A Watery Death (A Missing Pieces Mystery Book 7) (12 page)

Tim got up and sat on the sofa with his hands on his blond flat top.

“What should I do, Dae? Nobody knows her better than you. What can I say to make this right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you should just leave her alone for a while and let her get over it. A wedding dress, or anything to do with a wedding, is very emotional. I think I might skip the whole thing when it’s time for me and Kevin.”

Tim got on his feet, six-foot-six, thin and wiry. His blue eyes stared down into mine.

“I have to do something. What if she doesn’t get over it? She needs someone to talk to.”

“But not you,” I discouraged. “Let her talk to her mother and her aunt. They’re close. Maybe they can change her mind.”

“You know I respect you, Dae. I always have, even though you do some crazy things sometimes. We’ve known each other all our lives. Heck, I thought it would be me and you getting married. But I just feel in my gut that I should find her and beg her to forgive me. Thanks for your help anyway.”

There was no stopping him. He left the shop in the same haste he’d entered. I wished them both a lot of luck, and then I looked at the almanac to see what time sunset was that night.

Chapter Eleven

The rest of the day was super busy. I was afraid the Fourth of July crowds might buy everything I had. It was exciting but also made me anxious. What would I open with tomorrow? Sometimes it took me months to bring in new merchandise. If I had poor stock, I might have to be closed the next day.

Toward the end of the afternoon, Mary Catherine came into the shop with Peggy Lee and her husband. I was happy to see them and have a chance to explain about what had happened before and after the town hall meeting.

Peggy and Mary Catherine were tea drinkers like me. Steve, Peggy’s husband, had a cold Pepsi from my mini-fridge.

“Did you find the naked man from the parking lot?” Steve asked.

“I saw him again later,” I explained but didn’t go any further. After Kevin’s reaction, I thought Steve and Peggy might feel the same. “People are looking into it. Thanks for asking.”

“Mary Catherine thought we might all go out to dinner tonight,” Peggy suggested. “We’re hoping to meet your ex-FBI fiancé.”

“That sounds great.” I mentally calculated what time that could be. Sundown would be at about eight-thirty, according to the almanac. If we had dinner early, both things could still happen. “Would six or six-thirty be all right? Kevin runs the Blue Whale Inn, and he has open house all day so he won’t have to cook dinner tonight. I’m sure he’d love to go.”

We talked about it a little more and made plans to meet at Wild Stallions. Peggy and Steve left, but Mary Catherine remained.

“I’ve heard a few strange things from some of my friends,” she told me. “One of the turtles that live around the sandbar said he saw you with a merman before sunrise this morning.”

I’m sure my eyes got big. “You know about the seafolk?”

“Well I don’t know any
personally
. I’ve heard from many different sources that they’re very private people, very shy of humans. Not that I blame them. No doubt we’d do terrible things to them if science ever found one.”

Thinking about Tess, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. “Maybe not every scientist,” I hedged. “But that’s wonderful that you believe me. Kevin made a big fuss about me telling him that I’d seen a merman. My feelings were hurt that he wasn’t willing to take my word for it.”

“It’s probably just as well.” Her brows knit together above her green eyes. “What did the merman want with you? Did you just happen to see him, or was there a reason he looked for you?”

I told her everything, including what Tovi had said about war between humans and seafolk. “I think he’s too innocent about us to realize how devastating it would be for his people to come out of hiding and think they could fight us.”

“It would be bad for everyone,” she agreed. “I wonder why he bothered telling you about Captain Lucky? Do you think he killed him? You said yourself that the room was covered in seaweed and such. Maybe he drowned him and put that other stuff around to claim the deed. Who knows how mermen are?”

I changed the subject as I questioned her about Peggy Lee.

“How do you know her?”

Mary Catherine laughed. “I helped her with her Great Dane many years ago. But I never forget a dog face. I knew him right away. I was really glad to see him again and hear that he’s doing so well. Peggy and her husband brought Shakespeare to my shop this afternoon. It’s always a pleasure to see a former client and know that I helped in some small way.”

