
g back to-”
“Don’t bet on it, Walt.” Lupe laughed and others soon joined in.
A little later, Doreen put her hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “Remember what DeeDee taught you to say tonight?”
He looked puzzled.
“You remember.” She whispered in his ear.
Now he grinned beautifully and looked around shyly. “God bless us everyone.”
“Oh yes, darling.”
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