A Spirited Gift (18 page)

There was traffic on Duck Road, but it was slow even for this point after the season. Several people waved and yelled their greetings to me, but none of them walked over to save me from Rafe.

I noticed someone near the Duck Shoppes trash bin. It was in a sheltered area to the side of the ground floor. The out-of-the-way location was supposed to keep the area hidden from tourists and other visitors. We had some problems with people sleeping here, mostly over the summer. Tourists would come to Duck without making a reservation, expecting they'd be able to find a hotel room. As a result, some of them ended up on the street.

But there were also hardship cases—people who lost their money and credit cards, whose cars broke down or had other misfortunes. They needed help to get back home, maybe a few dollars or a place to stay for the night.

I walked over to the trash bin and peeked behind it, ready to smile and offer whatever help I could. The man I'd seen from the street looked up, fear in his familiar face.

“Danny?”

“Dae?” he said, surprised and clearly uncomfortable. “What are you doing here?”

I could have asked him the same thing, but his purpose was obvious. “You don't have any place to stay.”

He shrugged. “My house is flooded. The bar is closed for repairs. I don't even have the van to sleep in, you know?”

“No friends—relatives?”

“Not anymore. Not for a long time.” He grinned. “You give up drinking and your old life and all your friends are like rats getting off the sinking ship. I've never had family out here. They're all in Virginia. I left Duck after your mother and I broke up, came back just a couple of years ago. I didn't have a reason to stay in Virginia anymore.”

I felt sorry for him. But I couldn't offer him the spare room in our house as I would another Duck resident. If Gramps even knew we were speaking, he'd hit the roof.

“Come with me,” I said. “You can stay in the shop until the house, bar or van is fixed. It's not much, but it's dry and warm. Do you need money for food or clothes?”

He dug his hands into his dirty jeans. “I can't take that kind of help from you. You don't know me. You don't know if you can trust me.”

“Maybe not. But I have an instinct about these things. It's never let me down.”

I refused to think about that niggling doubt—he'd taken the makeup case from the counter. I couldn't live that way. Besides, he was my father. If I didn't help him when he needed it, who could I help?

“Yeah, well, your instinct isn't so good, Dae.” He took his hand out of his pocket and in it was the gold makeup case. “I'm sorry. I won't make excuses about being desperate. Old habits die hard.”

I took it from him with a smile. “You
were
desperate. I can't even imagine not having anyone I could depend on. Besides, you gave it back to me.”

“It won't happen again,” he promised. “I was thinking how I could give it back to you without you knowing about it. This is it for me. I have a different life now.”

“A different life is good,” I told him. “But if you need money, I'd rather give it to you upfront.”

“I could use a few bucks,” he admitted. “The owner of the Sailor's Dream evacuated before the storm with my paycheck. I'm broke, and I haven't eaten since I got out of the hospital.”

I fished forty dollars out of my purse and put the gold makeup case in its place. “I'd invite you home—”

“But Sheriff O'Donnell has a long memory?” He shook his head. “You don't have to tell me about it. That's why your mom and I broke up, you know, all those years ago. He found out who I was and told me I wasn't good enough for Jean. He threatened to put me in jail—make my life hell. I laughed at him. My life had been one long hell until I met your mother. But I guess he got to Jean. I never saw her again.”

I was surprised by the story but didn't let on. Maybe it was the truth—or at least his version of it. Gramps hadn't said anything like that to me. He'd said Danny kicked my mother out after learning she was pregnant with me.

And while Gramps had lied to me my whole life about my father being dead, I couldn't completely distrust him either. I didn't know Danny well, but he'd obviously had a troubled life. I didn't want to start making him a hero when he obviously wasn't.

But I was interested to know which way the truth lay on this path.

“Come on. Let's get you settled into Missing Pieces,” I said after handing over the forty dollars. “There's another curfew tonight. I don't think either one of us wants to be out after dark.”

We walked up the stairs to the shops on the boardwalk in the evening stillness. He turned to me before we got to Missing Pieces. “Why are you doing all this, Dae? I know you're the mayor and everything, but I don't see you out rescuing every lost soul in Duck. Why me?”

I smiled as I opened the door to the shop. “I try to help as many souls as I can every day.”
Literally—since there's a pirate ghost standing at my shoulder, no doubt.
“I think that's part of my job as mayor. There aren't a lot of people in Duck. We have to stick together.”

He smiled and put his arms around me. “You're so much like your mother. She wanted to save the world too. I'm sorry she's dead. I always thought I'd see her one more time.”

I felt tears welling in my eyes and blinked them back before they could roll down my cheeks. “I'm sorry she's not here too.” I changed the subject to something less emotional, pointing out the hot plate—if the power came back on during the night—the Sterno if it didn't. I showed him where the extra key was over the door and where to find the spare blanket and pillow. I always kept one in back in case I decided to spend the night.

“That should do it,” I said, fastening a smile on my face and holding on to it despite the dangerous emotional undertow this man represented for me. “If you need to get in touch with me, here's my cell phone number.”

“I'd say thank you, but it wouldn't really cover it. I've never met anyone like you and your mother, who always see the best in everyone. I hope I can do something for you sometime when you need it.”

