not to keep meeting those other men on the side. What did she think would happen?”
“I don’t know. Would you like to go inside and sit down?”
“No.” He glared at me and clenched his fists. “How could she do this to me and the girls? Why didn’t she ever think about them?”
I certainly didn’t have an answer to that question. I’d asked it many times myself. I didn’t understand the attraction of infidelity, but I never thought Sandi would end up dead because of it. “The police will find out who did this, Shawn. You just need to take care of yourself and the girls.”
“You know what, Dae? It doesn’t matter. I don’t even care anymore.”
I watched him stride around the side of the inn.
Rafe appeared—who could stop him? He was furious about the things Mad Dog had said to me. “I can’t believe ye let that scurvy dog speak to you in that tone—and you the Lord High Mayor of this town!”
I couldn’t complain. He’d kept to the rules about leaving me alone when I was with other people. “That doesn’t mean all that much anymore,” I told him. “I guess it meant something in your day?”
“A man like that would be clapped in irons,” he replied. “Depending on the mercy of the mayor, he could find himself flogged too.”
I smiled, concentrating on the area around the shed. “We don’t do much flogging nowadays.”
“More’s the pity from what I’ve seen!”
“You were in the shop when Kevin told me about Sandi being murdered.”
“Aye. That doesn’t break our treaty, girl. You said not to speak to you—I did not speak.”
“I think I said not to hang around,” I corrected.
“A pleasant thing to say to a man whose corpse still bears marks from the hangman’s noose!”
I refused to feel guilty for the gaffe. “How did you know that Sandi was murdered? I mean before Kevin told us. Is that a ghost thing?”
“I don’t know what ye mean by ‘a ghost thing,’” he said. “Unless you’re speaking of common deduction. I heard all the same things you heard. It was simple to conclude she met up with foul play. Did you really think she was just standing out here and let the storm kill her?”
“Not everything is that cut and dry,” I explained, feeling kind of stupid. I reasoned that he probably had more experience with murder than I did. And I wanted to believe that she’d died accidentally.
“If you say so. What are you looking for out here?”
“A clue—something that will help tell us who killed Sandi.”
“Such as what?”
“I don’t know. I’ll know it when I see it.”
I tried to concentrate, but instead, I looked at Rafe. He stood beside me with his fists on his wide hips— large, booted feet never touching the wet ground. He had a perpetual scowl. Deep frown lines ran between his eyes in his darkly tanned skin. His lips pulled down at the corners—they would forever. Various scars across his cheek, near his eye, and a long one near his ear, gave the impression that he was not a friendly man. Curiously, there was no sign of the noose, as he’d said.
“What happened when you were caught and hanged?” I asked, trying to cut to the heart of his problem. I didn’t need a ghost in my life any longer than necessary.
“Caught?” He laughed in an egotistical manner. “I was never
I didn’t mention that he’d lived more than three hundred years ago and would have been dead by now, no matter what. “How do you think I can clear your name at this late date?”
“The magistrate kept a journal. I have it on good account that he wrote all of his crimes in it. If we were to find it, my name would be cleared.”
“Can you ask him where it is?” I wasn’t sure where to look for something like that. I’d never heard of a magistrate in this area. “He must be dead too.”
“No doubt. But we aren’t all out here bobbing around like sailors after a wreck. I found you because you called. Yer friend was right—blood is the only thing that can call a spirit. You’ll have to find an ancestor of the magistrate and ask about his journal.”
“That sounds easy,” I muttered, looking carefully through the pieces of wood hastily thrown aside as we’d tried to pull Sandi from the wreckage. “You should be out of my life in about ten years.”
Chapter 20
I moved everything—even ripped my hand open on a nail. I crawled along the ground. There was nothing out of the ordinary.
I sat on the wet ground for a while, looking out at the now placid gray ocean. I let my mind wander along those gentle waves, but no brilliant revelations came to me. In a way, it was too bad that I couldn’t communicate with Sandi’s ghost. She could tell me what had happened. That would be easy.
My ghost told me stories about plundering rich merchant ships, drinking and spending time with prostitutes. Hardly conducive to helping with my search for a clue.
The wind was still running wild along the island. Nancy was right. The storm seemed to have brought in the cooler fall temperatures. I shivered, wet and dirty, deciding to go home. There was nothing else I could do here.
Rafe went with me like a friendly puppy—a puppy wearing pistols and a saber—still talking about his pirate exploits. He might have settled down at the end of his life, but it was obvious which life he preferred.
I kept hoping I’d run into someone coming out of the Blue Whale or walking up the street. No such luck. I didn’t want to violate our agreement—especially since I was going home to shower and change clothes. I wanted him gone for those events. I could imagine him comparing me to his pirate girlfriends. I didn’t think it would matter that we were related.
There was traffic on Duck Road, but it was slow even for this point after the season. Several people waved and yelled their greetings to me, but none of them walked over to save me from Rafe.
I noticed someone near the Duck Shoppes trash bin. It was in a sheltered area to the side of the ground floor. The out-of-the-way location was supposed to keep the area hidden from tourists and other visitors. We had some problems with people sleeping here, mostly over the summer. Tourists would come to Duck without making a reservation, expecting they’d be able to find a hotel room. As a result, some of them ended up on the street.
But there were also hardship cases—people who lost their money and credit cards, whose cars broke down or had other misfortunes. They needed help to get back home, maybe a few dollars or a place to stay for the night.
I walked over to the trash bin and peeked behind it, ready to smile and offer whatever help I could. The man I’d seen from the street looked up, fear in his familiar face.
“Danny?”
“Dae?” he said, surprised and clearly uncomfortable. “What are you doing here?”
I could have asked him the same thing, but his purpose was obvious. “You don’t have any place to stay.”
He shrugged. “My house is flooded. The bar is closed for repairs. I don’t even have the van to sleep in, you know?”
“No friends—relatives?”
“Not anymore. Not for a long time.” He grinned. “You give up drinking and your old life and all your friends are like rats getting off the sinking ship. I’ve never had family out here. They’re all in Virginia. I left Duck after your mother and I broke up, came back just a couple of years ago. I didn’t have a reason to stay in Virginia anymore.”
