Barefoot Beach

by Debbie Mason

  She came over and tucked her arm through his. “Marco, I just had the most marvelous idea. Now that Camp FFIT is over, you’ll have some free time, and there’s no one I trust more to teach my great-grandsons to swim than you. What do you say? A couple days a week, maybe?”

  Chapter Nine

  At seven in the morning, the manor was just coming awake, but not Theia Lawson. The girl appeared to be on a scouting mission for Caine Elliot, Colleen’s nemesis. Although it appeared unlikely Theia would reach her destination. She was having a difficult time climbing the spiral staircase to the tower where the family suites were housed, groaning at each step.

  Colleen had climbed the stairs faster in her nineties than this one did in her thirties. It wasn’t until her hundredth birthday that Colleen began taking the elevator to her suite of rooms on the right. Her daughter-in-law Kitty’s were to the left of the staircase.

  “Look at the way she keeps glancing over her shoulder all spy-like. Mark my words, Simon, she’s up to no good,” Colleen said to the black cat padding along behind her.

  Startled when he suddenly bounded to the top of the staircase, Colleen yelped, “Simon, what on earth has gotten into you!”

  He, of course, did not respond. Though she sometimes suspected it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that he would, or could, or had in a previous lifetime. As she’d come to learn, Simon was no ordinary cat.

  In fact, over the past year, she’d come to believe that Simon, who’d been known to act like the lord of the manor, actually was William Gallagher. If someone had shared those same suspicions with Colleen when she’d been living, she would have thought they were touched in the head. But given her current circumstances, she knew life could be stranger than fiction.

  All that to say, there was a good possibility Simon had come to the same conclusion as Colleen about her nemesis Caine Elliot. The lad had proven to be as canny as her, a worthy opponent, one they may be unable to beat. Especially when he had Theia to do his evil bidding.

  Simon darted past the girl. She gasped, grabbing the wrought-iron handrail to keep from falling. “Only a cat, not some big hairy rat,” she murmured to herself.

  Simon gave her the side-eye before parking himself in front of the door to Colleen’s old room.

  Colleen smiled at her boon companion. “Now, isn’t that a fine thing, you playing security guard. But as much as I appreciate the effort, laddie, I’m afraid it won’t stop this one. That’ll be up to me, and she’s exactly where I need her to be for that to happen.”

  There was something special about Colleen’s old room. It sometimes acted as a conduit to the spirit world. She’d learned not long after she’d become a ghost of her former self that occupants of her suite were able to hear her. She’d used the ability to much effect over the past two years. She couldn’t do it all the time, mind. It took an enormous amount of energy and drained her quickly of her abilities to do much of anything else for a time. Now she used the ability only if it proved absolutely necessary.

  “Let’s see what she’s up to first.” Colleen joined the girl at the door.

  “Okay, kitty cat, you need to vamoose. No cats allowed. Shoo.” Theia fake-whimpered. “Please don’t make me bend down and pick you up.”

  Simon didn’t budge. And if cats could grin, he did.

  “You must have been Colleen’s cat. I hear she was stubborn too. Oh Lord.” Theia groaned as she bent over. “Take it from me, being stubborn can be a pain and being competitive might kill you. So do not challenge me, Mr. Cat. I have a lock on the title for most stubborn and competitive, which I proved yesterday.”

  Colleen recalled the conversation she’d overheard about the firefighter challenge and chuckled. “From what I hear, you dazzled everyone with your physical prowess even if you did lose.” She watched as Theia carefully picked up Simon and moved him aside. “Though you’re not all that impressive this morning.”

  Theia continued. “And now I’m talking to a cat, who has either had a stroke or is laughing at me. Be a good kitty and stay there. Now the fun part.” She placed a hand at her lower back, grimacing as inch by inch she straightened.

  “It might be best that you don’t come in and risk getting locked inside,” Colleen said to Simon, who looked like he planned to mess with Theia. “I may have need of Jasper’s assistance, and you’re the only one who can get his attention for me.”

