The ferry wasn’t there, but people were gathering in the area, waiting for the next sailing. I saw several families and groups assembled and a few cars in line. I could see the things that walk-on passengers carried, and some things that were inside the cars in line. Most people had beach blankets, blow-up floats, picnic baskets, and other supplies that signaled a fun day at the beach. Luckily for them, it seemed it was always sunny and warm here, so it was easy to plan for this kind of outing.
Oddly, a few cars back there was a group of people whose SUVs were loaded up with skis, snowshoes, parkas, and other winter sports paraphernalia. That was strange, as I’d only ever seen a small ferry here, one that carried a hundred cars at the most. I didn’t think the route would be long enough to get to a wintery stop. Could mountains be that high that you’d go from a warm beach to skiing on the same island? That was unlikely. I’ve heard of places where skiing is three or four hours from the beach, but I didn’t think that these islands were big enough for that kind of situation.
Scanning the line of cars, and the group of people waiting for the ferry, I noticed more odd differences. Some people looked like they were going to work for the day, wearing business attire and carrying just a purse and a briefcase. Others had large rolling suitcases or carts piled with supplies. A family was saying goodbye to a young man dressed in a military-style uniform, and the mother was hugging him and crying. I wondered if this ferry went to a military port. An airport was highly unlikely in a small chain of islands. You would think he’d go inland if he was traveling overseas. That is, if Destiny Falls let him out. It made me wonder if everyone here was as trapped as my father and I were.
People appeared to be getting tickets at a small office on the dock. However, I noticed that the skiers from the SUVs went around to the back of the building and returned holding their tickets. Hmm. Was there a different ticket booth for the mountain stop? Several of the skiers saw me sitting across the road and yelled hello. They started to walk my way. As they got closer to me, they stopped and called out, “Oh, sorry! Thought you were someone else.” Then they turned and headed back to their cars. It was strange that this kept happening. It seemed to occur only here at the ferry terminal.
I saw the ferryboat coming in and the dock crew preparing for its arrival. People walked back to their cars and walk-on passengers gathered near the dock. This ferry was twice as large as the one I had seen before. Did it change size and shape like the library and Caldwell Crest? Or was it an absolutely normal fact of the harbor having more than one ferry?
It was time for me to get back home since I had work to catch up on. Continuing to help my business partner run our magazine remotely was taking some adjustment. It seemed to work fine as long as I kept to my schedule. Which meant today was a writing day and I had an article to finish. I needed to get it done since tonight was the girls’ night I had planned with my sisters. I had my eye on the ice-cream stand and thought I’d grab a cone and enjoy it on my walk home. One single scoop of fruit sorbet would be sensible.
I walked across the street and up to the window. The list of available choices was astounding. There were a dozen flavors I wanted to try. The names alone demanded that I be adventurous. I ended up ordering a scoop of Razzle Dazzle Raspberry topped with a scoop of Chunky Chocolate Caramel.
I was pulling a few napkins from the dispenser when the ticket office loudspeaker crackled to life. I expected to hear a boarding announcement. Instead, I heard something unexpected. “We regret to inform you that all of today’s sailings have been cancelled. Please exit the terminal area. Tickets may be exchanged or refunded online or by calling the ferry office.” The voice repeated the message with more urgency, “Please exit the terminal area immediately.”
At that moment, Sheriff Jaxson Redford’s car pulled up to the terminal with lights flashing. A second patrol car pulled up alongside his. As much as I wanted to know what was happening, I knew it was prudent to stay put and out of the way.
I looked up to see Vessie coming out of her café. She walked across the street and stood next to me.
“What’s happening?” she asked me.
“I have no idea. An announcement was made cancelling the rest of the day’s trips. They asked everyone to leave the boarding area.”
An ambulance pulled up to the curb and I saw Jaxson directing traffic to move cars out of the way to allow the ambulance room to pull up close to the disembarking ramp. The ferry staff was preventing cars and people from getting off the boat, and I recognized the two huge men in mechanic’s uniforms who I had seen in the café.
The only people disembarking appeared to be a group of crew members. I could see the two mechanics plus Kerbie’s short, bright, red head in the group. Several of the workers were carrying something large between them.
“What is that they’re carrying?” I asked Vessie.
We heard a collective gasp from the people around us and someone said, “Oh, my God! They have someone on a stretcher!”
The crew walked directly to the ambulance and the medical workers loaded the stretcher into the vehicle. Once they had loaded the patient, the ambulance pulled away. The crew made another announcement, directing the lingering people to leave the area.
Vessie and I walked across the street and sat on the bench in front of her café.
Once the ambulance left and they had cleared the immediate area, we saw Jaxson walking across the street toward us. His hat was in his hand and he was wiping the back of his sleeve across his brow. He looked intense. When he had this look on his face, it was like he was a different person from the lighthearted friend of my brother. He was in Sheriff Redford mode.
“Hayden. Vessie.” He nodded at us. That was uncharacteristically terse for him. “Can I get your largest coffee to go? It’s going to be a very long day.”
“Sure, Jax,” said Vessie. “What happened over there? It looks like someone was injured?”
