The Detective's Secret Daughter

by Rachelle Mccalla

  Though people continued to pour through the doors right up until the parade’s start time of ten o’clock, once the Fitzgerald Bay High School band marched by, the crowd took to the streets, and even those who’d been soaking up the warmth of the woodstoves in the Sugar Plum dining rooms headed outside to watch the festivities.

  Charlotte and Britney nearly pushed Victoria out the door.

  “The Sunday school float is always near the front of the parade. You’d better get out there!” Charlotte insisted.

  Victoria gave Owen an uncertain look, which he was sure had to do with leaving the Sugar Plum in the care of two people she doubted she could trust.

  Unable to say anything in front of Britney and Charlotte, Owen took Victoria’s hand and gave it a squeeze. He didn’t figure there was too much mischief the two women could get into and still cover their posts at the inn. And if they did commit a crime while he and Victoria were out, it would give him one more opportunity to gather evidence against them.

  So he was all for leaving. Besides, he wanted to spend some time with Victoria watching their daughter in the parade.

  The two of them stood on the crowded porch and watched the parade go by. When the Sunday school float came into view, Victoria pulled her camera from her jacket pocket and quickly snapped a couple of pictures of Paige before waving to her daughter. Owen, caught up in the festivities, put his fingers in his mouth and let loose a wolf whistle, startling both Paige and Victoria, who quickly recovered from their surprise and laughed.

  As the float took the corner at the end of the block, Owen grabbed Victoria’s hand again and pulled her toward the stairs. “Come on.” He leaned close to her ear to be heard over the din of the crowd. “They’ll end up at the park. We can fetch Paige there.”

  Victoria nodded and they made their way through the green-faced crowd.

  They reached the park, where the high school band had already set up and was playing near the gazebo. A sound system had been erected from the prominent spot, for the announcement of the winning parade entries. There would be more contests and events throughout the day.

  Owen and Victoria skirted the gazebo and found the place where the floats were leaving off their riders. Soon Paige’s float arrived, and Paige stood on the edge of the high platform, looking nervous about jumping down.

  “May I help you?” Owen reached his hands up toward Paige.

  She nodded happily and jumped into his waiting arms. For a second she hugged him tight. “Thank you!” she chirped before tossing herself at her mother.

  Owen watched them embrace and felt his chest swell with emotion. The mother and daughter made such a pretty picture, with Paige in her lovely green dress and Victoria’s cheeks glowing red from the cold. He took a step back and watched the two of them together, as Paige happily recounted her adventure and Victoria listened.

  With no one else to talk to, he found himself carrying on a silent conversation with God. Can You help me earn Victoria’s trust, Lord? Can You help me win back her heart? If You see fit to give me this family, I promise I’ll love them forever and do everything I can to keep them safe.

  Victoria looked up at him and smiled. “Paige wants to listen for the winners of the float contest.”

  “I’m sure you have time. There can’t be many customers at the Sugar Plum—everyone is here.”

  Indeed, the people who had filled the streets now crammed the park so full they could hardly get through the crowd to the grandstand. Burke Hennessy, the longtime chair of the parade committee, was already at the microphone, making witty remarks to the crowd between the band’s song sets. When the band played a festive number, Burke motioned to his wife, Christina, who joined him on the gazebo and danced a couple of turns before the song ended.

  The crowd clapped and cheered and Burke, flush-faced, grabbed the microphone again. “Do we have the results of the parade contest? I hate to keep the good people of Fitzgerald Bay waiting.”

  The judging panel, which sat on an elevated booth facing the parade route, turned and shook their heads. They appeared to be caught up in deliberation.

  Burke spoke into the microphone again. “Like I said, I hate to keep the good people of Fitzgerald Bay waiting. That’s why I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone for the poor job our local police department has done investigating the awful murder of Olivia Henry.”

  The crowd seemed to suck in its breath, and there was no sound but the wind and a metallic wail as a band member collapsed a trombone en route to its case. Owen felt his heart nearly stop. He knew people around town had been whispering similar words, but to hear them proclaimed from a microphone was another thing entirely.

  Burke’s dyed-blond comb-over fluttered in the wind as he faced the people gathered below him. “It’s not fair to all of you to have to live with uncertainty. We know Charles Fitzgerald was a lonely man. We know Olivia Henry was a lovely girl. We know what his motives were.” Burke’s beady eyes scanned the crowd.

  No one protested. No one spoke in the Fitzgeralds’ defense.

  “People of Fitzgerald Bay, Charles Fitzgerald is the prime suspect in the murder of Olivia Henry! So why hasn’t he been arrested for his crimes?”

  Silence.

  “I come before you today to say it’s time! It’s time for no more waiting! It’s time for answers! It’s time for Charles Fitzgerald to face a full investigation. It’s time, Fitzgerald Bay, time for justice and answers and peace!”

  He’d gotten the crowd worked up into a fervor, all right. The people appeared to be on the verge of cheering.

  Burke must have sensed it, too, because he gripped the microphone harder. “It’s time for a new era, Fitzgerald Bay. That’s why today, I am privileged to announce to you, that the reign of secrets of the Fitzgeralds clan is about to come to an end. I have thrown my hat in the mayoral race, and ask for your vote for me, Burke Hennessy, for mayor of Fitzgerald Bay!”

