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He put out his hand and I shook it, wishing I could get some sense of what he really knew about the sale of the sisters’ houses. A chill trembled through me. I could see he’d lost his cigarette lighter. I wasn’t about to tell him where I saw it. “I hope there’s nothing wrong with this sale, Chuck. It would be a shame to waste all your money setting up a business in Duck, then lose it over something stupid.”

“There’s nothing wrong with this sale. It’s straightforward. I hope you’ll come to see that in time.”

I left after that, with a smile for Mandy. It was good to be back outside, even if it was humid and hot already. I wasn’t prepared to spend much time in winter temperatures in the middle of July. I crossed Duck Road and walked up to the Duck Shoppes, stopping at town hall before I went to Missing Pieces.

Nancy was there, of course. She wasn’t supposed to be since it was the weekend and town hall wasn’t officially open. Sometimes it seemed like she never went home. She offered me coffee and donuts she’d purchased from the Duck High School cheerleaders’ fundraiser. “What are you doing in here, Dae? Do you need something specific?”

“No. Just thought I’d check in.”

“I actually have two messages for you, both from Mary Lou Harcourt. She’s holding a turtle rescue day she’d like you to come to. And people are still building sand castles, endangering the turtles trying to reach the water.”

I took out my calendar and marked the turtle rescue event in it. “Wednesday morning, ten A.M.” I thought about the auction the same morning and wrote that down too, not that I was likely to forget it. “Thanks, Nancy. I think I’ll go in the office for a few minutes.”

“Okay, sweetie. Shall I hold any calls, especially turtle-rescue calls?” She smiled knowingly.

“Thanks. I won’t be here long. If Mary Lou comes in later, you can send her down to Missing Pieces.”

I closed the door to my office behind me. Nancy was probably wondering why since I usually left it open. I thought about looking up the property owner for the sisters’ houses on GIS—Geographical Information Survey. It marks the person who pays taxes on the property as well as the owner. Unfortunately, GIS had not kept up with recent events. Miss Mildred and Miss Elizabeth were still listed as both owners and taxpayers. It was a dead end.

Not that it wasn’t possible to use the information I got from Chuck. If Gramps didn’t come back with more than Chuck had, we might still be able to find out who was behind the sale. OBX Land Trust had to belong to someone. I typed the name into Google but nothing came back. If the group had been active in the Outer Banks buying other properties, it seemed like they’d have a listing. Unless they’d put the company together just for this sale.

There was a knock on the door, and I absently called out, “Come in.” I looked up and saw Chief Michaels closing the door behind him. I had a brief moment of panic at the idea of being alone with him, then dismissed it. Whatever was going on with him right now, he was still the same man I’d known all my life. Maybe there was some way to help him.

“Mayor.” He nodded. “I’d hoped to have a few words with you.”

I wondered if Gramps had spoken to him. I felt like I was blindfolded and not sure which direction to go. But I smiled and gestured toward one of the chairs in front of my desk. “Of course, Chief. What can I do for you?”

He settled himself into a chair and pulled off his hat. His blue uniform was starched and pressed as always. His shoes were as shiny as the medals on his chest. I remembered him receiving several of them. One was for saving a little girl during a house fire. He’d risked his life to pull her out. The town had thrown a huge appreciation party for him right in the middle of Duck Road. That was before the park was finished.

“I think you may have the wrong idea about what I was doing yesterday at the senior center in Kitty Hawk.”

I didn’t want to, but I felt a little nervous. Chief Michaels looked pretty intimidating in his uniform, and of course, there was a large gun on his hip. Before the last few days, I wouldn’t have believed the chief would be capable of hurting me. Now I was a little less certain. What if he was being pressured by tremendous outside forces? The way Chuck had described things, the seller of the properties was a desperate man with terrible financial burdens. Maybe I didn’t know Chief Michaels as well as I thought.

“I really don’t have any ideas about why you were there,” I lied. It seemed the wisest course of action. “Is there something I should know?”

“I know you’ve been looking into what happened to Lizzie,” he said. “Tim told me you don’t believe Millie killed her sister. I don’t want to believe it either, but sometimes bad things happen. You have to accept that we’ve done the best we could by Millie. I wish it could be different, but the evidence is stacked up against her. The evidence never lies.”

“What evidence is there besides her seeing Miss Elizabeth bring her purse to her?”

“That speaks to her frame of mind, Mayor. She lost it when she realized what she’d done. Agent Walker and I believe the DNA tests will confirm that the blood and hair on the shovel we found in Millie’s garden shed will match Lizzie’s. Millie’s fingerprints were all over Lizzie’s purse. How much more do you want? We would’ve tried to put the purse snatcher away just finding the purse at his motel room.”

That was a dizzying amount of information. I didn’t want to hear it. He was right about that. But I also still felt that all this so-called evidence added up to someone trying to point the finger at Miss Mildred. “She’s being framed for this, Chief. I don’t know why you can’t see that.”

“Who would possibly think of doing something like that, Mayor? With all due respect, you should leave this kind of thing to the professionals.”

“The professionals are wrong this time, Chief. I’m sorry, but I’m not giving up on Miss Mildred that easy. I’m certainly not going to let someone sell her land out from under her as they set her up to take the blame for Miss Elizabeth’s death.”

He glared at me. He’d done that before, but this time I felt the impact more deeply. “I’d hoped to explain the situation to you, but I can see you’re as stubborn as your grandfather. When he got the bone between his teeth, he never let go. That’s what made him such a darn fine sheriff. Just remember, you aren’t a law enforcement official.”

Was that a threat? My hands shook as I played with my stapler. “I appreciate that. And I know you’ve done all you could for Miss Mildred. If there’s a personal issue I can help you with, I hope you know Gramps and I will always be there for you. You’re part of the family, Chief.”

He smiled, or what passed as smiling for him. “Thank you, Mayor. But I’m fine. I only wanted you to know that there’s nothing illegal going on now. Everything is well in hand.”

I nodded, and my voice almost broke when I said, “What about Silas Butler, Chief? How long have you known he was alive and living in Kitty Hawk?”

Chapter 15

Chief Michaels got up and walked to the door. I thought he was going to leave rather than answer my question. He stopped for a moment with his hand on the door handle. When he turned back, the grimace on his face made me aware of his anger.

He came back to my desk and leaned on his hands, glaring down at me. “Are you questioning my integrity, Dae O’Donnell? I’ve been in law enforcement since you were in diapers. Are you saying I did something wrong?”

I really wanted to back down. I wanted to hold up my hands and assure him that I would never question anything he did. I could give him my big mayoral smile and pretend I wasn’t serious. Anything to get him to leave.