Grace rushed ahead to the front row of their gallery. “Here, put your hat, scarf and jacket on some seats and I’ll do the same. We’ll save what we can.”
They sat side by side in the middle of the row, with their belongings saving the places next to them. She noticed Grace waving and saw Henry inching along with his cane followed by Grace’s mother, who peered past Henry and Grace to give a slight finger wave that Ella thought seemed friendly.
Then someone leaned over on her other side to ask, “Are these taken?” A silver-haired couple stood at the end of the row.
“Um, sorry, they’re being saved.”
The man shot her an irritated frown, and Ella saw the woman whisper something to him. They stared a few seconds longer before ascending higher up. Were they talking about her? She turned to mention the incident to Grace, who was waving frantically at Drew Spencer as he walked up the stairs. He leaned over to smile at Ella as he sat down beside Grace, and their two heads moved close as they whispered and giggled about something. Ella felt a rush of envy.
Sensing movement to her right, she saw Grace’s friend Julie. The woman hesitated when she noticed Ella. “Um, are these seats saved?”
Grace heard her. “Hey, Julie. Yeah, for you! Sit down.”
Julie whispered to a man behind her, and he squeezed past her to sit next to Ella, who recognized him as Tom, the owner of the restaurant she’d gone to with Grace last week, The Daily Catch.
“Hello,” he said before leaning across her to say, “Thanks for the seats, Gracie.”
The abrupt greeting both irritated and embarrassed Ella. The rest of her side of the row filled up but she stared straight ahead to avoid any small talk. Just as the town councilors filed in, Ella spotted Ben in the front row of the gallery directly across from her. His head was down as he read some notes, and Ella was disappointed that she couldn’t wave to him, to let him know she was there.
Everyone suddenly rose up when a white-haired man wearing an honorary sash entered the chambers and mounted the podium. Ella recognized him as the mayor from the tree lighting. He tapped on the mic to check the sound system and announced that, due to the unexpectedly high public interest in the Winters Building Ltd. application, the night’s meeting would be dedicated to the company’s presentation followed by questions. Regular council items would be deferred to a later date.
An enormous TV screen behind the podium suddenly came to life, showing a graphic of the waterfront near the lighthouse and a four-story cubic structure facing it, surrounded by a large, walled area of paths meandering around gardens, benches and small sitting nooks. There were low murmurings from the public because the design was attractive and looked idyllic.
Ben descended to the podium with a confident, professional air, dressed in his charcoal suit and crisp white shirt with a knotted gray tie. He kept his presentation brief, focusing on the eco-friendly aspects of the project. The entire unit was intended to be small, he said, to diminish its intrusion on the prevailing landscape. He flicked through various images on the screen, ending with an artist’s rendering of the newly approved memorial to Brandon Winters.
There were a few louder murmurs at that. Ella was afraid to turn around, after the whispers and looks she’d intercepted earlier. As if reading her mind, Grace reached for Ella’s hand. The gesture warmed Ella, but she instantly thought, Why am I feeling like I’ve done something wrong?
Ben’s talk ended with a scatter of applause, and some people began to line up at the mics. Someone in the gallery across from theirs unfurled a long banner proclaiming No More Expansion, which was received with mild booing and light laughter from the crowd.
Grace turned to Ella, raising an eyebrow. “Now the fun starts.”
In spite of her rising anxiety for Ben, Ella thought many of the comments were balanced. Some concerns pointed to the increased traffic problems that had already made an impact on the daily commute. Ben’s acknowledgment of the problem as well as his implication that the county planned a traffic study seemed to satisfy many. Then a middle-aged man, introducing himself as a longtime Cove resident, complained about the lack of parking spaces in town, especially on weekends. There was some jeering in response, someone calling out about that being the least of the town’s problems. The room hushed while a young woman, introducing herself as a mother and new house owner in the subdivision, expressed worries about the spate of break-ins, and that issue dominated the next few minutes, until the mayor intervened to say that he had an upcoming meeting with the police chief about that very matter. He reminded the assembly that only ten minutes remained for questions.
Ben looked pale and tired. Ella guessed a lot was at stake here for his family’s company. If she were alone with him right now, she’d draw him close to her and smooth his furrowed brow, chase his worries away. She saw Grace and Drew holding hands and realized she wanted to have that intimacy with Ben. To be a couple with him.
Henry’s voice at the microphone brought her back to reality. “I guess my seventy-years-and-counting qualifies me as a longtime Cove resident,” he began to some tittering in the crowd. “Those of you who know me can attest that I’m not a big fan of change. Unnecessary change! That’s the key word here. I’m not going to go into a rant about the Cove back in my younger days, but change has been happening here since the day I was born. Some of us just haven’t noticed it. If people from beyond our town limits want to find a better life here, raising families and doing business with us or the folks in Portland, I say welcome. Bring us your new ideas and plans. We need them. That’s all I got to say.”
The mayor waited for the round of applause and cheering to stop before reminding the audience of the next council meeting and adjourning. Ella saw Grace give a thumbs-up to Henry as he moved away from the mic. People prepared to leave, gathering up coats and chatting as they began to file down the gallery steps onto the ground floor.
