The Chesapeake Diaries Series (26 page)

“Help yourself. They’re all empty.”

He wondered if it felt as odd to her to see him put his clothes in her dresser as it felt for him to be doing it. He could have kept his room at the Inn, but that would have defeated the purpose of him staying in St. Dennis. He hadn’t planned on hanging around, but he could not in good conscience leave her while he still suspected that someone meant her harm. There had been one or two times in his life as an agent when he’d felt, in hindsight, that some action on his part might have prevented something from happening to someone who’d ended up a victim. For the past several years, he’d had to live with wondering if he could have saved Melissa. If he’d been able to see Brendan for what he really was, would she still be alive?

No way was he going to leave St. Dennis with similar regrets. Uh-uh. If something happened to Vanessa, too, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

He thought about the guided hike he had scheduled for the end of the coming week. Well, if other arrangements for her safety could not be made, he’d just have to take her with him back to Montana, maybe leave her at the lodge while he took out his tour. Right then, the only thing he knew for certain was that he
wasn’t
going to leave her alone and vulnerable in St. Dennis.

“Grady?” She was sitting in the chair, her knees primly together, her arms resting on her thighs. “I’m glad you came back.”

He put the last of his things in the drawer and closed it.

“Thank you,” she added.

He turned around and studied her face. “Why wouldn’t I have come back?”

She shrugged. “I guess I just thought that you weren’t going to.”

“Didn’t I tell you that I’d be stopping at the Inn?”

“Maybe you said something about the Inn …”

He went to the chair and leaned down to kiss her. “Do you really think I’d have done that? That I’d have waved good-bye and never come back?”

“I suppose I don’t have great expectations when it comes to men.”

“Then I guess we’re going to have to raise your expectations.” He kissed her again. “What do you want to do between now and dinner?”

She smiled and pulled him close. “Unfortunately, Sue is still here.”

“Well then, we’ll just have to find something else to do until Sue is finished.” He thought about it for a moment, then pulled her up. “Let’s walk down to Steffie’s for ice cream. You know you’re dying to talk to her about what happened last night at the shop.”

“Actually, yes, I admit I am. How did you know that?”

“I have a sister.”

They stopped in the kitchen to tell Sue they’d be gone for a while. The locksmith still hadn’t arrived, but she said he’d called and was on his way.

“I’ll still be working on this counter, so I can let him in,” Sue told them. “There are a lot of prints here.”

“Some are probably mine,” Grady said, recalling that he’d spent most of Thursday in Vanessa’s kitchen. “But I can get a copy of mine sent from the Bureau to your department so you can rule those out.”

“Thanks.” Sue never raised her eyes from her work. “That would be helpful.”

The air was cooler than it had been when they’d walked through town earlier in the day, but it was still pleasant. When they got to the corner at Charles Street, Vanessa raised her right hand to her face and said, “Let’s keep walking. I don’t want to see it. I’ll deal with the shop tomorrow.”

There was still a lot of foot traffic in town, and he could have told her that more than one pedestrian had stopped to look at her store, where the police tape still wrapped around the front. Grady took her hand as they crossed the street and headed down Kelly’s Point, and tried not to think about the fact that she’d believed he’d left her with nothing more than a beep and a wave. She wasn’t kidding when she said she had low expectations of men.

Well, the only thing he could do was try to raise them, and he was determined to do just that. If he could have gotten his hands around Gene Medford’s neck, he’d have choked him for what he’d done to this woman. Grady was almost sorry that one of Gene’s fellow inmates had gotten to him first.

“Grady?” Vanessa tugged on his hand.

“Oh, sorry. I guess I just wandered for a minute.”

“I said, it looks like half the town had the same idea we did.”

“It’s really crowded.” He could see through the
side windows. “I think we’re going to have to wait until a few people come out before we can go in.”

“We could walk down to the dock, and … oh, there’s Miss Grace.” Vanessa smiled and waved.

“Oh, Vanessa, dear.” The older woman sat alone at one of the small outside tables. “I heard about your shop. I am so sorry. I can hardly believe it.”

“I can hardly believe it myself, Miss Grace.”

“Do the police have any suspects?”

