Crowned and Moldering (4 page)

“Who’s Lily?” Eric demanded.

My heart was pounding wildly in my chest. I tried to swallow, but my throat was too
dry. Lily Brogan had been a friend of mine back in high school. She was also Sean’s
older sister. And fifteen years ago, Lily Brogan disappeared off the face of the earth,
never to be seen or heard from again.

*   *   *

“I just want to talk to him.”

“Please give him a few more minutes,” I begged the chief as I watched Sean prowl the
edges of the mansion property. “He’s not going anywhere.”

A few feet away, Mac leaned against the porch rail, silently observing us. Wade and
Johnny had gone off to another job site to work for the rest of the day.

“If Sean’s innocent,” Eric argued in low tones, “he shouldn’t mind talking to me.”

“Innocent?” I argued. “Of course he’s innocent. Look, I know you’re the police chief,
but people are not all divided up into suspects and victims. There are other slots
to put us in. Like maybe hurting family member. How about a little compassion?”

“He should want answers, just like I do,” Eric countered, a stern, unyielding look
on his face. “Look, I’m not going to arrest him, Shannon. Why wouldn’t he want to
talk to me?”

“I wonder.” I laughed softly. “I mean, because you’re always so open-minded.”

He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against one of the porch pillars.
“That’s right.”

“Oh please.” I couldn’t help but smile at his defensive posture. “You thought I was
guilty of murder the first time you ever laid eyes on me.”

His frown was expected. “You have to admit the evidence was compelling. And, besides,
I didn’t even know you yet.”

I wanted to argue, but he was right. The murder weapon had been one of my favorite
work tools. “Okay, I’ll give you that. But look. You need to cut Sean some slack.
He’s just had a terrible shock.”

“I understand that.”

“I’m not sure you do.” I wanted to make him understand. Would it be so hard to bend
a little? The people of Lighthouse Cove already liked him, especially after so many
years of dealing with the incompetent Chief Ray. So how could I make it clear to Eric
that he didn’t have to play the hard-nosed cop all the time?

“Here’s the thing,” I continued. “Sean has devoted the past fifteen years of his life
to finding his sister. I mean, he’s never stopped searching. When Lily disappeared,
we were all upset, but Sean was flattened. His way of dealing with the loss was to
dedicate every spare minute he had to finding her, tracking her down. It consumed
him. And now to find out she never left town after all? That she was here all along?
Dead, shoved inside a dumbwaiter shaft in the lighthouse mansion?” I rubbed my arms
from the sudden chill. “He’s got to be devastated. I mean, what was she doing out
here? Who was she with? And how did she get inside that dumbwaiter?”

“That’s for the police to figure out,” Eric said.

My mind flashed on the image of those bones I’d seen through the dumbwaiter shaft.
There was something wrong with that picture, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Do you think she was already dead when someone put her in the dumbwaiter? Or did
she die once she got inside? Maybe she was hiding from someone. Could she have suffocated?
Oh God.” I had to rub away more chills from my arms. The thought of poor Lily being
treated that way . . .

“Stop it, Shannon,” Eric warned. “Don’t start painting scenarios. I don’t want you
thinking you can investigate this crime. If that’s what it was. After all, you could
be right about her hiding in there. Maybe she got stuck and couldn’t get out.”

“Oh, that’s horrible.”

He seemed to regret planting that image in my head. “Look, anything could’ve happened.
The last thing I need is for you to be dreaming up theories and motives on your own.”

“All right, all right.” This wasn’t the first time I’d heard him lecture me on this
point, obviously.

“Tell me more about Sean’s relationship with Lily,” Eric said.

“Okay.”

“Mind if I take notes?”

“Not at all.”

He pulled out a spiral notepad and pen and turned to a blank page.

“Okay, there are three Brogan kids. Lily and Sean and their younger sister, Amy. They
were always really close. I think it’s because their father was such a bad guy. The
three kids protected each other.”

“Where was their mother?”