“Meet you outside,” Grace shouted over the din to Ella. Then she and Drew stood up to exit from their end of the row.
Ella watched Grace speaking excitedly to her mother before greeting and hugging other people around them. Julie and Tom had left, and Ella sat alone for a few minutes, waiting for most of the people to disperse. She couldn’t see Ben anywhere. Finally, she got to her feet and put on her jacket. Grace and Drew were below in the middle of a group congregating around Henry. Ella watched them for a few minutes before descending to the main floor.
There was no group for her to be folded into. Although she wasn’t a newcomer to the Cove, she felt like one. An outsider. She envied Grace’s belonging and, at the same time, felt a pang at the unfairness of it. She didn’t deserve to be an outsider. She’d done nothing wrong.
Realizing Ben’s time would be taken up by the line of people waiting to speak to him, Ella decided to head back to the apartment. She still had her op-ed piece to write but also needed the cool night air to clear her head. The slights from Julie and Tom as well as that couple rankled. Yet how could she blame them for their thoughts about her? Clearly, Grace hadn’t revealed her part in the prank to anyone outside the family. As she walked out of the building, Ella thought it was about time Grace did exactly that.
* * *
BEN STRETCHED HIS neck over the throng of people. He couldn’t see Ella anywhere. The last fifteen minutes had been frustrating, trying to be polite, thanking people or reassuring them—depending on their stance on the issue—and all the while anxiously on the lookout for Ella. When Grace and Drew, followed by Evelyn, reached him, the first thing he asked was, “Have you seen Ella?”
Grace peered around. “She was sitting with us, but I haven’t seen her since the meeting ended. So what do you think? Do you feel good about it? Your presentation was great. Do you know when you’ll hear the council’s decision?”
Drew laughed, drawing her against his side. “You’re only allowed one question at a time, Grace.”
&nbs
p; Right. Good luck with that, Ben thought. “To be honest, I don’t know. There was a mix of questions and concerns. I don’t think any one side prevailed.”
“Maybe not,” his mother said as she drew nearer. “But Henry’s comments at the very end were precisely what the crowd needed to hear.”
“A typical Henry moment for sure.”
“He said what needed to be said,” Evelyn reiterated. “Your father is eager to hear all about it.” She placed a hand on Ben’s forearm, leaned into him and whispered, “He’d have been proud.”
Ben was touched by that, but the one person whose opinion he really wanted didn’t seem to be present. “Do you know where Ella might have gone?” he asked Grace.
“Maybe she went back to my place. She said she had some work to do. A deadline or something.”
Ben stifled his irritation at Grace’s nonchalance. He had an important meeting with Andy and Glen first thing in the morning but after that he’d go see Ella. Or he could interrupt her work and see her tonight. An even better idea.
His mother was tugging on his jacket sleeve. “Dear, can you give me a ride home? I came with Drew and Henry, but I’m tired and Charles is waiting up to hear all about it.”
Ben pursed his lips and nodded. Okay, so not tonight.
* * *
ELLA LOGGED INTO her laptop shortly after daybreak. At some point during her wakeful moments overnight, she’d begun to spin ideas for her next op-ed column. An unexpected benefit of insomnia, she thought, sitting back to reread her title, “’Tis the Season.” A second cup of coffee and piece of toast later, she’d typed the first few lines.
While others throughout the Christian world may be singing that familiar carol this Christmas holiday, the voices of residents here in Lighthouse Cove, a former fishing village and now small town northeast of Portland, Maine, are raised in ire these days over the town’s expansion and current building projects.
All right. It was a start.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
BEN ARRIVED AT the site office as dawn struggled above the horizon of another bitter winter day. He needed a couple hours by himself to go over some files. He was feeling relief after the presentation—which he personally thought had gone well. His father’s quiet listening, followed by only a couple questions as Ben recapped the presentation, had only added to his spirits.
But by the time Glen’s car rolled up to the office, followed seconds later by Andy’s, his positive mood from last night’s presentation had been destroyed. Ben had reviewed a dozen questionable invoices and payments in the material Harold had emailed him. He didn’t doubt for a second that there would be more. He’d fired off an email with a few questions to Harold and was still waiting for a reply.
The scam Harbor Lights Supply had warned the company about days ago revealed itself in more detail, with many orders that didn’t match invoices. Ben hadn’t figured out exactly how or when the fraud had begun but guessed it required two people, one in his company and one at Harbor Lights. He was sick at the thought that one of his employees—maybe someone he’d known and trusted for years—was involved. And there were a limited number of possible suspects.
Glen and Andy walked into the office and Ben’s heart rate picked up. “Take a seat, guys. Sorry there’s no coffee yet, but I wanted to finish going through this paperwork before you got here.”
“How’d the meeting go last night?” Andy asked. “Sorry I couldn’t make it.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Glen mumbled.
“There were some thoughtful questions and comments on both sides. No idea when they’ll make a decision, though.” Then Ben pointed to the papers on his desk. “I came in early to have a look at the books ’cause I didn’t have a chance last night.” Focusing his attention on Andy’s puzzled frown, he clarified, “Glen told me that he’d already spoken to you about some anomalies in the invoices, Andy.”
