Dae's Christmas Past

by Joyce Lavene

  I could see heads nodding and people agreeing that Vergie was right. Residents of the Outer Banks who’d grown up here tended to be a superstitious lot. They still believed that the ghost of Rafe Masterson came back once in a while to stir up trouble. He was a pirate that had pillaged and plundered along the coast of the Carolinas hundreds of years before.

  “I don’t think the excavation is causing these problems.” Chris’ answer was rational.

  “Something is going on that we don’t understand,” I told them. “But we’re going to figure it out. Now I want each of you to take a piece of paper from that table over there and write down what happened to you last night. I know some of you called the police, and that’s fine. But let’s see if we can discover some kind of pattern that could help explain this.”

  People went to get pieces of paper or took them out of their pockets and bags. It was action toward solving their fears. In my experience, that was what everyone wanted, to feel that there was something they could do.

  “How is this going to help?” Chris whispered.

  “I don’t know yet. Let’s see.”

  As the residents scribbled on their pieces of paper, the door to the meeting room burst open and Jake came into the room.

  “I’m here to set the record straight,” he said. “Evil has come to our home. The end of the world is at hand.”

  Chapter Nine

  “There’s an evil coming out of the ground in Corolla at my rescue ranch. We have to stop it!”

  Chris and I shared horrified glances at Jake’s words.

  “I’m sure Jake doesn’t mean evil like we’re thinking about something from the movies,” Chris joked. “Right, Jake?”

  Jake looked as wild as the horses he tended, maybe more so. His gait was unsteady, and his hands shook. There was a crazy, restless gleam in his eyes that I’d never seen before. He was like a man possessed or stone cold drunk.

  “No, Chris. I’m talking about pure evil like we normally see in the movies or hear about in church. I can’t explain why those stone horses are evil, but I know they are. The excavation is driving our native horses crazy. They don’t want us digging around out there. I think what we’re seeing here in Duck is what we’ve been seeing in Corolla since the excavation began. The horses are running wild. They’re trying to tell us to stay away from that site. Tell them, Dae. You saw it.”

  Jake’s words weren’t helping the situation. Everyone knew him and understood that he had knowledge about the horses that the rest of us didn’t. If he said the excavation was evil and causing the wild horses to attack Duck, everyone would believe him. We had to find some way to stem his rhetoric.

  “Why don’t you come with me so we can record this?” Chris suggested in a friendly voice. “I’ve got the recording equipment in my office.”

  “All right.” Jake pushed his lank hair back from his face. “If you think we should record this, I’m game.”

  Chris nodded to me as he led Jake out of the meeting room. “Call the police,” he whispered.

  Nancy was standing at the door. She heard him and nodded.

  I was glad that she was willing to call Chief Michaels. I wasn’t sure if I could. Whatever he’d done, Jake was my friend. I wanted him to have a chance to explain himself.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I said to my friends and neighbors. “Whatever is going on in Corolla is affecting Jake too. I hope he didn’t scare you.”

  “You mean the horses aren’t evil?” Carter asked.

  “Of course they’re not evil,” Vergie answered. “It’s something else.”

  I was glad she spoke up and added, “I know all of us have been out with the horses on the beach and seen the colts after they’ve been born. How could those horses be evil? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Not those horses, Dae,” Carter said. “It’s the horses they’re digging up that are evil. We have to stop that excavation. I’m going to the state capital in Raleigh with a petition to make them stop. Who’s with me?”

  All of the shop managers and owners who’d signed up for the Christmas in OBX event backed away from that proposal. They were too busy to make the trip to Raleigh and talk with legislators. But a group of ten people, mostly retired folks, agreed to help get a petition together and go with Carter to Raleigh.

  “Aren’t the legislators out for the holidays?” Anne Maxwell asked.

  “Yes.” Carter rolled his eyes. “I guess we’ll have to get the petition together and take it up there after the holidays. We can probably get a larger group to go with us once the shops are closed for the winter too.”