I hesitated, then admitted, “She was a big drinker.”

Mac had been listening silently, but now he jumped into the conversation. “How old
were you when all this was going on?”

“I was a sophomore in high school. Sean and I were in the same grade. I’ve known him
since kindergarten. So, when we were sophomores, Lily was a senior and their little
sister Amy was a freshman. Same grade as my sister, Chloe.”

Eric looked up from his notepad. “You said Sean’s been trying to find his sister all
this time. Do you know how he’s gone about doing that?”

“He’s tried everything. He’s got a private eye that he contacts whenever he has any
extra cash. And whenever any new technology comes out, Sean learns how to use it to
do more in-depth searches.” My heart hurt for my friend and I threw a quick glance
over my shoulder to check on him before turning back to Eric. “To this day, he’s constantly
online, checking new sources, thinking she’s got to be out there somewhere. He’s lived
in hope of finding her one day, so now it’s like he has nothing. I’m worried he’ll
slip into a depression, or worse.”

Eric frowned. “Does he have a girlfriend?”

“No. And, believe me, Lizzie has tried to set him up a dozen times.”

Eric smiled briefly. “Does he socialize at all?”

“He’ll go out after work for a drink or dinner at the pub with the guys and me. And
he plays on a softball team. But that’s about it.”

Mac nodded in understanding. “An obsession like that would put a damper on any personal
relationships he tried to have.”

I sighed. “Most people in town thought Lily ran away because her father used to beat
her.”

“Did he?” Eric asked. “Did he beat his children?”

I winced. I knew that giving information to a cop wasn’t the same as gossiping, but
I really didn’t like talking about my friends. “Yeah. I mean, I think so. Everybody
thought so. It was pretty obvious.”

“If he did,” Mac said, “then it’s reasonable to suspect she ran away.”

Eric wrote it all down, then looked at me. “Do you know the father’s name?”

“Hugh Brogan. He was awful. A mean, violent man.” I frowned, recalling some of the
stories Chloe used to tell me. “One day Amy came to school with a black eye and a
swollen jaw and told everyone she’d fallen down the stairs. Their homeroom teacher
reported her injuries to the police, who must’ve gone to the house to question her
parents. After that, Amy was out of school for almost a week, and when she came back
she had a broken arm and was limping badly.”

“Sounds like Hugh needed to be kicked in the teeth,” Mac muttered.

I scowled. “Unfortunately, he’s dead, or I’d be happy to see you go over there and
bash his face in.”

“Didn’t the police ever arrest him?” Eric wondered.

“Oh yeah. He’d spend some nights in jail, and then Sean’s mother would show up crying
and whining that she needed him at home. And I heard that she called Amy a liar.”

Mac’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Did the cops ever question Amy?”

“Yes, but she wouldn’t say a word. It would just mean a worse beating. So, what could
the police do?”

Seething, Mac pounded his fist into his palm. “They could believe what they saw with
their own eyes and lock the creep up for good.”

Eric nodded and said, “You have no idea how many times we would like to do just that.
But we have to follow the law, whether we agree with it or not.”

I told them how Sean eventually grew to be taller and stronger than his old man and
was able to give him a taste of his own medicine once or twice. After that, Sean became
the buffer between his father and his sisters.

“But then Sean’s mother would yell at him whenever he threatened his dad. She’d call
him insolent and vicious and stuff like that. He told me she used to slap him for
daring to disobey his father’s orders.”

“A classic enabler,” Mac said, shaking. “Sometimes I wonder which is worse.”

“The father was worse,” I said flatly. “For a while, Sean was in and out of trouble
himself. He spent some time in juvenile hall in his teens, but then he straightened
himself out. And, believe me, there’s nobody more easygoing and helpful in the whole
world. He talked me into giving him a job when I took over the company, and I couldn’t
be happier with my decision. He’s the perfect employee, a great worker, and a real
sweet guy. And a dear friend.”

