The Secret Hour (43 page)

 
All the Jenkins men were there.

 
Not Maggie.

 
Barkley leaning over blueprints; Caleb on a ladder; Hunt, handing up a long board. John stood there, looking around. The barn’s huge, open, rough interior had been broken up; they were framing rooms.

 
“Hey, John,” Barkley, the senior family man, called over. “What brings you out our way?”

 
“Mr. O’Rourke, how’re you doing?” Caleb asked, grinning down from the ladder. “We’re building four new guest rooms, so we can outdo the Silver Bay Inn next summer.”

 
“Where’s Maggie?” John asked.

 
“Your daughter?” Barkley said, frowning. “We haven’t seen her. Why would she come here? What’s going on?”

 
John approached him. His eyes burned, staring at his old friend. They had been high school friends together; soccer teammates; lifelong buddies. And Barkley had taken John’s wife away, been with her the night she had died, and returned home to live a normal life: Here he was with his son and brother.

 
Time was, John had wanted—needed—to rip Barkley’s face off. But not now; Kate Harris had changed that, taken the old jealousy and thrown it into the wind. John only wanted to find Maggie, bring her home.

 
“Pretty cool place, huh?” Caleb called as John walked closer. He sounded a little worried. John had been his lawyer; perhaps he feared that there was trouble, the aftereffects of his case, something to do with parole. “We’re putting hot tubs in the bathrooms. It’s going to be—”

 
“Seen my daughter?” John asked, standing at the foot of the ladder. Looking up, seeing Caleb’s scared expression, feeling a rage beyond words building. He had gotten this kid off on a serious charge, and right now he didn’t know where Maggie was, and he was fighting the urge to climb up and tear the boy apart.

 
“No, Mr. O’Rourke,” Caleb Jenkins said, sounding frightened. “I haven’t.”

 
“Get down off that ladder and talk to me,” John said. “You’re scared of something, Caleb.”

 
“No, I swear…”

 
“You look guilty, and you sound guilty, and I want to know why,” John said, shaking the ladder so hard, he thought Caleb might tumble off. If he didn’t, John was ready to climb right up and get him.

 
One foot on the second rung, John was on his way.

 
Kate and Teddy sat on the floor of Maggie’s room, brushing the dogs. What else was there to do, waiting for someone—everyone—to get home? Teddy took handfuls of soft, white hair off Brainer’s undercoat, while Kate had a hard time keeping Bonnie from rolling on her back, begging to have her tummy tickled.

 
Just then the front door slammed.

 
“I’m hooommme!” came Maggie’s voice.

 
“Maggie!” Teddy bellowed.

 
“Coming!”

 
The dogs jumped up at the ruckus, and Maggie came pounding up the stairs. Both Teddy and Kate scrambled to their feet, rushing to the bedroom door.

 
“Where were you, young lady?” the Judge called after her from his study. “We were just about to call out the National Guard!”

 
Maggie burst into her own room—red-cheeked, white scarf trailing, holding a huge tangled bouquet of dried flowers and beach grass, but at the sight of Kate she dropped it and ran into her arms.

 
“You’re right here!” she cried out, squeezing Kate. “Not just in Silver Bay, but
here
, in our
house
!”

 
“I’m so glad to see you,” Kate said, hugging her hard.

 
“I got your note, and I wanted to pick a Thanksgiving bouquet, and I rode over to the lighthouse on my bike, and the whole time I was thinking ‘Kate’s here, Kate’s here…’ Are you going to have Thanksgiving dinner with us?”

 
“Oh,” Kate said, smiling. “I don’t know about that…”

 
“Maggie, do you know how worried we were?” Teddy asked. “You were supposed to meet me after school.”

 
“I know, Teddy, but I got home, and you weren’t here, and I got Kate’s note and decided—”

 
“Dad’s out looking for you!”

 
“He is? He’s never usually even home by now,” she said, looking shocked and a little afraid.

 
“Well, he was today.”

 
“Sorry,” Maggie said, gazing up at her brother. “Can we call him on his cell phone and tell him I’m home?”

 
“Yes,” Teddy said, smiling with affectionate exasperation. “That’s a very good idea.”

 
“I’m just thinking of her,” Caleb said, watching John come up the ladder at him. “With that last girl in the breakwater, no wonder you’re worried. Watch out, Mr. O’Rourke—I’m coming down. Okay?”

 
“Let him down,” Barkley said, grabbing John’s shoulder.

 
“He’s acting scared of something,” John said through clenched teeth. “And I can’t find Maggie…”

 
“That’s not my fault,” Caleb said, climbing down. John grabbed his shoulder, and Caleb’s eyes flashed white, as if he feared John might lose control. He was in his early twenties, but he didn’t look like a kid anymore: He had lines around his eyes from working outside, and his hairline was just starting to recede. But his body was rock hard—John could feel the muscles under his shirt, and he held on even harder.

 
“Did you know that girl at Point Heron, Caleb?”

 
It wasn’t his imagination: Caleb’s face turned bright red, and he looked up at the ceiling, away from John.

 
“Answer him, Caleb,” Barkley said. “Set his mind at ease.”

 
“Only from the papers,” Caleb said. “She looked really pretty. I felt bad about what happened to her.”

 
“Now, what the hell does it have to do with us?” Barkley asked. “What brings you over here like this so—your little girl not being home yet? We’ll knock off work right now and help you look for her.”

