The Inn at Dead Man's Point

by SUE FINEMAN

  Her head was swathed in bandages and the swelling in her face had gone down. He sat by her side holding her hand and talking to her. “You’re going to be all right, Jenna. Katie is at Grandma’s house, and Brian is with her every day. She’s still coughing, but she’s okay. I didn’t think it was a good idea to send her back to daycare until after her mommy came home from the hospital.”

  Her eyes opened and she whispered, “Baby.”

  Nobody had told her about the baby. Al wasn’t sure she could deal with it now or even comprehend, so he changed the subject a little. “Mattie burned the baby furniture, honey. Everything in the garage and the inn burned, and both cars are gone. After you get out of the hospital, we’ll go buy new ones, okay?”

  “‘Kay.” Her eyes closed and a second later they opened again. “No furniture?”

  He shook his head. “We’ll stay with my mother when you get out of here.” He tugged on the red polo shirt he wore. “This is Nick’s. I ordered some clothes over the Internet, but they didn’t come yet. Cara ordered some things for you and Katie, so we won’t have to go naked, but we’ll have to shop together for furniture for our new house.”

  Her eyebrows lifted slightly. “What new house?”

  “The one we’re building on Beach Road. I had the design about finished, but I’ll have to start over.” All the work he’d done in the past few months was gone. He’d kept backups of his work, but the backups were in his briefcase in his car, and Mattie burned the car. All the designs for the Dead Man’s Point project and for their new house were gone. All the archives of past projects, all the framed sketches of the homes he’d designed, and all the plans in progress were gone.

  “Did you get the cats out?”

  “Bandit is the only one they’ve found so far. Angelo brought him home from the emergency clinic this morning. The firefighters found the bodies of Coco and Midnight inside the inn. Callie is still missing, and so is Albert. Callie wasn’t on the bed when I grabbed Katie, and the windows were open, so maybe she got out. After you get home, we’ll go out and look.”

  She rolled to her side. “What happened to Mattie?”

  “She tried to cremate herself. When the authorities release her remains, we’ll have the funeral home finish the job.”

  Jenna reached up to feel the bandages on her head. “She hit me.”

  “Yes, she did, several times.” He wasn’t sure where Mattie got the strength to hit someone that hard, unless it was rage. One strike of the iron bar had left an indentation in Jenna’s skull and others had split the flesh right down to the bone.

  “Poor Mattie.”

  He couldn’t summon any sympathy for Mattie. She’d killed his baby and nearly killed the baby’s mother. They should have kept that woman under lock and key instead of turning a lunatic loose in a nursing home. It was a wonder she didn’t burn that place down. If she had, a lot of people would have died. As it was, the only ones lost in this fire were Mattie Worthington, two cats, and a baby who’d never had a chance to live.

  The nurse came in, and Jenna asked about the baby. Instead of answering, the nurse glanced at Alessandro and left the room. Jenna pinned him in an intense look and said, “Tell me.”

  He sat beside the bed and took her hands. “You lost the baby right after the fire, before you woke up. It never had a chance.”

  Her eyes filled with tears and the sudden grief threatened to strangle her. She was only three months pregnant, not far enough along to show, so the baby wasn’t much of a baby yet, but she already loved him. Alessandro mopped the tears off her face and her big, strong Italian looked like he might cry along with her.

  “Jenna, I thought you were going outside when I went upstairs to get Katie. If I’d known—”

  She touched his face and he held her hand there. “You did the right thing, Alessandro. If you hadn’t gotten Katie out, she would have died.”

  “I know, but we lost the baby, and I almost lost you.”

  She scooted over and he lay on the bed beside her and held her. “We’ll make another baby, honey, or several more babies, and I’ll love every one of them as much as I love you and Katie.”

  Jenna knew how much Alessandro wanted this baby, and she wanted so much to give him a son. She leaned into his shoulder and let herself grieve for the child they’d lost.

  Alessandro had risked his own life to save her life and Katie’s. If she’d ever doubted his love, those doubts were gone now, burned away in a fire set by a hateful old woman who’d intended to incinerate them all.

