The Coast Road Home

by Vickie McKeehan

  “It wouldn’t hurt.”

  “I’m just saying that you must know how close Scott was to Nick in Iraq. As for me, Nick thought moving here would help me out. But I arrived with a major chip on my shoulder. I wasn’t happy about getting dragged to this backwater town. In fact, I just wasn’t happy with my life, not with myself, or anyone else. In other words, I was miserable to be around, a major pain in the butt. So miserable that I tried drowning myself. When that didn’t work, I started trying to drink myself to death. But that approach takes years. After the drowning incident, I got arrested for drunk and disorderly. I believe that was the charge. Anyway, I started going to AA meetings. Did I mention that it was Keegan who pulled me out of the ocean?”

  Marley smiled. “You left that part out.”

  “Knowing Keegan was…like a breath of fresh air. She made me feel like I could succeed at anything. I started helping out at the Rescue Center, then got involved with work here at the animal clinic. At the time it was owned by the longtime veterinarian, Bran Sullivan. I realized I liked helping the animals. And I was good at it. I started going out on the Moonlight Mile, helping Keegan with rescues that needed emergency surgery. Bran sort of took me under his wing and encouraged me, along with Keegan, to go back to school to become a vet. I thought it was impossible. But it goes to show how one tragedy can turn a life around. It’s not all hopeless and despair. It turned around for me, anyway. I’m living proof that anything is possible.”

  Marley noticed his face almost glowed whenever he spoke about Keegan. Or maybe it was because he got such pure satisfaction from his job, from the animals. She let out a soft sigh. “I’m having a party, probably next weekend. I hope you and Keegan will be able to come.”

  “Anything for the woman who took Barkley The Second off my hands.”

  She hooted with laughter. “That’s right you owe me big time so don’t try to wriggle out of it either or I’ll hunt you down.”

  “I believe you would.”

  “Count on it.”

  Brent strolled into the hospital lobby feeling pretty darn good about himself. Even though he’d told Marley that Pettigrew’s arrest had gone off without a hitch, that wasn’t exactly the truth of it.

  “What have you done to yourself?” Aubree asked from her chair behind the nurses’ station. Spotting the towel wrapped around the man’s bleeding hand, she skirted the counter and rushed over to help him into a room.

  “It’s a scratch,” Brent groused as he dropped down to sit on one of the beds. “Little punk had a knife I didn’t see until it was almost too late. That’ll teach me not to wait for backup. I preach it to my officers, over and over. And what do I do?”

  “Ran in like John Wick to do it all by yourself,” Aubree finished for him, clucking her tongue as she began to soak up the blood onto a clean towel. “That scratch is gonna need stitches. Good thing Dr. Nighthawk is still here.”

  “Just the man I want to see,” Brent said when he spotted Gideon. “My wife says I need a specialist. Wouldn’t even put a Band-aid on it for me, wouldn’t even try. Instead, she points across the street and says to get my ass over here and let a doctor look at it. She’s afraid I might’ve cut a tendon.” He tried to wiggle his fingers.

  “Your wife is a smart lady,” Gideon remarked as he took note of how deep the wound went and slapped on a pair of latex gloves.

  “Yeah, well, yours isn’t bad either.” Brent related how Marley had spent her Sunday afternoon.

  Gideon’s eyes widened as he looked across the table at Aubree, standing on the other side. “She what? Marley did what?”

  Aubree grinned. “Now there’s the woman I knew was in there all along. Good job, Marley.”

  Gideon was still processing the story. “So the man who did this to you was the same one who was preventing Ellie from seeing Hollis, threatening Ellie and her father?”

  “You got it. Damon Pettigrew was always a bully, even as a boy. When I found out little Ellie had hooked up with that monster, I did everything I could to get him to stay away from her. But you can never fully reason with a sociopathic narcissist.”

  “I hate it when that happens,” Gideon muttered as he got to work, stemming the flow of blood. “Wiggle your fingers for me.”

  Brent did as he was told.

