A Spirited Gift mpm-3

by Joyce Lavene

  “I guess that’s up to you. I told you what I have. How do you know your information will be any more valuable to me? I mean, let’s face it, half of what you’re seeing and hearing has got to be confusing for you. You probably don’t even realize what information you have.”

  His entire form rose up from the chair to hang above the table. He looked like an angry giant. He put his hands on his hips and glared down at me. “You push my patience to the limit, girl, even if you are blood kin. Ye don’t realize who you’re dealing with.”

  I ate some of the pancakes on my plate even though my hands were trembling. He was scary—I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. But I knew if I showed him that I was afraid, he’d take advantage of me. I had to at least pretend I had the upper hand, even though I wasn’t sure I did.

  “You’re so sensitive,” I told him after another sip of juice. “I’m surprised you made it as a pirate at all. If I could hurt your feelings just by suggesting you might not know everything, what happened when someone actually challenged you to a fight?”

  “I killed whoever challenged me!” His voice rattled the window pane behind me and made the floors creak upstairs.

  I stood up and put my hands on my hips. “You might’ve been tough when you were alive—but you’re not anymore. Stop trying to scare me into doing what you want. It won’t work. Don’t forget—we’re blood kin and I think I may have some pirate in me. Be warned!”

  He blasted out of the house, sending every electrical appliance crazy (more than they were already from the storm). The doors flew open, and the water turned on full force in the kitchen sink.

  After turning off the water, I sat down at the table for a minute and tried to gather my wits. I had to talk with Shayla again. Despite our agreement, the ghost of Rafe Masterson and I were not compatible. I might have a nervous breakdown long before he could deliver any useful information to me or I could learn who the magistrate was who’d had him hanged.

  Not wanting to be there if Rafe returned, I locked up the house and ran to Missing Pieces. I wasn’t sure if my father would be there or not. I called his name when I opened the shop door. The pillow and blanket were still on the burgundy brocade sofa, but there was no sign of him. The front door had been locked, so maybe he’d gone out for breakfast.

  I didn’t want to get so attached that I began following him around. It wasn’t easy, but I had to keep my distance. I noticed with a smile that everything seemed to be in its place—he hadn’t stolen from me again. That was a good sign. Anyone could get desperate enough to do what he’d done.

  I checked in with Nancy at town hall after locking up Missing Pieces again. Things had quieted down after the water and power were restored. There was an issue about garbage pickup—everyone needed to have trash removed and the trash company said they couldn’t come back until next week.

  I fielded that call and finally convinced the company to begin trash pickup again the next day. It helped that their contract was up December 1. A little leverage goes a long way. Speedy trash pickup was one blemish Mad Dog Wilson couldn’t put on my mayor’s scorecard.

  “Thanks, sweetie,” Nancy said. “Was it nice to have a hot shower this morning or what?”

  “It was heaven. Is power on all over the island now?”

  “There are a few places that were more heavily damaged—like Hatteras and Roanoke Island. The rest of us are in pretty good shape. And now we get garbage pickup too. You’re a great mayor!”

  “Be sure to tell Mad Dog that,” I replied with a smile. “I’m headed over to the Blue Whale to see if I can help Kevin with anything. He had all those volunteers for the conference, but I think most of them will be working at their own homes and businesses today.”

  “Speaking of which,” Nancy started, “I hope nothing was taken from the shop last night.”

  Did she know about my father staying there? It was always a possibility. The Duck grapevine was a powerful force.

  “Everything looked fine this morning. Why?”

  “Tim picked up some vagrant who’d gotten into your shop and was sleeping there. I’m just glad he found him before you checked in there this morning.”

  “Tim arrested someone in my shop?” I tried not to sound too surprised and concerned. My heart was pounding, wondering if everyone would find out that Danny Evans was my father. I reminded myself that the two events had nothing in common.

