A Spirited Gift

“You’re scaring me, girl, and that’s not easy. What are ye looking for? You act like you’ve never seen me before. Are you in your cups? I didn’t know they were serving spirits in there—I might’ve joined you.”

A concrete bench sat nearby, between two large bushes. I could see the gray of the Atlantic, stretching on beneath the dark sky that still threatened more rain. It was there that I told Rafe what I’d seen—what I knew about Mary. I didn’t know what to expect from him.

To my surprise, he knelt on the ground and began to weep, huge choking sobs that shook his already unstable frame from head to toe.

I put my hand on his shoulder as I would have any other person in such distress—but there was nothing there. And an instant later, what was left of the man Mary had loved disappeared.

“Dae?”

I heard my father call my name. I wiped my eyes, put the perfume bottle in the pocket of my poncho and tried to clear my mind. “Danny! How’s it going?”

“Good. Good. Your friend is a decent man. There’s not a lot of people who would take in a stranger this way.”

“I saw you working on the windows,” I said, grasping for a topic.

“Yeah. Kevin keeps me busy. But I talked to the owner of the Sailor’s Dream this morning. He hopes to be 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.”