I looked out at the silhouette of my friend sitting on the rocks. The sun had all
but disappeared and a phalanx of dark clouds formed the background. “He doesn’t deserve
this.”

Mac nodded and followed my gaze. “Poor guy.”

“There’s something else you probably should know,” I said uncertainly.

Eric glanced up from his notes. “Let’s hear it.”

“It’s just that, at the time, the local police didn’t give Lily’s disappearance much
attention.”

“Because they thought she ran away.”

“Right. But still, they could’ve searched harder. I remember my father talking about
it. He told me the cops sent a few inquiries to other police departments in the area
and they questioned a few people around town. But that was about it.”

“Do you remember who was questioned?”

“Her mom and dad, of course, and Sean and Amy. And her boyfriend at the time. I remember
the cops showing up at school to question Lily’s guidance counselor and a few of her
girlfriends. I can’t think of anyone else, but my dad would probably know. And I’ll
bet Sean would know, too.”

Eric was jotting down the names. “I’ll talk to all of them.”

“Apparently nobody knew much and the police chief quickly gave up the search. He made
a point of brushing off Lily’s disappearance as just another teenage runaway.”

Eric looked at the big man in the distance, sitting alone and broken. “Sean couldn’t
stop looking, though.”

“No. I think it was partly because he felt so guilty. He always wondered if he could’ve
done more to protect her from their father’s brutal temper.”

“Is his mother still around?”

“No, she died years ago.”

“What about the sister, Amy?”

I smiled. “She’s happily married to a doctor and lives up in Eureka. They have a couple
of kids.”

Mac gave a brief nod. “Good for her.”

“She probably still has a few emotional scars,” Eric mused.

“I know she does.” I sighed. “I just wish the police had devoted a little more time
to Lily’s case. Someone had to have known that the mansion was being used as a crash
pad. Stuff like that didn’t just fall through the cracks. People drive out here all
the time to go to the lighthouse, and the gift shop is nearby, too. Somebody must’ve
seen something. But as far as I know, nobody came forward.”

“I’m sorry,” Eric said.

“Me, too,” I said, knowing he was apologizing for the police in general. “I hate to
say it, but Chief Ray wasn’t very good at protecting and serving. He probably would’ve
been fired years earlier, but he had his cronies on the town council and they kept
him in the job a lot longer than they should have.”

“I’ve heard about that guy,” Mac said. “Nobody seems to have had much respect for
him.”

“Sadly, there are plenty of lazy cops who are more than willing to let things slide
than do the legwork.” Eric’s jaw tightened, though he managed to bank his anger. “But
there’s a new chief in town, and I’m determined to get to the bottom of this case.”

“Good,” I said, smiling at his tough words. “You don’t know how happy that makes me.”

He pointed toward Sean, still sitting on the rocks. “But to do it, I’m going to need
to talk to your guy.”

I gazed in that direction and shivered. What had been a blustery-cold but beautiful
day had turned grim and menacing. Those dark clouds were closing in, threatening to
open up and dump icy rain on us at any minute.

I knew I would have to be the one to convince Sean to talk to the police and I’d have
to do it soon. I’d already persuaded Eric to wait for the better part of an hour.
If Sean continued to resist, Eric might go ahead and arrest him just to get him down
to police headquarters and question him. I didn’t want that to happen. Sean was already
traumatized enough.

I glanced from Mac to Eric, then nodded. “I’ll go get him.”

“For God’s sake, Shannon,” Sean shouted. “If you think I had anything to do with the
death of my sister, you’re not the person I thought you were.”

I winced from the anger in his tone. “Of course I don’t think that. I know you would
never hurt Lily. Or Amy either. You three were always close.”

“Then what are you doing out here?”

“I want you to go talk to Chief Jensen.”

“Why? The police won’t do anything. They don’t give a hoot.”

I couldn’t blame him for having that attitude ingrained into his DNA, but in this
case he was wrong.

“Come on, Sean,” I said, grabbing his arms and forcing him to look at me. Believe
in me. “Eric is nothing like Chief Ray and you know it.”

