“And that’s saying a lot.” I studied the side of his face. “It was the personal tour thing, wasn’t it?”
He raised his brow. “What do you think? It took a long time for me to work up the courage to ask you to marry me. I think you saying yes takes any personal tours with that jackal off the bucket list.”
Mary Catherine laughed. “Good way to put it. Where are we off to now?”
“I have a Santa, sleigh, and eight reindeer waiting for me to put them on my roof,” Kevin said. “I’m hoping to win grand prize for the best decorated business.”
“What’s that?” I asked. “A free dinner or something?”
“No. A free ad in the Outer Banks online and print editions of their magazine. I’m surprised you didn’t know that before me. You’re usually up on these things.”
“Wow. I don’t have a sleigh and reindeer. What’s second prize?”
“Dinner at an oyster bar in Manteo.” He grinned. “Planning on taking second place?”
“Maybe. I haven’t even looked through my Christmas stuff yet. That’s what I’m going to do when we get back.”
“You want to meet for lunch?” he asked. “I hear the Blue Whale is serving delicious homemade soup and their awesome grilled cheese sandwiches today.”
“If that includes some yummy dessert that the famous chef at the Blue Whale Inn has cooked up, I’ll be there.”
“Me too,” Mary Catherine chimed in. “I love soup.”
Kevin dropped us off at the Duck Shoppes. I felt a little guilty leaving Treasure at the house since Mary Catherine had Baylor with her, but I hoped it was going to be a busy day. Besides, Treasure wasn’t as sedentary as Baylor. Sometimes he tried to run out of Missing Pieces. He could learn a few things from Mary Catherine’s cat. I’d apologize to him later.
Everyone along the boardwalk was decorating their shops. August Grandin was adding lights to his Christmas duck menagerie. Trudy was getting help from Tim putting up sparkling, lighted snowflakes on her big windows.
Mary Catherine and I stopped to admire her snowy windows.
“When are you putting up your decorations, Dae?” Trudy asked.
“Right now, I hope. I might have to go to the store to get some things. I know I’ve taken in some used Christmas decorations during the year. I’m not sure exactly what they are.”
“Where were you this morning? I thought you’d be here before me.” Trudy gave an extra spritz of fake snow to the large plate glass window.
“We went out to see Jake. Mary Catherine talked to the horses, and we had a short tour of the horse cult excavation out in Corolla,” I told her.
“She talked to the horses?” Trudy asked. “How did she do that?”
“It’s something I was born with,” Mary Catherine explained as hundreds of sea gulls landed around her on the boardwalk rail and the rooftops of the shops. “Horses are very easy to communicate with. They have a kinship with man, much like rats, dogs, and cats. They understand us, as opposed to a whale.”
Trudy’s perfectly made-up eyes widened. “You talk to whales?”
“I have been known to have a conversation with one from time-to-time. They are very noble creatures with a large world view, not surprising I suppose.”
That was almost too much for Trudy.
Tim and I glanced at each other. He knew how she felt about these things too, and changed the subject. “I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, Dae, but Sheriff Riley had to release your friend Jake right after he got him to Manteo.”
“What? Are you sure? That’s great! What happened?”
Tim took his time relating the tale. “Jake has an alibi for the time the ME puts on Tom’s death. He was drinking with some friends at a bar in Southern Shores. His buddies, and the bartender, vouched for him. Sheriff Riley was really mad.”
This was great news as far as I was concerned. “Does he have any new suspects in mind?”
“Not that I’ve heard. He’s meeting with Chief Michaels and Chief Palo to see what else they can figure out.”
“But the crime scene is at Jake’s house, right?”
Tim shrugged. “That’s what I heard, Dae. I haven’t been out there. Maybe you should ask Sheriff Riley what he thinks.”
“What about the hoof marks that were on Tom?” I continued, though I could see it was distasteful to Trudy. “Is that what killed him?”
“The ME said that was odd, now that you mention it,” Tim said. “He said all the hoof prints came from one hoof. Crazy, huh?”
That made sense with what Kevin and I had seen at the crime scene too. But the question still remained about how a horse could use only one hoof. “Thanks for telling me. I’m glad Jake is out of the picture.” I’d feel better though when the picture was clearer and we knew what happened to Tom.