His old friend’s face paled. “Well, he did, but, uh...I haven’t actually had a chance to follow up yet, Ben. I will right away.”
Was that guilt in his old friend’s face? Ben knew one of Andy’s jobs was to check shipments that arrived at the work site. Each one had an order attached and Andy matched items to the order before stamping the form Okay and sending it off to accounting at head office to await receipt of the invoice from Harbor Lights. But Ben had concluded that when many invoices arrived in accounting, they listed items that hadn’t been on the original shipment order. The amounts paid to Harbor Lights were therefore higher. Someone at Winters Building Ltd. either missed the discrepancies or purposely ignored them. Ben stared at Andy and Glen. No way, he thought. But—
His cell phone suddenly dinged and he picked it up. After staring at the phone for a long moment, he set it down on his desk. “Yes, well, you won’t need to do that now, Andy.”
“What’s going on, Ben? Help us out here.”
Ben pointed to his phone. “Last week Harold Ferguson informed me he’d had a call from Harbor Lights Supply about some questionable invoice payments. He said he’d look into the matter and get back to me. I’ve spent most of this morning going over papers he emailed me, and you were right, Glen. There are some troubling anomalies. If I hadn’t asked you to go through the books for my funding proposal, and if Harbor Lights hadn’t stumbled on this at their end, the fraud could have gone on much longer.”
Glen nodded thoughtfully while Andy looked pale. Feeling guilty about not catching the discrepancies himself? With this new information from Harold, Ben could put most of it together. “I just got a text from Harold saying that someone in Harbor Lights financial department has confessed. The man implicated an accomplice, because the scam couldn’t have been done from just one end, of course.” Ben let out a long sigh as his tension from the last couple days eased.
Andy jumped to his feet. “I swear I check every shipment that comes in very carefully before I send the paperwork to head office. I admit I may have skimmed through some of the orders, but...”
From his higher-pitched voice, Ben realized Andy thought he was being accused. “It’s okay, Andy. The fellow at our end is in accounting at the Portland office. He okayed the payments and apparently the two men split the difference. The invoices were then buried in the files here and at Harbor Lights. None of this would have come to light but for two factors. Glen ran across some of them when he pulled files at random for his short audit for me. Then the guy at Harbor Lights was on sick leave for a week and his substitute noticed a problem on an order in their files. I don’t know exactly how long this has been going on and I expect we’ll have to bring in an outside audit team. Glen, I’m hoping you’ll be able to work some extra hours to help with that.”
“Anything I can do. How about I get the coffee going now?”
Relief swept through Ben. He couldn’t help feeling a tad guilty that he’d been so quick to think either of them could be involved. Seeing how upset Andy had been at the idea he was being wrongfully accused, Ben thought about Ella. She’d been blamed by the town for the event that led to Brandon’s death, and she’d lived with that blame for far too long.
* * *
ELLA READ HER column once more but still hesitated to hit Send. She’d pondered both sides of the controversy and, in the end, agreed with Henry’s point about making newcomers feel welcomed. Many of those newcomers could have moved to the Cove for the same love of history and community touted by its longtime citizens, not only for economic reasons. The piece didn’t have to be sent until midnight, so she had some time to edit further if necessary.
At some point in the morning, she heard Grace open up downstairs and, later, the tinkling of the doorbell as customers came and went. Ben’s continued absence was disappointing. He hadn’t even bothered to send a text or email. A long day loomed, so Ella decided to drive into Portland’s new mall to look for a dress to wear to the engagement dinner tomorrow. Although she’d brought a dress with
her, she was in the mood for some shopping therapy. Anything to get her mind off what could be an awkward evening, with Suzanna and her mother invited. On her way out, she dashed off a note to Grace in case she came looking for her.
Much later, she was strolling through the mall’s lower level on her way to the indoor parking, pleased with her purchases of a stylish black cocktail dress and new shoes, when she saw two women heading her way from the garage. Ella tensed when she recognized Suzanna Winters. With no escape route in sight, she pasted a smile on her face.
There was no such greeting from either of the two women. Suzanna mumbled a surprised “Hello,” but it was the other woman, a stranger to Ella, who stopped. “You have your nerve, going to a public meeting about the Cove when you don’t belong there and never have.”
Suzanna pulled her friend away, whispering to her and at the same time casting a parting glance that Ella was unable to read. Apologetic or smirking? Not that it mattered, because as soon as Ella was in her car, she cried anyway. Thoughts and words she’d wanted to say but hadn’t—today, yesterday and last week—streamed through her mind all the way back to town.
When she arrived at the bookstore, Ella rushed upstairs, thankful that Grace was busy with a customer and couldn’t ask about her day. Half an hour later, a mug of tea in one hand, she booted up her laptop with the other. She clicked on her saved file and stared gloomily at the title—’Tis the Season.
Indeed, she thought gloomily. Overwhelmed by the temptation to rewrite it to cast the Cove as an unwelcoming town, she hit Send before she could change her mind and do exactly that.
* * *
The Christmas Promise Page 14
