Kiss 'N Tell

by Kathi Daley

  The next thing I took out of the box was a small framed photo of my dad and me, taken the summer before he died. God, I missed him. He’d been gone long enough that the pain in my gut was no longer a constant reminder of what I’d lost, but every now and again, if a memory hit me just right, the sorrow in my soul felt as raw and fresh as it did the day I’d lost him.

  Next, I hung a photo I’d taken of my cottage on the bay and had blown up. I placed it in the center of the wall and then added slightly smaller photos of the marina, the boardwalk, and the view from the point to one side of the larger image of the cottage. Three file cabinets would be delivered later today, but I needed some sort of table to set up a printer, modem, and something to play music on. Perhaps I’d head next door to see if Bev and Edna had anything that would work. They had a lot of very nice pieces. Maybe they’d even have something to complement the desk.

  After double-checking to ensure that the front door leading out onto the sidewalk was locked, I left through the back door leading out to the shared hallway, making sure that door was locked as well before heading next door.

  “Ainsley,” Bev greeted. “I noticed your SUV parked in the back lot. Are you getting all settled in?”

  “I’m working on it,” I said, picking up a bright blue vase that would be perfect for displaying freshly cut flowers from the vendor just down the boardwalk. “I decided that I’m going to need some sort of a table to house my printer, modem, and those sorts of things. I wondered if you had anything that would complement the desk.”

  “Actually, I think I have just the thing.” Bev smiled, her bright blue eyes dancing merrily. “If you want to follow me into the back, I’ll show you what I have.”

  I set the vase down and followed Bev through the cluttered yet charming secondhand store to the room that housed the items not currently part of the inventory for one reason or another. The vase really was gorgeous, but I figured it might be a good idea to finish moving in before I started buying random accessories that I didn’t have anywhere to put once I got everything I needed set up.

  “This table just came in last week. I’ve been working on refinishing it. If you’re interested in it, I can have it ready to go by the end of the week.”

  I placed a hand on the sofa table. It was a tallish table designed to be placed behind a sofa. It was long and somewhat narrow, and really perfect for the use I had in mind. “Since it isn’t stained yet, can you stain it to match the desk?”

  “I can.”

  “Okay,” I decided. “I’ll take it. I think this will work perfectly. I’ll place it along the back wall with the desk set in front of it looking out toward the bay. If I need something from the printer, I can just turn around and grab it without even having to leave my chair.”

  “It’s a good size for that wall,” Bev agreed. “I actually have some stain left from the desk, and the sanding is just about complete, so I should have this for you in a couple days.”

  “Perfect.” I hugged the kind woman. “Where’s Edna today?”

  I followed Bev out into the main display area.

  “Her oldest daughter is about to have baby number two, so Edna decided to take two weeks off to be with her and help out.”

  I handed Bev my credit card. “So this will be Edna’s fifth grandchild, won’t it?”

  Bev nodded. “Her son, Ernie, has a son and a daughter, both in elementary school. Edna’s eldest daughter, Heather, has a daughter who is two years old and is about to have a second daughter any time now. Edna’s younger daughter, Susan, has an eight-week-old son named Devon.”

  Bev handed my credit card back as well as a receipt for the table.

  “I bet Edna is excited to have another baby in the family.”

  “She is,” Bev agreed.

  “And do you have grandchildren?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I never married nor had children. Not that I didn’t have a few offers along the way, but I guess I knew from an early age that settling down wasn’t the sort of thing I’d ever really be interested in.”

  “Have you always lived here in Gooseberry Bay?” I asked.

  “Good lord, no. After Edna retired from teaching, she talked me into moving to Gooseberry Bay and opening the secondhand store with her. Before that, I’d never really settled down. I’ve lived in twelve countries and seventeen states. I never was the sort to want to stay put in any place for long. I guess I was born with the same wanderlust that sent my dad around the world a couple times.”

  “It sounds like your dad traveled a lot when you were a child. Did you ever go with him?”

