Storm Surge (29 page)

When they entered through the back door, Paige found water on the floor from the open windows. She quickly closed them as she made her way across the kitchen to the phone hanging on the wall. Shadow darted from his hiding place and she reached for him. He ran past her into her father’s arms.

“Hey, Spooky,” he said, scratching the cat behind the ears. “How are you, old man?”

“Spooky? What happened to the white spot on his chest?”

Her dad nodded. “It’s him. Still going strong, your old kitten. The markings on his chest spread apart as he aged.”

Paige shook her head. “Would you close the windows? I think Liam left them all open.” Speaking his name, Paige’s throat closed. She blinked back tears. Lifting the receiver from the cradle, she listened for a dial tone. None.

“Paige!”

Pivoting on her wet sole, Paige looked toward the sound of the voice. Dan Stauffer stood in the living room with several other officers. Over the storm’s racket she hadn’t even heard them.

“Why didn’t you shut these windows?” The complaint was the first thing that came to mind. She couldn’t help thinking the floors Liam had worked so hard to refinish would be ruined, which was senseless and stupid. He could be beyond caring about anything at this point.

No. No! She mustn’t think like that. Liam had to be all right.

“It’s a potential crime scene,” Dan told her. “We didn’t touch anything. Came through the front door. Afraid we damaged it. Waters?”

Her father went forward and shook Dan’s hand. “Stauffer. What the hell happened? I thought you were supposed to be there before the dinghy returned to the ship with the goods?”

Paige sat abruptly on the high stool beneath the phone, still cupping the dead receiver in her hand. They
knew
each other? Why wasn’t Dan surprised to see her father? And what the hell were they talking about? Looking at the other men, she noticed the officers were all dressed in black.

“We set up the perimeter, but didn’t move in until the appointed time. Raleigh shipped off early. I thought maybe he learned we were coming. Gray said—where the hell is Gray?”

For a moment, neither Paige nor her father answered, and then Paige cleared her throat. “The boat capsized. We don’t know what happened to him.” Moisture slid down her cheeks. She didn’t bother to wipe it away.

Dan frowned, turning to hold a quick conversation with one of his men, who promptly fired up his radio, heading back toward the front of the house. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what kind of rescue can be mounted with the severity of this weather, but we’ll do our damndest. I promise, Paige, the Maine patrol will find him.”

Paige compressed her lips, shaking her head. There could be no guarantees. She understood that with a knowledge that chilled her soul. “Why did Liam confess? It was Raleigh all along, wasn’t it? Not Liam. And you arrested him.”

Dan stepped into the kitchen and removed the phone from Paige’s hand, returning it to the cradle. “No, I didn’t. That was a ruse. Raleigh demanded Liam confess as a sign of his loyalty and to lead us off Raleigh’s trail, and we needed Liam back in his good graces. I wasn’t sure Raleigh would actually believe it. In fact, I wanted Liam out at this point, but he refused. I always felt the scheme was too dangerous, but Raleigh approached him half a year ago, and he became our ‘in.’ I’ve never been a fan of civilians in this type of situation.”

“Damn it, Dan, what ‘type of situation’ are you talking about? Why did you two lie to me? You knew my dad was alive. You did, didn’t you?”

Dan let out a long breath. “Yes.” He glanced at her father, who said nothing. “Edwin’s been in hiding since Raleigh tried to kill him by planting explosives on his ship. Gray saved him, but Edwin spent a long time in the hospital. The ship went down with two crew members. Raleigh thought he’d been successful. Even before we convinced your father the time had come to help put the prick behind bars, we made sure the story got out that the ship went down with no survivors. In order for us to pull this off, Edwin had to stay dead to Raleigh. Believe me, Liam wanted to tell you. It was too risky letting you know, especially once we suspected Raleigh might be the one harassing you.”

“You suspected? You mean, even before I gave you that photograph? God, Dan, how could you leave me in the dark? Didn’t I deserve the truth?”

“Paige,” her father said quietly.

She ignored him. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

“What happened to Raleigh out there?” Dan asked, disregarding her statement. He looked to her father for an answer to that question, but Paige responded.