  By the time Colleen returned her attention to Theia, the girl was already in the room and on the phone. She shut the door on Colleen, who walked through it without so much as a shiver. More proof that she’d come a long way in this ghost gig. She would have popped her head through the door to share the news with Simon if Theia’s conversation didn’t garner her rapt attention.

  “Okay, I’m in Colleen’s suite. What does this memoir look like?” she asked as she walked to the wall of white wooden bookshelves at the far end of the room.

  Colleen damned Daniel to hell and back as she rushed for the door. They were looking for The Secret Keeper of Harmony Harbor. And the only reason Caine Elliot knew about it was because her rapscallion grandson had confided in the man last year.

  Colleen stuck her head through the door. “Off with you now, Simon. She’s after my book, and for the sake of the family and everyone in Harmony Harbor, we can’t let it fall into Caine Elliot’s hands.”

  The book was locked in the safe in Kitty’s suite, but the fact Theia was hunting for it at her boss’s behest sent Colleen into a panic. If only Jasper would look as deep into Theia’s employment as he was her genes. Perhaps he would once he discovered her in the tower room.

  Theia placed the phone on the back of the sofa, pressing the speaker button before turning to the bookshelves with her hands on her hips.

  “I don’t understand how a book can help us identify the man your grandmother hired.”

  Holy Mother of God and all the saints, there are more than the two of them involved! Feeling a mite faint, Colleen stretched out on the sofa, resting her head against a throw pillow.

  Caine’s voice came through the phone. “When I reminded her how badly things had gotten out of hand the last time she got involved, she accused me of not having the stomach to get things done. She says she found someone who will. According to her, the man she hired hates the Gallaghers almost as much as she does. And unlike me, he won’t stop until the job is done.”

  Colleen shot upright as a name immediately came to mind. It couldn’t be. But she was afraid that it was. It wasn’t that her inclination to stick her nose in other people’s business hadn’t gotten her in hot water and ticked off a fair number of the good citizens of Harmony Harbor over the years. It was just that no one in recent memory stood out more than Ryan Wilson.

  Her head abuzz with nerves, she could barely make out what else Caine had to say.

  “That’s where the book comes in,” he told Theia. “Back in October, when I was down in the tunnels with Daniel, he said his grandmother had written a book in which she recorded everyone’s secrets: friends, family, the people in town. So it only stands to reason that she’d write about whoever hated the family that much. At least I hope it does because we need to figure this out before…” He trailed off, clearly not wanting to share the worst of it.

  Theia slowly turned to look at the phone. Colleen didn’t have to. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. She willed Caine to say something to prove her wrong. The last person she wanted going after the family was Ryan Wilson.

  The former police officer had partial evidence in a case that Colleen thought she’d buried. To do so, she’d ensured that Ryan’s grandfather, a detective with HHPD decades before, had been kicked off the force when he’d gotten too close to the truth in the disappearance of Antonio DiRossi, Rosa’s husband. The last thing any of them needed was Ryan digging up what happened that rainy summer night on the rocks.

  “Before what, Caine? What are you keeping from me?”

  “I’d wager a lot, girlie,” Colleen said. “
Don’t let his devilish good looks and that velvet-smooth voice fool you. He’s not a man you can trust.”

  “Whoever is doing my grandmother’s dirty work won’t stop with Daniel’s daughters. If I’m not mistaken, they’re the second in line on his list. I haven’t had a lot of time to look into it, but I’m fairly certain, with some help from my grandmother, he’s going after the one person who could afford to bail out the manor should there be a financial crisis.”

  “Olivia,” Theia said at almost the same time Colleen whispered her great-granddaughter-in-law’s name. Olivia had inherited shares in the Davenport family fortune. But she’d reinvested her portion in the charitable arm of Davenport International.

  “Yes. The man is looking for a way to bring the company down. Yesterday, thirty percent of the stock’s value disappeared. He’s started a whisper campaign. Investors are jumpy. I’m going to see what I can do to put a stop to it without my grandmother knowing.”

