A Timely Vision

“Well, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Brickman—”

“Kevin. It was nice meeting you, Mayor O’Donnell. I hope you find Miss Elizabeth before the storm.”

“I’m sure we will.” I glanced at the old hulk of the Blue Whale Inn next door. Only a hint of the slate blue color that gave the inn its name remained on the clapboard. “Call me Dae, please. Everyone does. Good luck renovating the inn.”

With a mixture of interest and surprise, I watched him walk away from Miss Elizabeth’s house and back toward the inn. There weren’t a lot of good-looking, youngish (not high school or college students) single men who lived full-time in Duck. It was going to be fun to watch what happened once the ladies in the community met him.

I called Chief Michaels and asked him to meet me at the house. Then I sat on the wrought-iron patio chair to wait. It wasn’t long before I saw Kevin climbing up on the inn’s roof. He had a bundle of black shingles thrown over one shoulder and a hammer in a holster at his side. He turned around once he was up there and saluted in my general direction. I waved. That’s what mayors are supposed to do.

The pretty blue sky that had made the Fourth of July parade so spectacular was being chased away by angry black clouds coming in from the south. The ocean responded with more whitecaps and thunderous surf. Mary Lou might be right about those sea turtle eggs. I realized that was the next thing on my list. Who knew being mayor would be so crazy?

I’d kind of fallen into it on a dare from Gramps. He’d been the sheriff of Dare County for twenty years before retiring fifteen years ago. He was a big believer in community service and asked what I’d done for my hometown since becoming an adult. Sometimes you have to be careful how you respond to people who want the best for you.

Fortunately, running Missing Pieces wasn’t really a full-time job and Gramps filled in for me when I needed him. Being mayor was only a sometimes kind of job too, so they meshed together nicely.

Chief Ronnie Michaels came huffing around the corner of Miss Elizabeth’s house. He always reminded me of the Marine sergeant on the Gomer Pyle sitcom. His uniform was immaculate, creases exactly where they needed to be. His patent leather shoes never had a scuff mark.

Officer Tim Mabry was at his heels, as always. Tim had told me lots of times that he planned to become the next police chief when Chief Michaels, who was seventy like Gramps, retired. He was building a house on Duck Landing Road after inheriting a small patch of land his grandfather had left him. I knew all of this because he told me every time he proposed to me. Last week had made the sixth occasion this year.

“Mayor.” The chief nodded at me, then turned narrowed eyes on the house. “You say Miss Elizabeth is missing?”

“I don’t really know.” I told him what Miss Mildred had said and threw in what Kevin Brickman had told me for good measure. “Mr. Brickman was here for a few minutes. He was concerned about Miss Elizabeth too.”

“Are you saying you think he could be involved with this?” Tim lifted his police cap and let the breeze cool his sweaty blond head.

“No, Tim. I was saying he’d noticed she was gone and he isn’t from here. Maybe that’s odd. I don’t know.”

The chief laughed. “Yes, ma’am. It’s real odd for people in Duck to know what everyone else is doing. No one ever knows what’s going on around here.”

I agreed, thinking he hadn’t needed the sarcasm.

“But maybe if the mayor thinks something is up with that boy, we should check him out.” Tim rushed in to defend me.

“No need. He came by when he moved in. Believe me, he’s not involved in anything with Miss Elizabeth,” the chief assured him. “But he’d be the kind to notice things, if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t,” I admitted. “But if you think it’s fine—”

“Not just fine, Your Honor,” the chief continued. “I can’t divulge everything Mr. Brickman confided in me on his move here to Duck. Suffice it to say, he’s the kind of citizen we want to have here. We’ll leave it at that.”

Chief Michaels rarely spoke highly of anyone not born and raised in Duck, so his good word was enough for me. I’d known him all my life. He and Gramps had been friends since high school. I trusted the chief completely, and if the chief trusted Kevin Brickman, then regardless of the secret circumstances, Kevin Brickman was okay. I glanced back up at the Blue Whale Inn’s roof. Kevin was nowhere to be seen, but I could hear his hammer.

“Anyway, as you can see,” I continued, “we may have a situation here with Miss Elizabeth. I think we should search her house, and if we can’t find her, we might have to issue a Silver Alert.”

The chief scratched his head. “Silver Alert? I’m not sure I’m familiar with that term.”

“It’s what they call it when an older person is missing,” I explained. “Like the Amber Alert when a child is missing.”

“No need to panic, Mayor. We’ll find her.” The chief looked back at the increasingly angry horizon, where bright streaks of lightning were stabbing at the sky. “I suggest we do it before this weather hits too. Looks like a nasty one brewing.”

Tim came over to hold my hand. “Don’t worry, Dae. We’ll find her.”

I don’t have anything against Tim. We went to school together and even kissed a few times back then. But I don’t have those kinds of feelings for him either. Each time he’s proposed I’ve told him as much. I don’t think he was listening.

I smiled as I took my hand back. “I’m not worried. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

But two hours later, things were far from fine. The storm was sweeping the town streets with rain and sand. A long line of visitors was snaking away from Duck to safer and higher ground. They represented at least a third of all the business we’d see that year. And Miss Elizabeth was still missing.

I put on a poncho and rain boots and locked up Missing Pieces. Gramps had gone to the fire station to help since he was a volunteer. I pulled the wood shutters closed over the windows to try to protect what I could. Even though the shop faces the Currituck Sound side of Duck rather than the ocean, there could still be damage. Everyone was meeting at town hall a few doors down on the boardwalk to coordinate efforts toward the storm and the search for Miss Elizabeth.

“It was going so well,” Shayla Lily said on a sigh as she met me outside on the boardwalk. “I’d already done two tarot spreads and a couple of palm readings. They were lining up at the door.”

Shayla ran Mrs. Roberts, Spiritual Advisor. Her business was located next door to Missing Pieces on the Duck Shoppes’ boardwalk. She hadn’t bothered changing the name of the popular tarot-card and palm-reading shop when she’d bought it from Mary Catherine Roberts last year. Shayla was an interesting person, with her slinky black clothes and sultry New Orleans attitude.

“I think everyone feels your pain. I guess we’ll have to make it up this fall at the Harvest Festival.”

“What about the fireworks?”

“I think they must be canceled.”

“You’re the mayor. Can’t you do something about it?”

“I don’t think I have that kind of power. We’ll have to save the fireworks for next year.”

“Or the Harvest Festival?” she asked with a brilliant smile.

“Maybe. I have to go. I’m looking for—”

“Miss Elizabeth. I know.”

“Did you find that out using the tarot?”

“No. Someone came by and told me she was missing. It doesn’t take a psychic to find out what’s going on around here, Dae. Like that new man up at the Blue Whale Inn. I keep hoping he’ll stop in and want me to read his palm.”

“I don’t think that’s likely to happen. He doesn’t seem the type.”

“You met him already? What type does he seem?” She looked at me suspiciously, her finely drawn brows knitting together in her cocoa-colored face. “Have you been flirting over the UPS packages again? If I’d known what a babe magnet they’d be, I’d have taken them in my store.”

The rain came down heavier, and I pulled my poncho hood down low over my face. I told Shayla we’d have to talk later. Miss Elizabeth might be out in the storm.