  After she recovered, she and Alessandro would make another baby, and they’d put this ordeal behind them. Mattie Worthington’s hate would not ruin the rest of their lives.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jenna left the hospital, and Alessandro took her to his mother’s house, where the two of them settled into the basement bedroom. Katie was so glad to have her mommy home that she chattered until she started coughing. Jenna sat on the side of the bed with her until she quieted. They’d all been coughing, especially Alessandro. She’d spent much of her time in the inn unconscious and lying on the floor, where the smoke wasn’t as thick.

  “Mommy, where’s Callie?”

  Bandit had been released from the hospital and he’d followed them downstairs. He was a mess, with part of his fur burned off and patches shaved off where they’d put in IV lines at the vet hospital.

  “I’ll go out and look for Callie this afternoon,” said Alessandro.

  Katie asked, “Can I go, too?”

  Jenna caught Alessandro’s eye and shook her head slightly.

  “Not this time, Katie Bug,” he told her.

  Mattie had six cats at one time. One was long gone, two died in the fire, and one was here. Albert and Callie were the only ones left. Albert might have made it, but Callie had been upstairs in Katie’s bed when the fire started. Unless she went out through a window, she was still in the rubble of the burned inn, and Jenna didn’t want Katie to find her body. She’d already had enough trauma to last a lifetime.

  Jenna looked in the mirror and nearly didn’t recognize herself. She still had stitches in her head, and since her hair was blond and fine, the stitches were visible through her chopped off hair. So were the bruises. Her hair was an inch or two long in most places, and it would grow back, but right now she looked awful. “I look like something out of a horror movie.” Surprising that a ninety-year-old woman could hit that hard. Rage against Charlie and his bastard had given her strength, and Jenna hadn’t seen her coming. The first blow had stunned her, and before she could react, Mattie had hit her again and again, until Jenna blacked out.

  There was a box on the coffee table in the rec room. Alessandro opened it and pulled out one soft hat after another. “Gina thought you might want something to wear until your hair grows out. Cara bought you a bunch of clothes, and Maria said she’d take you and Katie shopping as soon as you were up to it.”

  “We just bought new clothes, didn’t we, Katie?”

  “Yeah, but they got burned up in the fire.”

  “Yes, they did.” Everything got burned up in the fire, including the woman who’d set it and some of her precious kitties.

  All that time they’d spent packing, and the china and crystal was gone. The antique furniture she’d lovingly polished, the hand-sewn linens, all her mother’s papers and pictures, Katie’s toys, their clothes, her purse, even her car with Katie’s car seat. It was all gone. But what she missed the most was the baby.

  Alessandro’s baby.

  After lunch, while Jenna lay down with Katie and Bandit, Al drove out to the inn. He took Bandit’s new kennel along in case he found Albert or Callie, but he didn’t have much hope that either cat was still alive. If they were, they must be starving by now.

  He’d spent so much time at the hospital with Jenna, he hadn’t had a chance to see the inn after the fire. Seeing the blackened mess with a few burned timbers spiking into the sky, the big stone fireplace scorched from smoke, and
the pile of rubble sickened him.

  The branches on the pretty Japanese maple tree had been burned off and there was nothing left but a blackened stalk, but it wasn’t the only tree that had been burned. Part of the beauty of this place had been the trees – maples and madronas and firs – and so many of them were scorched now, he wondered if Nick still wanted to go through with the deal. Trees had surrounded the garage and shed, and now most of those trees were gone or too badly damaged to save. The ones between the inn and the road were still there, a little singed, but okay.

  He walked around the property, trying to see what they could do with it to restore some of the former beauty of the spot. After the rubble was cleared out and the burned trees removed or trimmed back, it might be okay. They could plant new trees, but it would take time to erase the scars from the fire.

