“You can say that again.” The fatigue-induced creases on his face were momentarily eased by the happy thought. Just then, Jason blasted in.
“EMTs just rushed Helene Kleister to the ER!” he reported. “Suspected overdose.”
My jaw dropped, but he hadn’t seen me because of the angle from him to where I was standing. Brooks cleared his throat and tilted his head in my direction.
Jason closed his eyes as he flipped his head back.
“Don’t worry.” I held up my hands. “I’m a steel trap.”
Both men rolled their eyes.
“Seriously, I promise not to say a word.”
“That Kleister family has brought more devastation to The Rock than the damn tropical storm,” Brooks grumbled, struggling to his feet. In doing so, he knocked a mass of files to the floor. “Damn it. I’ll be glad to have my office back.”
Jason and I bent down to begin collecting the mess.
“You guys go ahead,” I said. “I can clean this up.”
Brooks hesitated a second.
“I get it. Sensitive material.” I raised my hands.
“Stack it all up on the desk,” he said. “The door will lock automatically behind you when you leave.”
I gathered up the files and fortunately only a few loose pages had fallen out. But I couldn’t help noticing one report that had photocopies of a familiar-looking keychain. The label did indeed have the letters “L,” “E,” and “C” on it as Laura’s sources had reported to her. However, they weren’t written like initials. The “L” and the “E” were on the first line, and the “C” was on the second line with part of the label torn away.
“Hey, Chief,” a woman’s voice came from down the hallway.
“He’s not here,” I called out.
Deputy Kirkpatrick poked her head in as I was gathering the last of the files.
“Hi, Lisa.” I stacked the pile on the table. “Brooks had to rush out and he knocked all this on the floor.”
“Do you know where he went?”
I shook my head. “He left with Jason not even five minutes ago.”
“Huh. Must have just missed them.” She looked suspiciously at the files.
“I think I got them all.” I checked under the desk one more time. “Well, I must run.”
I scurried out of the station, certain Lisa Kirkpatrick thought I was up to something. Maybe it was feelings of guilt for reading that report. When I spied Laura walking toward the library, I ducked down an alley, not trusting myself to keep a lid on what Jason had just disclosed about Helene Kleister. But what I found on my quick detour was another surprising sight. At the small back patio of the Cape Breeze Café, I saw Christopher seated at a table with someone I didn’t recognize—a younger man, slightly built and with reddish hair. The two looked like they were having a rather serious discussion, and fortunately hadn’t noticed me. I looked for an easy escape, and my only option was through the back door of La Table. Crap!
“Can I help you?” I turned toward a familiar playfully sarcastic voice, foiling my hopes of sneaking in unnoticed. I smiled at Billy Hughes, my long-time on-again, off-again ex-boyfriend.
“Just passing through.” I waved, trying to make my voice just as playful. “How are you, Billy?”
“Not bad, not bad.” He narrowed his eyes. “What trouble are you up to today?”
“Avoiding trouble would be a better way to put it.”
“You always seem to find it.” He pointed his thumb to the alleyway. “You know—the dead dumpster dude?”
“What have you heard about it?” I asked, thinking he might have learned something I hadn’t.
“Nothing since they questioned me. First Brooks, then David Bland and that new lady deputy.”
Of course they’d be very interested in Billy. He rented the dumpster.
“Did you know the victim?” I asked.
“First time I heard of him was when the police showed me his picture,” he said, and then asked me, “What do you know about it?”
“Not much more than that.”
“Right.” His lips formed a line of skepticism.
“Gotta run.” I gave another quick wave and exited the shop. “Ta-ta.”
When I hit the sidewalk, I was flushed. Making things worse, Daniel just happened to be walking past.
“Hey you!”
He smiled and gazed up at the sign, then back at me, eyebrows lifted. “Planning a party?”
“And here it was supposed to be a surprise.” I tried to make light. “What are you doing?”
“Heading to lunch at Cape Breeze.” He swiveled his neck, checking to see who might be listening before saying, “I have a meeting. But that’s all I can say.”
Is that so? Exactly where I just saw Christopher and the mysterious stranger in an intense tête-à-tête?
“I understand.” I nodded seriously and then, to get his goat, asked, “With Christopher Savage?”
“What? How did …” He blew out an exasperated breath. “And so the psychic abilities continue?”
“Actually, I was just coming to tell you that I saw Christopher with some guy out on the back patio.” I thumbed in the direction of the alley. “Is that Tyler Stendall?”
A curtain of total exasperation descended. “How about letting me do my job?”
“Hey, last I checked, you’d retired from the FBI. Running Mitchell Whale Watcher Boat Tours was your job.”
“Either way, I’m not saying.” Then, in a tone of indignation, he told me, “Why don’t you go plan your little party with Billy.”
On that special note, he turned and walked toward the Café, making me feel small.
Perhaps I’d pushed him a little too far.
28
Renée
New York ~ Three months ago
“Please no more,” Renée begged of her husband. She’d had it with hospitals, doctors, needles, treatments. But Michael wasn’t ready for her to give up yet.
