“Aye, at least I never pretended to be anything else,” Rafe continued. “That boyo is just waiting for the right moment to steal you blind. I can’t believe any relation of mine would be fooled by all that mucky sentiment.”
“And maybe you’re not as smart as you think,” I yelled back at him. “That man is my father.”
“Maybe so—but don’t trust him. He’s a scallywag, mark my words.”
I kept walking down the deserted road. There were no streetlights, no lights from stores or houses. Only the glow of candles and lanterns, from living room and kitchen windows, showed anything was out in the dark at all.
“Have you given any thought to who the ancestor of the magistrate could be?” he asked before we reached the house.
“I’ve been a little busy,” I replied. “And it’s going to take some research. Have you given any thought to who killed Sandi Foxx?”
He grunted at me and scratched his head. “Keeping up with you has been a job, girl. I haven’t worked so hard since I started my career at sea as a boson’s mate.”
“Then I guess we both have work to do.”
Chapter 21
I went inside where Gramps was waiting with supper at the candlelit table in the kitchen. “I’ve been wondering where you were,” he said, serving up stew that had been in the freezer. “There’s a curfew, you know. The mayor isn’t above the law and needs to set an example.”
“I know.”
“You’ve been at Missing Pieces, haven’t you? You always lose track of time when you’re there.”
“Yep.” I wished I could say more. It was a strain holding back the things I really wanted to ask him. But I needed time to sort through everything and figure out what to say to him.
“I suppose you heard that the ME has ruled Mayor Foxx’s death a murder,” he continued.
“Yeah. That’s going to be a mess.”
“It’ll be bad for Kevin, since it means all those people coming back again on his dime.”
I stopped pushing the stew around on my plate. “What do you mean?”
“I mean the county won’t want to pay for them to be at the Blue Whale, and it will likely take a while for Ronnie to question all of them. Big group.”
“Maybe the town can help. Kevin is too good-hearted to complain about it. I’m sure it will seem like another civic duty to him. But that’s not fair.”
“Good luck getting that past the town council.”
“We have an emergency fund,” I reminded him. “This seems like an emergency to me.”
“That will be depleted after the storm,” he said. “Besides, how will it look for the mayor to advocate giving money to her boyfriend?”
“You sound like Mad Dog.” I told him about what the mayor wannabe had said.
“He’s right.” Gramps shrugged. “You have to start thinking about your reputation if you’re going to run for reelection. You can’t just run around doing what you please and expect the people of Duck to look the other way.”
I wasn’t sure where all of this was coming from. Yes, Gramps had been sheriff for many years. Yes, he was a stickler for the rules. But now he was just being inflexible and judgmental. I didn’t like his tone—especially since it pertained to me.
“I’m not any different now than I was two years ago when the people of Duck voted me into office,” I reminded him. “I don’t see the problem.”
“The problem is Kevin. I like him, but the two of you should cool your heels on this relationship some. At least until after the election next year. You keeping clothes over there—showing up at all hours—this is a family community, Dae. People aren’t going to want their mayor to be carrying on this way.”
“Are you saying this because Sandi was having an affair?” I glared at him, all thought of eating leftover stew out of my mind. “Because it’s not the same thing. Kevin isn’t married. Neither am I. It’s not like he’s sneaking out of my house in the middle of the night with his clothes off.”
“There’s no reason to take that tone with me, young lady.” Gramps cleared his throat and pointed his spoon at me. “If you want to be mayor and serve your community, it takes some sacrifice. It took some sacrifice to be sheriff all those years. It didn’t just happen. My family had to be above reproach. The community looks to its leaders to be examples of the best.”
I got to my feet and in a hot moment, I shouted, “Like you wouldn’t let my mother be with the man she loved? Is that the kind of sacrifice you expect me to make?”
“What are you saying, Dae O’Donnell?” he demanded, equally angry. “You know your mother’s boyfriend—your father—threw her out into the street.”
“Do I? Or was that another lie made up for me, like my father being dead? I’ve heard different, Gramps. I’ve heard that you ran my father out of Mom’s life because he wasn’t good enough to be Sheriff Horace O’Donnell’s son-in-law.”
His shoulders heaved beneath the blue plaid shirt he wore. “I don’t know who told you that—was it Mad Dog? He doesn’t know what he’s talking about—always meddling in other people’s affairs.”
I didn’t tell him it wasn’t Mad Dog who talked to me about my mother. I had cooled down a little and realized what I’d said. I didn’t want Gramps to know about Danny yet. “I’m not hungry. I’ll be up in my room.”
“Dae?” He called after me. “Whatever I’ve done, I’ve done to protect you and your mother. Your father was a good-for-nothing, drunken layabout. He’d been in and out of jail since he was seventeen. There was no future for you and your mother with him.”
I turned back. “Did you make that decision for her? Did my father really kick her out? Did he even know she was pregnant?”
Gramps’s hand shook as he wiped his mouth on his napkin. “Yes—he threw her out and left town—after I paid him one thousand dollars and threatened to serve the outstanding warrants against him. You can’t judge me on that, sweetheart. I did what was best—what I had to do.”
“I know. Good night, Gramps,” I said before I left him in the kitchen.
Chapter 22
There was a secret stairway from my room to the widow’s walk on the roof of the house. I liked spending time up there, looking out over Duck and the sound. On clear days, I could see the Atlantic on the other side of the island.
The widow’s walk was a common feature on local houses, especially the older ones. Women had waited and watched for their men’s ships to come home. Sometimes, women threw themselves from the walk when they learned those ships were never coming back.
It was strange being out there in the dark with no lights dotting the town around me. I could see lights farther down the coast toward Kitty Hawk. The lighthouses along the island were all still working, their powerful beams warning ships at sea of the danger presented by the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
“You were hard on the old man.” Rafe leaned against the wrought-iron rail beside me. “I expected better from a soft heart like yours.”
“He lied to me. He told me my father was dead.”
“No wonder! I’d lie about that sniveling worm too. What man takes pity from a woman like your father done? No wonder the old man ran him off. I would’ve ran him through.”
“You don’t understand. Go away.”
“Maybe you don’t understand, girl. That boyo ye be helping will never bring you anything but grief. I know the type—hell, I was the type for many a year. The old man was protecting you and your ma. I’m siding with him in this.”