  “I’ll need to remove your wedding ring,” Gideon said, placing it in a dish before cleaning the five-inch slice across Brent’s palm with gauze soaked in betadine solution. “Your tendons should be fine. But we’ll take an X-ray just in case.”

  “Nah, I don’t need an X-ray. Really, I don’t.”

  “You sure? What will you tell the missus? You know darn well River will ask.”

  “Yeah, River will ask. Fine. Give me the full treatment.”

  “This mishap is gonna take about ten days to heal, maybe two weeks. In that time if you feel like your fingers are going numb or you think the hand isn’t working right, come see me. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  Aubree handed Gideon a tray with a syringe already filled with lidocaine, along with scissors, needle driver, and a pair of small forceps.

  Brent leaned over to take a long look at the shot on the tray and just keep falling before Gideon caught him.

  “Loss of blood will do that sometimes,” Aubree noted, making sure Brent didn’t fall off the side. “Big tough guy looks at a little needle and passes out.”

  “Not the first time I’ve seen it happen,” Gideon said, calmly picking up a vial of smelling salts and sticking it under the chief’s nose. “Come on, Brent, wake up, buddy.”

  Brent groaned and lifted his head. “You’re not gonna tell River about this, are you?”

  Gideon winked at Aubree. “Nah, it’ll be our little secret. Won’t it, Aub.”

  Aubree’s lips curved in a wicked grin. “Oh, definitely. I wouldn’t tell a soul.”

  Twenty-One

  “You could’ve texted me what was going on,” Gideon pointed out. “I shouldn’t have had to learn about a dangerous situation developing between you and the guy who stabbed Brent.”

  Marley grabbed Gideon’s arm. “Wait. Pettigrew stabbed Brent? He left that part out.”

  “Yeah. Stabbed him right through his hand. That’s what I’m saying, a text, a phone call, even a smoke signal would’ve been appreciated.”

  “For one, at no time did I even make contact with Pettigrew. I got my information about him from Ellie. Once I discovered the restraining order was still in effect because of the domestic violence from two years ago, Brent said he’d go out and find the guy. Barkley and I were at the animal clinic the entire time with Cord Bennett as part of the ruse.”

  “And you never once thought to text me?”

  “I didn’t want to bother you in the middle of an emergency. Why are you so angry?”

  Behind the wheel of the Enclave, Gideon tightened his jaw. He wasn’t sure why. While he could feel proud of what she’d done for Ellie, the incident had caused a streak of panic to well up along his spine. “I’m just saying a heads up would’ve been nice.”

  “Okay. Fine.”

  They were on their way to Hannah’s house for dinner. Marley felt Gideon was in a bit of a snit. She wasn’t sure why or what to do about it.

  “Look, what you did was incredibly good for Ellie. I was worried. That’s all.”

  “But you found out after the fact. And you had been called away to the hospital. I really didn’t think it was a good idea to bother you.”

  He picked up her hand. “Hearing from you is never a bother. Get that in your head right now.”

  “Where is this place?” Marley asked as they kept going down Cape May.

  “At the very end of the street in an older section of town. Caleb and Hannah live in the old radio station.”

  “How cool.”

  Gideon drove past an open gate and pulled to a stop in a circular driveway.

  “Where’s the radio station?”

  “This is it,” Gideon remarked. “C
aleb totally reworked the ugly, one-story building into this.”

  Marley noted a boxy ranch house with a slanted roofline. What stood out to her was the lush landscape and the front porch.

  She breathed in the smell of magnolia in bloom, fragrant hyacinth, and a hint of lavender in the air. “Now this is what I want.”

  Caleb met them on the porch. “Just say the word, and you too shall have your own personal flower garden.”

  “I bet you get lots of bees and hummingbirds around here,” Marley stated, awe in her voice.

  “That, along with plenty of thrush and robin.”

  “I want you to do my garden,” Marley decided on the spot. “I want all this.”

  “Don’t you want a quote first?” Caleb asked with a grin.

  “Nope. I want you to recreate this at my house. Not that I don’t like what you’re doing over at Gideon’s place. I do. But that’s raised beds, and I want this kind of amazing-looking garden. You’re a genius.”

