A Spirited Gift

I couldn’t bring myself to move. I finally thought—she might still be alive. There was that time a few years back when Mr. Fitzroy was trapped under his house after a storm. He was ninety years old, but he’d survived.

I knew it was a long shot with the whole shed blown down on top of her, but I couldn’t ignore the chance that I could save Sandi.

“Dae?” Nancy called from the kitchen door. “What are you doing out here?”

“I found Sandi,” I called back as I began throwing the boards that covered her. “Help me, Nancy! She might still be alive!”

“Don’t be daft!” I heard someone say in a very un-Nancy-like voice.

I looked around, but no one else was near. Nancy was still trying to make her way past all the wood and other items that had blown here to the shed where I was working. It must have been the crashing waves hitting the sand as the water churned and spit only a few hundred yards away. Or the raucous call of the gulls above me.

“The lass be long past your earthly ministrations,” the voice continued. “Best not bother.”

Okay. This was too weird. But then the entire night had been one long weird fest. “Who’s there?” I demanded. “You’d better get back inside with your parents instead of out here playing this stupid game!” I decided it had to be one of the kids staying at the hotel. No adult would be so callous.

“Is she alive?” Nancy asked when she finally reached me.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “Did you see anyone else when you came out here?”

“I think everyone else left the inn. I guess they’ll come back for their stuff once they think about it. There might be a few left lingering at the bar. They’ll be lucky if they can walk out here on their own after they’ve been drinking all night.”

“Did you hear anything?” I asked as we moved the lumber away from Sandi.

“The ocean,” she replied. “Dae, we have to call someone.”

“I know. Any ideas? There are no phones—no radios.”

Officer Randall was obviously born with perfect timing.  He came around the side of the Blue Whale and picked up speed when he saw us by the remains of the shed. “I’m calling EMS,” he said after we’d explained to him about Sandi. “I hope they can send someone right away. Things are really backed up.”

With Scott’s help, we were able to reach Sandi in no time. I knew when I saw her blue-tinged face and white lips that there was no help that could reach her. Scott checked for a pulse, then shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Mayor O’Donnell. I managed to get in touch with her husband in Manteo. He’s on his way up here anyway.”

“I hate these storms that come up so fast,” Nancy said, her hands shaking. “Why can’t they give us better warning? You’d think after all these years there’d be a better way.”

I looked at the generator shed only a few feet from the collapsed shed that had killed Sandi. It was in good shape, not even a board missing. It was amazing how the fury of the storm could pick and choose what it was going to take.

Kevin had heard the call as well and got back to the hotel a little after EMS workers officially declared Sandi dead. They were putting her body on a stretcher as he ran back to where we were standing. “Can you tell what happened?” he asked the paramedics.

“The storm must’ve collapsed the shed,” one EMT said. “There’s a lot of tissue damage from the boards and nails. We’ll have to wait for word from the medical examiner. But that’s the way I see it.”

“What was she doing?” He looked at me and Scott. “Did anyone know she was out here?”

Scott shrugged. “I don’t know. I got here after Mayor O’Donnell realized she was missing.”

I quickly explained the night’s events to Kevin, but I had to agree that Sandi being out here in the shed didn’t make any sense—unless my vision of the gun meant someone had forced her out here so the gunshot wouldn’t be heard.

After the EMS team had left and Scott was busy typing his report into the computer in the police car, I took Kevin aside and told him about the items I’d found at the inn.

He listened calmly, as he usually did. “So you think this man who was working with her did this?”

“I don’t know. I don’t see him out here collapsing a shed on top of her. But I did see a gun.”

“Has anyone searched him for a gun?”

“We searched his room. At that time, I wasn’t even sure that what I’d seen in my vision was something that had happened recently. I didn’t want to say anything to Scott about it.”

“Matthew could’ve killed her and put her body in the shed. The storm might have done the rest of the work for him. It was dark when we were in the lobby. He could’ve moved her and no one would’ve known.”

We were still standing outside the inn, looking at the angry gray ocean as it tried to settle down after the storm. The generator hummed in the shed that was still standing. I thought about the strange voice I’d heard while I was trying to uncover Sandi’s body. I decided not to mention it. It was kind of crazy anyway and nothing to do with what had happened.

“It was so dark out here when I came out to turn on the generator,” Kevin said. “I never even noticed the garden shed was down.”

“I guess the ME should be able to tell what happened if they do an autopsy, right?” I asked him.

“Yes. Scott said her husband is on his way here. Do you want to tell him what you know about what happened?”

“But not about her affair with her assistant, right? Because I’m not telling Sandi’s husband that his dead wife was cheating on him—even though he probably knows already.”

“I only asked because you know them. And maybe that would motivate him to demand an autopsy. With everything that happened last night, it would be easy to overlook evidence. I’m sure the medical examiner’s office will have their hands full anyway.”

I really didn’t want to be the one to tell a grieving husband that his wife was dead, possibly murdered by her lover. I wished someone else could get that job. But Kevin was right. Gramps always said bad news was best gotten from friends instead of law enforcement.

Kevin and I went inside to take a look at the damage the storm had done to the inn. Scott’s police car was gone from the front, but Barker and David were still holding on to Matthew. The two mayors weren’t so drunk that they didn’t hurriedly hide the scotch bottles they’d emptied during the night when they saw Kevin.

“I’m surprised you’re still here,” I said to them. “Weren’t you worried about your homes and families?”

Both the older men shrugged. “Not so much,” David said. “My wife is in Florida with the grandkids this week.”

“And my wife is busy working on the divorce papers with her lawyer in Raleigh,” Barker explained with a sigh. “If the storm wrecked the house, maybe Loraine won’t want it. I hate living in hotel rooms.”

Matthew stood up. “I’m getting out of here. You have no right to hold me. I don’t know where Sandi is, but she’s not my responsibility either.”

“Kevin, this is Sandi’s assistant,” I explained. “Probably the last person to see her alive.”

“Alive?” Matthew stared at me. “What are you saying? You finally found her?”

“Yes,” Kevin answered. “EMS took her a few minutes ago. Her husband is on his way. He doesn’t know she’s dead yet. I think you should stay.”

“No way! He’s not the forgiving type. Sandi said so. And don’t try to make it sound like I had anything to do with killing Sandi.”

“Who said anyone killed her?” I asked him.

“I assumed you wouldn’t try to keep me here if you thought it was an accident.”

“We can all talk about that when Chief Michaels gets here,” I said. “Until then, I think you should stay here as a guest.”

“You can’t make me,” Matthew charged.

“Yes she can,” Nancy reminded him as she walked by. “I told you, in the absence of the police chief, the mayor can assume his authority. If she says you stay, you stay. Anyone want some iced tea?”

Matthew sat down again. He stared out of the window in the bar. He seemed to finally realize that this wasn’t something that would go away quickly.