“Dr. Medford is very optimistic about this new protocol. So far, it’s been working beautifully.”
She didn’t have the heart or the strength to deny him his wishes, though she was bone tired and weary of it all. The cancer had moved in and made itself quite comfortable. She knew it wasn’t going anywhere, no matter Dr. Medford’s or Michael’s optimism.
“Where’s my boy?” she asked, hoping to forego another round of debate.
“I’m right here, Ma.” Her son pulled his chair nearer to her bed and took hold of her hand.
She closed her eyes, at peace knowing he was close. How long she’d slept, she wasn’t sure. At one point she awoke to hear her husband and son in a heated discussion.
“She’s trying to tell me something,” her son said to Michael. “Who’s Antonio?”
“I don’t know,” she heard her husband respond. “Maybe someone from her past. Maybe nobody. I don’t think you can take anything she’s saying seriously right now. You’ve just arrived, but I’ve been living with this for weeks. The medications are making her confused.”
“Why not take her off the antianxiety meds? That way she can stay conscious for a while.”
“We tried that,” Michael said, exasperated. “She becomes extremely agitated without them.”
“Did you ever think she might be agitated because she can’t focus on what it is she wants to tell us?”
Frustrated, Michael left the room, giving Renée the opportunity for a private moment with her boy.
“Tofie?”
He smiled. “You haven’t called me that for years.”
“Not since you forbade it.” She sent him a sly look.
“I was trying to be a cool middle-school jock.”
“How’d that turn out for you?” Neither she nor Michael had wanted their son to play football for fear of concussions. But a broken leg during his first junior varsity game had put a quick end to a future football career. She waved it away. “You were meant to spend time with books.”
�
�True.”
She took hold of his arm. “There is something you must know, in case …” She let the thought drift.
“This treatment is working, Ma.”
“I know.” She knew it was what he wanted to believe. “Even so, I’ve kept something from you. Something important.”
“What is it?”
“My son,” she whispered.
“Yes, I’m here, Ma.” He misunderstood, but Renée was unable to gather the courage to speak the words that had been bottled up inside her for so many years.
“Does it have to do with this Antonio you keep mentioning?” He frowned in that way that caused a crease between his eyes, just like when he used to work through a homework problem.
“Yes.” She heard Michael’s footsteps approaching and lowered her voice. “Look in my jewelry box. You’ll find the newspaper article. Antonio is in the photograph.”
She cringed at the pity reflected in her boy’s eyes. It was the same way Michael looked at her these days.
“You must believe me.” She reached for him, and he took hold of her hand.
“Okay, Ma. Okay.”
“Time for a snack.” Michael entered, holding a small tray with a fruit and yogurt parfait. Also on the tray, a bottle of pills. Renée was relieved she’d finally been able to tell her son about the jewelry box. Now he’d find out about his brother. It was only right that he should know.
But something was nagging at her. Other secrets in that jewelry box. What were they?
* * *
Boston ~ Late 1960s
“He’s going to try and take Antonio from me,” Renata told her brother. “Il diavolo.”
“You must calm down, sorellina.” Renata’s brother patted her cheek, then turned to his nephew. “Tonio, here are some crayons and paper. Draw me a nice picture of a big boat, heh?”
“Oh Vito,” Renata fretted, “How can I calm down? These are powerful people with means. Phillip Welles’s family invited us to lunch. But it was a trap. They figured out that Antonio is Phillip’s son, and they want to take Tonio away from me. They said he’d be better off, that they could give him a better life.”
She pushed the curtains aside to make sure nobody was lurking on the street below.
“You’re his mamma. They can’t just take him from you.”
“They offered me money for my child!” she shrieked, causing Antonio to look up from his drawing.
Vito took her gently by the arm and guided her to the small kitchen. “You’re frightening the boy, Renata.”
“Of course, you’re right.” She rubbed her forehead. “We have to leave tonight, and you have to help us.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” He took down a whiskey bottle from a high cupboard and poured a generous amount in a juice glass. “Here, drink this.”
She did as she was told. It was a punishing burn, followed by a synthetic calm. Finally she told him, “Phillip threatened me. He said I might as well take the money because they would end up with Antonio either way.”
“He was bluffing, maybe?”
“I can’t take that risk. Antonio is my world.” She finished off the liquor. “We will leave with or without your help.”
“Okay, okay.” He made a calming gesture with his hands. “Give me some time to think of a plan. Go play with your boy while I make some calls.”
She sat cross-legged on the floor with Antonio and he let her pet and hug him without fussing. “How would you like to go on an adventure?” she asked him.
Those brilliant blue eyes widened with excitement. “Where, Mamma?”
“It’s a secret. But I promise it will be exciting.”
“When will we go?”
“Soon my darling boy. Very soon.”
“I’ll draw a picture of where I think it will be.” Antonio returned his attention to his artistic creation, and Renata tried to hear what Vito was saying, wondering to whom he was speaking on the phone. Thirty minutes later he signaled for her to join him back in the kitchen.
“Thomas and I have come up with an idea.” Thomas was Vito’s best friend, and he’d always had a soft spot for Renata. She knew he’d do anything for her. “He’ll be here shortly, and then we will go over the plan.”