  “No. Our mother stayed home and raised Edna and me pretty much on her own. Dad would come home for short spurts, but then he’d get antsy again, and off he’d go. When Edna and I were children, Edna dreamed of growing up and having a stable family where both the mom and the dad stayed put and raised their family together. She married Cole right out of college and had the first of her three children shortly after. It’s a shame he died so young, but until that point, I guess you could say that Edna had the life she’d always hoped she’d have for a short time.”

  It really was too bad that Edna’s husband had died so young. Raising a family on her own must have been difficult. “You said that Edna was a teacher. Did she teach here in Gooseberry Bay?”

  Bev nodded. “She took a job at the high school right out of college. She worked at the school, and Cole worked in construction. They had a nice life until Cole was killed in an accident when Edna was forty-eight. The two older kids were already out on their own, and Susan was in her senior year of high school when the accident occurred. Edna mourned the loss of the man she loved, but she didn’t let the tragedy of his death hold her back. Edna said her goodbyes and picked herself up by the bootstraps. She stayed focused on the future and didn’t spend a lot of time crying over what should have been. I admire her for that. I really don’t know if I would have bounced back as easily as she did. My big sister is an amazing woman.”

  “It sounds like it.” I picked my purse up off the counter. “I’m really glad that I’ve had the opportunity to meet you both.”

  “And we’re happy to know you, darlin’.”

  “I really need to get back and finish unpacking, but one of these days, we’ll go to lunch, and you can tell me all about your exciting life on the road.”

  “You can count on it. I love to look back and share my memories.”

  After I returned to my office, I continued to empty the boxes. The delivery van with the file cabinets arrived soon after I’d brought in the last box from the SUV. I showed the delivery driver where to set the cabinets, tipped him nicely, and then went to work transferring everything from the boxes into the cabinets and desk. I supposed now that I’d basically decided to stay here in Gooseberry Bay, at least for a while, I should make a trip back to Georgia and go through my storage shed. I was sure there were items I’d want to bring west with me, as well as items that I’d probably donate now that I’d had some time to think things over. I’d need at least a few weeks to make the drive to Georgia, clean out my belongings, and then make the drive back. Maybe once I got good and settled in my new home, I’d bring all my possessions here, but for now, most of the items in storage were fine where I’d left them.

  Once I had everything I’d brought with me put away, I turned the light off and prepared to leave. My vehicle was in the back lot, and as I entered the shared hallway to head out, I remembered the cherry yogurt Kim had mentioned. It really did sound good, and I supposed a small serving wouldn’t hurt my appetite for the dinner one of my new best friends, Josie Wellington, was making this evening, so I changed direction and headed toward the cute little pink and black shop’s back door.

  “Kevin,” I said, greeting Kim’s co-worker. “I thought you were off today.”

  “I’m supposed to be off, but I have some friends coming into town next week, and I want to be off as much as possible, so Kim agreed to work on her scheduled days off
. She had a few things she really needed to get done during business hours this week, so I agreed to come in so she could run by the bank and that sort of thing. You here for a cup?”

  “A small cup. Kim told me you have a tart cherry yogurt.”

  “We do, and it’s delicious.”

  Kevin turned to swirl the yogurt into a small cup. “Do you want me to leave room for toppings?”

  “No. Just the yogurt will be fine. I’m having dinner with Jemma and Josie tonight, so I don’t want to ruin my appetite.”

  He handed me the cup, and I handed him a twenty-dollar bill. “So, who do you have coming for a visit?” I asked as Kevin counted out my change.

  “Some buddies from a summer camp I used to attend every year. Lance, Jimmy, Cory, and Kyle all grew up in Seattle, and I grew up in Spokane, but we all attended the same camp, so we became friends. When we were sixteen, we decided that we were too old for camp, so we rented a cabin and spent a summer here in Gooseberry Bay. The last time we spent a significant amount of time together was two years ago. Lance and Jimmy both turned twenty-one this month, and Kyle turned twenty-one back in November, so we decided to all get together for a group celebration.”