  He gave a little jump and a whoop at the end, and the baited crowd jumped and whooped with him. The cheer erupted all around them, and Owen shook his head. He glanced around for his family members, but the crowd was so large, he couldn’t spot any of them.

  He agreed it was time the people of Fitzgerald Bay got some answers. But he was equally convinced Burke Hennessy wasn’t the man to give them those answers.

  Victoria held tightly to Paige’s hand as they followed Owen back to the outskirts of the crowd, where the din of cheering wasn’t quite so loud, nor the crush of people as dense. She gave him a sympathetic look and tugged on his hand. “It’s mostly out-of-town people in the crowd,” she pointed out. “They don’t know your brother.”

  But Owen didn’t look reassured. He’d already told her he couldn’t prove Charles was innocent.

  Fortunately, the panel of judges burst through the crowd with a fat envelope, and the cheering dimmed enough for Burke to begin announcing the winners of the various categories in the parade. The silence around her hummed with expectancy and murmurs, as people began whispering about Burke’s candidacy and speech.

  Victoria’s ears pricked up, and she felt Paige’s small hand tug on her own. When she looked down, her daughter’s face was white and her eyes round with fear. “Mommy—the humming,” Paige whispered, and nodded backward toward the crowd behind them.

  Listening carefully, Victoria picked up the sound, and her head supplied the words to go with it. She knew that song. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

  She grabbed Owen’s hand and gave it a jerk. “Humming,” she mouthed, and tipped her head toward the sound.

  Owen must have seen the fear on her face. His eyes narrowed as they scanned the thinning crowd, and he took a couple of steps backward, scenting out the source of the song.

  Burke announced the third-place band, and a cheer covered
the song, but Victoria caught the humming notes again as the cheering stilled, and followed Owen back through the crowd.

  “There.” She squeezed Owen’s hand and pointed to a man ten feet behind them, his green-painted face turned mostly away from them.

  “Mommy.” Paige pulled on her other hand and whispered urgently. “There he is—the man who robbed the safe!”

  Owen bent down and caught the last of Paige’s words, then dropped Victoria’s hand and darted toward the broad-shouldered figure. The crowd blocked his way and he sidestepped through the filtering people, making two more strides toward the humming man before the green face glanced back. The man saw him coming and fled.

  TWELVE

  Victoria scooped Paige up into her arms before the girl could go tearing off after Owen.

  “We’ve got to catch him!” Paige fought to get her feet on the ground.

  “Paige, no.” Victoria held her tightly and watched as Owen sprinted after the man. “Let the detective catch him. This isn’t a game.”

  “But, Mom, he’s getting away.”

  Victoria let out a long breath as she watched Owen’s vain scramble after the retreating man, whose head start and green face paint made him blend in so easily with the crowd. “Let’s hurry, then.” She held Paige’s hand tightly and they trotted off in the direction Owen had run.

  She found him stomping on the sidewalk near the parade route, checking every doorway and the head of every alley, a disgusted expression on his face.

  “Did you get a good look at him?” She hoped they might at least have picked up a clue.

  “He had a green face and a black jacket, just like hundreds of other folks here today. He could be standing right in front of me right now and I wouldn’t be able to tell you if it was him.”

  “I’d recognize him if I saw him again,” Paige declared.

  “I know, Paige,” Victoria assured her daughter before turning to Owen. “Do you want to retrace your steps and look for a footprint?”

  “In this crowd?” Owen shook his head. “Let’s head back to the Sugar Plum. The crowd at the park is already thinning. They’re going to want lunch soon.”

  Indeed, as they neared the Sugar Plum, Victoria could see the café was already hopping with customers. She picked up her pace and Paige hurried along beside her.

  “I’ll change out of my dress and come help you.”

  Victoria’s heart crushed. Her little girl was always helping. And yet, who was she to turn down an extra set of hands? Paige had already proved to be capable of busing tables—and they’d need busing, if the growing line to the counter was any indication.

  “I’ll help, too,” Owen insisted as they ducked around to the kitchen entrance.

  They stepped inside and Victoria immediately recoiled at the sight of a green-painted face and black jacket hard at work scooping steaming bowls of chowder from the warming vats she’d left on low for their noon soup special.

  Britney poked her head in as the male handed off a tray of bowls. “Clint said he’d help out. I hope you don’t mind—Charlotte and I were having trouble keeping up. I made him wash his hands.”

  Victoria swallowed back her protests. “I appreciate the help,” she called after Britney as the girl hurried away to the waiting customers. Then she exchanged looks with Owen, who looked the youth up and down, before leaning close to her ear and whispering.

  “He’s dressed like the man I chased. He could have made it here ahead of us.”

  “I could ask Britney how long he’s been here,” Victoria offered. “But Paige already said he didn’t do it.”

  “And it looks like you could use his help,” Owen agreed.

  Victoria nodded and smiled at Clint as he glanced back at them. “Thank you for your help. I’ll wash my hands and get to work.”

