The Cove Conundrum

by Agatha Ball

  "You just wanted the best for me..." I tried to insist.

  "No, I was being selfish and I wasn't recognizing that you aren't the young woman that you were when you left at the beginning of the summer."

  I began to laugh. "Yeah... that plan sort of backfired, didn't it?"

  "It totally backfired." She smiled again, this time it came a little easier, though. "We're both off on a new chapter of our life, aren't we?"

  The light in Bitter Beans shifted and I gazed out the window. There was a great big rainbow stretching out across the sky.

  "Maybe a new chapter, but we'll always be a part of the same book."

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The guys had come back when the sun began to set, but had no good news. The ferry-boat came and went, but Lottie still hadn't shown up.

  I wandered up to my little cottage. It was still super muddy, but I didn't really care. I had so much on my mind, but there was also a peace after the conversation my mom and I had.

  My blue-gray clapboard cottage stood waiting for me, not too worse for the wear. The geraniums in the window box were now barren, ripped to shreds by the wind. But the two little windows flanking the bright red door were sparkling. I stepped up the three wooden steps to the slatted porch and went inside.

  My little cottage was so quaint and homey. It was pretty much a studio, but the antique brass bed and old patchwork quilt made it seem cozy rather than small. The green velvet couch was ratty but so comfortable. The television set got a whole two channels, but I hadn't missed cable. I took off my shoes and left my wet socks on the braided blue-and-white rug as I stepped onto the pine floor. It was cool beneath my bare, waterlogged feet.

  I ran the water as hot as I could stand, stripped down and climbed into the claw-foot tub. It felt so good getting all of the rain and ocean water off me.

  This was my home, and it was going to stay my home for as long as I liked. It warmed me even more than the bath.

  I slept like a log and when 3:30 AM came, I woke refreshed and ready to take on the day. I headed down to Bitter Beans to do the morning bake.

  I loved that this day was the start of something permanent.

  Of something real and solid.

  Nate stopped by after the ferry came in. The crowd had been light. I think everyone was still a little in shock after the storm.

  "Any plans?" I asked after he greeted me with a hug and a kiss.

  "Johnny and I are going to go do another round of the island," said Nate. "I know that the likelihood of finding Hal is pretty much nothing at this point, but... well, we ought to just try."

  I nodded, giving him another hug. "My mom appreciates what you're doing."

  "I'd do it for anyone," he said.

  "I know. And that's what I love so much about you."

  His face cracked into a warm smile. "Have I mentioned how much I love hearing you say that? I don't know if I'll ever get used to it."

  "I hope you don't. I hope that every time I say it, your belly breaks out into butterflies and you think to yourself, 'Self? I am one lucky guy to have a girl like this telling me she loves me.'"

  He gave me another kiss. "It's like you are listening straight into my brain."

  "Funny that," I laughed.

  "I love you, too," he murmured before breaking away and grabbing his cup of coffee. "See you after work?"

  "Sure!" I said. "Text me when you get back."

  "Done and done!"

  The day passed slowly. Mom had retreated to the Grand Hotel and I think was still sorting through all of her feelings. I knew it was a lot, so I didn't press. Granny came to relieve me, but didn't say too much. She had traded her usually bright sweater set for a somber black and had left the rhinestones in her jewelry box today.

  "Hal meant a lot to your mother," she said as she put her apron on. "And I’m glad they at least had a few days before all this happened."

  I nodded.

  "She'll feel better again. I promise," she said, trying to reassure me.

  It reminded me of when I was little and Mom would go off on whatever business trip she had going. Granny was always here to comfort me. I was so glad to have her in my life.

  "I'm going to go walk the beach," I said. "Just to go see if..."

  "If you can find Hal?" Granny asked gently.

  I nodded. "I feel like I need to help, but there's nothing I can do... so...."

  "I think your mother would be very appreciative."

  That was really all either of us needed to say. I just gave Granny a smile and headed out the door.

  Instead of turning right, I headed straight over the dunes and onto the beach. It was littered with garbage kicked up from the storm. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that the ocean was going to decide it had enough of Hal, too, and that I was going to be the one to find him.

  Why had he been so stupid? Going out in the middle of a storm to get footage? Why had he stood on an outcropping? He could have gone onto the top of the cliffs.

  I was lost in thought as I walked for about an hour. I was so focused on closely examing the boulders and in the dune's grasses that I didn't even think to look up until I suddenly realized I was at the cove.

  There was an archway in the rock that led to it. The tide was low enough that I could step through to the beach.

  And that's when I saw the small boat.

  My heart rate began to pick up.

  No one beside Hal and Lottie had been reported missing. The timing was all off for them to have been the people I had seen in the cove the night of the storm.

  But who did this boat belong to?

  Were they a part of the search and rescue?

  Or had Lottie taken the boat and brought it here?

  My eyes ran over the tall cliffs rimming the lagoon. They were pocked with caverns. I owed it to everyone to at least check. Maybe Lottie was inside and was hurt. Maybe Hal had washed up here and crawled inside.

  I looked once again at the boat.

  Or what if those people I had seen here during the storm hadn't made it out. What if they hadn't survived and they had family and friends waiting for them at home, wondering what happened to them?