“I don’t know,” Trudy said with a deep frown between her brows. “It kind of makes me scared to think that the wild horses are out there trampling people. When did they start that? They’ve always been gentle and shy when I saw them.”
How to tell her that it probably wasn’t real horses, but some kind of demon/ghost/hybrid that was intent on destroying things?
Probably not a good idea.
“Everybody thinks it’s a one-time thing, Trudy,” Tim said. “Tom’s blood alcohol was high. He could’ve easily passed out or fallen down on the road and the horses just ran over him. They didn’t know any better.”
Mary Catherine didn’t like the sound of that. “We can’t allow those wonderful creatures to be blamed for the supernatural evil coming from the excavation site. Perhaps we should speak to the sheriff about what’s really going on.”
I took her arm, and waved to Trudy. “We’re going to look for Christmas decorations now. I’ll see you later.”
Trudy let Mary Catherine’s dark words pass right over her. She was good at that. “Good luck with the decoration contest, though I think none of us have a chance against Wild Stallions.”
I followed her gaze and saw Cody and Reese Baucum working on the restaurant at the end of the boardwalk. They were putting up lighted dolphins that appeared as though they were jumping from the water to the roof. A lighted Christmas version of Neptune, King of the Seas, was waiting for them with his holly encrusted trident.
“Wow! Where did they find something like that?”
“They probably had it specially made,” Tim said. “I don’t know if anyone can beat it.”
Mary Catherine and I continued down the boardwalk to Missing Pieces. It looked odd on the other side of my shop to see Shayla’s place empty and dark. The blinds were drawn, and there was a note on the door that said Mrs. Roberts Psychic Reader was closed.
“Coincidence is a strange thing, isn’t it?” Mary Catherine was looking at the shop too. Baylor lazily raised his big head to take a peek. “Shayla leaves Duck as I arrive. I wonder what the significance is in that.”
I opened the door to Missing Pieces and went inside despite the dipping, swirling gulls that seemed like they wanted to get face-to-face with Mary Catherine. I wasn’t afraid of birds, but I wasn’t crazy about one flying in my face either. “I think I put all those old decorations in the closet in case someone wanted them for the holidays.”
“How do you decide what to keep and what to throw away?” she asked as she sat on the burgundy brocade sofa.
“I can’t explain it. There are some things that I find, or that make their way to me, that I know someone will be looking for. These decorations, and some of the used clothes I take in, are more for people who might need them, but are low on cash. I give a lot of things away or there wouldn’t be any room in the shop.”
The box of Christmas decorations had come from a woman who’d moved to Duck over the summer from somewhere in New Jersey. None of them had been made in the last ten years. The lights were large, colored bulbs. There were spinning circles made from gold and silver foil, and a dozen or so old fashioned ornaments.
“I think this is all I’ll need for the shop.” I sighed as I glanced around. “I wish I had an original idea to go with this stuff. I can’t think of anything except hanging it all up and seeing how it looks together.”
“Since your friend Trudy decorated her window, maybe you should decorate your door,’ Mary Catherine suggested. “Nothing says welcome like a well-decorated door.”
“I suppose that’s true, and it will maximize my decorations too.”
We tacked the big lights around the door frame and then strung the gold and silver foil spinners on the Missing Pieces sign. The ornaments wouldn’t stay on the sign or the doorway. I brought them inside and hung them from the ceiling around the shop.
“That looks lovely.” Mary Catherine clapped when I turned on the lights.
“I wasn’t planning on winning anyway. I just want the shop to look like Christmas. Maybe we should put a decoration next door on Shayla’s shop, too, for the same reason.”
A woman with long, curly reddish hair and wonderful blue/green eyes came in before we could leave. She was carrying a large box in one hand as though it was very light.
“Hi. I’m April. We had these extra decorations left over at the church, and I thought maybe you’d know someone who could use them.”
I peeked in the box. There was a large array of Christmas decorations including some wonderful old carved Christmas elves and a large, lighted eight-point star. “Great. Thanks. I might use some of them myself, if that’s okay.”