  “Are you twenty-one?” I asked.

  “Yes. The only one of us who isn’t twenty-one is Cory, who won’t be twenty-one until June. He has a fake ID, so it should be fine.”

  I took a bite of my yogurt rather than responding to the comment about the fake ID. “Are your friends staying with you in your tiny studio apartment?”

  “No. I rented a place just north of the harbor with a boat dock and everything. We’re going to spend seven days partying.”

  “It’s February. It’s sort of cold to go out boating.”

  Kevin chuckled. “It is, which is why I suggested we wait until Cory’s birthday in June to have this little get together, but apparently there’s some sort of fitness competition sponsored by Sunfit Gyms, so Lance insisted that we had to come now despite the cold.”

  “Actually, I heard that we’re supposed to have temps in the sixties this week, so it might not be all that cold on the water as long as you bundle up.” I lifted my yogurt cup in a movement similar to a toast. “Thanks for the yogurt and have fun with your friends. It’s really nice that you’ve all stayed in touch.”

  “We were tight when we were kids, and I imagine we’ll continue to be tight into old age.”

  I thought about the girls I’d hung out with as a child. The only friend I still had from my old life was Keni. I’d had friends when I was in high school, but after leaving for college, I guessed we’d just drifted apart. As I drove home, I thought about some of my childhood friends and wondered what had happened to them. With the internet, it was easy to look people up. Maybe someday, when I had extra time on my hands, I’d look up a few of the girls I’d been closest with and engage in a walk down memory lane. For now, the friends I’d made since arriving in Gooseberry Bay had proven to be more than capable of filling all the little holes in my life.

  Chapter 2

  By the following week, I was all settled into my office. I’d yet to have a single client, but I knew that getting word of mouth out would take time, and, for now, I was just happy to feel settled. Now that the furniture I’d ordered had been delivered, and the items I needed to lug in from the SUV had been transported and put away, I decided to bring Kai and Kallie to work with me. I hadn’t decided how many hours I would spend sitting in my little office across from the boardwalk waiting for someone to walk in each day, but I realized that until I became established, it might be a good idea to have some sort of a presence. Besides, I reasoned, spending a few hours a day in town wouldn’t be a waste of time since I had the mystery that had brought me to Gooseberry Bay to work on. It would be just as easy to work on it in town as it was to work on it at home in the cottage on the peninsula the dogs and I called home. I decided that was what I’d do now.

  Opening my laptop, I logged into the file named Origin Story. Keni had assigned that name to my quest to find answers relating to my childhood after finding a photo that seemed destined to be the catalyst that would forever change my life.

  The photo, which I’d found amongst items my dad had stored in his attic, featured a woman standing on a porch with two children. When I’d first come across the photo, I’d had no idea where the porch was located or who the woman or the children in the photo might be. But after a cross country trip and several months of digging around and looking for answers, I knew that the name of the woman had been Marilee, and the children she’d been standing with were Ava and Avery. Ava was a three-year-old me, and Avery, the one-year-old, was the sister I’d been separated from shortly after the photo had been taken.

  I paused as I intently looked at the woman with blond hair. I felt like I should recognize her, that I should know her and have memories of her. Not that I didn’t have any. Once I’d found the photo of the woman with the two young girls, I’d started having dreams that had provided little snippets of information, but certainly not enough to even begin to figure out the rest of the story.

  I now know with certainty that the porch the woman had been standing on was, in fact, the porch of the old wing of the Winchester mansion on Piney Point. The mansion, as fate would have it, just happened to be located across the bay from the cottage I currently called home.

  Initially, I’d hoped that once I’d shown the two current owners of the Winchester mansion the photo, one or both would know who the women and children were. As it turned out, both men had been children themselves at the time of the woman’s visit, and both men had been visiting relatives in England with their mother for the entirety of that summer.

