open again by the weekend. He says if my place isn’t ready yet, I can stay in the back room of the bar after that. Things are picking up.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“You know”—he sat beside me on the concrete bench—“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way—I’m not coming on to you, I swear—not that you aren’t a beautiful woman.”
“Thanks.”
“Anyway. There’s something about you—I felt it from the beginning. Something almost familiar. I guess it’s because I knew your mother. I don’t know. I guess I’m kind of crazy. But it’s more than the short time I’ve known you. It just feels like I’ve known you all my life. Weird, huh?”
I put my hand on his arm—too emotional from what I’d seen about Rafe not to tell him the truth. He should know. He deserved to know I was his daughter. It could change his life the way it had changed mine.
“Dae!” Tim Mabry said as he ran up to us. “There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
The moment had passed—sanity returned. I knew I couldn’t tell Danny the truth yet.
“What’s up?” I asked in what I hoped was a normal voice.
“They need you up at town hall. We’re gonna be on TV! The Weather Channel is here, following the path of the storm. Can you believe it?”
Chapter 37
I had to run home and change clothes. No one wants to see a sandy, rumpled mayor on TV! Tim’s announcement was like a cold slap of seawater in the face, jerking me away from the past and into the reality of the present.
I put on a little lipstick and made sure there was nothing stuck in my teeth, then I sailed out the door.
I saw the TV vans in the Duck Shoppes parking lot. I was sorry the bad weather had brought them to us, but I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. One of the vans was from the Weather Channel amd the other was from our local station in Virginia Beach.
Town hall was packed with residents, TV crews and members of the town council. Like me, they had changed their everyday clothes for suits and ties. Nothing but our Sunday best to show off Duck!
I was excited and happy to be there—until I saw Mad Dog talking to a reporter on air.
“And this is why we need new leadership in our town,” he said, waving his arms like a crazy octopus. His dark blue suit was too small for his large frame, its brass buttons threatening to pop off his jacket. “Two murders in Duck within days of each other, following a terrible act of nature. And what has Mayor O’Donnell done for us?”
I disliked the way he made it sound as though I were responsible for the murders as well as the storm. After going through an emotional wringer all morning, I was tempted to just walk back out the door.
But I wouldn’t let him get to me. I straightened my black suit, plastered on my mayor’s smile and pushed my way through the crowd that surrounded Mad Dog.
“What I’d like to know, as mayor and as a citizen, is what Councilman Wilson has done about the things that have happened in the last few days. Not once while I’ve been out helping with cleanup after the storm or aiding the Duck Police with these terrible crimes, have I seen Councilman Wilson. Where have you been, Mad Dog?”
“Mad Dog?” The smiling TV personality looked back at him. “That’s an unusual nickname.”
“He got it racing cars around the Outer Banks when he was younger,” I told her.
“So you were one of the infamous moonshine runners, huh, Mad Dog?” she asked with a practiced smile of her own.
“I was a stock car driver,” he corrected her. “I never ran moonshine. Not once. Not in my whole life.”
His words added fuel to the allegation, and the reporter put a match to the whole thing. “Was that during the time of prohibition?”
Mad Dog frowned at me. “I’m not that old. What do you take me for? It’s Dae’s fault—she twists words around.”
The reporter turned away from both of us and laughed as she faced the camera. “Sometimes history gets a little
The cameraman lowered the lens, and Christine Thomas put away her microphone.
“Wait a minute!” Mad Dog tried to stop her. “I haven’t finished. There’s more to say about the mayor and all of the mysterious goings-on right here. Maybe we should do an in-depth piece.”
Christine smiled at him and kind of patted him on the shoulder. “Maybe—once Duck gets to be more important. Right now, it was all I could do to get my boss to let me come down here with the Weather Channel. Sorry.”
The expression on Mad Dog’s face reminded me of a hound dog on an old calendar. He shook his head like he couldn’t believe his time on-air had been for nothing. “You know, one day, Dae O’Donnell, the world is going to hear how you and your grandfather manipulated the last election. Then I think you won’t find it so funny.”
I started to tell him that I didn’t think it was funny now, but he made a
But I didn’t have time to dwell on it then. The Weather Channel crew wanted me to walk them through some streets that would show off the damage done to Duck. They also wanted to know what it was like the night of the storm, how the cleanup was going and what our normal precautions were during emergency weather.
I was amazed at how thorough their questions were. We had nothing to hide, as far as I was concerned. Our emergency personnel and policies were as good as any other town around here. And I was glad to talk about them.
The pace was rigorous as we drove to some spots for photos and video, then walked to other areas where I answered questions and we talked to Duck residents about their experiences.
I saw Shawn Foxx standing outside Carter Hatley’s Game World and wondered what he was doing there. Given that Kevin had said the police were questioning him about Sandi’s death, I was surprised to see him in town. Was he doing his own investigation? The arcade seemed a strange place to start. But I’d be investigating if I were a suspect in a murder investigation.
There wasn’t time to stop and ask as the Weather Channel van sped by. I was glad to hear that not a single resident thought the town had done less than its best. That made me feel proud even though I certainly couldn’t take all the credit. I told the TV crew the same thing—the aftermath of a few minutes from the hurricane feeder bands would take months for our public works people to take care of. “There aren’t many of us here, but we all pitch in.”
At one stop, I found Kevin working on the roof at Betty’s Boutique and Floral along with a group of volunteers. I pointed out to the TV crew that Kevin—and probably the others as well—was helping out Betty even though his own business needed repair too. Betty’s situation was more urgent, since there had been a dinghy on her roof.
The volunteers all shook hands with the camera crew. Kevin looked across the crowd at me. I smiled and he kind of smiled back. I thought it was a good sign. But I felt pretty sure we wouldn’t get to talk today. Maybe a little space would be good for us.
It was going on evening when the Weather Channel crew finally wrapped up their taping. I suggested going to Wild Stallions on the boardwalk, since they were all hungry and thirsty. We had a good time comparing notes on storms in the Atlantic. One of the crew was from Wilmington, North Carolina, so we had a lot in common.
By the time everyone had eaten all the French fries and seafood they could hold and had plenty of beer (except the cameraman, who lost the toss and became designated driver), it was almost ten P.M. I stood in the Duck Shoppes parking lot and waved to them as they left. The program about the aftermath of storms would air in January.
I had just started walking home, sorry I hadn’t worn more comfortable shoes, when Rafe rejoined me. “It’s