  Mark Sampson shook my hand. “Thanks, Dae. I’m glad you’re going to be mayor again.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Vergie said. “I don’t like to think what’s gonna happen to this town once Dae is gone.”

  “I’m not planning to go anywhere,” I told them. “And I’ll be glad to sign that petition when you’re ready. I don’t know if the excavation is evil or not, but it seems to be affecting people badly.”

  “Never a good idea to dig up the past.” Andy shuddered. “Let that stuff stay buried.”

  “I don’t agree with that,” Mark argued as they walked out the door together. He was a member of the museum board and obviously wouldn’t want history to be left buried in the sand—unless it was evil.

  Within a few minutes, the meeting room was empty again. I sat in a chair with a sigh of relief. At least that problem was solved for the moment. If the horses continued to cause damage, people would be back again. Maybe it was cowardly, but I hoped Chief Michaels would be here next time.

  I said goodbye to Nancy. She’d called the police to report that Jake had been there. “But Chris said he left before I called,” she said. “That poor man needs help, Dae.”

  “I know.” I hurried back to Wild Stallions—after a last long look at the shadowed area where the man from my vision had accosted me. No one was there. I wasn’t sure if he was real or I’d imagined him. Maybe I was still affected by the vision. How could I be sure?

  Mary Catherine and Kevin were on the boardwalk watching the antics of a gull as it spun and dived toward Mary Catherine. Several silver fish also jumped out of the water as I approached.

  “Can you believe it?” Kevin laughed. “A crow started pecking on the window by our table in the restaurant. All she had to do was tell him to go away, and he disappeared.”

  “Sometimes it’s okay to chat,” she said with a smile. “Sometimes they have to wait.”

  As she spoke, a crow flew down from the roof of the Duck Shoppes and landed on the edge of her handbag. It squawked and cried until she paid attention to it.

  “What is it saying?” I asked as the crow fluttered its wings.

  “He’s complaining about the horses. He didn’t like the noise and he says it’s an omen.” She stared at me. “He tells me you had a visitor with an omen too, Dae.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Her gifts were incredible. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the bird saw what had happened outside town hall. I was glad anyone else had seen him, even if it was only a crow. I told Mary Catherine and Kevin about the man who’d warned me about the horses.

  “Maybe he was warning me about the horses anyway. I’m not sure. He was scary, just like the men I’d seen in the vision I got from the stone horse. He spoke some odd language I couldn’t understand. He kept waving around a large bone. I don’t want to know where it came from.”

  “Oh my dear.” Mary Catherine took my arm. “That must’ve been very frightening for you.”

  “I don’t know if it was any worse than the group of people waiting inside town hall. Everyone is upset about the horses. To make it worse, Jake was there too. He was half out of his mind and told everyone that the excavation in Corolla was evil and had to stop. Nancy called the police. What a mess.”

  “What’s going on out there?” Kevin asked. “I wonder if the police have looked around the site on Jake’s property.”

&nbs
p; “The new Corolla police chief, Heidi Palo, said she’s over there all the time breaking up fights. Funny that Chief Michaels and Sheriff Riley are out looking for Jake and he was right here.” I squinted at the far horizon. “I guess everyone is done eating.”

  Mary Catherine pulled out a box. “I had them put yours in a to-go box. I didn’t want you to be hungry.”

  “Thank you.” I took my little box of tomatoes, shrimp, and rice. “If nothing else, I’ll eat it for dinner.”

  “What are you, and the rest of the town, going to do about this thing with the horses?” Kevin asked. “I’m sure this won’t be the only visit to your office about it.”

  I figured it was the perfect opportunity to ask him about being on the town council. “You could help us make that decision.” I dangled the opportunity before him.

  “How? Are you going to do some kind of poll?”

  “No. We need two people to be on the town council until LaDonna and Mad Dog’s terms expire and we hold a new election. Interested?”