  I walked over to the first cave and turned on my cell phone's flashlight. "Hello?" I called.

  It was narrow. I could actually see the back of the cave from where I was and it was totally empty. I moved on to the next one, calling, "Hello?" again.

  But this time, I thought I heard something. A muffled sound and then someone shushing someone else.

  "Hello?" I crawled up into the cave, having to pull myself up the wall to get inside. "Anyone here? Are you injured? Do you need help?"

  "No!" called a male voice. "We're... I'm just fine. We're just fine. Thanks for asking. We're good."

  There was something about his voice, though. A strained note to it. Something caused me to think that there was something very wrong going on here.

  "Are you sure?" I asked, stooping down to walk inside.

  "Yep! Totally fine! No need for you to come in!"

  "It's really no bother. I'm just here to help!"

  And that's when I turned the corner and found Hal, bound and gagged and tied to a chair. He was shaking his head.

  "You're alive!" I said rushing forward. "Hal! You're alive!"

  Beside him was a stack of things. The loving cup Nate had said had been in the time capsule. Papers and pictures and the embroidery. There was an old map crumpled on the ground. It was all of the missing stuff that had been stolen from the time capsule.

  "Hal?" I asked.

  And then the world went dark as something struck my skull from behind.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Groggily, I peeled my eyes open to the sound of hushed voices arguing.

  "What are we going to do with her?"

  "Okay, so we tie up her hands and we just drop her in the ocean. The sharks will take care of it all for us."

  "There's no sharks here."

  "You don't
know!"

  "It is frickin' cold! They'd turn into floating ice cubes! They're cold-blooded—"

  I must have groaned or something because the voices stopped and a bright light was flashed in my eyes.

  "Crap. She's awake."

  "I told you to dump her in the water when she was still out. She would have just slept through it."

  "I'm not a murderer! I'm just a filmmaker!"

  And that's when I realized where I recognized those voices. "Aidan? Wait. And that director. Carter. Madison's friend, Carter. It's you!"

  I heard a scuffle. "Dude, she recognizes us."

  The light dropped as they got into their tussle and everything was cast into darkness. But I knew who they were. It was Aidan, the guy I had comforted just yesterday as he had sat there crying about his lost friend. And Carter, the director Madison had tried to get us to hire before we found Hal who had been working as Hal's cameraman. The guy who had been supposedly up in his hotel room crying?

  Someone kicked the fallen cell phone and the flashlight illuminated the room as it flipped over.

  "A jilted movie crew did all of this?" I slurred.

  Carter and Aidan stopped at the sight of me. Carter looked embarrassed. But all of the sadness Aidan had shown was gone. "Paige, that boyfriend of yours should have hired us. All of this could have been avoided if he had just hired us and not forced us to work under this smug bastard."

  I turned to Hal. He was still bound and gagged, but I could see him trying to work his ropes loose.

  "He was... he was dead," I said. "You said he had been swept out to sea. You were sad that he was dead."

  Aidan shook his head. "He was merely retired to more private digs." He then laughed like the psychopath he was. "I mean, more of a forced retirement. But a retirement nonetheless."

  "Why?" I asked, trying to piece together what was going on. "You were the one behind all of the robberies," I stated.

  "See, I always knew you were smarter than some barista."

  "I will have you know, baristas are some of the smartest people you will ever meet," I said as I struggled to break free so I could throttle him.

  Carter stepped forward. "We weren't going to hurt him. Or you. We just have student loans to pay off from film school. They are so much money. But then Hal told us there was a treasure here and we thought if we could get it, we could finally pay off our debt."

  "You kidnapped someone. You hit me over the head. You broke and entered two of the shops on Main Street."

  "We didn't take anything!" Carter whined. "I mean... sheesh..."

  "You didn't need to do any of this."

  Aidan cocked his head to the side and gave me a little half-smile, like he was touched by my innocence. "Do you really think the good people of Seaside would have allowed us to ransack their shop for the treasure out of the goodness of their hearts?"

  "We could have worked something out," I replied. "All this chaos. All this fear. And for what? Nothing." I felt my throat clenching with an emotion I didn't want to let out. "And my mother believed Hal was dead."

  For just a moment, Hal stopped struggling, seemingly taken aback.

  But those words seemed to just thrill Aidan. "Hal's little death upset her?" He put his hand on his heart. "How touching." He turned to glare at Hal. "Could have all been prevented if you had just told us where the treasure was when we figured out the map was a bust."

  Hal tried to say something, but was muffled from his gag. Rolling his eyes, Aidan walked over and yanked it out of his mouth.

  "If you hadn't gone and kidnapped me, you would have found out I was more than happy to split it with you."

  "That's a lie!" shouted Aidan, shoving his finger in Hal's face. "You went running your mouth about this treasure, making promises when you brought us on board to film your stupid documentary. I mean, really, who cares about a bunch of old broads in velveteen tracksuits and a town where the most happening place is the bait shop?"

  "I promised you nothing. I just told you I knew some old stories."

  But Aidan was on a roll, and Carter was so terrified of his friend, he just shrank back.