He huffed out a breath and narrowed his eyes into a squint. “What if he arrests me?”

“He’s not going to arrest you—I swear it.” I prayed I was right. And if Eric did arrest
Sean, he was going to get an earful from me. “He just wants to find answers. That’s
what you want, too, isn’t it?”

He pressed his lips together like a stubborn six-year-old but finally relented. “Yeah.”

“He needs your help.” I wove my arm through his and nudged him away from the breakwater.
“Let’s go inside. It’s freezing out here and it’s going to start pouring rain any
minute.”

“I don’t care.”

“Well, I do,” I countered. “If you get a cold and miss a day of work, I’ll hunt you
down and kick your butt.”

He couldn’t help but smile, but then shook his head soberly. “For Pete’s sake, Shannon.
It feels like I’ve been looking for Lily my whole life. And now to find out she was
here all along? It hurts.” He rubbed his chest absently.

“I know, honey.” I grabbed his hand and held it tightly for a long moment. Finally,
we linked arms again and he allowed me to lead the way, stepping off the rocks and
onto the sandy path at the edge of Mac’s property. “It hurts me, too, Sean. Lily and
I were friends, remember? You’ll laugh, but when she left, I thought it was because
she didn’t like me anymore. I was such a baby back then.”

“Aw, come here,” he said gruffly, and wrapped his muscular arms around me.

I couldn’t help the tears as the memory of losing my friend took over. But as Sean’s
warm hands rubbed up and down my back and he murmured words of sympathy, I realized
that even in his misery, he was more interested in soothing my pain than in wallowing
in his own.

Finally I broke away and stared up at him. “Let’s go talk to Eric. He’ll help—I promise.
And we’ll both feel better if we talk it through and take some action.”

“Yeah, okay,” he said. Biting back a smile, he added, “You’re the boss.”

I slugged his arm and heard a deep chuckle echo inside that burly chest of his. It
was the best sound in the world.

*   *   *

I watched Sean carefully as he glanced around at the pale green walls of the police
department’s interrogation room. He took in the thin brown carpet and the utilitarian
conference table and chairs before turning to glare at Chief Jensen. “I want Shannon
to sit in with us.”

I already knew what Eric would say, but I waited patiently for him to tell me to get
lost. I felt bad, though, because poor Sean sounded like a little kid begging for
his mom to stay with him. I knew he would be fine without me, but it hurt to realize
that he’d never had anyone be there for him. Except Lily. And with that realization,
I prepared myself to fight Eric’s decision.

“Sure, she can stay,” Eric said.

My eyes widened in shock. “Really?”

“Yeah.” He pointed to the seat at the far end of the small conference table. “Just
sit over there and don’t say anything.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, holding up both hands. “Don’t worry. I’ll be as quiet as a mouse.”

Seriously, you could’ve knocked me down with a feather. I’d been involved in several
murder cases since Eric had moved to Lighthouse Cove, and whenever I’d tried to fill
him in on some background info or share my opinion or suspicions of something or someone
around town, he’d given me a hard time. I couldn’t blame him, since he was adamant
that civilians shouldn’t be involved in police activities. But still, if you had information
to give to the police, shouldn’t they welcome it? I had a sneaking feeling he was
trying to protect me, so I suppose I could appreciate that. Sort of.

Meanwhile, this was a real switcheroo. A good one. Especially for Sean. He seemed
even happier than I was that I was being allowed to stay in the room with him.

It made me think that Eric really meant it when he said he only wanted to have a conversation
with Sean, not an interrogation. So that was a relief. I mean, I understood why Sean
would be the first person Eric wanted to question, but I had to admit I was also concerned.
Was Eric suspicious that Lily’s sweet-natured brother might’ve been the one who hurt
her?

I was pretty sure that this would simply be a fact-finding mission and that Sean would
be able to go home in a little while, where he would have to deal with his own personal
new world order: namely, his sister Lily was dead and he could no longer go through
life hoping that she would return someday.