“After I sliced his Achilles tendon with his knife, I’d say he became shark bait in the water.”

Dan stared. “You? You were on the ship?”

“I was gullible enough to fall for a text he sent with Liam’s phone and showed up here. He was waiting for me. On our way across the beach he or the guy with him knocked me out cold and I woke up on the ship. I should probably see a doctor to make sure I don’t have a concussion.”

Dan’s gaze didn’t leave her face. “And you managed to stab the guy. With his own knife.”

“Yep.”

“You scare me, Paige Waters.”

“I scare myself sometimes.”

Dan studied her a moment before getting on his radio again to make arrangements for transport of the two of them to the hospital. As she was heading out the door to a waiting patrol unit on the front lawn, Paige paused beside Dan. Her father continued on, leaving them alone.

“Raleigh was planning to kill both Liam and me. Liam had apparently told him a story about me remembering something I had witnessed before my mother and I left Alcina Cove. I had only flashes of memory of it. I remember it now. It came back to me in our walk across the beach before I was knocked out. Raleigh…Raleigh is a murderer.” With that statement, the danger of the situation, both past and present, struck her hard.

“That’s something we’ve always suspected,” Dan said. “The only reason this current investigation has gone on so long was because we hoped to get enough on him that he wouldn’t walk away with a slap on the wrist. Between the guns he was moving tonight and other information your dad supplied…” Dan shrugged. “Probably moot now. I would have liked proof he planted the explosive on Edwin’s sailboat. Without physical evidence, though, it would have come down to his word against your dad’s. Paige, if Raleigh has survived, perhaps with your help we can piece together what took place all those years ago. There’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

Liam had said the same thing. When was that? Last night. It seemed like years. Paige looked toward the police car. Exhausted and defeated, Edwin Waters limped across the scraggly lawn. Paige turned back to Dan. “My dad’s been watching me, you know. I spotted him outside the bed and breakfast.”

“I’m not surprised he took that risk. You’re his daughter.”

“Yeah. I am. I just can’t figure out what either of my parents was doing with the likes of Regan Raleigh.”

“That’s something you’ll have to ask him.”

Paige nodded and began walking toward the waiting vehicle again. She paused once more, looking over her shoulder at Dan framed by the open, battered doorway. “I want him back.”

He didn’t ask who she meant. There was no need. “I know.”

On the way to the hospital, Edwin spoke quietly of the day Liam saved him. Paige listened with tears still running down her face. She dashed them away.

“While Raleigh was in prison, I made an honest life for myself. Your mother knew he’d gone, but his release was imminent. By that time, she had a life of her own down there in Tennessee, and there was no guarantee Raleigh wouldn’t make good on his promise if she showed her face around here. When he got out, he kept coming around, trying to talk me into taking small jobs here and there until I threatened to turn him in. Big mistake. I should have gone to the police first instead of after. My crew would still be alive.”

“I don’t understand why Mom never went to the police in the first place, years ago,” Paige whispered, leaning her head back against the seat.

“It was a twisted, nasty affair. I kept working with him, though, more to keep an eye on him than anything else. When he left town, I was relieved. I suppose I could have given him up when the cops questioned me about his disappearance, but I just wanted it all to be over. I hadn’t meant to get caught up in Raleigh’s trade. At first I liked the easy money, and then I was in too deep to get out.”

Paige closed her eyes. From the things her mom had said at the end, she’d suspected her father had been involved in something illicit. That both of them had. How casually he spoke of it now. Yet she could hear the shame, the torment underlying his words.

“After I was released from the hospital following the explosion,” her father continued, “I went to the police. Word was given out my ship had gone down. I went into hiding. Plans had been underway to infiltrate Raleigh’s group as soon as the cops realized he’d come back. He approached Liam about six or seven months ago, though, because of the cave on the property. I think Raleigh considered himself invincible, smarter than most men. And Liam…well, he felt Raleigh was responsible for the fact he hadn’t been with his wife when she died. And he’s right. If he hadn’t been saving me from my burning ship, he would have been. I lost my men that day. He lost everything.”

Paige sighed. “Raleigh didn’t recognize you tonight.”