  “Yep. You never know what people will do when they get desperate. I think Tim said they ran him over to the county jail this morning. Lucky thing for us that our Duck Police are on the ball!”

  Chapter 24

  I couldn’t get in the garage to take out Gramps’s old car and drive to Manteo. A tree had fallen from the neighbor’s yard, blocking the door. With so much going on, I hadn’t even noticed.

  We rarely used the old garage, or the car for that matter. We usually walked or took the golf cart. Everything was close by in town, and the car was only for trips farther afield.

  Like a trip to the county jail to bail out my father. I knew he wouldn’t have anyone else to come for him, and he’d done nothing wrong. If it had been anyone else mistakenly locked up, I would’ve called a police car to go and get him.

  But I couldn’t do that in this case without a good explanation. I knew I couldn’t ask Gramps for help, and I didn’t want to involve Tim or any other friend for the same reason.

  Kevin might be the one person I could turn to who wouldn’t go crazy when I told him about Danny. I hoped I could convince him not to tell Gramps yet. I knew he wouldn’t like keeping the secret but maybe just this one time.

  I walked down to the Blue Whale—rehearsing what I’d planned to say like I was preparing to make a speech to the town council. I knew Kevin wouldn’t be happy that I’d been seeing my father and hadn’t said anything to him.

  But other people I’d known all my life would be even more upset. All of them felt like they had a God-given right to know everything.

  Two Duck police cars and three Dare County Sheriff cars were parked in the circle drive at the Blue Whale. At least twenty other cars—presumably belonging to the attendees of the botched mayor’s conference who’d returned at Chief Michaels’s insistence—surrounded them.

  I noticed that the ruins of the crushed mermaid fountain were gone. I wondered what Kevin would choose to replace it. The mermaid fountain had been there since the Blue Whale first opened in the early 1900s. The museum had a picture on display of old Bunk Whitley standing in front by the fountain the day the inn opened.

  Inside the inn, chaos reigned. I cringed at what Kevin must be going through and wasn’t sure I should ask him to drive me to Manteo after all. The unhappy, sometimes angry guests seemed to be complaining loudly from every corner of every room.

  “Dae!” Barker Whiteside greeted me from the bar. “Come sit down! You look like I feel.”

  I sat beside him on the bar stool. Marissa was getting drinks, finding pens and paper for guests to write on and doing whatever else was asked of her. She was clearly put out at having to do so much. “Can I get you something, Dae?” she asked.

  “No, thanks. I came by to see if I could help you and Kevin get through this. I’m sorry it’s making so much extra work for you.”

  She smiled though she still looked stressed. “I’m not complaining. At least I got to go home last night and check on my grandfather and the house. They were both fine. I think Grandpa slept through everything.”

  “I’m glad. Just tell me what I can do to help.”

  “Let me finish up here and we’ll take a look around. You’re a blessing, Dae.”

  “What are you writing?” I asked Barker when Marissa turned to get Cokes for two other visitors. Everyone in the bar area seemed to be intently writing something on Blue Whale stationery.

  “The police asked us to write down exactly where we were and what we were doing when Sandi was killed.” He put down his pen and took a sip of whatever he was drinking. “I can
’t believe someone had the nerve to kill her while all of us were right here. What kind of cojones did that take?”

  “I agree. And what can everyone say now but that they were stuffed in the lobby during the worst of the storm and didn’t really see anything?”

  “Mayor?” Chief Michaels tapped me on the shoulder. “Could I have a word with you?”

  We went down the hallway to the kitchen where Kevin was working with two assistants, making lunch for the group. He glanced at the chief in a questioning way and smiled at me. I made a mental note to approach the town council for money to cover this investigation. Despite what Gramps had said, there had to be a fair settlement for all this expense. It wasn’t Kevin’s fault that Sandi was killed here and the police chose to invite all the guests back again. I didn’t think he should feel responsible for what happened.

  “What was going on in there just now?” Chief Michaels asked me when we reached a side corner of the large kitchen, away from the cooking area.