  “I don’t think so,” he bluntly answered. “I’ve got a lot on my plate right now with the Blue Whale. I’ll leave the politics to the politicians.”

  “Then you can’t complain about what happens.” I warned him using the same words Gramps had said to me about being mayor.

  He put his arms around me. “I think one politician in the family is enough.”

  Mary Catherine giggled. “In the family, eh? Are you expecting the wedding to be anytime soon?”

  My face got hot. I wasn’t used to the idea of being engaged yet. It was still a lot to take in. “I-I don’t know,” I stammered.

  “No rush,” Kevin said. “We’ll figure out a date later.”

  I was glad to hear him say it, and hurriedly changed the subject. “I hope the horses don’t come back so we won’t need to have another impromptu meeting about them. I expect to hear something from Chief Michaels later about how Tom actually died.”

  Kevin nodded. “The longer Jake is on the run, the worse it will be for him. I don’t like him, but I thought he had more sense.”

  I knew he was right. I wished Jake would turn himself in and get it over with. He’d been acting so crazy at town hall. I was worried about what would happen if the police didn’t find him soon. He could hurt himself or someone else.

  Kevin had to go back to the Blue Whale to set up an author’s tea. The author was from out of town, staying there overnight. Jamie from the bookstore was handling book sales. It was a good mutual effort that I loved to see happen between businesses in Duck. I fostered it wherever I could, though this time it had nothing to do with me.

  Mary Catherine and I went back to Missing Pieces for the afternoon. Customers were in and out. They mostly looked around, ignored me, and left. Some days were like that.

  “I remember being in this same position after I opened the shop next door—sitting and waiting for customers. I’m not a very patient person. Radio has been better for me. I still couldn’t sit around waiting for a sale like you do, Dae.”

  I was standing behind my glass case that held some of the more valuable items I had for sale. Some of these things could only be given or sold to certain people. The bigger items were in the back closet. I didn’t show those even though some of them were very valuable. I had no intention of selling them. There was no amount of money I would take for them.

  My laptop pinged and I checked my email. Dillon Guthrie had sent me a message from the old site of Jamestown in the Caribbean where he was still busy looking for antiquities. He planned to be there for a while and asked if I’d changed my mind about joining him.

  While being there for the salvage operation would have been fascinating, I told him again that I couldn’t leave Duck. My life and my commitments were here. He’d never understand my feelings because he moved from place-to-place on a whim. There was no romantic interest between us, at least not on my part. He just wanted someone to share his passion for ancient artifacts. I could do that, but it had to be from here.

  I’d already told him that ATF agents were looking for him. He wouldn’t come back until that was over. I didn’t know why they wanted him, and I didn’t want to know. Agents Brad Jablanski and Allen Moore stopped by regularly for a while after Dillon had left. As time had passed, I saw them less frequently.

  It had been a bad situation for me. With being mayor and the daughter of the former Dare County sheriff—not to mention that my boyfriend was ex-FBI—anything that didn’t smell right was impossible. I’d always kept my dealings legal. I didn’t plan to change that regardless of some of the amazing merchandise that could be had.

  One of my rules for finding things for people had always been that it had to belong to that person, and it had to be legal. I had bent that rule for some people that I knew very well, but I wouldn’t change it for most.

  I sent my email to Dillon. He wouldn’t be surprised when I turned him down again. I didn’t regret it. I loved my life.

  “Oh my goodness!” Mary Catherine said from the burgundy brocade sofa. “What’s going on?”

  Hundreds of moths had somehow come inside and lighted on her. She was covered in the brown, white, and orange creatures. They made a fluttering blanket across her.

  “Quiet, Baylor,” she hushed her cat. “It’s not funny, and you can’t eat them.”

  Treasure meowed when he looked at her. Baylor hissed at him. Maybe if he couldn’t eat the moths, neither could my cat.

