Baked Alaska

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “So, she was telling the truth about the liver disease,” Pete said. “Does that make you think she could be telling the truth about Maggie, too? Maybe there is an explanation for why no one knows about Maggie.”

  “I honestly don’t see how,” Shawn said, looking at Pete. “I’ve got my notes at home, but after I learned about Maggie I found a couple of things that prove my point—like Lorraina being in jail when she would have been six months pregnant. And her second arrest was within like a week of Maggie’s birth date. It just doesn’t seem possible. I told Lorraina that when I discovered it. She just kept saying that I had a sister, and asking why I wasn’t happy about that, and why we couldn’t be a family. It was all just so weird.”

  Pete sighed. “Maybe we can go back and verify that information while we’re in port tomorrow. In the meantime, while Maggie’s reaction to the possibility of Lorraina not being her birth mother seems sincere, we’d be well-advised to not be too trusting until we have more answers. We don’t know her, and we need to be careful and double-check the facts as quickly as we can.”

  Shawn nodded his understanding and Sadie reluctantly accepted that Pete was right. She’d had a similar thought earlier, about not knowing Maggie well enough to know whether or not she was trustworthy, but it felt different now that there was the possibility that Maggie might have been tricked all along. Then she remembered the information Maggie had given her about Lorraina not coming back to the room last night and how it hadn’t made sense. Perhaps Pete’s caution was more warranted than even he thought.

  She took a few moments to fill Shawn and Pete in on those details from her conversation with Maggie, then finished, “And since Maggie was alone in her stateroom, supposedly waiting for Lorraina’s return, no one can corroborate her story.”

  Pete and Shawn’s expressions matched Sadie’s thoughts perfectly. What had been going on with Lorraina? She could only hope that their search for information in Skagway tomorrow would give them the answers they all needed.

  “Are we all in agreement not to share our concerns with Maggie at this point?” Pete asked. Sadie and Shawn both nodded. “I think it’s in everyone’s best interest—Maggie’s included—to see what we can learn one way or another before we make a big deal out of this to her.”

  Shawn and Sadie nodded again.

  “Good, then as I see it, we now have a double investigation going: Is Lorraina Maggie’s birth mother? And what happened yesterday in the time between her argument with Maggie, Sadie seeing her at the photo gallery, and us finding her on deck—basically, how did she get the wine, why did she drink it, and why is she now in a coma?” He looked between them as they agreed to the goals he had outlined. He was really good at this.

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page. The other thing we need to consider is that the abnormal tox screen is going to change things.”

  “What abnormal tox screen?” Shawn asked.

  “They didn’t tell you at the hospital?” Sadie asked.

  Pete relayed what he’d learned from his contact on the ship. “It’s not a medication she was taking or something common that is tested for automatically. The doctors are running additional tests now to determine what it is, but something is showing up that absolutely should not be there.”

  Shawn stared at the tabletop but said nothing, so Pete continued. “Up until now this has been treated as a binge on Lorraina’s part, but now that there’s something unusual, the police might open an investigation and your conflicts with Lorraina will be something they are going to scrutinize. Ship security has already requested that Sadie come in to tell them about the gift tag on the bottle of wine—no one else saw it, including me—and that makes me think more than ever that they are going to investigate this. Because of that, we need to know if there is anything”—Pete leaned forward slightly while jabbing his finger onto the top of the table—“anything at all that might strengthen an investigator’s reason for thinking you could have had anything to do with what’s happened to Lorraina.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Sadie said, incensed by the suggestion. She looked to Shawn for confirmation of his protest, but Shawn didn’t look shocked; he looked decidedly worried. “Shawn? Isn’t it ridiculous?”

  Chapter 18

  Well, yeah. I wouldn’t have done anything to hurt her.” He still had that look on his face that could stop a mother’s heart, though. That look that clearly said there was still something else Sadie didn’t know.

  Sadie glanced at Pete and could tell he saw the same thing she did in Shawn’s face.