  Hearting that kind of praise had Caleb grinning from ear to ear. “I should be done at Gideon’s within the week. What took so long was getting all that nasty asphalt up. But it’ll be done by the time his aunt gets into town.”

  Gideon winced and cut his eyes to Marley. “I forgot to mention it. Sorry.”

  “A text would’ve been nice or even a phone call or maybe a smoke signal,” Marley tossed out as she marched past him into the house.

  Hannah was in the kitchen with Andy. The smell of something tasty wafted through the air. “We’re having baked pork chops with cornbread stuffing. I forgot to ask if anyone’s vegetarian.”

  Marley sniffed the air. “I’m afraid we’re carnivores of the worst kind with a ferocious appetite.”

  “Then you’ll feel right at home around here,” Andy added with a grin. “Thanks for doing this. Faye’s here, sulking, somewhere.”

  Marley needed to put the brakes on the pressure she felt building. “That’s okay. We’ll let a conversation come naturally. If there is one. Over dinner.”

  “You certainly must’ve worked up an appetite dealing with Ellie’s problem ex,” Caleb added as he joined Hannah and Andy in the kitchen. “Hannah works with Ellie. She called and told us about how you got Damon arrested. Thank you for that. Ellie was so afraid of that guy. She never told Hannah the truth about what’s been going on these past few weeks. I’m surprised she told you at all.”

  “I knew something was off,” Hannah put in. “But I didn’t know what it was until she called this afternoon and told me what you did.”

  “I didn’t do anything except make Brent aware of the problem. The RO was still in effect. Brent’s the one who took the brunt of Damon’s anger and got stabbed for it.”

  “Is he okay?” Caleb asked, concern on his face.

  “He’s fine,” Gideon stated, throwing a glance Marley’s way. “He didn’t get stabbed exactly. The guy had a knife and sliced Brent’s hand open when Brent went to defend himself.”

  Hannah shook her head. “I knew Pettigrew was dangerous.” She pivoted toward Marley. “But you confronted Ellie and got the truth out of her, which is what she needed. Else that asshole could’ve just kept blackmailing her.”

  “I’m surprised that Damon didn’t push his way in the house and make her let him live there,” Caleb noted.

  “I asked her about that. It seems Damon doesn’t like to be around sick people.”

  “Sounds like a piece of work,” Gideon surmised.

  “I saw Damon Pettigrew down by the beach last night,” Faye offered from the doorway. “He looked grubby like he hadn’t taken a shower in a few days. Is he really in jail? Did he really stab Brent Cody?”

  Marley took the opening. “Would you like to hear the play by play of what happened? Maybe you’d feel better knowing you’re not the only person who’s ever been tricked into trusting the wrong person.”

  “Sure.”

  Hannah looked hopeful. “I’ll bring you both some iced tea. You should go sit in the sunroom. Faye, take her on a tour of the house.”

  “She can be so bossy,” Faye grumbled as she got no further than the sunroom before plopping into a chair in front of a bank of windows with a perfect view of the ocean in the distance.

  Marley recognized a moody, temperamental teenager. “I think Hannah means well. It’s what’s known as hospitable, a welcoming gesture to take guests through the house to make them feel more at ease, more at home.”

  “Oh. You aren’t really going to give me the gritty details about the chief of police getting stabbed, are you?”

  “I will if that’s what you want. But I wasn’t there. Gideon was. He treated the wound. You want me to get him in here to give you the gory details?”

  “No. I guess not. It sounds morbid when you say it that way.” Faye fidgeted with her legs and picked at a scab on her elbow. “You know that day when I helped Beckham clean out your old building. I wanted to ask you something.”

  “Go ahead. No better time than now.”

  “It’s like this. Is it scary, starting over in a new town?”

  A flash of daylight appeared as Marley clued in on Faye’s mindset. “Absolutely. Why do you ask? Are you thinking about starting over somewhere else?”

  “Maybe. Heather Bonner, she’s this really popular girl at school, says I’m stupid if I keep going out with nerdy Beckham. That there are better guys out there. Heather says that I should look around, find someone who’s not so busy all the time, that I should go out with other guys and find someone better.”

