Better Than Gold

by Mary Brady

  “Check with me next Halloween.”

  He held up one more photo.

  “The coat of arms from Great-Aunt Margaret’s genealogy book,” she said as she took the photo to examine it more closely.

  “I thought you might want a copy. You can tack it up on the wall next to the sign Pirate’s Bones Found Here.”

  “Nope. I’m going to build a huge shrine with all sorts of seashell and crystal roses and charge admission.”

  “I’d pay.”

  “You might, but on second thought, I don’t think I’d like to take all that space away from my diners.” If she ever had diners. She put the copies in the envelope and held it out to him.

  “Those copies are yours. I haven’t shown the pirate to Dr. Donovan as there is no hard proof of the man’s identity.”

  “Okay. Thanks for keeping me company while I looked at them. I wasn’t sure what I’d feel.”

  “And what do you feel?”

  “Sad for Colleen and Liam. Mad at Archibald Fletcher. And I want so damned badly to be angry with you.”

  He nudged her shoulder with his. “I’ve spent too much of my recent past being angry. I thought I had it all under control, but when Aunt Margaret died I got angry all over again. Anger feels like a drug. No matter how much it seems to feel right at the time, it sucks the life out of me. I think I have you to thank for all that starting to go away.”

  “Me?” She was not going to ask what she had done. She remembered all of what she had done with him. She remembered the touch, the feel, the sound and smell of him, the feelings of rapture, the sweep of his hand on her cheek when he knew she was troubled.

  “Look at you, Mia. You’re not mad at me and you could be.”

  “It might still happen.”

  Dr. Donovan pulled up right then and climbed out of his overly large SUV.

  Mia looked at Daniel and he shrugged.

  “Fine day it is, you two. Shall we go in?” He held his arms wide and let them precede him.

  “Mr. Owen, I’m glad you could make it, I take it Mrs. Owen is in the other room.” Mr. Owen nodded.

  “Mrs. Wahl, how nice to see you and your lovely friends,” Dr. Donovan continued and then moved on to the students and greeted them as a group.

  The front door burst open, drawing all eyes.

  “You people need to show more respect. It’s enough you have desecrated the grave of my ancestor.”

  Heather Loch stepped inside, her white hair flying and her purples clashing.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  EVERYONE STOOD STUNNED, except Mrs. Owen, who came from the back room with her camera in her hand. She just looked puzzled and then snapped a photo.

  “Do you have to turn his resting place into a circus before he’s even put to rest again?” Heather Loch asked, the fierceness of her feelings etched across her face.

  “Madam, I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about.” Dr. Donovan started toward Heather as he spoke and she stopped and glanced around her. “But I’m certain you’re trespassing.”

  The closer Dr. Donovan got to her, the more she seemed to cringe, but she held her ground.

  Daniel stepped in and reached out a hand to her. “Ms. Loch, it’s good to see you again.”

  She almost flew backward to avoid shaking hands. The small faded blue velvet pouch with a tattered ribbon she had been clutching in her hand fell to the floor.

  As it lay there looking oh-so-similar to a faded lavender pouch, Mia snapped her gaze to Daniel whose face held a smile of understanding.

  Before anyone could retrieve the small bag for her, she snatched it up and brandished it at them all.

  “These are proof.”

  “Ms. Loch,” Daniel tried again and she stepped away.

  “Heather, come outside with me for a minute.” Then he leaned toward her and spoke so only she could hear.

  She nodded and went back out the door with Daniel following. Everyone seemed to gape as Daniel and Heather Loch sat down on the bench to the left of the door.

  “Well, now that’s over, we can all get back to business.” Dr. Donovan addressed the room. “Mr. and Mrs. Owen, tell me what you need.”

  Mia watched Daniel and Heather Loch speaking animatedly out on the bench.

  “I’d like to tour the rest of the building,” Mrs. Owns replied.

  “Would one of you students go with Mr. and Mrs. Owen and help them with anything they need.”

  Heather got up and started to walk away. Daniel called to her and she turned. Mia couldn’t hear what they were saying, but then Daniel held his faded lavender pouch out toward her.

  “The other two of you can take a look at the site and tell me if there is anything else you think needs to be done.”

  He turned to the four women. “Ladies, what can I do to make your visit to our site more enjoyable?”

  Mia listened as Dr. Donovan took over her world and watched as Daniel traded his pouch for the bag Ms. Loch had dropped on the floor. Then each examined the other’s bag.

  That was enough for Mia and she was headed out the door. Undoubtedly more fun was going on out in the street and she didn’t much like the dog and pony show inside.

  When Heather looked up and saw Mia approaching, she shoved Daniel’s bag at him, holding out her hand for hers.

  He handed her bag back, but did not reclaim his own. “She’s all right, Heather.”

  Heather clutched her bag to her chest.

  “Hi, Ms. Loch,” Mia said. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see you.”

  Heather looked at Daniel.

  “What’s going on in there?” Daniel asked with a nod toward the building.

  “Mayhem and some sort of dictatorship.”

  Heather grinned.

  “See? Just like I told you, Heather,” Daniel said.

  “Have the two of you been talking about me?”

  “But she has a really big ego. Thinks people are talking about her all the time.”

  They started slowly down the block to the vacant store that used to sell confections. Mia missed that store, and they sat on the bench in front, Daniel between the two women.

  “You really ought to look inside my bag, Heather. If what you say is true, then what’s in this bag will knock your socks off.”

  “Knock my socks off, huh?”

  “At least down around your ankles.”

  She laughed a slow chuckle, but handed her bag back to Daniel, then watched while Daniel checked out the contents.

  He poured a bunch of buttons out onto the palm of his hand. The buttons were tarnished brass with the thread and clumps of the cloth still clinging to them, as if they had been crudely cut from the clothing. Daniel counted buttons and Mia almost tore the envelope trying to get at the picture of the nineteenth-century man.

  “Twenty-six,” Daniel said with awe in his voice.

  Heather nodded. “The Lochs have had those buttons for many, many generations. They were from his clothing. Ma McClure passed them down through the females of the line and that’s how they came to me.”

  “There looks to be twenty-six buttons on this man’s coat and waistcoat,” Mia said as she studied the photos.

  “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 han
d.

  “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. “See 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.