When Thomas arrived, he looked at Renata in a way that always gave her heart a tug. She felt it must hurt her more than it did him that she did not return his feelings.
“But he’s never even been on a boat before,” Renata fretted when Vito and Thomas laid out their plan. “He’s only five years old, and so small.”
“I have been piloting boats now for six years. You must put faith and trust in your big brother. Thomas knows someone who has agreed to lend us his boat in Plymouth.” Vito tugged at her sleeve and pointed at the map he had laid out on the kitchen table.
“We’ll leave early. There’s a shortcut through the Cape Cod Canal”—his finger traced the route—“and we can meet you right here in New Bedford. From there you and Tonio will continue on together to New York.”
“I have family in New York,” Thomas told her. “They own a business and can offer you work and a place to live. It’s modest, but clean and safe.”
“That’s all we need, Thomas.” She hugged him. “How will I ever thank you?”
“It’s nothing,” he stammered, blushing scarlet. “I’ll come and check on you as often as I can.”
“We’d like it if you did.” She felt something stir within her. Maybe there was potential for something between them after all.
“We have to do this quickly.” Renata turned her attention back to her brother.
“Is tomorrow soon enough?” he asked. “It is Sunday and we will have the day free.”
She’d like to leave right now but understood the plan required them to wait one more day.
“They will be watching my every move.” Again, she peered out the window.
“That is why you will go separately. You’ll take a bus, and Thomas and I will bring little Tonio. See? It’s all worked out.” Vito winked at his sister and assured her all would be fine.
Thomas purchased the bus ticket for her and dropped her and Antonio at the convent, where they spent the night with Isabella. Where could they be safer than at a convent?
She began to feel hopeful. Fantasies of a new life in a new place danced in her head as she thought of the plan for a new life with Antonio. But interrupting the pleasant imaginings meant to quiet her anxiety was Thomas’s face when Vito was outlining the plan to her. What had been behind his look of concern?
* * *
New York ~ Three months ago
When Renée aroused from the torpor, her husband and son were talking again, though with more civility now.
“I think you should let it go,” Michael said, though his voice had lost its fighting spirit. “At least for now.”
“I can’t let it go, Dad. It’s obviously something she wanted me to know. And I need to find out what I can.” He was quiet a moment before adding, “Maybe it’s the closure she needs.”
“Maybe,” Michael said, but with defeat in his tone. “What do you plan to do about it?”
“What are you two up to?” Renée made her wakefulness known.
“I’ve got to go check on something in the kitchen. A surprise for you,” Michael announced and sent her a sweet wink. “Be right back.”
“Ma, I checked your jewelry box, but there’s nothing there.”
“Bring it to me.” She motioned with her hands.
But when he came back with it, she’d forgotten already what she’d sent him to get.
“Yes, we must go through my jewelry,” she covered for her confusion and opened the lid, delighted by the contents of the box. She held up a triple strand of pearls. “I want Cecelia to have these. And my diamond stud earrings.”
“Ma, Cecelia and I divorced five years ago.”
“That’s right.” She rushed to cover her mistake again and tried to make a joke. “No wonder she hasn’t been by to visit.”
“What is it?”
She held up a silver chain with a round medallion and then instructed, “Bend down so I can put this around your neck.”
“Ma, I’m not one for jewelry.”
“Antonio has Isabella’s,” she mumbled, gazing into space. “But something went wrong.”
“Ma. There’s nothing else in here.”
She pulled out the secret compartment. Empty? But how?
“Brandan,” she whispered.
“Brandan knows?”
She nodded.
“Then I’ll find out from him.”
She was suddenly gripped with fear. Even though she couldn’t quite latch onto the reason, she felt sure it was a bad idea. She reached out to grab hold of her son, but he was too far away. Come back. Come back. Come back. It was only after he turned and blew a kiss before gently closing the door that she realized her unuttered plea had remained trapped in her head. Because she had now lost the ability to articulate her thoughts, her son was going to believe he had her blessing.
When she later awoke from another long nap, Michael appeared with her dinner tray, his face shining with the love he’d always had for her.
“You look rested.” He fluffed her pillows and helped her to a sitting position. “I’ve made your favorite. Tuscan bean soup.”
“It smells delicious.”
“It should. I used your recipe.” He smiled indulgently.
She took a sip and nodded her approval, then asked, “Where’s my Tonio?”
“You mean Tofie,” her husband corrected her.
Did she? “Of course.”
“He went to see a friend. He’ll be back later.”
“That’s nice.” She smiled through her hazy confusion. Had her brain tumor permanently erased yet another part of herself?
29
Cassandra
Present day ~ Whale Rock
I stopped by the harbor later that afternoon to make nice with Daniel.
“Hey, Handsome,” I called out.
The frown when he looked up from his work on the tour boat dashed my hopes. I hopped aboard anyhow to offer my help. Most of my life had been spent working in some capacity on these boats, and I didn’t need any instruction. We worked quietly together for a while before he surprised me by asking, “Want to come out for a quick spin?”
Storm of Secrets Page 20