The problem was solved for me when Duck Police Officer Scott Randall greeted us at the bottom of the stairs. He’d been injured the week before, and his broken arm was keeping him from being much help on the roads picking up trash from the storm. He’d been assigned to checking on Duck citizens.
I’d never been so glad to see someone I was barely acquainted with!
“The chief said I should head over here and make sure everything is okay,” he said in his quiet, almost shy way.
I liked Scott. He wasn’t from Duck, but, like Kevin, he’d settled in so completely, it felt like he’d been here forever. I wanted to hug him at that moment but didn’t want him to take it the wrong way. He was a very serious, reserved young man.
“Thanks for coming.” I drew him into the kitchen and shooed some children out who were raiding the refrigerator. “How are things out there?”
He shook his head. “About the worst I’ve seen. The roads are impassable—all kinds of debris covering them. A few houses lost their roofs, a few more are flooded. There’s not much electricity anywhere on the island. To make matters worse, the bridges are closed.”
That sounded worse than I’d anticipated. “What happened to the bridges? They should’ve been able to withstand some feeder bands.”
“Yes, ma’am. I understand the high winds impacted the bridges. Department of Transportation wants to make sure they’re safe—once they can get down here. They said to expect them to be closed for the next twenty- four to forty-eight hours.”
That was a worry in itself. No bridges meant no supplies for stores. With no power, food in freezers and refrigerators would go bad pretty quickly. That could also mean water shortages if the pumps weren’t working.
The only good thing was that it was October and the thousands of visitors who’d been here over the summer were now safely back in their own homes.
“Was there something you wanted me to do here?” Scott asked. “If not, I’m heading back out to do what I can.”
I could tell from the sound of his voice that he wanted to be back out on the streets. But we had our own crisis here—I explained everything that had happened—at least what we knew for sure. Gramps always taught me to repeat the facts and not the fears, as he called it. I kept myself from jumping to conclusions and waited to see what Scott had to say when I was finished.
He finally nodded. “You’ve done the right thing, Mayor. I’ll take over from here. Where did you say the man is who was with Mayor Foxx?”
We found Matthew being detained by Mayors Barker Whiteside and David Manning. They’d taken the liberty of raiding Kevin’s bar and were halfway through a bottle of his best scotch.
When Scott questioned Matthew again, the young man repeated everything he’d told us upstairs. But this time he was a little less antagonistic. Maybe the police uniform made a difference—or maybe he was beginning to understand that this was serious.
After hearing what Matthew had to say, Scott thanked the two mayors for keeping track of him and asked them if they would continue to do so. Barker and David were happy to continue sitting there with Matthew between them.
“So the only places you haven’t searched for Mayor Foxx are down here on the first floor, is that correct, Mayor O’Donnell?”
“That’s right,” I said without my customary admonishment to have him call me Dae. This wasn’t the time or the place. “I found Sandi’s ring in the ballroom. Shall we start there?”
I left Nancy with the others, but Marissa came with us. We searched all the closets, cupboards and pantries, even the walk-in freezers. We checked in the laundry room and in Kevin’s downstairs suite. But there was no sign of Sandi.
“She could’ve just left on her own,” Marissa said. “That man she came with made it plain he didn’t want to be with her. Maybe when they were done upstairs, she just left.”
“What time do you think that would’ve been, Miss Endy?” Scott asked her.
Marissa shrugged her shoulders and looked at me. “I don’t know. I think they took us out of the ballroom about nine thirty. I’m not sure how long we were in the lobby.”
“The first time I looked at the clock, it was around midnight.” I tried to help fill in the gaps.
“If Mayor Foxx went upstairs with Mr. Wright at nine thirty or around there, then came downstairs an hour or so later, the storm was pretty fierce right then. It didn’t really let up until about two A.M.” He looked at both of us to verify that.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I lost track of everything while we were all sitting around.”
“So we really don’t know,” Marissa said again. “She could be back home for all we know. Maybe we should give it a rest until we can contact someone in Manteo.”
“That’s a good idea,” Scott said. “I have a friend with a ham radio. He should be able to get through to the police in Manteo. They could check on Mayor Foxx and find out if she made it back okay.”
“There’s only one problem with that theory,” I said. “Sandi came in Matthew’s car. I can’t imagine her hot wiring a car or hitchhiking to get home.”
“I’ve hitched rides before when I was desperate to get home,” Marissa said. “Mayor Foxx might’ve been desperate after that confrontation with her boyfriend. If she put her whole heart on the line for him and he rejected her, she would’ve walked home if she had to.”
I couldn’t argue that logic. No matter what I felt from the ruby ring, there was no way to know what happened until we found Sandi.
Chapter 7
Of course, that meant waiting around to hear something after Scott left to ask his friend to call Manteo. I knew it could take hours—if we were lucky enough to get through to someone. And this wouldn’t be as much of a priority for the ham radio operators trying to help coordinate medical efforts for people who were injured.
The mayors and their families and associates were bored and restless. They wanted to know what was going on outside the inn. They wanted to talk to their families and find out if their houses were still standing.
I didn’t blame them. I wanted to know about my house too. And no matter how much debris was in the roads, I could’ve walked home easily. But someone had to keep everything together, and this was my town. I wanted everyone stranded here to remember that even though this experience had been bad, the people of Duck handled the situation in a calm, efficient manner.
The first thing I did was create a cleanup brigade for the areas where people were eating and sitting around waiting for news. I got another group into the kitchen to wash some dishes and get ready for a breakfast of some kind in the next few hours. It was almost four thirty A.M. I knew the late-night snack everyone had shared would be wearing off soon.
I made a list of all the possible breakfast foods Kevin had on hand. I couldn’t believe how much food he had stored. With these provisions, he could probably feed everyone at the hotel for at least the next few days. Of course, the town would have to help him financially. It would be the least we could do for eating all of his food.
I had games arranged for the older children who were still awake. There was always something on hand for Kevin’s guests. It wasn’t too long before there was a large, noisy game of Monopoly going on around the big table in the lobby. Adults picked up some cards, and a few played checkers.
I knew everyone was waiting for daylight—like I was. We all wanted a chance to really see the damage, and hopefully the power would be restored by then. We were all anxious to hear the news about our homes and the towns around us. Television, radio and the Internet were still silent when we needed them the most. Civilization could be stripped away very quickly.
I remembered my good friend, Max Caudle, who knew everything about Duck history. He always said it was a
