later, Candy had assembled everything she thought she’d need, including many of the files from the cabinet, notebooks with scribbled messages, stacks of newspapers with Sapphire’s past printed columns in them, a handful of generic business cards, assorted business cards of individuals and companies around town that might serve as story leads, a well-thumbed address book, and copies of some of Sapphire’s e-mails she had printed out for later viewing.
She shut down the computer, loaded everything into two battered old banker’s storage boxes she had pulled out of the back of a closet, carried them down to the Jeep, then stopped back in to see Ben.
“We’ll work it out,” Ben said optimistically after she had explained everything to him. “Don’t worry about it for now. Just work on your column, and keep in touch. I’m here if you need anything. And I’ll find you another place to work. At the very least, I’ll move you in with someone else temporarily.”
She flashed him a smile. “Thanks for understanding. Sorry to be so childish about this whole thing.”
He waved a hand at her. “Don’t even think about it. I understand completely. Besides, like I said, you’re doing me a favor, right?”
“Right. Thanks, Ben,” she said as she headed out the door. “You’re a doll.”
And she meant it.
TWENTY-ONE
Candy stopped back at Duffy’s to pick up Doc, who had finished his game of pool and was back in the corner booth with the boys, and together they drove home. Before she unloaded the Jeep, she checked on the girls, who seemed as happy as ever. She gave them a few cupfuls of cracked corn and egg-laying pellets, freshened their water, gathered their eggs, and laid some clean straw in their roosts.
Then she carried one of the boxes filled with Sapphire’s papers and files into the house.
“What’s that?” Doc asked as he opened a bottle of beer, a good local brand called Thunder Hole Ale, brewed in Bar Harbor.
“Homework,” Candy said as she dropped the box onto the kitchen table.
“Got more in the Jeep? Want me to grab them?”
“One more. That would be great.”
“Coming right up,” Doc said, setting his beer aside as he walked out to the Jeep and retrieved the other box.
“What’s in here anyway?” he asked as he set the second box down on the table, beside the first.
“Sapphire Vine’s old papers, notes, and files. Ben thought it might help if I went through them, so I could see what kind of research she’d done-formatting, contacts, that sort of thing.”
“Well, you’ve got pretty big shoes to fill. Her columns were mighty popular, you know.” Doc at least had the good sense to add after a few moments, “But I’m sure yours will be just as good.”
She gave him a sideways smirk. “Yeah, right, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Hey, let me know if you need any help. I’ve got some experience as a wordsmith. And not just that ancient history stuff I’ve been working on. I’ve written about modern topics, for newspapers and magazines. They don’t give full professorships to monkeys, you know. You have to be published.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Bonzo.”
“Hey, I heard that!” Doc called as he walked into the living room, flicked on the TV, and settled himself in to watch
Candy sat at the kitchen table, unloaded both boxes, and started sifting through the files. Most contained worthless stuff-nothing much she could use. She tossed those files onto a discard pile on one side of the table.
A few files contained some notes and interesting stories that might be helpful in the future. Candy set those aside, intending to start her own filing system.
Then there were a few that confused her. Most of the files were labeled on their front tabs with names or subjects-not much guessing was required to figure out what was in them. But she found a handful of files-fewer than a dozen-that had no labels or names on them, and no indication of what was inside.
One, for instance, had the mysterious nomenclature BAK1946 printed in Sapphire’s childish letters on the inside front cover. It contained only a few e-mails, which Sapphire had printed out.
“We must come to an agreement about this, or else,” read one of the e-mails, one that had been sent by Sapphire. A rather threatening comment, Candy thought. Underneath that line, and indented a few spaces, was the message Sapphire had replied to. It read, “I’ve asked you not to contact me about this again. I cannot help you.”
Candy’s brow furrowed in thought. Whatever message from Sapphire this mysterious person had replied to had been deleted.
She flipped back through the other pages in the file. There were a few copies of printed e-mails with messages similar to the first one. Sapphire’s notes and tone grew increasingly threatening, and the unnamed person who replied grew increasingly reticent to do whatever it was she was asking. But there was no indication of the name of the person Sapphire had been exchanging e-mails with, or even the person’s gender.
There wasn’t much more in the file. A photocopy of an aged black-and-white photograph, showing a mother with a young child sitting on her lap. A yellowed newspaper clipping in German, which Candy couldn’t read. A few notes that made no sense.
German?
Candy looked back at the inside front cover.
BAK1946.
BAK? Could that stand for Baker? Herr Georg? What year had he been born? she wondered. He was in his early to mid sixties, she guessed. Counting back, she realized it was entirely possible he could have been born in 1946. But it didn’t make any sense. Why was Sapphire e-mailing Herr Georg? And what was it that she wanted him to do?
The thought crossed Candy’s mind that it might have something to do with the pageant. Maybe she
Or maybe she was
That could open up a whole new bucket of worms.
Candy set that file aside and picked up another. This one was just as intriguing as the first. It had information in it about all five judges of the Blueberry Queen Pageant, including phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Sapphire had placed checks beside the names of all five judges and circled two of the checks-those beside the names of Herr Georg and Sebastian J. Quinn.
That might fit, she thought, if she was blackmailing both of them. But if Herr Georg’s file was here, where was Sebastian’s? She double-checked. There was no file with his name on it, nor any that looked as if it contained any information about him.
Curious.
She opened a third mysterious file. This one intrigued her the most. On the inside front cover were the initials
Amanda’s boyfriend.
Unlike the others, this was a thick file, with clippings, photographs, and photocopies of old papers going back nearly twenty years. Sapphire had obviously done a lot of research on Cameron. There were numerous newspaper clippings of his educational and athletic achievements-making the honor roll in seventh grade, scoring a goal in junior varsity soccer, that sort of thing. A number of fuzzy candid snapshots of him that looked like spy photos, taken from behind bushes or at great distances, apparently without his knowledge. Candy even found a few pages that had been ripped from high school yearbooks, on which his images appeared.
Candy was surprised by the detail of the information she found. Sapphire’s been stalking him for years, she realized.
There were also pages and pages of notes that traced Cameron’s history over a period of nearly fifteen years.
