He shook his head. “Not me. I can’t keep doing this. I decided yesterday to put the place up for sale. I got a sister who lives in Atlanta. Her husband recently passed, and she needs help keeping her place. I’m moving there. Not much going on there with the weather. And no earthquakes, like my brother in Seattle. I’ll miss you people, though.”
I hugged him, and he looked a little embarrassed. “I wish you wouldn’t leave. We’ll miss you.”
“Thanks.” He sniffled and wiped his eyes. “I really enjoyed being here. But sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to. You take care now.”
I was going to miss Phil—his mochas and his stories about his life. I hoped someone else would reopen the coffee shop. It was a favorite around here.
The day was over for most people by the time I got to the Blue Whale. Most of the cars—police, sheriffs, and guests being questioned—were gone. I hoped that was a good sign. Chief Michaels was too thorough to let everyone leave just because Matthew was found dead. I wondered about his new strategy.
Good smells were emanating from the kitchen as I opened the front door. “Anyone here?”
“He’s in the kitchen,” Marissa told me, bustling by. “Thank God the investigation seems to be over. Maybe we can get back to normal now.”
I agreed and felt a little embarrassed when my stomach growled loudly. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast,” I explained. “I guess I’m hungry. I hope Kevin made enough for me too.”
Marissa swung her long blond hair away from her face. “You know him—he makes enough to feed an army. I’m on my way out. See you tomorrow, Dae.”
I said good-bye and went into the kitchen where Kevin was stirring something in a big pot. “I’m glad you’re back,” he said with a smile. “I was about to open some wine. Want some?”
“Only after I eat everything in that pot. What is it?”
“Just some leftovers I threw together. After feeding everyone today, I had enough to make some stew.”
“I’ll take some of that and some wine, thanks. It’s been a long day.”
The wine was a sweet, muscadine blush made from grapes harvested from the Mother Vine in Manteo. The vine, cultivated for more than three hundred years, had almost been killed by power-line workers spraying pesticide on weeds. But it was healthy again now and producing grapes.
“So how did it go?” Kevin asked as he poured the wine.
I told him about my meeting with Mark Samson and my wonderful sale at Missing Pieces. “That’s it for me today. I’m going to eat some stew, drink some wine and spend quality time with my favorite person. Then I’m heading home for the night. Gramps texted me on the way over to let me know he wouldn’t be home until late.”
“You’re going to have to talk to him sometime, Dae.” Kevin ladled the fragrant stew into bowls. “Now that Chief Michaels knows, how long will it be before Horace knows too?”
“I don’t have to live with Chief Michaels. And I don’t think he means to tell Gramps. I think that’s what our secret meeting at the park today was all about.”
“And this from the woman who warned me about the Duck grapevine?”
“Like I said, apparently we can keep secrets from people who are involved in them. Just ask me. I know all about it.” I tasted the stew and smiled. “You are the best cook in Duck! Even when you’re only throwing things together.”
“Thanks.” He tasted the stew and added salt to his. “What about the pirate?”
“Still lurking. It wasn’t enough that Mark thinks he’s innocent. We have to prove it. Probably the only way to do that is to find the magistrate’s diary. At least we know his name now. All we have to do is trace down his family tree and hope one of his descendants lives around here. If not, I might have a pirate living with me forever.”
Chapter 33
“Anything new in the murder investigation?” I asked.
“The chief is questioning Shawn Foxx.”
“Seriously? He thinks Sandi’s husband killed her? It’s a long drive between here and Manteo.”
“It makes sense, unfortunately,” Kevin explained. “Sandi was killed—then her lover. Husbands and wives make good suspects in a case like this. Since Matthew wasn’t married, that leaves Shawn Foxx.”
“I understand.” I sipped wine and ate freshly baked crusty bread with my stew. “What about Matthew? I wonder if he had someone special in his life.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was really intent on leaving Sandi. Maybe he wasn’t just tired of her and ready to move on. Maybe he’d met someone else.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “But the chief has Shawn Foxx on his radar right now.”
“Well, we know he was in Manteo with his kids during the storm, right?”
“Apparently not. He’d driven down to some kind of sales meeting in Kitty Hawk. The kids were with their grandmother. When his wife was killed, he was sleeping alone in his car, waiting for the storm to pass. Not much of an alibi.”
“No.”
“It was enough to make the chief drive over to Manteo with the sheriff to question him.”
“Glad I’m not with them. The two of them together are too much.”
He laughed. “That’s the way competing law enforcement agencies always are.”
“I hate to think that those two little girls could lose their mother and their father.”
He got up and put his arms around me. “No one wants to think that, Dae. But if he killed her—”
“I know—granddaughter of a sheriff, remember.” I shook my head, glad that he was near. “And daughter of a petty criminal, I guess. Maybe that’s what makes me so divided.” I looked into his eyes and asked, “What made you ask me if my father had stolen something?”
He shrugged. “Habit, I guess. For him and me. Did he steal something from you?”
I started to answer, but Danny came into the kitchen. He sniffed appreciatively. “Smells good! Hi, Dae. I mucked out that cellar, Kevin. Most of what’s in there—except the whiskey—was probably ruined by the mud and water.”
“I thought so. Thanks, Danny.” Kevin let me go. “Help yourself to some stew. There’s bread in the oven too. Don’t be shy.”
“Thanks. I feel like I could eat a few wild horses.”
Watching Danny dip stew and cut bread in Kevin’s kitchen made me feel guilty. I was being unfair lying to Kevin about Danny stealing from me. What if Danny took something from Kevin too? In all honesty, I didn’t know if Danny would have returned the makeup case if I hadn’t found him trying to spend the night behind the trash bin. Kevin might not be that lucky.
Since I’d started this quest to get to know my father, I’d told so many lies that I wasn’t sure anymore where one began and another ended. I wasn’t happy about that, but I had no other choice. Somebody had to give him a break and show him that they cared about him. I wanted to be that person.
Maybe Kevin was right and I should tell Gramps everything too, instead of treating him like the enemy. He’d taken care of me my whole life. I owed him something too. I loved and respected him. I didn’t want to lose him while I found my father.
“I’d better get home,” I said, hoping Kevin would take the hint. “Walk me outside?”
“Let me take you home,” he offered.
“Okay. Good night, Danny. I’ll probably see you tomorrow.”
“See you, Dae. Thanks again. You know, you’re my guardian angel.”
My heart swelled when he said that, and I smiled. And seeing his return smile reminded me that we shared that trait—I had his smile. When I’d first started watching him, I noticed it right away. He might not have been there when I was growing up, but he was still my father. How could I feel any different?
“You were saying?” Kevin prompted when we were on the verandah.