  He poked around the bedroom side of the inn, looking for his computer and files, but what he saw was a melted mess. Nothing was salvageable. As he kicked a piece of metal aside, he uncovered the body of a cat. A little piece of calico fur told him it was Callie, Katie’s best friend. After wrapping what was left of the body in an old towel from the trunk of Ma’s car, he put her in the trunk. And then he walked around calling Albert, the only other cat that might have survived. Minutes later, he heard a rustling in the trees at the edge of the property and looked over to see Albert limping toward him. Poor old cat could barely walk.

  Talking softly to the injured cat, he approached slowly. Albert meowed and let Al pick him up. He put him on the front seat of the car. After one last glance at what was left of the inn, Al drove to Tacoma, to the emergency veterinary clinic. He left Albert there to be examined and treated, and he left Callie’s remains to be cremated. It was the least he could do for Katie’s best friend.

  He made a stop on the way home to pick out a present for Katie. She was napping when he arrived, so he put the little calico kitty he’d gotten from the Humane Society beside her on the bed.

  Jenna put her hand on his shoulder. “You found Callie?” she asked softly.

  He nodded. “She’s being cremated, and Albert is at the emergency vet hospital. He’s in bad shape, honey. I don’t know if he’ll make it.”

  Bandit hopped on the bed and sniffed the kitten. Katie stirred and opened her eyes. And then she giggled. They’d lost her favorite kitty, but the kitten would help soften the pain of the loss.

  If only he could replace his work that easily. Everything he’d worked so hard to accomplish was gone – the plans he’d poured his heart and soul into, the wall of framed sketches of every home he’d designed, his computer, his backups and files. He could replace the computer and the software, but he didn’t have a desk to put it on or a place to put the desk.

  The plans for the retirement community and the ones he’d done for Nick in the past didn’t matter so much. Tony had copies of all the plans for the retirement community, and most of the plans he’d done for Nick had already been built. The homes for Dead Man’s Point had not only not been built, he didn’t have copies of the plans or the sketches. All those nights he’d stayed up working, and the work was gone. The plans for his studio were still with the county pending approval, but the plans for the house he intended to share with Jenna and their children, the home of his dreams, was gone.

  The thought of starting over, of re-creating the plans and sketches, overwhelmed him. Nick had other potential buyers who were interested in the development at Dead Man’s Point, and they had nothing to show them.

  Nick came over an hour later, and Katie showed him her new kitten. As soon as Katie left the room, Nick jabbed a finger at Al. “If I have to buy Sophie a kitten, I’m blaming it on you.”

  “They have plenty at the Humane Society.”

  “You don’t understand. If I get her a kitten, Max will want a puppy, and then Johnny will want something. It never ends, and somebody has to housebreak all these furry little creatures.”

  Al sat beside Nick at the kitchen table and sipped the ice tea Ma had made them. “Katie lost her favorite kitty in the fire, and there’s another one at the emergency clinic. His ears are singed and the pads of his feet are so raw and blistered he can barely walk.”

  Ma called Al to the phone. “It’s the doctor at the vet clinic.”

  By the time the doctor outlined all the medical problems, Al knew the cat wouldn’t make it. He’d not only been burned in the fire, he had a large abdominal tumor that was most likely cancerous. “Put him out of his misery.” Mattie had killed three of her cats, and this one had suffered long enough.

  He glanced over at Jenna, nearly bald, her blue eyes huge. “Albert?”

  He nodded. Bandit alone had survived the fire, probably because Al had tossed him outside before the smoke killed him.

  Jenna drifted into his arms. He didn’t want the cats in the first place, but he didn’t want them to suffer and die, especially after Katie had gotten so attached to them.

  “The kitten will help.” Jenna kissed him. “Thanks for taking care of it, Alessandro.”

  After Jenna went into the bedroom with Katie, Nick handed Al a folder. “One of the buyers returned the plans, said he changed his mind about Dead Man’s Point. Seems his wife is afraid the crazy old woman who died there will haunt them.”

  “Aw, shit.” If she felt that way, others would, too. Al wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t happen. A man was found dead on the beach a hundred years ago, Mattie had killed Charlie, and now Mattie was dead. Dead Man’s Point had earned its name.