  Pete held Shawn’s eyes as he continued. “Is there anything that someone who doesn’t know you might not understand? Anything that would make you look suspicious?”

  As soon as Pete asked the question, Sadie remembered something Maggie had said. “Did you send Lorraina some e-mails? Mean ones?”

  Shawn’s eyebrows went up. “You know about those?”

  Sadie’s stomach sank. He did send horrible e-mails? “Maggie told me. She said Lorraina forwarded them to her.”

  “What e-mails?” Pete cut in.

  Shawn hesitated, and Sadie braced herself as he started talking. “Like I told you guys, Lorraina wouldn’t back off, and over those weeks I was trying to get her to just leave me alone, I sent some e-mails asking her to give me some space. She never listened to anything I said. I was pretty rude in that last e-mail.”

  Sadie was sympathetic of his position; her poor boy had been through so much. Pete was impossible to read since his detective-face was masking his feelings.

  “When was the last e-mail sent?” Pete asked.

  “Um, about a week and a half ago. After that, I blocked her e-mail address. I figured that e-mail worked, because she didn’t text or call me, and she didn’t just get a new e-mail address and start harassing me again. I had planned to contact her after the cruise, I swear. After I’d talked to Mom and everything.”

  Pete nodded. “Okay. Would you mind sending the e-mails to me?”

  Shawn shifted slightly in his chair. “Uh, is that really necessary? I mean, they’re personal.”

  Sadie looked at the tabletop and tried to pretend she wasn’t concerned about why he wouldn’t want them to know what was in those exchanges.

  “It would be really helpful if I could read them and therefore know what to expect, should it come up later.” Was it Sadie’s imagination that Pete emphasized that he would read them, not Sadie?

  “Okay,” Shawn said in surrender. “I’ll have to use the ship computers to access my e-mail, though; I didn’t bring my laptop.”

  “Breanna brought hers,” Sadie offered. Breanna was probably back in their cabin by now. Shawn could have those e-mails sent to Pete within just a few minutes, or Shawn could log in and Pete could read them right there in the cabin...while Sadie peeked over his shoulder.

  “I’ll just use a ship computer,” Shawn said before pushing away from the table and letting out a breath. He wasn’t happy about this. “Are we done here, then?”

  “Yeah,” Pete said, getting to his feet. “We’re done.”

  Pete didn’t invite Sadie to look at the stars tonight—or, more realistically, the clouds—but that wasn’t really why they’d gone to deck thirteen on the other nights. Instead, they parted ways with a good-night kiss at the elevators on deck twelve. Pete took the stairs to his room on deck ten while Sadie opted to take the elevator.

  Breanna wasn’t in their cabin when Sadie arrived, which she hoped meant that she was having a good discussion with Maggie—maybe even getting important information in the process. What would Breanna think of the things Sadie had learned from Shawn tonight?

  Sadie got ready for bed and laid out the clothes she wanted to wear to Skagway tomorrow. They had signed up for a whale watching tour, though Sadie couldn’t say she was looking forward to it any longer. The gold panning today had been a nice distraction, and an important opportunity for her and Shawn to talk, but they hadn’t had an investigation to work on w
hen they decided to keep that appointment. Now there was work to do, and yet whale watching had been one of the main reasons Breanna chose this cruise. Sadie took a deep breath, released it, and tried not to scream in frustration. Yesterday had been such a hard day. Today had been hellacious.

  Breanna came in around 10:40, saving Sadie from having to reorganize the closet by color in a vain attempt to distract herself from her growing anxieties induced by waiting and wondering what was taking Breanna so long.

  Maggie had given most of Lorraina’s personal papers to Officer Jareg that morning, but there were some miscellaneous items that Breanna had brought back for Sadie to look at—including Lorraina’s purse.

  Sadie started looking through everything while Breanna filled her in on what a sweet girl Maggie was and how sad this whole situation was. Sadie nodded in agreement while separating the items from the purse into two piles—“of interest” and “everything else.”