  Colleen blinked, confused. He was trying to protect them from both his grandmother and her hired hand? Colleen had been so panicked that she didn’t grasp it at first. Now that she did, she didn’t know what to make of it, or him.

  “Go to the board, Caine. Tell them what she’s doing. It’s crazy. You can stop her.”

  “I’ll stop the man she hired. But I won’t go to the board. She built Wicklow Developments, and I won’t betray her. She’s my grandmother. I owe her, and I made her a promise a long time ago. I mean to keep it. I’ll give her Greystone Manor before she dies, and then my debt will be paid.”

  He’d protect them to a point, it seemed.

  “Look, I know you don’t—”

  “We don’t have time for this, T. I won’t change my mind. One day you’ll understand why I had to do this. But right now we have to figure out who this man is.”

  “Did you ask Daniel?”

  “No. He’s not taking my calls. And if I had to guess, it’s because he no longer needs us. He’s changed sides.”

  “Or he’s too afraid to face his daughters and his family knowing what he’s done. He didn’t show for either his lunch or his dinner with his daughters,” Theia said.

  Caine muttered something on the other end of the line. Colleen couldn’t be sure, but she suspected it was a derogatory term directed at Daniel. “You give the man too much bloody credit, T. He’s motivated by money. Just like the guy my grandmother hired. He gets a generous bonus if he can get this done. He’ll want us out of the way.”

  “I spent more time with Daniel than you, Caine. There’s a decent man under all that self-serving bravado. He’s broke, alone…Okay, maybe not alone, but he has no relationship with his daughters to speak of and his professional reputation is pretty much shot. And you know what? Despite what it looks like, he loves his family. All he needs is someone to help him figure it out.”

  “I take it that someone is you.”

  Colleen picked up on the resignation in his voice, and she thought a hint of worry too. Why? she wondered. Why would Caine Elliot be worried about Theia spending time with Daniel…unless he’d known all along that Theia was Daniel’s daughter.

  “The blackguard,” she muttered. “The canny, canny blackguard.”

  The enemies were closing in at the manor’s gate, and the people she loved were in more danger than she could ever have anticipated. But in all the bad, she’d discovered something that gave her hope. Theia might be in league with the devil and her grandson, but the girl was inherently good, as her plea to Caine and her decision to help Daniel proved.

  In the end, Colleen believed Theia would stand up for them and for the manor. All that was left to be seen was if she could hold her own against the invading forces. But of course she could; she was a veteran, a warrior and, Colleen believed, a Gallagher. Except no warrior should fight on their own. She needed someone at her back.

  At the distinctive beep of the key card in the door, Theia ended the call and stuffed her phone in her pocket, putting on a sheepish smile when Jasper walked into the room, followed by Simon.

  “You caught me,” Theia said. “I’d heard the room was haunted and wanted to check it out.”

  “You’re more than welcome to stay here, Ms. Lawson.”

  Colleen smiled. Leave it to her dear friend to come up with the perfect solution. Jasper had just provided her with the means and opportunity to help Theia protect the manor and the family.

  “Really? I thought the room was reserved for family.”

  “Yes, but at the moment none of them wishes to stay here. It’s on account of the rumor you just mentioned. People believe the suite is haunted.”

  “Great. I’d love to stay here. Maybe I can exorcise the ghost for you.”

  Jasper chuckled. “Good luck with that. If rumors are to be believed, Madam is as unshakable in the afterlife as she was when she ran the manor.”

  * * *

  Daniel Gallagher arrived at the manor for his lunch with his daughters just as Theia had predicted he would.

  “He’s here,” Theia said from where she stood half-hidden behind the atrium just off the lobby. The outer wall of the atrium was made of frosted glass cubes; its interior wall of windows faced Kismet Cove. Sunshine poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, warming up the room as she talked to her boss on the phone.

  After their conversation this morning in the tower room, she was determined to prove Caine wrong about Daniel. Something about the older man got to her. Maybe it was knowing he’d spent his life competing with his brothers and never felt like he measured up.