“Actually, a death onboard. They found the body during the voyage. Severe head injuries. We’re not clear if the attack occurred during the voyage or before sailing.”
“Was it a passenger?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “It was the Nakita Morozova. The ferry captain.”
My ice-cream cone slipped out of my hand, the pink and brown colors squashing together in a forgotten heap on the pavement.
8
Latifa was hiding under the bed. All I could see was the tip of her nose and her big round eyes. She was the best listener, unless she was being overly dramatic.
“I am not being dramatic, Sister. This stuff is real,” she huffed, as she crawled out from under the bed and sat at my feet.
I seriously needed to learn how to veil my thoughts from her. That would be hard to do since I had no idea how this telepathy communication worked. Most of the time I was glad I could talk to my cat, but there were times when I would have liked to filter her out.
“Filter me out! Hayden, you crush me.” Her little shoulders drooped, and she looked up at me in the same sweet, vulnerable pose that the cat in the Shrek movies uses to manipulate people. No wonder she had mastered the look. It worked.
“I’m sorry, Latifa. You know I love you,” I said.
“Forgiven.” The fake vulnerable pose was gone in a snap. “So, you were saying, you saw a dead body?”
“Well, no. I didn’t actually see the body. I saw a stretcher being loaded onto an ambulance. Jaxson told me that someone had died.”
“Who? Who died? Why are you being so evasive?” She squinted her eyes at me.
At that moment, I realized that it was time to come clean and tell Latifa everything. Since no one else could communicate with her, it was safe to share my secrets with her. And I desperately needed someone to talk to. My heart was still racing from that moment I knew that the ferry captain has been murdered.
Talking through things with Latifa would also be helpful, as it would enable me to verbalize what I knew and help me sort things through. I could voice a
ll my concerns and share my suspicions. Plus, besides her being a good sounding board, Latifa would often provide some wonderful insights.
“There’s a story behind all this,” I said. “Let me start at the beginning.”
“The beginning of what? The dead body? Should I be taking notes?” She batted at a pencil she spotted on the floor. “But sadly, no opposable thumbs,” she sighed.
“Do you want me to tell you?” I scowled at her.
“Sorry . . . Captain Serious.” She gave a mock salute with her furry paw. “Please, continue.”
“Yesterday Axel and I jogged into town and he took me to Vessie’s Hideaway Café.”
“The pink palace.” She nodded as if she knew the place.
“How do you know about Vessie’s?” I asked.
“Vessie’s cat, Marshmallow, is a friend of Chanel’s. I met her the other day, and she was talking about the café. That’s what she calls it, the pink palace.”
“Latifa! It sounds like you’re living a clandestine life right behind my back!”
“Not hiding anything, Chica. It just never came up. So, you were at Vessie’s?”
“Right. I was waiting for my tea and oatmeal,” I started.
“Goodness, girl. Eat something different once in a while.”
I stopped talking and just stared at my cat.
“Oops, my bad.” She sat up and crossed her paws, tilted her head, and gave me an ‘I’m listening’ pose.
“While I was waiting for my breakfast, there were two people in line. The helmsman. He’s the guy that drives the boat. And the ferry captain, Nakita. She followed me down the hall and was acting quite suspicious. She told me a secret.”
“Oooo. A secret?”
“Right. She said that she had something for me. And that I should go to the ferry terminal to learn more. But here’s the scary part. She said not to tell anyone about this. She said it was life or death! She warned me that—for the safety of my family—I should trust no one.”
“Hoo-leee cow.” Latifa gasped.
“It was unnerving. I’ve been going over it in my mind since it happened. I didn’t want to say anything to anyone because of her warning. But I know I can tell you.”
She nodded. “Um-hmm.”
“The captain also said something about ‘Gladstone’ and danger, but she was whispering and shushing me, so I couldn’t hear everything she was saying. Gladstone is the name of the island that Olivia and Edna would not discuss with me.”
“Geeze. That’s bizarre. But what does she have to do with the dead body?” Latifa asked.
“It was the captain! She was the dead body! I talked to her. I planned to meet her. And then I saw her dead body!”
Latifa’s mouth opened in a gasp and she zipped under the bed again. In a minute, she peeked out.
“Ohhh. So, now she’s dead. And you don’t have the thing. And you don’t know the secret.”
“Yes, exactly.” Telling her all this had elevated my stress levels again. I sat on the floor and put my head in my hands.
We were both silent for several long minutes.
“And the dead person told you not to tell anyone. Because it was ‘life or death.’ But now she’s the dead one.”
“Latifa! Please stop saying ‘dead.’”
“Sorry,” she said. Then, in the tiniest little whisper, “Dead.”
Latifa was spooked after our conversation, so she retreated to her alcove for a nap. I was back to pacing the room, thinking through everything that had happened. What should I do now? It seemed that the secret was even more dangerous than I had first thought. The woman’s threats were all too real. What was the thing that she was going to give me? What were the secrets that she was going to tell me?
My thoughts were in a jumble and I had a hard time processing them in any reasonable manner. I stopped walking and gaped at a door. There was an entirely new door that had appeared next to my bookcase.
Normally, there were two doors near my bookcase. One to the en-suite bathroom, and one to the closet. Today, there was a third door.