  “Is that why you decided to hook up online with that creepy old dude from Saturday night? Because of Heather’s advice? Is that why you’ve been going into chatrooms where you can talk to other teenagers, trying to find someone better than Beckham?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But Heather’s advice was a big bust, right? When you were in the chatroom, it never occurred to you that this boy could be a grown man, a predator, pretending to be sixteen. What do you think he wanted to do Saturday night once the two of you got together?”

  Faye made a face. “He wanted to do more than just meet up and talk about what was happening at home, that’s for sure. It was awful. I knew the whole thing was a mistake the minute I saw him standing there. I felt it in my bones. It was like a little voice told me what to do. That’s why I got out of there.”

  Marley thought of Scott’s voice and wondered. “Thank goodness for that. And have you conveyed the failure of this operation to Heather yet?”

  Faye shook her head. “I’m sure she’s heard by now. But since Andy took my phone away, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow and tell her at school.”

  “Oh, joy,” Marley muttered. “That’s sarcasm in case you were wondering.”

  For the first time, Faye’s lips bowed in a grin.

  “What other crappy advice has Heather given you about life?”

  “You think it’s crappy?”

  “Well, from where I’m sitting, Heather sounds a bit jealous of your relationship with Beckham. That’s why she put the kibosh on it.”

  Faye sat up straighter. “But she doesn’t like Beckham. She’s always making fun of him.”

  “Even if Beckham is just a friend, have you never defended him with Heather?”

  “No. I’m…I want to be like Heather. She has so many friends on Facebook. And she always comes up with a good zinger as a comeback.”

  “And that’s what you aspire to?”

  “I guess so. Yeah.”

  Marley sat there for another half hour doing her best to learn more about Faye’s fascination with Heather.

  Later, over coffee and dessert in the sunroom, Marley tried to explain it all to Hannah and Andy with Caleb and Gideon looking on. “I’m not sure parents completely understand the dynamics of peer pressure. It’s far more important to a girl of fourteen than you might realize. The opinions of friends carry far more weight than yours, Andy, or yours, Hannah. It’s a fact that most parents don’t like to admi
t. Sometimes when you’re dealing with teenagers, you’re basically talking to dead air. They tune out parents so don’t take it personally. One thing I did glean that might help is this. Most of Faye’s friends she’s known all her life. It seems to me they might be maturing a little faster than she is. It means she’s simply trying to catch up by emulating one of them in particular, a girl by the name of Heather Bonner.”

  Hannah nodded. “I know Heather. She’s the little sister of Paul Bonner. She was a cheerleader over in San Sebastian all through middle school. She wasn’t happy when her parents pulled her out of there and made her go to school here.”

  “I get that Heather has some issues to work out herself. Anger. Jealousy. But right now, she’s influencing Faye far more than any of you could possibly believe. Faye wants to be like Heather. Faye looks up to Heather whether it’s good or bad, it’s Faye’s way of busting out of what she sees as a rut. Beckham was part of that rut, so she had to toss him aside when Heather suggested it. From what I can tell, Faye is a normal teenager who wants to fit in with her peers. She wants to be accepted by their standards. Even though their standards are, at times, mean, wrong, lame, and even stupid. This would be a good time to emphasize your standards, over and over again, without sounding like you’re preaching. I realize it’s a fine line to walk. But hey, you’re dealing with the teenage brain. I didn’t see any signs of drug use or even that she’s interested in that. But…having said that, I’d be cautious of this hold Heather seems to have on her. It might run its course. Or it might manifest in other ways. Today, Faye began to see that Heather’s not that smart, hence the incident from Saturday night.”

  Marley held up a hand. “But before you suggest that Faye can’t be around Heather, or exclude Faye from seeing her altogether, that’s the wrong approach. In my opinion. After all, the girls are classmates. Faye will interact with Heather whether you want her to or not. So why bother with an ultimatum with failure written all over it? My recommendation is to stay on top of it, but until Heather crosses another line…”