“That’s an amazing story.” The chime sounded at the front door, and a young couple came in looking for some bargain souvenirs.

Mary Catherine went back to the Pet Emporium, and I waited on my last customers for the day. I had an idea about going home and rummaging in the attic to see if I could find anything interesting, and yet not sentimental, to sell in Missing Pieces during the big weekend. I decided to close early, go home, and look around before I changed clothes and met everyone for dinner.

On the way home from the Duck Shoppes, I called Kevin, and he was fine with dinner at Wild Stallions. He was interested in meeting Steve too, as I thought he would be. I knew Gramps might want to go too, since Mary Catherine was going to be there. He might not have been in the FBI, but he liked talking about that stuff as much as Kevin did.

I was pleased to see that he was home when I got there. I ran in the front door and found him having a quick snack from the microwave.

“I’m glad to see you, Chief O’Donnell.” I smiled and hugged him. “How was your day at work?”

“It was good, except for the murder investigation. I tried to take a few clues from what you’d said about Captain Lucky needing money to get out of town.” He sighed as he sat down with his warmed up fish stew. “Tuck and I paid a few visits to all the local people who loan money or keep some big poker games going. We figured maybe Captain Lucky owed some money to one of them. None of them knew him. Are you sure that’s what he told you?”

I sat at the table with him. “That’s what he said. I’m sorry you didn’t get a lead from that, but maybe it’s someone on the mainland. Wouldn’t it be odd that Captain Lucky ran a gambling ship and didn’t do his gambling right there?”

Gramps shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t want to do it at home, so to speak.”

I stopped him before he took his first bite of stew. “We’re going out to dinner around six with some friends of Mary Catherine’s. I thought you might want to go.”

“It would look bad for the chief of police to be out eating dinner when he hasn’t figured out who killed a popular figure in the community. I’m just grabbing this to keep going. But thanks, honey. Have a good time.”

“People don’t expect the chief of police not to have a life because he’s working on a case. You can’t go 24/7 on it.”

He grunted. “I know this business, Dae. I’m doing what I need to do.”

I told him about Tim and Trudy. He didn’t seem surprised.

“Tim told me all about it. I’m glad your grandmother and I ran away to get married.”

“You ran away? I didn’t know that. Were your relatives against your marriage or something?”

“No. We both came from large families right here in Duck. Neither one of us wanted the big deal marriage everyone wanted us to have. No one had the money for it either. It was easier just getting in the car and going to Wilmington.” He smiled. “I think we enjoyed it more too.”

I covered his hand with mine. As long as I could remember, that soft look had come into his eyes when he mentioned Grandma Eleanore. I knew he still loved her.

“Missing Pieces almost sold out today.” I changed the subject. “I thought I might go through the attic and see what I can find.”

“Good idea since most of that junk up there is yours anyway. They could’ve had you on one of those hoarding reality shows when you were a teenager. You know what’s good. Get rid of the rest if you can. There were big crowds at the parade today. I’m glad for the town, but we were really stretched thin with the murder investigation too.”

“There’s a marine biologist on vacation here. I was telling her about the weird ocean stuff on the ship around Captain Lucky. What would you think if she took a look at it to see if she can identify any of it?”

“I don’t see what it could hurt, but I’d want to see her credentials first to make sure she’s not a journalist or something. The company that owns the Andalusia is really worried about this affecting their operations here. It’s not helping that they have to be closed down for the investigation either. I hope those crime scene people from Manteo finish up there tonight.”

“Great. I’ll tell her. Thanks, Gramps.”

I asked him how Chief Michaels was doing and his terse reply was, “As good as can be expected.”

“I’ll try my best to get over there tomorrow. Chris sent flowers from the town.”

Grabbing a cookie from the jar on the cabinet, I started upstairs.

“When were you planning on telling me about the naked man in the parking lot?”

“There wasn’t much to tell,” I lied. I definitely didn’t want to talk about seafolk with him.

“I didn’t see any calls to the police department about it, Dae. I wouldn’t even know except that MC told me. I think you should’ve reported this.”