  "You got cold feet, Hal. Felt bad we were here to steal from the people of the island. Waaaa. Something something breaking the heart of people he cared about. Waaaa." Aidan motioned to the cave. "I know it is in this cove somewhere. The map says it is here, not in town like you told us. It is here and I'll kill this girl if you don't tell me right now where to dig!"

  "Wrong!" said Nate, stepping into the mouth of the cave. "It was here somewhere."

  Aidan turned in surprise, but Nate wasn't waiting to find out if he had a good explanation for why Hal and I were tied up in the middle of a cave. He smashed his fist into Aidan's nose, sending Aidan sprawling to the ground. He turned, but not before Carter ran out of the cave.

  Nate chose to help us rather than chase after him. He rushed over and began untying the rope. "Paige? What are you doing here?"

  "I think the better question is what are you doing here?"

  "Your Granny said you went to go check the beach for Hal." He turned and gave a nod to our friend. "Hey, Hal! Glad to see you're not dead."

  "Nice to see you, too!" said Hal. He jerked his head toward the entrance of the cave. "One of the bad guys got away."

  Suddenly, Johnny climbed up and into the cave. "No worries! I cut the string on his outboard motor. He's going nowhere."

  "We followed your footsteps," said Nate, "thinking we would just catch up with you." He paused again to turn to Hal. "I'm really, really glad you're alive."

  "Me, too!" he said. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you kids."

  Johnny went over to him and untied his restraints. "All in a day's work," said Johnny, giving a jaunty salute.

  I gave Nate a great big hug as soon as my hands were free. "I'm so glad to have you as my stalker."

  "Anytime," he murmured, holding me tight. He then turned to Hal. "So. Spill it. Why did they kidnap you?"

  "Because I'm the one who knew where the treasure was," he replied.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  We emerged from the cave into the sunlight. Carter was desperately trying to figure out how to start his boat when Nate sent the text to Stan and Fred that there were some unsavory types in the cove who needed to be arrested. We stood by to make sure Carter didn't try to get to the beach and run.

  As we waited for the police to arrive, Hal began his story. "My great-grandfather used to own the general store. During the war, everyone brought their scrap metal to be melted down for the war effort. But they also brought their heirlooms, priceless treasures they had brought with them from Europe and the east coast, and he just couldn't bring himself to send them off to be destroyed. Like, they were bringing priceless works of art. So, he stole it all."

  "Stole it?" Nate repeated.

  "Sort of..." Hal replied. He scratched his fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair like he needed to shake the story out of the crevasses of his brain. "He sent off the junk, the tin cans and old aluminum pans. But the precious stuff, he hid them here on the island and then left a map in the time capsule. He put in a few false markings so that if the map ever fell into the hands of folks like Aidan and Carter, they wouldn't know which was the right marking."

  Carter was now sitting in the middle of his boat, defeated, as it bobbed up and down on the lapping waves. He gave a sad little wave.

  "Once the war ended, or if it seemed like the war effort really needed the metal from people's wedding rings, he planned on retrieving it," Hal continued. "He plastered the time capsule behind the wall so that no one would know what he had done. But, again, he was only hanging onto things to give them back. Only, the war outlasted him. He died of a heart attack. He told my grandfather, but he was just a kid and not sure if it was real or not. And as soon as he died, his wife sold the general store and moved to the mainland. It became the thing of family legend, but everyone thought it was just the imagination of a kid. Until now. When I hea
rd that you wanted to do a documentary of the island, I thought this was my chance to see if I could spot anything. Or even figure out which one was the general store that my great-grandfather owned."

  "Did you steal the map?" Nate asked.

  Hal shook his head. "That was these kids. It was my fault though. I told them about the legend. They thought they could go do some treasure hunting in their off-hours. When the map proved to have all these false leads, they kidnapped me to try to get me to help them find it. Hauled me down here before the storm."

  "They were the ones I saw down here!" I exclaimed. "It wasn't my imagination!"

  "And Marnie's shop?" Nate pressed.

  "Just me sending them on a wild goose chase." He motioned to me. "They figured your place looked like an old fashioned general store, so they were thinking robbing Bitter Beans would be a good idea. Give Marnie my apologies, but I figured that yarn would hold up to a tossing better than a pastry case."

  I smiled. "I'm thinking you're right, and I'm pretty sure everyone is going to be so thrilled to see you, they're going to forgive you everything."

  It was at that moment Stan and Fred showed up in their police boat.

  "Hands up, everybody!" Fred shouted into his bullhorn. "You're all arrested!"

  Stan took it out of his hands. "Except for the good guys. The good guys are not arrested."

  Fred then grabbed it from him. "But we're watching you, so don't try anything suspicious."

  We helped them get Carter and Aidan into custody. Fred and Stan seemed slightly miffed at Hal for being alive and wasting all their time with a pointless search for his corpse, but they had the sense not to say anything out loud.

  While they hauled Aidan out of the cave, I texted my mom to let her know that we had found Hal. The phone rang almost immediately, and I handed it over.

  He stepped to the side to reassure her that he was fine, and I could hear her shouting for joy all the way to where I was standing.