  Paige retreated upstairs to change her dress, and Owen joined Victoria at the sink.

  The noon crowd didn’t thin until after two o’clock. Victoria had to nearly force Paige to take a break at noon and have some lunch, or the little girl would have kept busing tables straight through mealtime.

  When she mentioned as much to Owen, he laughed. “And when did you take a lunch break?” He shook his head and carried off more bowls of steaming soup. “Like mother, like daughter.”

  As she watched him go, it didn’t escape Victoria’s notice that Owen hadn’t stopped for lunch, either. So perhaps Paige had inherited her hardworking tendency from both sides of the family.

  As Victoria was prepping the food for the evening buffet, Charlotte stuck her head in the kitchen. “We have a couple here looking for a room.”

  Victoria’s eyes widened. She’d booked most of the rooms ahead of the weekend and taken down the vacancy sign because there was only one room left, and it wasn’t ready to receive visitors. She stepped to the podium to talk to the couple.

  And older man had his arm slung around his wife’s waist. “We didn’t make reservations because we thought we’d be headed home. But the weather report is calling for another blizzard, so Madge thought maybe, if you had a room for the night…”

  Victoria nodded. She didn’t want to turn the elderly pair away, especially not with a storm moving in. “I have one more room, but right now the flowers that sit on my porch during the summer are overwintering there. If you’ll give me half an hour I can have the room ready.”

  The man looked relieved. “We’ll have the cookie-and-coffee special while we wait.”

  Charlotte rang up the purchase, and Victoria headed for the stairs.

  Owen followed her. “I’ll help you with the plants.”

  She didn’t argue. The huge hanging baskets that encircled the wide porch during the summer months were plenty heavy, and there were eight large ones, plus several more pots that sat on the porch floor during the mild months. It would take her half an hour just to move the plants, and then she’d have to make up the room. “I appreciate your help,” she told Owen sincerely as they headed down the hall to the far room, whose many wide windows overlooked the side and back yards.

  “Chilly up here,” Owen commented.

  Victoria had felt the temperature dip as they climbed the stairs. “I hope it’s not a problem with the furnace.” She pulled out her keys and unlocked the seldom-used room.

  “No!” She gasped as she took in the extent of the mess.

  Broken windows greeted her, the curtains torn, plants toppled and trampled, dirt everywhere, even smeared in muddy streaks across the wallpaper. Cold air blasted in on the wind, and the once-green leaves of the plants had taken on a decidedly blackened hue.

  “It’s ruined. The whole room.” She gasped for her breath, and didn’t fight Owen when he pulled her against his shoulder, blocking her eyes from the horrible scene. “How? Who?”

  “We’ll find them.”

  “They’re long gone. The temperature has been above freezing since midmorning, but the plants have frostbite. That means whoever did this came in the night.” She shuddered at the thought that, while she and Paige and the other guests had been quietly sleeping, someone had been just on the other side of the wall, destroying the lovely plants, and the room.

  “Those muddy smears on the walls are full of fingerprints. We’ll catch them this time.”

  Victoria clung to his shoulders and choked back a sob.

  “It’s going to be okay.” Owen rubbed her back, soothing her while she fought the fury and helplessness that assaulted her every time she looked at the room.

  Pushing away from the comfort of his embrace, Victoria wiped back her tears and caught a glimpse of herself in the broken mirror above the dresser on the opposite wall. Her cheeks were already blotchy from crying, and her face was tear-streaked. “I need to tell that couple that I don’t have a room
for them after all.” She sniffled back another sob and tried to compose herself.

  “Mommy?” Paige’s voice carried down the hall.

  “I’ll get her.” Owen turned to meet Paige.

  “Hurry—don’t let her see.” Victoria bit back another gulp of fear. “I don’t want her to be frightened. Her bedroom is right next to this one.”

  Owen trotted down the hall to meet Paige. He didn’t want the girl to see her mother’s tear-streaked face. Knowing Paige, she’d insist on finding out exactly why her mother had been crying. “Paige!” He threw on a smile and quickly thought of a way to keep Paige away while they cleaned up the mess. “Remember how my dad gave you that gift certificate to the Reading Nook last week?”

  “Yes.” Her eyes twinkled.

  “You’ve done such a good job helping your mom today, how about if we go over to the Reading Nook and get you another gift certificate?”

  “Really?” She took the bend in the hall that led to the small apartment she and Victoria shared. “I’ll get my jacket.”

  Relieved that his ruse had worked, Owen ducked inside the apartment after Paige and made a cursory sweep of the space to be sure that nothing in their private quarters had been disturbed.

  No broken glass. No smears of mud. They were safe—for now.

  Paige placed one trusting hand in his. “Ready?”

  He smiled down in wonder at the little face that looked so much like his at that age. “Let’s go.”

  Owen left Paige in the care of his sister Fiona, who sent her straight to the middle-grade shelves to browse. He quickly handed over cash for a gift certificate and explained the situation, leaving out the detail, of course, that Paige was his daughter. Fiona, a loving mother, was quick to agree to watch Paige.

  His sister and the rest of his extended family would soon learn there was another Fitzgerald among them. But how would they take the news?