“No. He didn’t even notice the extra man when I slipped onto the dinghy. As you can see, I don’t look the same.” He fingered the burns marring half his face.

“What about all these years, Dad? What were you doing? Did you ever think of me?”

Edwin Waters was silent a moment. His lips twisted. Moisture glistened on his lashes. “Of course I thought about you, Paige. Can we talk about this later?”

Paige narrowed her eyes, her stomach twisting. “All right, Dad.”

He nodded. “And I’m sorry about the fact Dan and Liam had to keep you in the dark, couldn’t let you know I was alive. Or any of what was going on. I don’t think they knew for certain at first that Raleigh was after you.”

“But they suspected,” Paige whispered.

“They were protecting you. You need to know that.”

An angry growl escaped her lips. “You know what? I don’t want anyone ever fucking protecting me again.”

“Language, Paige.”

“Oh, now you sound like Liam.” At the utterance of his name, she felt as though her heart had ripped from her chest to land on her lap.

“I’m sorry about your mother, too. At the end, we reached an understanding. I’m guessing you never knew that.”

Paige said nothing. She thought of what she’d viewed as her mother’s ramblings in those final days. She hadn’t been rambling at all. She’d been trying to let Paige know the truth. All of it. Those jumbled, confusing words were what had driven Paige to return to Alcina Cove after all the years away.

“Why are you staying in the cottage, Dad? You could be here in the house.”

Edwin shook his head. She’d gotten used to his scars in the past twenty-four hours, almost didn’t see them, only the man she was starting to remember. “I’d rather not. I was here, on and off, in hiding, which made it difficult for Liam these last few days when you were around. I saw Raleigh take you out of the house.”

“You were in the attic?”

Edwin nodded. “I think Raleigh suspected Liam had something of value secreted away and came looking for it the night he broke in. I wasn’t in the house at the time, fortunately. I don’t think Raleigh ever expected the thing Liam was hiding was me.”

Paige nodded, her arms on the porch railing, hands folded as she observed the darkness lowering over the sea. “So it was you and not a ghost I saw.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’d say that. Except for the time you saw me outside The Timeless, I was very careful to avoid coming out into the open. And the night you jumped on Raleigh. I almost blew it then. I had been following him around a bit, keeping my distance, but I nearly revealed myself when I came running. Fortunately, he just took off.”

“God, you mean you were right there? You’d think I would have sensed it or something,” Paige muttered.

“Why?” He sounded bitter. “What kind of dad had I been that you would expect something like that?”

She touched his arm, but said nothing. He was right, yet what kind of daughter had she been? If remembered love hadn’t been enough to make her reach out to him despite what she’d believed about the man, a need for answers should have. But she’d let it go until she thought him dead.

“There is something in this house,” Edwin said, returning to the prior topic. “Not when you and Deb were here, but after, much later, I encountered some things I couldn’t explain. I sometimes thought it was your mother’s grandfather.”

“Why would you think that?”

“This house used to be his. You don’t remember that? Your mom always thought her grandfather died of a broken heart when his wife drowned. I thought if that were true, maybe he was even more devastated when Deb left, and he started to haunt the place then. She was his favorite of the two sisters. Don’t ever tell your aunt I said that, though.”

With a crooked smile, Paige promised to keep his secret. “I’ve seen a ghost on the beach, too. This place really is ‘Haunted Alcina Cove.’”

Her father laughed.

“I think he might have been the man Raleigh killed in front of me and Mom, but I don’t know. I guess I never really will.”

He patted her hand where it lay on his arm. “Don’t question. Just accept. There’s so much in this world that defies explanation.”

Paige grunted. “You remember Bea Hunt? She said something about your improper renaming of your sailboat being bad luck. She never said what you’d called it, though.”

“Debra’s Hope. That’s what I renamed it after I learned she had cancer. Not supposed to christen a ship with a name ending in an ‘a.’ Hogwash, if you ask me. That was a sound ship and would have continued on the seas if it wasn’t for Raleigh sending it to the bottom of the ocean.”

Paige bowed her head. “Do you think he’s dead, Dad?”

“You’re not talking about Raleigh.”