“Gramps, you know how crazy some people get on vacation. He didn’t try to hurt me.”

“But she said he showed up here and followed you to the parking lot.” He frowned. “I haven’t had any other calls, but I want you to file a report first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Couldn’t this be my report?”

“No.” His mouth was tight. “I can’t believe you’d even ask me that. Go to the police department. It’s in the same building as your office. It’s not that hard.”

“This is what I remember about my grandfather being sheriff of Dare County,” I said. “I never got away with anything.”

He chuckled, breaking the tension. “And you never will. See you tonight or tomorrow, honey. Take care.”

Treasure was sleeping on one of the stairs. He followed me to the attic and walked carefully across the dusty floor, lifting his paws and shaking them every time he encountered a dust bunny.

We rarely used the attic. It was storage for all the old things we didn’t want but couldn’t bear to throw away. I was pretty sure there were still things up here from Gramps’s childhood and definitely from my own.

I switched on the overhead light. It barely made shadows in the large room. It was hard to search for anything in particular up here since I wanted to look at everything.

My great-grandmother’s wedding dress was still stored in a pretty trunk. It even had her flowered headdress and a yellowed lace veil. I picked up her tiny satin shoes and marveled at the size of her feet. Mine were so much bigger!

Touching her things without gloves was a pleasant experience. I saw her and my great-grandfather getting married in the old chapel by the sea that had once stood on the beach. I wasn’t present there, like I was with Grandma Eleanore, but it was fun.

There were two good mantel clocks that I remembered finding when I was in my early twenties, before I’d opened Missing Pieces. I didn’t know who they had originally belonged to—I couldn’t touch things back then and learn their past.

They were harmless enough once I touched them. One had belonged to a retired shop owner in Charleston and the other to a widow in Newport News.

Gramps was right about the large amount of missing things that I’d found and stashed up there. Some of the items came from walks on the beach—a carved ship in an old bottle and a diamond engagement ring.

I held the ring to see who it belonged to. It was a beautiful, expensive ring that I was sure someone hated to lose. I immediately felt cold and shaky, my usual response to holding anything I could get information from.

It was surprising when I saw that the ring belonged to Mrs. Euly Stanley. It had been her engagement ring.

I smiled at the image of a much younger Euly Stanley as she allowed her suitor to put the ring on her finger. I blinked my eyes once I knew where the ring belonged and put it in my pocket to be returned the next time I saw her.

Curiously, there was very little emotion behind the ring. It had nothing to do with age. Many of the things I found had very passionate emotions lodged in them even though they were hundreds of years old. Mrs. Stanley was a little cool toward her husband when he gave her the ring. She didn’t dislike him, but she didn’t love him either.

There were many boxes of unusual rocks and seashells that I’d found. I took one of those boxes with me too. Seashells were getting harder to find along the beach. This was a good collection of them to sell to tourists.

There was the old organ that hadn’t worked as long as I could remember. And an ironing board that was covered with someone’s old dress. Gramps had told me the story about how that came to be here, but while an amusing family anecdote, it was hardly salable material.

I found a small wood trunk and opened it carefully. There were a few old pictures in it, a crumbling flower, and a pink garter.

From the pictures, I knew this was Gramps and Grandma Eleanore’s runaway wedding. There were several postcards from Wilmington and one very clear shot of the young couple. They were posing, from the looks of it, immediately after they were married.

I sat back on my heels, feeling the strength of their love and the pull of this moment in the past. There was also a strange aura of warning that made me drop the picture of them. I couldn’t define what it was—like a cloud in my mind. But I knew I would have to come back to it later.

Putting everything back in the trunk, I put it in my growing pile to take downstairs.

By the time I was finished in the attic, I’d found some interesting family heirlooms, possibly the most important of them—my mother’s youthful treasure box with the rainbow unicorn inside. There was also a plastic bracelet, and her tickets to the carnival Grandma Eleanore had referred to.

One of the tickets was an entrance to see the Amazing Anthony, the psychic that I might use as a guide to help me speak with my mother and warn her against going home the night after our fight when I was in college.