Again, I was ready to cry. I hugged him, then got out of there before I started blubbering and told him I was his daughter. It wasn't the right time yet. I didn't know when the right time would be, but it wasn't now.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” he called out the door while I ran down the boardwalk as if Davy Jones himself were after me.

As I was running down the stairs into the parking lot, Rafe joined me again. “What a sniveling worm of a man that is! I can't believe ye let him stay in your shop knowing the blackguard stole from you! What kind of man does that?”

“You're a pirate. Or at least you were. Figure it out.” Once I reached Duck Road, I slowed my frantic pace. It was getting dark, but I figured Tim could stop me and tell me the curfew was in force if he wanted to. I wasn't running all the way home. I needed a little time to take a few deep breaths and think about what Danny had said about him and my mother.

“Aye, at least I never pretended to be anything else,” Rafe continued. “That boyo is just waiting for the right moment to steal you blind. I can't believe any relation of mine would be fooled by all that mucky sentiment.”

“And maybe you're not as smart as you think,” I yelled back at him. “That man is my father.”

“Maybe so—but don't trust him. He's a scallywag, mark my words.”

I kept walking down the deserted road. There were no streetlights, no lights from stores or houses. Only the glow of candles and lanterns, from living room and kitchen windows, showed anything was out in the dark at all.

“Have you given any thought to who the ancestor of the magistrate could be?” he asked before we reached the house.

“I've been a little busy,” I replied. “And it's going to take some research. Have you given any thought to who killed Sandi Foxx?”

He grunted at me and scratched his head. “Keeping up with you has been a job, girl. I haven't worked so hard since I started my career at sea as a boson's mate.”

“Then I guess we both have work to do.”

Chapter 21

I went inside where Gramps was waiting with supper at the candlelit table in the kitchen. “I've been wondering where you were,” he said, serving up stew that had been in the freezer. “There's a curfew, you know. The mayor isn't above the law and needs to set an example.”

“I know.”

“You've been at Missing Pieces, haven't you? You always lose track of time when you're there.”

“Yep.” I wished I could say more. It was a strain holding back the things I really wanted to ask him. But I needed time to sort through everything and figure out what to say to him.

“I suppose you heard that the ME has ruled Mayor Foxx's death a murder,” he continued.

“Yeah. That's going to be a mess.”

“It'll be bad for Kevin, since it means all those people coming back again on his dime.”

I stopped pushing the stew around on my plate. “What do you mean?”

“I mean the county won't want to pay for them to be at the Blue Whale, and it will likely take a while for Ronnie to question all of them. Big group.”

“Maybe the town can help. Kevin is too good-hearted to complain about it. I'm sure it will seem like another civic duty to him. But that's not fair.”

“Good luck getting that past the town council.”

“We have an emergency fund,” I reminded him. “This seems like an emergency to me.”

“That will be depleted after the storm,” he said. “Besides, how will it look for the mayor to advocate giving money to her boyfriend?”

“You sound like Mad Dog.” I told him about what the mayor wannabe had said.

“He's right.” Gramps shrugged. “You have to start thinking about your reputation if you're going to run for reelection. You can't just run around doing what you please and expect the people of Duck to look the other way.”

I wasn't sure where all of this was coming from. Yes, Gramps had been sheriff for many years. Yes, he was a stickler for the rules. But now he was just being inflexible and judgmental. I didn't like his tone—especially since it pertained to me.

“I'm not any different now than I was two years ago when the people of Duck voted me into office,” I reminded him. “I don't see the problem.”

“The problem is Kevin. I like him, but the two of you should cool your heels on this relationship some. At least until after the election next year. You keeping clothes over there—showing up at all hours—this is a family community, Dae. People aren't going to want their mayor to be carrying on this way.”

“Are you saying this because Sandi was having an affair?” I glared at him, all thought of eating leftover stew out of my mind. “Because it's not the same thing. Kevin isn't married. Neither am I. It's not like he's sneaking out of my house in the middle of the night with his clothes off.”

“There's no reason to take that tone with me, young lady.” Gramps cleared his throat and pointed his spoon at me. “If you want to be mayor and serve your community, it takes some sacrifice. It took some sacrifice to be sheriff all those years. It didn't just happen. My family had to be above reproach. The community looks to its leaders to be examples of the best.”

I got to my feet and in a hot moment, I shouted, “Like you wouldn't let my mother be with the man she loved? Is that the kind of sacrifice you expect me to make?”

“What are you saying, Dae O'Donnell?” he demanded, equally angry. “You know your mother's boyfriend—your father—threw her out into the street.”

“Do I? Or was that another lie made up for me, like my father being dead? I've heard different, Gramps. I've heard that you ran my father out of Mom's life because he wasn't good enough to be Sheriff Horace O'Donnell's son-in-law.”

His shoulders heaved beneath the blue plaid shirt he wore. “I don't know who told you that—was it Mad Dog? He doesn't know what he's talking about—always meddling in other people's affairs.”

I didn't tell him it wasn't Mad Dog who talked to me about my mother. I had cooled down a little and realized what I'd said. I didn't want Gramps to know about Danny yet. “I'm not hungry. I'll be up in my room.”

“Dae?” He called after me. “Whatever I've done, I've done to protect you and your mother. Your father was a good-for-nothing, drunken layabout. He'd been in and out of jail since he was seventeen. There was no future for you and your mother with him.”