There was a time in my life, okay, just a month ago, when a mysterious door just appearing in my bedroom would be cause for concern. Now, it meant something good. Well, almost for sure it would be something good. I opened it to see what surprise awaited me.
“Oh, my . . .” I exhaled the words and stepped into the room.
What I saw nearly took my breath away. It appeared that the house knew I was stressed and terrified. It had created a soothing recovery room, meant for yoga and meditation. The far wall was made entirely of windows. Where the water was usually a hundred or more feet away from the home, far past the gardens, here the water came right up to the windows. It almost felt like you were on a dock or a boat. As I stepped closer, I realized these weren’t windows. They were sliding glass doors. I felt drawn to step outside and dip my feet in the glistening water, which I would definitely do later.
The room was mostly empty, with several large yoga mats in swirling pale purple and green. In one corner was a pile of lounging pillows surrounded by potted plants and palm trees. In the other corner, there was a tall, brass water feature with trickles of water flowing down a tower of rocks and brass.
The walls of the room were painted a pale blue, with one wall covered in bamboo. A large teardrop mirror hung on the wall from a braided rope.
I was taking in the room’s beauty when a white shape appeared in the teardrop mirror. I turned toward it, but it was gone. It must have been a reflection. A moment later, there was another flicker of white, but as quickly as it appeared, it was gone again.
As I walked over to look closely at the brass water feature, I again caught a flicker of white in the mirror, so I walked over to stand in front of it. Oh, my gosh! I was looking into my Seattle home. My Nana and Granana’s home!
I wondered if Caldwell Crest understood my anxiety and felt that a glimpse of my family home would bring me some sense of calm, which would allow me to make a reasonable plan.
I was looking in the mirror at their living room when suddenly, there it was again—the white blur!
I realized that the white blur was the top of Gran’s white-haired head! She was in the living room. There it was again! Up and down. Yes, it was my great-grandmother! She was doing her step aerobics!
I got closer to the mirror. I waved my arms and called out to her. But of course, her back was to me, so she couldn’t see me. True to the history of the mirrors, she couldn’t hear me either.
Rooted to the spot, I watched helplessly as she continued bouncing up and down on her step, with no idea that I was watching her. Then, she reached her hands up into the air, her fingers wiggling. She was doing her ‘stretching’ as she called it.
Workout complete, she picked up her folding step and her towel and walked out of the room. I sagged in disappointment. I missed her and my nana so much. This had been a very long and intense day, at the end of a very long and intense month. It was especially difficult to handle all of this without their calming presence.
I hoped that the vision in the mirror was a good sign. If the house felt I could view them, perhaps the next step was actual communication. Then, I hoped, would come a day when I could bring them here for a visit. I held onto that warm feeling and sank down on one of the yoga mats to see if I could clear my head and make a plan.
9
I was so grateful to the house for my new yoga room. After an hour in that remarkably peaceful place, I was more clear-headed. Followed up by a shower and a change of clothes, I felt renewed and ready for my first official girls’ night with my sisters.
I’d really gotten to know my brother Axel over the past month, but I’d had little time to get to know Cobalt, Indigo, and Sapphire. Cobalt was still attending the university, so I knew that would happen in bits and pieces. Tonight’s visit with my sisters would be our first real quality time together.
Spending tonight with them would also allow me to distance myself from the
horror of the ferry captain’s murder and the mystery of the secrets she had left unsaid. As hard as it is for me to keep secrets, I had absolutely zero intention of telling my sisters anything, since that warning of danger to my family would keep me quiet. I would set aside my worry and fears to focus on getting to know my sisters.
As I made my way down to the front door, I heard voices coming from the living room, so I peeked in. I was shocked to see a girls’ night of a different kind.
My sneaky cat and her beautiful Persian partner-in-crime were batting at a feathered cat toy being held aloft by none other than Poppy of the Camping Extravaganza. My grandmother was sitting at a table playing chess with Cleobella. Several bottles of wine and platters of appetizers were spread on the two coffee tables. Rod Stewart’s distinctive raspy voice filled the room. Grandmother having fun? What a bewildering notion! Who knew it was possible?
The sisters were dressed for the event in colorful footed pajamas. (I had no idea that they made those in adult sizes.) Poppy was in head-to-toe pink, covered with red and white hearts. Cleobella wore bright white, splattered with rainbow-colored polka dots. Their hair was twisted and braided into tall, whimsical Whoville updos. Of course, they were both in full stage makeup, spider-like eyelashes, with bold, shiny lips included.
What was uniquely delightful was seeing my rigid, formal grandmother in glamourous, dark blue, silk pajamas, edged in crisp white piping. On her feet were a pair of feathered, high-heeled slippers, and I could have sworn I saw a tattooed rose on her ankle. That woman was almost more mysterious than this house.
I don’t know how long I’d been standing in the doorway staring, but I suddenly realized that all five heads were turned in my direction. I said hello and they all waved. Well, the people waved. The cats just stared at me.
“I’m off to Sapphire’s house. Have a great evening,” I said.
The Disappearance of Emily: Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic Series Book 2 Page 5