“Not yet. I know they’re working on it, but so far …” Vanessa shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Was much stolen?”

“I won’t know until tomorrow. The police were still combing through the shop this morning, looking for evidence, so I didn’t go inside today.”

“Well, it must have been someone from out of town,” Grace pronounced. “I cannot imagine anyone from St. Dennis doing such a thing.”

“I feel the same way,” Vanessa said. “I don’t want to think that anyone I know would do this to me. But we do think it may have been someone who took advantage of the fact that everyone’s attention was on the Inn yesterday.”

“I wouldn’t think that anyone other than the locals would have known about the wedding.” Grace frowned. “Was there much damage to the shop?”

“One of the glass cases was broken, and one of the windows on the side was damaged. I think I probably lost some inventory, and I’m clearly going to need a new lock and a new alarm system, since both failed last night.”

“Terrible, dear. Just terrible.” Grace waved a thin hand as if to fan herself as she turned to Grady. “And
what’s this I’m hearing about your car being smashed to smithereens?”

“Not quite smithereens,” he replied, “but yes, someone broke the windows out of my rental car while Vanessa and I were in Bling following the burglary.”

“Such crazy business. What next, do you suppose?” Grace patted him on the arm. “But it was certainly good of you to accompany Vanessa to the scene of the crime. I’m sure Beck will appreciate you giving her a hand last night.”

The corners of Vanessa’s mouth twitched.

Grady pretended not to notice. “Yes, ma’am. I was glad to do it.”

“Well, I hope they catch whoever was responsible.” Grace paused. “Do you think it was the same person? It seems awfully suspicious to me, one happening right after the other. Especially since we rarely have such goings-on in St. Dennis.”

“I think we all agree with you there.” Grady nodded.

“But let’s talk about that lovely wedding yesterday. Grady, your sister was a beautiful bride. I made sure we got several photos for this week’s paper. Along with a fascinating interview I had earlier today with Dr. McGowan.” Grace was almost beaming.

“Dr. McGowan?” Vanessa frowned. “You mean Daria? The woman who’s engaged to Connor? She’s a doctor?”

“Daria has a doctorate in archaeology,” Grady told her.

“She’s quite well known in the field,” Grace added. “One of the girls working at the Inn on weekends is a
freshman in college, and she’s majoring in archaeology. Dr. McGowan offered to send her some photos she took at a dig in Turkey. The girl is simply over the moon.”

“That was very nice of her.” Vanessa’s attention turned as several patrons emerged with their ice cream. “Oh, Grady, look. People are leaving. Let’s dash in before anyone else does.”

“Well, you’d better hurry. There’s a small army coming up there on the left.” Grace pointed. “He who hesitates …”

“Has to wait in line.” Vanessa waved to Grace as she and Grady entered the shop.

The little bell over the door jingled but Steffie didn’t look up.

“Boy, she looks beat, doesn’t she?” Vanessa whispered from the corner of her mouth.

Grady nodded as they stepped in line. He looked around the shop, and met Hal’s questioning eyes from across the room.

I guess he’s wondering why I’m standing here holding Vanessa’s hand. Well, I suppose if I were him, I’d be curious, too. But
curious
is probably not the word I’d use to describe Vanessa’s reaction when she sees that Hal is sitting there with an arm over the back of Maggie’s chair
.

He stood so that his body was between Maggie and Vanessa, then realized how silly it was for him to try to protect her from seeing her parents together. He understood why Vanessa would object, would want to protect Hal just as Grady wanted to protect Vanessa, but it was silly. Hal and Maggie were going to do whatever it was they were doing, regardless of
what Vanessa or Beck or anyone else thought, and that was the way it should be. If Vanessa had a problem with it, she was just going to have to deal.

They were still three people back in the queue but the line was moving. Steffie had apparently called in recruits.

“You know, I get more steamed every time I think about that woman, Candice,” Vanessa told him, her hands in the pockets of her jeans, a deep frown on her pretty face. “I was going to give her a twenty percent discount on that dress. And then she destroyed it. Doesn’t that just stink?”

“It does.” He fought to control a smile. She was so seriously put out over that one factor. But the longer Grady thought about it, the more it began to bother him, too, albeit for totally different reasons.