  “We’ll clean it up, trim the burned trees back, and get the utilities and road in. By the time we get done, you won’t be able to tell where the inn was.”

  “What about the other buyers?”

  “I haven’t talked to them since the fire.”

  Al drummed his fingers on the table. “Are you sure you want to go ahead with the sale?”

  “I’m sure. If we don’t sell anything until next year, so be it. It’s still a beautiful piece of property. We’ll get our money out of it sooner or later.”

  What Nick said made sense, but Al wasn’t so sure. “We can delay—”

  “No, we can’t,” said Nick. “We sign the papers tomorrow. Two o’clock. Gerry’s office.”

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  Jenna picked out a floppy blue hat to wear to her follow-up appointment with the doctor. The nurse removed row after row of stitches from Jenna’s head. Jenna counted for awhile and lost count at eighty. No wonder they cut her blood-soaked hair off at the hospital. It must have been a connect-the-dots project.

  Alessandro sat beside the exam table, his hand on her leg. One especially tender spot made her eyes water, but she assured him that she was okay. “Some of them sting, but I’m glad to get them out.”

  At last it was over, and Jenna breathed a sigh of relief. If it didn’t scar too much and her hair grew back, no one would ever know that someone had tried to kill her.

  <>

  Two days later, Angelo arrived with his barber’s kit. “I know your hair is already shorter than you want, but I thought we might be able to even it out some.”

  He worked carefully, avoiding the sore spots on her scalp. As he trimmed, he said, “You have a nice shaped head, and short hair shows off your pretty long neck.”

  Angelo’s compliments warmed her, and Alessandro’s teasing about her not being able to look like a guy even if she was bald made her laugh.

  Angelo said, “Al, I’m buying myself a new pickup. Teresa says we need an extended cab, so we have room for the baby seats.”

  “How much you want for the old one?”

  “Nothing from family.”

  Alessandro nodded. “Thanks, Angelo. I’ll make good use of it.”

  Watching the two brothers together, Jenna felt cheated. Angelo and Alessandro were obviously close, as she and her brother might have been if only she’d known about him. She didn’t want her daughter to grow up alone, with no one else in the family but her mother and her kitties. The baby she’d carried u
ntil recently was gone, but the doctor said there was no permanent damage. She and Alessandro could make other babies.

  If he still wanted her.

  <>

  The following week, Alessandro had his new computer hooked up in his mother’s basement rec room and he started re-creating the plans for the project at Dead Man’s Point. Jenna saw the frustration in his eyes and in his movements. He’d lost his life’s work, and now he had to create his latest plans all over again.

  Jenna chose a red flowered hat to go with her new navy blue slacks and white shirt that Cara had bought her. She used Alessandro’s pickup to drive Katie to her first day at pre-school. Sophie was already there, and the two girls grinned at each other. It was a small, exclusive school that Cara had recommended, and it wasn’t any more expensive than the pre-school Katie had attended in Seattle. Brian was paying child support again, so they could afford it.

  Seeing Katie in the hospital and hearing her struggle to breathe had made Brian a believer. He’d finally stood up to his father, and Jenna was proud of him. He’d never be the kind of man Alessandro was, but he’d made a giant step in the right direction.

  Jenna went back to work for Cara. Cara was starting to show, and seeing her with her swollen belly reminded Jenna of the baby she and Alessandro would never have. It still hurt, but it was a part of life, something she had to accept.

  She took her hat off and showed Cara the new hairdo. “I told Alessandro I looked like a boy, and he laughed at me.”

  “Nick cut at least two feet off my hair before he could get me out from under the rubble of the cabin I’d been living in. The earthquake destroyed it. It was a bad time for me, like this is a bad time for you, but we’re strong women, survivors.”

  She’d never thought of herself as a strong woman, but Cara was right. She had to be strong to survive her childhood, strong to get herself through college with very little help, strong to have a baby and nurture her child by herself, strong to stand up to Brian’s father, and strong to survive the fire and the loss of her baby. Only this time she didn’t have to do it alone. Alessandro’s love made everything easier.