 
John’s phone was ringing; he could feel it vibrating in his pants pocket. Hunt heard it too; his eyes flicked downward. Looking away from Barkley and Caleb, John flipped open his cell phone.

 
“Hello?”

 
“Dad—she’s home,” Teddy said.

 
“She is?” John asked, his eyes locking with Caleb’s. He saw the relief and vindication there—as if he knew he was off the hook—as he straightened himself out, shook his shoulder where John had been gripping him.

 
“Yeah. She was just out picking flowers. Believe it or not…”

 
“Right, I believe it,” John said, swallowing, sensing three pairs of Jenkins eyes on him.

 
“See you later, okay, Dad?”

 
“Okay, Teddy.”

 
When John hung up, he saw Barkley watching him. He took a deep breath. Until two years ago, he would have said Barkley Jenkins was one of the best friends he had.

 
“Your daughter okay?” Hunt asked now, from across the floor.

 
“Yeah. She made it home safe.”

 
“That’s good. I’m glad.”

 
“We all are,” Barkley said. “We’re all very glad about that. Look, John—we know it’s been rough.”

 
“Don’t, Bark,” John said, his voice shaking.

 
“I’ve never told you how sorry—”

 
John felt his words like a punch in the stomach. Nothing Barkley could ever say would explain his wife’s betrayal, how she could have gone behind his back, put their whole family in jeopardy.

 
All he needed was to start down the road of Theresa, and he’d really lose it. He thought of Kate, hoped she was still at the house now that Maggie was safe. He remembered the way she’d felt in his arms, the whisper of her breath on his neck, their time by the west-running brook. And he wished more than anything that she wouldn’t leave before he got home.

 
“Glad she’s home, Mr. O’Rourke,” Caleb said, and he laughed with clear relief. “You were really coming after me.”

 
John glanced over at him. “You seemed guilty about something, Caleb,” he said.

 
“No, not me. And nothing about your daughter,” Caleb said, sounding uneasy again. “I was just talking about your house. That’s what I thought you meant.”

 
“My house?”

 
“The brick—you know,” Caleb said, staring down at John.

 
John looked around; this was a construction site. Why wouldn’t there be bricks somewhere on Jenkins property? His heart began to pound harder, remembering his children’s cries of fear.

 
“Are you telling me you threw the brick?” John asked, the question exploding out of him.

 
“Hold it right there,” came Barkley’s voice, and John felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around.

 
Maggie sat on the edge of her bed, unable to stop smiling at Kate. Her blue eyes were bright, as if she couldn’t believe Kate was really here. Kate felt the same way, seeing her. She couldn’t wait for John to return, so he could see his daughter with his own eyes.

 
“Your brother and dad were pretty worried about you,” she said.

 
“I’m sorry,” Maggie said, her smile faltering slightly.

 
“Dad’s not letting you out of his sight again till they catch the copycat guy,” Teddy said. “You’d better face it.”

 
“I had my scout knife!” Maggie said, drawing the red sheath from her pocket, handing it to Kate—as if wanting Kate to pronounce it adequate protection, congratulate her for carrying it.

 
“You shouldn’t have gone,” Teddy said kindly.

 
“I need freedom,” Maggie said. “And I can’t stand staying at Gramps’s any longer. We have to go home—we have to! Kate…”

 
“Yes?” Kate asked, still holding the pocketknife, smiling at how shiny Maggie’s eyes had just become, suspecting she knew what was coming next.

 
“Stay with us! Whyever you’re here, for whatever reason you’ve come back…be our baby-sitter!”

 
“Yeah,” Teddy said, nodding and walking closer. “That’s a good idea.”

 
“I wouldn’t make a very good baby-sitter,” Kate said.

 
“Why not? You were a good one with your sister,” Teddy said. “You practically raised her, went to her swim meets…”

 
“That was different,” Kate said, his words and their eagerness tugging her heart. If only she could. If only it were that simple; she’d just move in with this family she was growing to love, take them all under her wing, and everyone could be happy.

 
“Because she’s your family?” Maggie asked.

 
“Well, partly.”

 
“Why else?” Teddy asked.

 
“Well, I’m a marine biologist,” she said. “I have a job already. Down in Washington.”

 
“That’s really cool,” Teddy conceded. “I knew that…”

 
“Yes,” Kate said. “You sent me that letter.”

 
“I want to go to law school in Washington, like Dad,” Teddy said.

 
“I’m going to be a pilot when I grow up,” Maggie said. She touched the white scarf around her neck, as if to make sure Kate had noticed her wearing it.

 
Kate smiled, touching the fringe.

 
“Amelia.” Maggie grinned.

 
“You’d make her proud…”

 
“You gave me the scarf; I want to give you my knife. Keep it—at least for a while. In return for the scarf…”

 
Not wanting to hurt Maggie’s feelings, Kate smiled and put the red knife into her jeans pocket.

 
“I’m going to become an aviatrix when I grow up. And fly solo around the world!”

 
“A noble goal,” Kate smiled, thinking of the picture Willa had painted of her at the controls of her plane.

 
“In fact, I got a sign,” Maggie confided breathlessly. “Something I thought you might have dropped on a walk with Bonnie. Want to see?”

 
“Sure,” Kate said, watching Maggie reach into her back pocket. Her heart was filled with a sense of peace: Maggie was home safe, Teddy was calm again, John would be back soon…

 
“Here it is,” Maggie said, her face glowing, pulling something from her pocket.