A Timely Vision

He put out his hand and I shook it, wishing I could get some sense of what he really knew about the sale of the sisters’ houses. A chill trembled through me. I could see he’d lost his cigarette lighter. I wasn’t about to tell him where I saw it. “I hope there’s nothing wrong with this sale, Chuck. It would be a shame to waste all your money setting up a business in Duck, then lose it over something stupid.”

“There’s nothing wrong with this sale. It’s straightforward. I hope you’ll come to see that in time.”

I left after that, with a smile for Mandy. It was good to be back outside, even if it was humid and hot already. I wasn’t prepared to spend much time in winter temperatures in the middle of July. I crossed Duck Road and walked up to the Duck Shoppes, stopping at town hall before I went to Missing Pieces.

Nancy was there, of course. She wasn’t supposed to be since it was the weekend and town hall wasn’t officially open. Sometimes it seemed like she never went home. She offered me coffee and donuts she’d purchased from the Duck High School cheerleaders’ fundraiser. “What are you doing in here, Dae? Do you need something specific?”

“No. Just thought I’d check in.”

“I actually have two messages for you, both from Mary Lou Harcourt. She’s holding a turtle rescue day she’d like you to come to. And people are still building sand castles, endangering the turtles trying to reach the water.”

I took out my calendar and marked the turtle rescue event in it. “Wednesday morning, ten A.M.” I thought about the auction the same morning and wrote that down too, not that I was likely to forget it. “Thanks, Nancy. I think I’ll go in the office for a few minutes.”

“Okay, sweetie. Shall I hold any calls, especially turtle-rescue calls?” She smiled knowingly.

“Thanks. I won’t be here long. If Mary Lou comes in later, you can send her down to Missing Pieces.”

I closed the door to my office behind me. Nancy was probably wondering why since I usually left it open. I thought about looking up the property owner for the sisters’ houses on GIS—Geographical Information Survey. It marks the person who pays taxes on the property as well as the owner. Unfortunately, GIS had not kept up with recent events. Miss Mildred and Miss Elizabeth were still listed as both owners and taxpayers. It was a dead end.

Not that it wasn’t possible to use the information I got from Chuck. If Gramps didn’t come back with more than Chuck had, we might still be able to find out who was behind the sale. OBX Land Trust had to belong to someone. I typed the name into Google but nothing came back. If the group had been active in the Outer Banks buying other properties, it seemed like they’d have a listing. Unless they’d put the company together just for this sale.

There was a knock on the door, and I absently called out, “Come in.” I looked up and saw Chief Michaels closing the door behind him. I had a brief moment of panic at the idea of being alone with him, then dismissed it. Whatever was going on with him right now, he was still the same man I’d known all my life. Maybe there was some way to help him.

“Mayor.” He nodded. “I’d hoped to have a few words with you.”

I wondered if Gramps had spoken to him. I felt like I was blindfolded and not sure which direction to go. But I smiled and gestured toward one of the chairs in front of my desk. “Of course, Chief. What can I do for you?”

He settled himself into a chair and pulled off his hat. His blue uniform was starched and pressed as always. His shoes were as shiny as the medals on his chest. I remembered him receiving several of them. One was for saving a little girl during a house fire. He’d risked his life to pull her out. The town had thrown a huge appreciation party for him right in the middle of Duck Road. That was before the park was finished.

“I think you may have the wrong idea about what I was doing yesterday at the senior center in Kitty Hawk.”

I didn’t want to, but I felt a little nervous. Chief Michaels looked pretty intimidating in his uniform, and of course, there was a large gun on his hip. Before the last few days, I wouldn’t have believed the chief would be capable of hurting me. Now I was a little less certain. What if he was being pressured by tremendous outside forces? The way Chuck had described things, the seller of the properties was a desperate man with terrible financial burdens. Maybe I didn’t know Chief Michaels as well as I thought.

“I really don’t have any ideas about why you were there,” I lied. It seemed the wisest course of action. “Is there something I should know?”

“I know you’ve been looking into what happened to Lizzie,” he said. “Tim told me you don’t believe Millie killed her sister. I don’t want to believe it either, but sometimes bad things happen. You have to accept that we’ve done the best we could by Millie. I wish it could be different, but the evidence is stacked up against her. The evidence never lies.”