  They had that in common. Only she had cousins, not brothers. She also didn’t want to believe Caine’s dire summation of the situation. They had to find out who Emily’s minion was before it was too late. Theia believed Daniel was their best bet to achieve that goal.

  After she’d accepted Jasper’s offer to move into Colleen Gallagher’s luxurious suite, she’d left Daniel a message on his phone and sent him a text, offering him the one thing money couldn’t buy—the opportunity to repair his relationship with his daughters. Something she should have thought to do earlier instead of threatening to expose him to the Greek government. Her mother always told her you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

  “You were right and I was wrong, T. Just more proof that I need you handling this for me at the manor. Let me know if you find out anything from Daniel about our mystery man. Good luck with your lunch.”

  She rolled her eyes at the note of skepticism in Caine’s voice. He clearly thought luck wouldn’t help her cause. He’d already told her what he thought about Project Daddy Do-Over. He’d decided Daniel was a deadbeat dad, and there’d be no changing his mind. She wasn’t surprised. As much as she loved Caine, he was a black-and-white kind of guy. He wasn’t easy or forgiving either.

  From where she stood, she watched Daniel walk across the lobby toward the dining room. He was a big man, with powerful arms and legs that were on display in the navy shorts and white polo shirt he wore. Sporting a tan, he looked remarkably healthy for someone who’d supposedly been on his deathbed not more than two weeks before.

  Theia scanned the lobby to be sure he wasn’t followed. He didn’t appear to be, and he wasn’t acting like a man who’d been in hiding as Caine suspected. No, she thought as she stepped from behind the atrium wall, he looked like a man trying to talk himself into jumping off a cliff. His pace had slowed as he reached the stairs leading to the dining room. He scratched his neck and looked around.

  She knew the moment he spotted her; relief relaxed the stress lines on his handsome face. A change from last year when he panicked every time she came near. This was much better. She’d have an easier time getting information from him and keeping him in line.

  “Daniel.” She put out her hand to greet him.

  He pulled her in for a hug instead. “Thank the good Lord and the Holy Ghost you’re here. I was worried I’d be meeting with my daughters on my own.” His thick Irish brogue made it difficult to understand
him. Or maybe it was the emotion in his voice garbling the words.

  She grimaced as he pulled back to give her shoulder a squeeze. Every muscle in her body was protesting yesterday’s punishing workout. She’d discovered muscles where she hadn’t known muscles existed.

  She didn’t remember ever being this sore. Even those first days of training in the navy couldn’t compare to this. Then again, that was more than a decade before. It didn’t matter that she still trained every day; she was older. Though definitely not wiser, as evidenced by her inability to refuse a challenge.

  Maybe in the end that was a good thing, she thought when she caught sight of Penelope and Daphne making their way down the grand staircase. Because clearly repairing the rift between father and daughters wouldn’t be easy.

  Penelope, in a pretty floral sundress, looked like Theia imagined she did when she counseled clients in their therapy sessions, which might have boded well for the meeting if she’d brought her sons along. Even though it was probably for the best that she hadn’t, it seemed to indicate that Penelope believed things might get heated. But the real challenge would no doubt be Daphne, who had on her lawyerly face and a red power sheath dress.

  Theia grabbed Daniel’s hand and dragged him behind the atrium wall. She wanted a few minutes alone with him before he faced his daughters.

  “What’s this about? You were pulling one over on me, weren’t you? You had no intention of helping me make amends to my girls. It was all just a ploy to—”

  “No. I just wanted a few minutes with you so we could go over what you’re going to say.”

  “We may need more than a few minutes, lass. I don’t have a clue what to say to them. Do you have any ideas?” he asked her hopefully.

  “As a matter of fact, I do.” She’d spent the past couple of nights Googling father-and-daughter relationships and had not only stockpiled some good advice, but the information was revealing. “How long has it been since you last saw Penelope and Daphne?”