“It’s hard to say.” Cailey hedged, obviously not wanting to share. “We’ll look into all the leads we have and analyze the fire.”
“You’ll have to talk to Sam Meacham too.” Tim echoed what I was thinking. “Everyone knows what went on between him and Max. Besides Rafe, Sam is the most likely suspect in this case.”
When Cailey and the chief didn’t disagree, I knew they were thinking the same thing, probably minus Rafe being the top suspect. I didn’t believe a pirate ghost caused the explosion that killed Max. But I also had trouble believing Sam killed him. Anything was possible, but that seemed like a stretch to me. Unfortunately, Sam’s acrimonious relationship with Max was not the only factor piqueing everyone’s interest. He also had access to a working cannon and everyone knew he envied the gold coins in the Duck museum. Corolla’s historical museum didn’t have any real gold coins.
Cailey drifted out of my office toward the front door. Tim stepped outside on the boardwalk to take a call from his police radio.
“You look nice, Dae,” Chief Michaels said. “I hope you’re feeling better soon. Horace was sick with worry about you when he heard what happened. I had to have someone drive him to the hospital. I was afraid he might get in a wreck or get arrested if he drove himself there.”
“Thanks. I’m fine.” I couldn’t have been more surprised that the chief noticed how I looked. And I appreciated the way he had taken care of Gramps. I knew he meant well. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye on things, but he was a good man to have in your corner during trouble.
He nodded, cleared his throat and left the office behind Cailey and Tim.
“Well?” Nancy asked when we were alone.
I glanced at the big clock on the wall and my heart started pounding. My palms were sweaty and my face felt hot. “I think it’s time for dinner.”
She smiled. “I thought you must have a date.
“Yes. Well, not exactly a date, maybe.” I bit my lip to stop stammering. “I’m not sure.”
“You look great! Go knock him dead, girl!”
It wasn’t a long walk from town hall and the Duck Shoppes to the Blue Whale Inn. My mind went there before my body, flying down the stairs to the parking lot and out past the small commercial area of town.
My body paused outside town hall. Trudy’s words about Kevin using me to get over Shayla made my feet a little cold in my new shoes. Maybe I shouldn’t try to make him think of me in a romantic way just yet.
Not that I’d really thought through or planned out exactly what I was going to do to accomplish that goal. I’d never purposely set out to seduce a man, if that was what I was thinking. Maybe “seduce” wasn’t the right word—just make him more aware of me. We might be good together as more than friends. But I’d never set out to do that either.
It wasn’t like I was a complete novice. I’d dated through high school and college. I’d even dated occasionally since then. But being in a very small area, where the boys you grew up with became the men you’d already decided against, made it difficult. As Trudy had noted, we don’t get many new, single men who want to live in Duck.
My loosely considered plan to go home first, shower, put on my new perfume, redo my hair and find Grandma’s pearls would make me late for my six P.M. dinner with Kevin. There was only about twenty minutes left.
Maybe I should call and cancel, with regrets. Did I really feel up to doing something important like this right now? What if Trudy was right and it was only a reaction from almost getting killed?
I walked down the stairs to the parking lot and took out my cell phone, totally losing my nerve. It was one thing to get all dressed up and think about having dinner alone with Kevin and another to really do it.
“Ready?” His voice startled me.
“Uh—”
“I thought I’d save you the walk.” He looked at my pretty new shoes. “Good thing, I guess, since those don’t look like walking shoes.”
“I—”
“Do you need to go home first?”
This actually required an answer. I kind of stood there, staring at him. I swallowed hard and tried to shore up my crumbling backbone. “I was about to call you—”
“Now you don’t have to. We can talk in the truck on the way over.”
We were drifting into the parking lot toward his pickup. He held the passenger side door open and I climbed inside. Trudy must be right. This had to be part of my injury. I can’t even form whole sentences.
Kevin got in and slid behind the wheel. That’s when I noticed that he was wearing a tie. A tie! It was beyond a doubt the most awful tie I’d ever seen, some kind of brown with yellow flecks in it.
I’d never seen him wear a tie or the lightweight brown sport jacket he had on. He’d told me once that he’d thrown his suits away before he left Washington, never to wear them again.
I suddenly realized that he was dressed up for me, like I was dressed up for him. The implication of that hit me like a storm wave, tumbling my thoughts but making my heart feel much lighter. I wasn’t nervous anymore. Having dinner alone with me meant something to him too.
What it meant remained to be seen, but it was a start. “You look nice,” I said without putting much thought into it.
“Thanks.” He smiled. “You look spectacular!”
“Thanks.” My heart was definitely feeling warmer now, along with the rest of me.
“What did you want to tell me?”
I looked at his hair and freshly shaved face. He smelled really good. I was used to seeing him in T-shirts and jeans. Not that he didn’t look good in those too. “I don’t know.”
We both laughed and he started the truck. Maybe he was nervous too.
“Still wearing the gloves, I see.”
I glanced at my hands. “The arson investigator gave me a good excuse at the meeting today. Everyone thinks my hands were burned.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“For right now it is. I don’t have to touch anyone or anything. I don’t know what else to do until I understand it better.”
He nodded, his eyes focused on the narrow road that led to the Blue Whale. “How did the meeting go today?”
I couldn’t think of any reason not to tell him what happened. Nothing earth-shattering or even terribly secret had transpired. “Which makes our top suspect a two-hundred-year-old pirate ghost.”
“I was wondering about that. A few of the firemen at the museum talked about this being Rafe’s fault. I thought he was a past mayor or something.”
“You should’ve asked. I’m sure they would’ve been glad to tell you the story. Anyone from Duck loves to tell it.”
“But basically, the chief likes this man from the museum in Corolla for what happened.”
“I think so.” I looked at the three-story Blue Whale Inn, freshly painted—blue, of course, to match its name—after thirty years of being a ramshackle eyesore. I had a T-shirt with paint on it from the job.
The circle drive was clean, and the grass beside it had been recently trimmed. It curled around a fountain with a mermaid in it. The wide verandah had a welcoming look, with white wicker chairs and hanging plants. The old hitching post, where guests had once tied up their rides and sneaked inside to share some bathtub gin with friends, was polished. The Blue Whale had become an asset to the community again.
“We’re open Thursday through Sunday now since the tourists have slowed down,” Kevin explained as I noticed that there were no other cars in the parking lot.
He parked in front and turned off the truck. “We have a few parties coming up for the holidays, but I think I’ll have time now to get some work done on the place. I still haven’t really touched the third floor.”