And wasn’t that depressing?

I made a mental note to get in touch with Wade and see if he and the guys would take
Sean out to dinner or a beer tonight and for the next few nights. If they weren’t
available, then I would take him out myself. And was it too soon to call Lizzie to
see about lining up a few dates for him? Probably. Besides, how could I endorse anyone
going out on a blind date when I was so adamantly opposed to it myself?

Eric sat down at the table and placed a manila file folder in front of him. “I called
ahead and asked a clerk to pull all the records on your sister’s disappearance. I
haven’t had time to read through them, but I will.”

“That’s good,” Sean said, staring uneasily at the thin folder. “Doesn’t look like
you’ll learn much from the cops who investigated Lily. They didn’t go beyond the basics,
but maybe they wrote up some background info that’ll help.”

Eric’s lips pursed in thought for a moment. “I want to apologize to you for my predecessor’s
sloppy work.”

Sean blinked a few times, clearly as surprised as I was. “Oh. Well, uh, that’s okay.
Not your fault.”

“No, it’s not. But it pisses me off when I hear about cops doing shoddy work. It makes
us all look bad.”

“Well, thanks for that.” Sean nodded, discomfited by the chief’s clear admission.
“I appreciate it.”

“I do, too,” I said, even though I’d promised to keep my mouth shut. I couldn’t help
it, though. I was so pleased by Eric’s words.

“So, let’s talk about Lily,” Eric said, and flipped open the folder.

Within minutes of skimming the pages, Eric found the date Lily was reported missing.
“It says that your sister Amy called the police to report her missing. Where were
you?”

Sean had that stubborn look on his face again. “I wasn’t home.”

“Away at camp? Visiting relatives? Where were you?”

I gave Eric a dark look. He was starting to sound like an interrogator. He ignored
me.

“Do you remember where you were, Sean?” Eric continued. “This was a pretty memorable
moment in your life. Can you remember what you were doing when you heard the news
that your sister had disappeared?”

“I remember.” But Sean clenched his teeth together and I was afraid he would refuse
to answer. Within a few seconds, though, his shoulders sagged minutely and he relented.
“I was in the county juvenile detention facility over in Ukiah. I was there for ten
days. I didn’t know Lily was gone until I got home and Amy told me.”

Eric might have had the most professional poker face ever, but I caught a fleeting
look of relief in his eyes. Nanoseconds later it was gone, replaced by the stoic gaze
I was used to seeing whenever he was holding his cards close to his vest.

I had no such poker face. I almost jumped up and cheered at the news that Sean had
an alibi. Not that I ever doubted his innocence, but it helped to know that official
county records would corroborate his story.

While Eric and I might’ve been happy at the news, Sean looked completely mortified.
Was it because he’d been forced to confess the news of his incarceration to the chief
of police? Or was it the fact that his boss—me—was sitting in the room with him? I
hated that he might be worried about what I was thinking.

“I remember you used to get into trouble,” I said, trying to sound casual. “But after
Lily left, it seemed you straightened up pretty quickly.”

“I had to,” he said. “I realized that if I hadn’t been such a screwup and had been
around more, Lily might not have left. So I needed to clean up my act in case she
came back someday. And I also needed to protect Amy.”

I reached over and squeezed his hand. “I know you’ve blamed yourself all these years,
but I hope you know that it wasn’t your fault. You’re a good brother, Sean, and a
good friend. I’m really proud of you.”

He brushed away tears. “You should probably stop talking, boss. Otherwise I’m going
to start blubbering like a baby and we’ll never get through this.”

My own tears were threatening, but I was smiling. “Okay, okay.” I made a zipping motion
across my lips. “Quiet as a mouse.”

As the two men talked, I wondered whether the coroner had arrived at the lighthouse
mansion yet. Tommy and a uniformed officer had volunteered to wait while Eric drove
back to the station to interview Sean. Would the coroner immediately recognize that
the skeleton was that of a seventeen-year-old female? I’d heard that the size and
shape of the pelvic bone was the clearest way to detect gender. Were there other ways?