“What can I get for …” Steffie raised her head, then smiled. “Oh, hey, guys. Ness, I was going to call you as soon as I had a break. I heard about what happened. Look, anything I can do … I mean anything, you got it.”

“Thanks, Stef. I appreciate that.”

“We need to talk about this. I need to hear everything.”

“You will. I’ll be at the shop tomorrow morning to start cleaning up.”

“I’ll be there to help if you need me. I’ll see if Tina can open for me. She was looking for extra hours.” Steffie’s eyes followed several new customers into the store. “Do you believe this? You’d think I invented ice cream, the way people are streaming into this store. Honestly, Ness, it’s been like this since I opened at
noon.” She grinned and added, “And I should mention that Mocha Berry Vanessa has been a big seller.”

“We’ll have two of those,” Grady told her.

Steffie scooped the ice cream into bowls and stuck a plastic spoon in the top of each before handing them over.

“What time are you planning on going to Bling tomorrow?” she asked.

“I’d like to keep my regular hours, so I guess I’ll be in town for coffee by eight,” Vanessa told her.

“I’ll see you then.” She waved Grady away when he took his wallet from his back pocket. “I can help the next person in line.…”

“Wow, she’s really doing quite the business,” Grady noted as they stepped out into the sunlight.

“It’s a nice warm day, and people like to get out and walk in the sunshine after a long cold winter. Besides, Steffie’s good at what she does, and she was at the right place at the right time. Unlike me, however, she always knew exactly what she wanted to do.”

“She always wanted an ice-cream shop?”

“She always wanted to make her own ice cream. Make up her own flavors, sell from her own little place. At one time, this little building was a crabber’s shack. She told me that her dad and her uncle and her grandfather were all watermen. This was where they picked the crabs, her grandmother and her mother and her aunt. Crabbing fell off a few years ago, the grandfather died, the uncle moved away, her dad retired from commercial crabbing, took out some loans, and went back to college.”

“What does he do now?”

“He’s an environmentalist. He’s working on writing
the new conservation regulations for the Chesapeake Watershed.”

“There’s a switch of hats.”

“Not so much. Stef said he saw firsthand what pollution was doing to the Bay, and wanted to work to correct it.” Vanessa licked ice cream from the spoon. “Anyway, she wanted a place to do her thing, so her dad let her have their old shack. She worked on it for six months, fixing it up. She said it had leaks, it had bats, the windows needed to be replaced, and the floor needed repair.”

“She did all that work herself?”

Vanessa nodded. “Mostly by herself, though her brother did help her out when he could. He’s the vet here, owns a small animal and waterfowl clinic down on the river.”

“Small animal and waterfowl,” Grady mused. “Now there’s an interesting combination.”

“Stef said that when he went away to school, he wanted to come back to St. Dennis to practice someday, so I guess he knew what they needed most around here.”

They’d reached the wooden walkway, as far as one could go before stepping into the Bay. The water had rainbow swirls from fuel that leaked from the motor of one of the boats tied up just a stone’s throw farther down toward the pier. They stood and watched the boats ease in or out of their slips, the motors muffling as they maneuvered slowly around the pier. Once out in the channel they could open up their motors and the boats could soar and scream like wild things, but here, on their best behavior, they whispered.

“Well, now, I thought that was the two of you back there in Steffie’s place.”

Vanessa turned in time to see Hal take Maggie’s arm.

“Look here, Maggie. Vanessa and Grady are out enjoying the day, too.”

“I was,” Vanessa muttered.

“We’re just on our way to take the boat out for a spin. Maggie says she’s never been out on the water. Imagine that, Ness.” He looked her directly in the eye. “Imagine living your whole life, and never getting to feel the spray in your face, the wind in your hair …”

Vanessa’s smile was fixed and frozen.

“I was just telling Maggie about taking you out this week, Grady,” Hal went on as if everything was just peachy, as if Vanessa wasn’t staring daggers at Maggie, and Maggie wasn’t trying to ignore her daughter, choosing instead to focus on Grady.

“I enjoyed both trips,” Grady told them. Addressing Maggie, he said, “I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Hal really knows his way around the Bay.”