A Touch of Gold (10 page)

“Twenty-four hours,” she replied without hesitation. “I can post it on the Web site this afternoon and outside town hall. Why? What’s up?”

“I think we should address what happened at the museum,” I answered without getting into the gory details. “Can you call the council together for a meeting tomorrow night at seven P.M.?”

“You got it! I think this is a good idea. There are a lot of worried people out there.”

I went back to Missing Pieces while she answered the phone. I wasn’t exactly sure how to address the curse of Rafe the pirate at the meeting. It was bound to come up. I hoped something would occur to me before then. Nancy was right too. It wasn’t only Rafe we needed to talk about. Max’s violent death in our peaceful little community would have shaken many residents.

When I got back to the shop, I tried on the blue dress with the shoes and decided it would do. I’d wear Grandma’s pearls and matching earrings and use the new perfume I’d bought a month ago. It was called Mystique, and it came in a sleek, black bottle that seemed both elegant and decadent.

All right. I was sold by the advertising. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.

The afternoon dragged on as I got more and more nervous about being alone with Kevin that evening. Not that we hadn’t been alone before—but this seemed different. Intent, I suppose. Knowing that I had a plan in mind to make him notice me as a woman and not a science project.

Sometimes, especially now with all the talk about my abilities changing, I felt more like a puzzle he was trying to piece together in his mind. Added to that was the new speculation about his partner in the FBI. He might be avoiding the idea of a romantic relationship with me because of what happened to her. It seemed to me Shayla would fit that profile too, but I had no way of knowing how he was looking at it.

Before I could drive myself crazy wondering and worrying about what the night would bring, I closed up for the day and went next door to Curves and Curls to get a pedicure to go with my new shoes. It made sense, I thought, since Kevin would be able to see my toes. He’d seen them all summer in my sandals, but that was different.

I wore the blue dress and the shoes so Trudy could give me her opinion. After spending a few minutes talking about everything that had happened and catching up with each other, I twirled so she could tell me what she thought.

“You look awesome! I love the gloves!” She looked me up and down with a critical eye. “This has to be a hot date outfit. Are you finally going to take Tim up on one of his many offers?”

Sometimes I felt as if Trudy had known me
too
long. “No. And what do I have to do to convince everyone that Tim and I will never be more than friends?” I sat down in the chair and hugged my secret to myself. “This is something different.”

“A new man?” she guessed, taking off my expensive shoes. “Is there a new man in town? I haven’t heard about anyone.”

“He’s not
that
new.”

She narrowed her green eyes. They were a different color almost every day thanks to her contact lenses. “You’re talking about Kevin Brickman, aren’t you? All of this is for him?”

“He asked me over for dinner tonight.
Alone
.” The secret spilled out of me without much coercion. I’d make an awful spy.

Trudy shook her platinum blond hair that never looked less than perfect, framing her pretty, tanned face. She’d never even had a zit all the way through high school. “He’s not over Shayla yet, Dae. If he
is
looking at you, it’s a rebound thing. You don’t want that.”

“Please! No cynicism. I’ve seen you go after a man for a lot less reason.”

Her eyebrows rose after she put cotton balls between my toes. “Dae, it’s the museum, isn’t it? You had a near-death experience and it’s warped your brain. Take a minute to think about this. You don’t want Shayla’s leftovers.”

“That’s not it.” I argued with her, although I had to admit the reason for the dinner might be different for me than for Kevin. Would he have invited me over if he wasn’t trying to analyze my new abilities?

“Dae—”

“I won’t listen!” I closed my eyes as she applied polish to my toenails. “I’m going tonight no matter what.”

My phone rang. It was Nancy reminding me of my appointment with the chief. “When?” I asked, something like panic building inside of me. I didn’t know if I was ready to discuss what had happened in the graphic detail Cailey and Chief Michaels were looking for.

“They’re here right now, waiting for you. ASAP, I guess.”

I turned off my phone. “I have to go,” I told Trudy. “The chief wants to talk to me about the museum. Sorry.”

“That’s okay.” She pulled out the cotton balls and used a hair dryer to dry the polish quickly. “What
did
happen over there, Dae? People are saying it’s the pirate curse again.”

“I know. Darcy told me. That’s where I got my shoes.”

“The shoes are perfect,” she remarked, then added. “It’s crazy. But who else would want to hurt Max or blow up our little museum? Nothing makes any sense about it. Kind of like you going after Kevin.”

I ignored the last part and told her about the town meeting tomorrow night. “I’m going to find some way to talk about the pirate curse without sounding stupid. I hope Chief Michaels will be there with Cailey to discuss what they can with everyone. I really don’t think Rafe is back to kill people and blow things up, Trudy. There’s a rational explanation for what happened.”

Chief Michaels wasn’t going to like that I’d promised a news briefing of sorts for him. He never shared information with the public if he could help it. The investigation might be ongoing, but so were panic and fear. We had to nip the pirate-curse rumors before they became what would pass for the truth.

The new people to the community, like Brad Spitzer and Kevin, might think it was crazy to believe in such things today. But I’d found that people will believe anything in the absence of the truth.

Feeling a little overdressed, I made a grand entrance into town hall, where the group was waiting for me. Nancy, looking stressed, was doling out coffee and sodas. Cailey and Brad were talking together quietly in one corner of the room while Tim and Chief Michaels were whispering in another.

When they saw me, everyone got to their feet and stopped talking. It was a little nerve-wracking. Were they all talking about me?

“Let’s go in my office,” I said with as much calm as I could. “Nancy, please hold all calls.”

She nodded, plainly glad to see us go into another room. “Would you like me to take notes?”