  “Did Shawn say anything about some e-mails he sent to Lorraina?” Breanna asked after changing into her kitten pajamas and pulling her hair up into a high ponytail on the top of her head.

  “Yes,” Sadie said, pondering over a receipt from an airport gift shop. It was for two magazines, but Breanna hadn’t brought any magazines back with her—Sadie hoped they wouldn’t be important. She put the receipt in the “of interest” pile, just in case. So far everything was in the “of interest” pile, including a tube of ChapStick Sadie thought might have DNA evidence. “He said he’d asked Lorraina for some space.”

  “Is that how he explained it?” Breanna said, sitting down on her bed and tucking her long legs underneath her. “Space?”

  Sadie looked up, a parking stub from the Memphis airport in one hand. “He said he told her to back off while he tried to work things out. Why? Did Maggie say something different?” Maggie had used the word “horrible” to describe the e-mails. Had she simply misinterpreted them because her feelings were hurt?

  “Shawn told Lorraina to never contact him again and that if she did, he’d call the police—or worse.”

  “Or worse?” Sadie repeated, lifting her eyebrows and sitting up straighter. “That’s what Maggie said?”

  “No, that’s what Shawn said. It really hurt Maggie’s feelings that Shawn didn’t want to meet her, and Lorraina forwarded the e-mails to prove that she wasn’t making it up.”

  Sadie leaned forward. “You read the e-mails? They were threatening?”

  Breanna nodded and made a concerned face. “Mom, they were...scary.”

  “What exactly did they say?”

  “At first, Shawn told her to leave him alone for a while, but then he got meaner and angrier. In the last one, he called her a liar and a...a really bad name you once washed my mouth out with soap for saying. He told her that she was trashy and that he was embarrassed to have her be a part of his life or a part of him and that he had no interest in meeting Maggie, who was probably just like her. He said he never wanted anything to do with her and, word for word, that if she didn’t leave him alone he’d call the police or worse.”

  Heat filled Sadie with every word. “Breanna, he would never say those things. You know he wouldn’t, right?”

  “I wouldn’t have thought so,” Breanna said, putting her hands up as though in surrender. “But I read them, Mom. They were sent from his e-mail address and, well, he’s been really struggling since all that stuff happened in Boston. I just wonder if maybe he hit his limit, ya know, and kind of exploded. I don’t think he meant it, though,” she quickly added. “I know Shawn would never hurt anyone.”

  Sadie stared at the covers of her bed. Was that why Shawn was hesitant to send the e-mails to Pete? Because he knew what they really said and didn’t want it verified?

  She shook her head, refusing to believe Shawn would say those things, or lie about it to her and Pete. Shawn was as honest and trustworthy as anyone Sadie had ever known...except that he’d hidden the fact that he’d found his birth mother and lied about going back to Michigan after Christmas. She’d told Pete that she was worried something had broken in Shawn when they’d been in Boston. What if she was right? What if he wasn’t the same man he’d been before all of that happened?

  She closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her forehead. She couldn’t think this way. Shawn was her son; she knew his heart and had no doubt that he was a good man. Could Lorraina, or even Maggie, have changed the e-mails? Maybe Lorraina wanted to make Shawn seem worse than she’d already made him out to be. Sadie couldn’t think of what Maggie’s motivation would be but that didn’t mean she didn’t have one.

  “Did Maggie say anything about me?” Sadie asked. “She made a comment earlier that I wasn’t what she expected.”

  Breanna paused, and Sadie gave her an “I can handle it” look. “Lorraina told Maggie that you were super-controlling and that’s why Shawn hadn’t talked to you about them reconnecting—because you’d freak out about it. One of the e-mails said something to that effect as well.”

  Sadie was offended, but tried to keep her cool.