  “Are the moths trying to tell you something?” I watched in astonishment. “I hope they aren’t here to eat my winter coats.”

  The shop door opened and a breeze blew in, displacing the moths for an instant, but they came right back to Mary Catherine.

  “What in the world is going on?” Shayla came in, closing the door behind her. “Is she talking to the moths now? Did Kevin tell you about the crow incident at Wild Stallions? I think she really can talk to animals. Maybe moths too.”

  “They tickle a little.” Mary Catherine laughed. “If they have something to say, I wish they’d say it. I feel bad moving and disrupting them, but I have an itch on my shoulder.”

  Shayla took in a big gulp of air, and her eyes widened. “Wait. I know this one. Moths sometimes are the harbingers of spirits. People used to believe that a spirit could catch a ride with a moth and visit their loved ones.”

  “I don’t know anyone who’s died recently,” Mary Catherine said.

  “Maybe it’s something to do with the horses,” I suggested. “You didn’t know him, but Tom died right outside the house last night.”

  “Don’t ask me.” Shayla shrugged. “I’m just repeating a story I heard as a child. Maybe you just need an exterminator, Dae.”

  “Let me take a picture of you.” I used my phone to snap a photo of the moths. “I don’t know what to say. Are they talking to you?”

  “I’m not sure. I’m listening, but I don’t hear anything.” Mary Catherine closed her eyes.

  Shayla shook her head and looked away from Mary Catherine. “I wanted to do this Christmas thing with everyone, but I’m going to have to head home for a few weeks. There’s some trouble with my crazy family. Could you keep an eye on the shop for me? I don’t expect you to read tea leaves or anything. Just don’t let any horses trample through it.”

  I noticed that Shayla was wearing a long, black dress and carrying a large leather shoulder bag. “You’re leaving right now?”

  “One of my clients has a private plane and offered to take me to New Orleans if I could be ready right away.” She shrugged. “That’s a lot of money to save on a ticket.”

  I hugged her. “Okay. Well, let me know how it goes. Be careful.”

  “You be careful, honey. You’ve got the crazy ghost horses running around Duck. Next time you hear them, get out of the way.”

  “I will. Have a good trip.”

  “Sure. And Merry Christmas.” She smiled, and was gone.

  I had an odd feeling that she wouldn’t be back. I c
ouldn’t describe it, but it felt very real. I hoped I was wrong, and if not, that it was something wonderful that kept her in New Orleans. I’d miss her.

  Mary Catherine opened her eyes. “I’m just not getting anything. The insect mind can be very difficult to understand. They have such a different perspective on life.”

  The door to the shop flew open again and the moths fluttered out of the shop.

  This time it was Nancy. “Dae, you won’t believe what just happened.”

  “Try me.” Nothing she said would surprise me.

  “Chris went up on the water tower to hang a Duck Christmas banner. I don’t know exactly what happened, but he called to tell me that he’s hanging from a rope and needs help.”

  Chapter Ten

  The three of us walked out on the boardwalk and gazed toward the big blue water tower. There was Chris, hanging upside down, with a rope attached to one ankle. The Duck Christmas banner was draped around him.

  “I called the fire department,” Nancy said. “I hope they have a ladder that goes up that high.”

  It struck me that the best thing to do would be to pull him up to the steel ladder that went around the water tower. “Let’s get over there in case they need our help.”

  The water tower was close by and we were prepared to walk, but Mad Dog Wilson was in the parking lot with his deluxe golf cart that seated six people. He was on his way to the scene, so we hitched a ride with him.

  I hoped the bad blood between us that had happened during the election was over. I wanted it to be in the past, and I hoped he did too. He’d been friends with Gramps since I was a child. He was also one of the founders of Duck’s incorporation.

  “Whose bright idea was it to have the town manager hang a sign on the water tower by himself?” Mad Dog glared at me as if he already knew the answer.

  “Not mine,” I told him. “We never hang a banner up there. He didn’t even tell me about it.”