Would he be able to determine that the MedicAlert bracelet had been worn by the victim?
What if Lily’s bracelet had fallen off somehow and the victim was clutching it when
he or she died? Maybe Lily was alive and the bracelet had slipped down the dumbwaiter
shaft to land in the pile of bones. Anything was possible, right?

But despite all my internal questions, I wouldn’t voice any of them to Sean. I couldn’t
give him any more false hope when I truly believed it was Lily Brogan who’d died in
the dumbwaiter of Mac’s new home. The thought was realistic but depressing enough
that I forced myself to brush it away and tuned back in to Eric and Sean’s conversation.

“Until we hear from the medical examiner,” Eric was saying, “we won’t know for sure
how the victim died.”

“Or if it’s even my sister?” Sean asked.

“Frankly, we won’t know that for certain until we check dental records and run DNA
tests.”

“I’ll be happy to submit my own DNA if you need a comparison.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

“Not a problem,” Sean said. “I want answers even more than you do, Chief.”

“I know that.” Eric paused in his official tone and manner long enough to give Sean
a small sympathetic smile. “And I promise we’ll do everything we can to get them for
you. And for your sister.”

“Thanks.”

Eric stood. “Let me get a swab of your DNA and then you’re free to go. I’ll be in
touch as soon as we know anything.”

The two men shook hands and the interview was over. But I couldn’t have been more
pleased that they had formed an alliance to find justice for Lily.

*   *   *

It was pouring rain by the time we left the police station. I dropped Sean off at
his small Craftsman-style house on the east side of town, after extracting a promise
that he’d meet me and some of the guys at the pub later for dinner. I was relieved
that he seemed grateful for the invitation and I didn’t have to strong-arm him into
accepting our company. Not that I could actually strong-arm him myself. Sean could
swat me away like a fly. But I was willing to send Wade or one of the other guys over
to do the job for me.

Before he jumped out of the truck, Sean turned to me, wearing a sheepish look. “I
guess you were right.”

“How so?”

He shrugged. “Eric seems like a good guy, so I’ll call him if I think of anything
that might help with the case.”

I grabbed him and gave him a hug. It warmed my heart to hear him say it. I hoped it
meant that he wouldn’t turn into a gloomy hermit anytime soon.

As I drove home, my thoughts were consumed by Sean and Lily. The closer I got to my
house, the more the weight of the discovery of Lily’s bones hit me. I began to tear
up again and knew I needed to pull myself together or I wouldn’t be able to continue
driving. It was bad enough that there were bucketfuls of rain hampering my visibility.
Tears would not help matters at all.

Lily Brogan had been a beautiful girl with dark red hair and perfect skin. She was
two grades ahead of me, so it was a shock the first time she ever spoke to me back
in grade school. She’d said,
“Sorry to hear about your mom, Shannon.”

My mother had died a slow death from complications brought on by diabetes. It wasn’t
easy watching her fade away. A week after her funeral, I finally went back to school.

“Thanks, Lily,”
I’d said, feeling tears form in my eyes.
How was it possible to cry this much?
“I really miss her.”

Lily must have heard the catch in my voice, because she’d put her arm around my shoulders
and squeezed a little.
“It’s a blessing to have good memories of your mother. You should cherish those, because
not everyone is that lucky.”

At the time, I was too wrapped up in my own grief to realize what she was really saying
or to recognize how mature her words were for someone so young. But years later, in
high school, I found myself alone with her again while we waited for the library to
open.

“Hey, Shannon,”
she’d said.

“Hi, Lily. You look so pretty. I love that blouse you’re wearing.”

“You sure? You don’t think pink clashes with red hair?”

“Not at all,”
I’d said, wondering if she was fishing for a compliment.
“I’d wear it anytime. It looks perfect with your complexion. Who told you it clashed?”