  I had to admit that I owed both Winchester brothers quite a lot. They could have looked at the photo, declared they had no idea who the woman or children were and left it at that, but they hadn’t done that. They’d recognized my story as an intriguing mystery when they’d seen the photo and heard my story and had jumped in to help me. They were far from having all the answers, but they did figure out that the woman with the children was named Marilee, who had some sort of connection to Adam and Archie Winchester’s family in England, although none of us knew what that connection was.

  Adam had also been able to find out that a woman named Elsa Winfield, Winnie for short, had actually taken care of Avery and me that summer, although I was just now beginning to remember her. I knew we left Piney Point at some point in late August. I still didn’t have all the details, but based on what Adam and I had been told, Marilee and another woman named Wilma had taken Avery and me away from the estate on Piney Point, and as far as the people we’d spoken to knew, none of us had ever been seen or heard from again.

  I have no idea what happened to Avery, Marilee, or Wilma after we left Piney Point. I only vaguely knew what happened to me. I have no memory of leaving Piney Point, traveling across the country, or ending up alone on Christmas Eve, but at some point, I do know that I ended up being taken in by the cop who raised me. I thought I knew how the man I called Dad came to be with me and what had occurred once he’d found me, but after looking into the details of our own origin story, I realized there were a lot of holes in the reality I’d been fed and had believed for most of my life.

  This got me thinking about my dad’s best friend, Gil Monroe. I’d called Gil a few weeks ago, and we’d talked about the story my dad had told me in-depth, and he promised to look into a few things and call me back. I supposed I should call him. I wasn’t sure if what happened to me before I arrived in Savanah, Georgia, and my life from that point on are interrelated in any way, but once I began to dig around in my past, I found a lot of irregularities that needed answers.

  I took out my cell phone and punched Gil’s number in. I thought about the story my dad had told me while I waited for Gil to pick up. For my entire life, I’d believed that my dad, a cop, had found me on Christmas Eve night in the middle of a burning warehouse. Once he’d saved me, he’d taken me to the
hospital to be checked out, and then Dad had called a social worker friend he’d never named, but who Gil thought might have been a woman named Sherry. When the social worker told my dad that she wouldn’t be able to find a family to take me in on Christmas Eve, and I’d have to go to a group home, my dad had asked if he could take care of me until she was able to make other arrangements. Her agreement with his request led to him adopting me and raising me despite his well-known commitment issues.

  “Hey, Gil, it’s Ainsley,” I greeted after he answered.

  “How ya doin’, girl? I’ve been meaning to call you.”

  “I’ve been fine. Really better than fine. Things are good. I even opened my own detective agency here in Gooseberry Bay.”

  “You don’t say.” He chuckled. “I have to say I’m somewhat surprised, but your dad did always say you had the head and heart to make you the perfect candidate for that type of work.”

  It was nice to know my dad thought highly of my ability to do the job I’d followed him into. There were times when we worked together that I stopped to wonder if I hadn’t been in his way. “So far, I haven’t had a paying client,” I shared, “but I’m really excited about the possibilities. Listen, the reason I’m calling is to follow up on the items we discussed the last time we spoke. Were you able to clarify or verify any of the items we discussed?”

  He cleared his throat. “Actually, I do have news. I’m not sure all the news I have is news you’ll want to hear.”

  “That’s okay.” I glanced out the window and focused on the clear blue water in the bay. I could hear Kallie panting next to me, which provided a certain amount of comfort as well. “What did you find out?”

  He took a moment before answering. It sounded like he was settling in for a lengthy discussion, which was fine with me. If Gil could help me take even a tiny step forward in my investigation, I’d welcome his help. “First of all,” he eventually said, “in terms of Sherry Young, the social worker I told you your dad and I preferred to work with, I found out that she couldn’t have been the social worker your father called on the night in question if he did, in fact, call anyone, which at this point I really doubt.”