“That shouldn’t be necessary since we’re all
finally
here,” Chief Michaels assured her, his hat tucked under his arm.

I took the dig about being late in stride. After all, his reference to a meeting “sometime” today had been a little vague. I tried to take into consideration that he’d probably not slept much since the explosion happened. He and Max weren’t close friends, but everyone knew everyone else in Duck. He was bound to be as affected by it as other town residents.

Tim brought in two extra chairs, which made my office feel much smaller. As he passed me going in, he whispered, “Big date tonight, Dae?”

I ignored him too. This wasn’t a good time to argue about much of anything. Our long-standing disagreement about our relationship would have to wait. I knew it didn’t make it any easier for him that everyone in Duck expected us to end up together. Everyone, of course, except me.

I sat down behind my desk, hoping the chief wasn’t wasting his time with me. Someone else probably had a better vantage point. There were all those people in the cars and walking down the street at the time of the explosion. I assumed he was either in the process of finding and interviewing them or he’d already done it.

Despite not knowing what I could say to help, or maybe because of it, the meeting made me as jittery as ten double-shot lattes. I was already overwrought about Kevin, my night in the hospital and Max’s death.

Taking a deep breath and anchoring myself with the familiar surroundings in my office, I put on a grim smile and addressed them. “I don’t think I saw anything that could be helpful to your investigation.”

“There might be something you saw that you don’t realize is important,” Cailey countered in her old fifth-grade-schoolteacher’s voice.

“Start at the beginning, Mayor,” Chief Michaels urged as they all took out notebooks. “We know you were at the museum with the kids. What happened then?”

I told them about the program with Max and the kids, about how I walked out with everyone else.

“What made you turn back?” Brad, the arson investigator, asked.

I hadn’t wanted to share the existence of the gold coin with them. It seemed I had no choice. I pulled it out of my purse and showed it to them.

“This is evidence.” Chief Michaels had Tim put on gloves and take the coin from me. “You should’ve told us sooner.”

“I didn’t think it was important.” I gave up the coin reluctantly, still feeling attached to its individual energy. I knew everything about it anyway. I just liked having it with me. “The coin didn’t cause the explosion. What difference does it make?”

“No, it didn’t
cause
the explosion,” Cailey agreed. “But it might be part of the motive for what happened. Dae, all the rest of the gold coins were stolen from the museum. This is the only one left.”

Chapter 7

“W
e believe the explosion may have been to cover up the theft of the coins,” Chief Michaels explained further.

I glanced at him in total disbelief. “As valuable as the coins may be, there were only a few of them. Max added fake coins to the display to make it look more impressive. Museums up and down the coast have the same coins. Why our museum?”

“We don’t know yet,” Cailey said. “But we know the coins are gone. They would’ve melted in the heat and we would’ve found what was left of them. Anything else you took from the museum, Dae?”

The question sounded more like an accusation—as though I’d stolen the coin. Or maybe my guilty conscience just made it feel that way. “No.” But I couldn’t explain what made me put it in my pocket either.

I thought about the coffee card from the trash that was in a plastic bag in my purse. Would they have the same reaction if I shared that information? I wasn’t sure, but I realized it
could
be evidence. “I found a coffee card in the trash outside if that counts for anything.”

They all exchanged glances and shifted in their seats.

“Does it have a name on it or something useful to the investigation?” Brad asked, a little impatience in his voice.

“Well, only the Duck coffee shop name.” I realized I couldn’t tell them how I knew it belonged to Sam. They wouldn’t believe it. I had no proof to back me up.

“That’s irrelevant,” Chief Michaels said. “But please don’t take anything else from the crime scene. This is a serious matter, Mayor.”

Even though I reminded myself that it
wasn’t
a crime scene when I found the gold coin on the floor at the museum, I still felt fully chastened. I folded my hands on the desk. “I don’t know what else I can tell you.”

“You didn’t see anything unusual when you turned back after leaving the museum, right?” Brad demanded. “Any detail that could help us determine what happened and who was responsible would be helpful.”

I thought back again to that instant before the explosion. The door to the museum had been closed. That was the only detail I could remember, except for that brief flash of light. It hadn’t come from the museum building, as I thought back on it. Instead, the burst of light had flashed close by—close enough to catch my eye.

I couldn’t be sure what the flash was, maybe just a glint of sunlight reflected off of one of the cars going by. After my coffee card was summarily dismissed as unimportant, I didn’t feel much like sharing another ghost of a thought, but I told them anyway. “I saw a flash of light.”

“It’s possible she caught someone lighting the cannon,” Brad theorized.

Cailey agreed, sitting forward in her seat. “Are you sure you didn’t see anything else with that flash of light, Dae? A face or a car? Anything could help us.”

“No. I’m sorry. I wish I could help. It all happened so quickly,” I explained.

“We understand.” Cailey patted my gloved hands and smiled. “If you think of anything else, let us know right away. You’re lucky to be alive. It could’ve been so much worse if everyone else had still been in the museum.”

Everyone in the room agreed. A few minutes of dead silence followed as we considered the wider tragedy that had been narrowly averted. It made me wish I could say something about the coffee card belonging to Sam, even though I didn’t believe he had anything to do with Max’s death. The two men may have disagreed, but that’s a long way from murder.

“Thank you for your time, Mayor O’Donnell.” Brad broke free from the trance we all seemed to be in. He got to his feet and offered me his hand. When I didn’t offer mine in return, he frowned. “I’m sorry. I forgot. I hope your hands weren’t too badly injured. We’ll update you when we can about the situation. Everything we’ve found at the museum will have to be shipped to the lab and analyzed, including your coin. The process will be slow but thorough.”