  “But she doesn’t believe that anymore,” Breanna assured her. “In fact, I think it’s part of what’s making this harder for Maggie. She was told things about you and Shawn that, now that she’s met you, aren’t adding up. Couple that with the fact that Lorraina’s family didn’t know anything about her, and I can see why she’s questioning everything. I feel so bad for her.”

  “Did Shawn share his concerns about Lorraina with you? That she was making him uncomfortable or that she’d asked him for money?”

  Breanna shook her head, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet. “No, he never said anything about that, but after the first conversation he and I had about her, he didn’t seem to want to talk to me about it anymore. When I asked about her, he’d change the subject.”

  Sadie relayed what Shawn had told her about Lorraina’s requests for money, the convenient timing of Maggie’s arrival on the scene, and the liver transplant. By the time she finished, Breanna looked completely stunned.

  “Maggie didn’t say anything about her birth mom being that sick,” she said. “She knew Lorraina had a bad liver, but not that she needed a transplant. Do you think Maggie didn’t know?”

  “I have no idea. I can’t figure her out. If Maggie’s role in this was to draw Shawn in—whether Maggie knew it or not—then why would Lorraina send the angry e-mails to Maggie and prejudice her against him? And why do all that, then try to arrange for them to meet on a cruise ship of all places? And why lie to Shawn about having natural siblings when he asked in October? There’s so much that doesn’t make sense.”

  Breanna telling Sadie about the e-mails had sapped Sadie’s energy, and her motivation to go through Lorraina’s belongings was gone. She put everything back in Lorraina’s purse and set it on the floor next to her bed. “We’re going to see what we can find out when we’re in port tomorrow, and we don’t want to talk to Maggie about this stuff until we know more, okay? Breakfast might be a little awkward, but we just need to take things one step at a time. Pete will probably lead the discussion; he’s good at knowing what to keep to ourselves and what to share with her in order to learn what we need to know.”

  “Sure, of course,” Breanna said with a nod. “But I don’t think she was in on whatever it was Lorraina was doing. I think she truly believes—or believed—that she is Lorraina’s daughter. I got the impression that finding her birth mom really filled in some holes in her life, ya know? Did she tell you that her dad remarried and has two little kids—bio-kids—now? I think it’s just one more thing that’s been really hard for her since her adoptive mother died.”

  Adoptive mother. The term rankled Sadie so badly, but she refused to say so out loud. She went to the drawers by the closet and got out her pajamas. When the bathroom door was open, it closed off the hallway between the bathroom and the cabin door, making it a perfect dressing room.

  “Did Maggie say anything about how she reunited with Lorraina? It’s only
been a couple of months, right?” Sadie asked.

  “Yeah, she said it was right before Easter, which Maggie found very comforting. She’s pretty religious.”

  Sadie had noted that as well. She got undressed, leaving her clothes in a pile on the floor. “How did they find each other?”

  “Maggie started looking for her birth mom as soon as she turned eighteen.”

  “How old is Maggie now?”

  “I’m not sure—twenty-one or twenty-two, I think. And Lorraina found her. Maggie had tried to do the search herself a couple of years ago, but her adoption records were sealed—not just regular sealed—something that required an attorney and a civil case. She couldn’t afford to hire an attorney so she hooked up with a bunch of adoption-reunion websites instead. I guess they have all kinds of forums and things. It sounds like Maggie really liked being a part of that community. When Lorraina found her on one of those sites, Maggie said that she felt like it was an answer to her prayers.”

  Sadie pulled her pajama top over her head and contemplated the sheer horribleness of Lorraina pretending to be Maggie’s mother, if that’s what had happened. “I’m looking forward to filling in the blanks.” She pulled on the bottoms and scooped up her discarded clothes before shutting the bathroom door and taking a minute to put everything away. There was no room for disorganization in this small space.

  “I think we all are,” Breanna agreed.

  Sadie got her notebook and pen from her bag and sat on the bed. She started writing down everything that had happened last night; she knew from experience how quickly details could be forgotten. Breanna finished getting ready for bed, then turned her back toward the light on Sadie’s side of the room.