“Oh, sure. I knitted some of the ornaments in there.” April began wandering through the shop with an eagle eye, looking for treasures. I’d seen her in Missing Pieces before but she’d never purchased anything. “I’m looking for something for my grandmother for Christmas. She’s got everything, you know? It’s always so hard shopping for her, but I don’t want to give her a gift card either.”
“I know what you mean. Take a look around. We’re going to put up a few of these decorations next door. If you see something you like, let me know.”
“Thanks. I love looking around in here, but I usually can’t afford to buy anything.”
Mary Catherine and I put up a few tin stars around the doorway of Shayla’s shop. I thought about Mary Catherine’s observation regarding Shayla and the shop. It did seem odd that she’d arrived at the same time that Shayla had been called home. It had been a similar circumstance when Mary Catherine had decided to leave and Shayla had arrived. Maybe she was right about coincidences.
“That looks very nice.” Mary Catherine watched the tin stars moving gently in the breeze from the Currituck Sound. “A bit whimsical and old fashioned.”
“Something wrong with old fashioned?” August Grandin asked as he wandered toward us from the Duck General Store. “I like old fashioned. At least I’m not overwhelming the boardwalk with all that junk Cody and Reece are putting up. I think that helps me make my decision about being on the town council.”
“I thought you never wanted to be part of the politics that ran Duck,” I reminded him of his words from when he’d turned down a chance to run for the first town council after Duck had incorporated.
“A man can change his mind, I believe. That still one of our inalienable rights, isn’t it?”
“Definitely. I guess I’ll see you at the meeting tonight,” I said. “Good luck.”
“Who else is running?” he asked.
“Cody Baucum and a few others. It should be an interesting discussion.”
“What discussion?” he asked as he walked away. “I’m the best man for the job. Cody’s just a young pup. There’s no comparison.”
“Okay. Thanks for telling me.” I waved to him as I went back into Missing Pieces, not wanting to get into an argument with him.
“Sounds like you’re going to have your hands full, Dae,” Mary Catherine whispered. “I can’t wait to hear everything tonight. I hope it’s okay if I go too.”
“Sure. It will be good to have someone there who doesn’t want to be on the council.”
Mary Catherine and I had some tea while April continued perusing the store. I really didn’t think she’d buy anything this time either, and that was okay. Not every customer had to be a buyer.
“Who’s judging this decorating contest?” Mary Catherine asked.
“I’m not really sure. Probably someone from Outer Banks Magazine. Like I told Kevin, I didn’t even know there was a contest last week. Usually either I know about it or Nancy tells me. I don’t know what happened this time.”
“You know,” April said suddenly. “I think I’ll take this old cookbook. Grandma is always talking about how good food used to be. Maybe she’d like looking through this.”
“A nice choice.” I took the heavy, green hardback from her. “You know, this cookbook was put together by a group of women from Duck who were trying to raise money to start the first history museum. It has a lot of great recipes. I always knew someone would like it.”
“What year is it from?”
I read the second page in the book. “It was published in 1938. Each of the recipes has the name of the woman who submitted it. I recognized many of their names, including my grandmother, Eleanore O’Donnell.”
April lovingly took the book from me and searched through the names and recipes. She gave a loud squeal when she found a name she recognized. “Look! There’s my grandmother’s recipe for duck soup. My grandfather was a prolific duck hunter. I can’t believe she doesn’t have a copy of this. I know all her cookbooks, and I’ve never seen this one.”
“She may not have bought a copy of the book for herself,” I explained as I put the book on the glass counter near my cash register. “Not all of the women did. I think they thought about it as just a fund raiser and not something for themselves.”
“This is so wonderful. Thank you so much for having it here.” She touched the book again. “I hope I can afford it. I know it’s old.”
I looked into her happy face. There was no doubt the book belonged with her and her grandmother. “I’ll take a dollar and fifty cents for it.”
“What?” April glanced back at Mary Catherine who shrugged. “I know you want more than that. Tell me, please. I have some money saved for it.”
I started wrapping the book in Christmas paper. “That’s it. It’s not very valuable, except in a sentimental way. It belongs with you.”
“Thank you so much. My grandmother is going to be so surprised. You said your grandmother has a recipe in here too. Do you have a copy of the book?”
“Yes. My grandfather bought copies for everyone at the sheriff’s department. He kept one for himself. That’s just the way he thinks.”