  I thought back. “I was talking to Mayor Whiteside.”

  “And what were you saying? If I hadn’t been walking by and heard you, every guest that was here would use the alibi you just gave Barker! You’re undermining the investigation. I know you want us to find who killed Mayor Foxx.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing.”

  I could tell the chief was under a lot of stress. He always was when he had to work with Sheriff Tuck Riley. Sheriff Riley had taken Gramps’s place when he’d retired. While Gramps and Chief Michaels had a great working relationship, Sheriff Riley and Chief Michaels liked to play “who’s the biggest fish.”

  “Mayor Dae O’Donnell!” Sheriff Riley joined us. He was a tall, stocky man with a full head of brown hair and brown eyes that narrowed when he looked at people, as though he was always trying to figure out what they were guilty of. “I was hoping to run into you while I was out this way. How are you? I hope your house made it through the storm in one piece. How’s old Horace getting along? Still taking people out on his fishing boat? You know, I don’t get enough time to fish nowadays. If I did, Horace would be the one I’d want to take me out.”

  Sheriff Riley always made pleasant conversation, and his smile was friendly. It was his eyes that I didn’t trust. I’d heard too many bad things about him. He’d worked with Gramps but never as a high-ranking officer. Gramps hadn’t trusted him.

  “It’s good to see you too, Sheriff,” I said, giving him my hand and my big mayor’s smile. “I’m sorry you had to come in on this.”

  “I admit I was surprised to hear there was a murder out here in little Duck. Once I knew, I had to come out. Ronnie doesn’t have all the resources he needs to handle something like this by himself. We don’t want to call in the SBI for every little thing, do we? We can handle this locally just fine.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  “What’s the powwow back here about? Trouble with the soup?” Sheriff Riley laughed and nodded at Kevin. “Smells good, whatever it is, Brickman. Can’t wait for lunch.”

  “I was just discussing the program with the mayor,” Chief Michaels said, hitching up his pants. “I thought it would be good for her to know what’s going on.”

  Sheriff Riley nodded. “Yep. That probably would be good—if she wasn’t as much of a suspect as the other mayors here. Not that I mean any disrespect by that, Dae.”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Maybe it would be best for her to write down where she was in the hotel at the time Mayor Foxx was killed. And what she was doing, of course.”

  It was one thing for Chief Michaels to call me on the carpet for coaching suspects—it was another if I was going to be one of those suspects.

  “You both realize that everyone was in the lobby at the time Sandi was killed, right?” I asked. “Everyone except Sandi and the killer. Obviously Sandi can’t tell us what happened, and I doubt the killer is going to say he or she wasn’t in the lobby with everyone else. Maybe you should ask everyone who they saw around them at the time. That might make more sense.”

  Sheriff Riley laughed. “That’s a good idea. I wish I’d thought of that. Ronnie, let’s ask that when we interview each person. And since Dae brought it up, let’s ask her first. Who was around you in the lobby during the storm, Mayor?”

  Chapter 25

  I thought back to the storm raging around us. “Kevin was there and Nancy Boidyn, our town clerk. I saw Althea Hinson and Barbara. They were with me.”

  “Maybe we could cut through the chatter and get to the heart of it,” Chief Michaels said abruptly. “Did you see Matthew Wright?”

  “No. Not until later. But there were a lot of people here. I couldn’t see everyone.”

  “Thank you, Mayor,” Chief Michaels said, scribbling my words into his notebook. “That’s really all we need to know.”

  I was dismissed after the chief reminded me not to “help” the other suspects. I wondered if Matthew Wright had arrived yet. He was bound to realize that he was the prime suspect. I was pretty sure the rest of the questioning was just to say they’d done it.

  I went over to where Kevin was laying out dough for yeast rolls. I knew he’d been listening to the whole thing. “What do you think?”

  “I’d hate to be Matthew Wright.”

  His hands moved quickly and efficiently through the motions of making rolls of dough the right size then covering them with melted butter. He put the trays of rolls into the oven to rise and closed the door.

  “Could I talk to you for a minute?” I asked. “I know you’re busy—”

  “Sure.” He gave directions to his assistants after he washed his hands. “Let’s go in the bridal suite. I don’t think anyone’s in there.”

  He was right—it had to be the only empty place at the inn. He sat down in one of the old-fashioned white chairs and waited for me to start. I paced a few times, realizing that this was probably the first place Rafe had haunted me—I just hadn’t seen him.

  Finally I said, “I need your help.”

  “You didn’t murder Sandi Foxx, did you?”

  “No! Of course not.”

  He relaxed in the chair. “Okay. What do you need?”

  I couldn’t look at him as I explained about my father. I told him how I’d found out where he worked and how I’d hung out there a few times. I told him about the wreck and about finding Danny by the trash bin and letting him stay in Missing Pieces.

  I was relieved when it was over. I sat down in the matching old-fashioned white chair and waited for him to say something.

  “I’m not surprised,” he said. “You found out you have a father. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t wonder about him. I’m not sure about letting him stay at the shop—”

  I got up and started pacing again. “I didn’t know what else to do. You have all this damage and Duck doesn’t have a homeless shelter. I couldn’t take him home and introduce him to Gramps—”

  “That was my next question.”

  “No. I haven’t told him.” I explained what Danny had said about why he and my mother broke up. “I confronted Gramps with it. I think he lied to me again.”

  Kevin sat forward and took my hands, his gray-blue eyes worried. “You’ve only known your father for a short time, Dae. You’ve known Horace all your life. I’m sure whatever he did all those years ago felt justified at the time. What action do you take when you find out your daughter is pregnant and the father has been in and out of trouble his whole life? Multiply that answer times one hundred—that’s for being sheriff.”

  “That’s about what he said.”

  “So you let your father stay at Missing Pieces. Did he steal something?”

  “No.” I lied looking right into his eyes. “He got arrested.”

  I explained about Tim finding him in Missing Pieces and taking him to Manteo. “I have to get him out. He wasn’t doing anything wrong. Tim misunderstood. But I couldn’t get in the garage.”

  “You
need a ride.” He nodded. “I was wondering why you’d decided to come clean now. I should’ve known you needed something.”

  “It’s not like that, Kevin. I didn’t want to explain what I was doing to anyone. I needed to understand it myself.”

  “Do you understand it now?”

  “Not really,” I admitted with a smile. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have told you yet if I didn’t need you. I’m sorry. If it makes you feel any better, no one else knows either.”

  “It doesn’t make me feel any better that you’ve been hanging out at a sleazy bar alone, trying to decide if you should introduce yourself to your father. You could’ve gotten in trouble.”

  It suddenly occurred to me that he knew too much. “I never said it was a bar! You knew. Did you follow me or something? Is that once an FBI agent always an FBI agent? Did you say anything to Gramps?”

  “I didn’t tell your grandfather. I was worried about you, that’s all. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist checking up on your father. I just wanted to be there if you needed help.”

  We stared at each other for a few seconds. I supposed I couldn’t be too upset with him. Neither of us had actually lied to the other—it was more a sin of omission. Next time I’d have to remember to ask if he was following me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I should’ve told you. Then you could’ve told me you were following me and we could’ve gone to the sleazy bar together.”

  “I’m sorry too. I should’ve told you sooner that I knew what you were up to.” He smiled. “So? What’s he like? Is Danny Evans every girl’s dream father?”

  “Hardly. He’s not like anyone’s father I’ve ever known. But he’s probably never been anyone’s real father either.”

  “You haven’t told him, have you? He doesn’t know he’s your father.”

  “Not yet. But I plan to. He recognized my name, of course. And he remembers my mom. He said I look just like her. He knows I’m her daughter—but not his. I’m not ready to tell him yet.”