26

Bursting through the door of the hotel, Cassie stopped in her tracks at the sight of Luke Matthews sitting in a chair in the lobby, reading a magazine. Her first feeling was alarm, but she had gone through too much today to be scared now. It was as if she had shed the scaly skin of sorrow and confusion she had dragged with her from the desert. She was free, and she wouldn’t be intimidated.

Striding over to stand in front of Luke, she said, “I don’t know what you’re doing, skulking around, shadowing me, but it’s going to stop. Whoever you’re working for is on the wrong trail.”

Luke dropped the magazine and looked at Cassie’s blazing blue eyes. Then he looked past her, to the right and left, to make sure she was talking to him. “Ma’am?”

“Yes, you. Why are you following me?”

Luke stood. Spreading his hands he said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Looking beyond Cassie, he saw Patty coming down the stairs. “Patty, can you come here?”

“Hi, Cassie.” Patty came to stand by Luke and he put his arm around her. “What’s wrong?”

“I want to know why this young man has been following me,” Cassie declared.

“Following you!” Patty looked confused. “Are you sure?”

“I found him in my room one night, over by my writing table. He said he was checking the radiator, but when I asked the manager if he was working here, I was told that he was not.”

“Oh, Cassie,” Patty said, laughing. “I asked Luke to check the radiators in all the rooms. It was something I had to do before I could get off, and we wanted to go to Shingle Bay to a movie.”

“What about all the other times he’s been hanging around the hotel? And how about yesterday, when he was over at Cedar . . .” Cassie’s voice trailed off, as things suddenly fell into place.

“Oh. Then you two are . . . but yesterday it looked like he was telling you to do something and you didn’t want to, and then I got hit in the head and dumped overboard.”

“I’m so sorry that happened!” Patty said. “The pin that holds the davit rusted through and broke.”

Luke jumped in. “I was telling her that we need to tell her parents that we want to get married. She was saying that we should wait. She’s afraid her mother will try to break us up.”

Cassie began to giggle. “No wonder you were so anxious to take me to Cedar Cove! You went there to meet Luke. But then you said he was just someone asking directions. I’ve been so sure—” The giggle became a full laugh, and she staggered over to a chair and collapsed, giving herself over to the hilarity of the situation.

“You thought that I was following you?” Luke asked, and when Cassie nodded, he threw back his head and laughed, too. Patty joined in, and that’s how Aaron found them when he walked in a moment later.

“Oh, Aaron,” Cassie said, getting up and wiping tears from her eyes. “This has been such an adventure, you have no idea! Patty and Luke can tell you the last installment while I go get my things. Patty, will you get my bill ready? I’m going to make that ferry or bust a gusset trying!”

After she got to her room, she first took the sheaf of papers from Jensen and Sjoding and scribbled something on the bottom before signing her name as Cassandra Jordain. Then she hurriedly emptied the wardrobe and dresser and packed the things from the shopping bags and put Aaron’s clean pair of sweats in one of the empty ones. Throwing the rest of her things into her suitcase willy-nilly, she grabbed Elmo, held him up, and announced, “We’re going home!” She tucked him into her purse and took one last look around, picked up the shopping bag, and towed her suitcase to the elevator.

As she checked out, she asked Patty if there had been any messages for her. “I asked Bishop Harris to find something out for me and told him to call my cell phone, but I don’t know if he had that number. I know he knows this number, and I just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss his call.”

Patty checked the pigeon holes on the wall behind the desk and shook her head. “No messages.”

Cassie held out her hand. “Good-bye, Patty. Thank you for everything. Tell your family thanks, too. I’ll remember this forever.”

Luke was standing by the door, talking to Aaron. Cassie’s eyes crinkled as she shook his hand. “We had quite an adventure together on the Red Swan,” she said to Luke. “I’ve only just now figured out what happened and why you were so mad.”

“I didn’t want to get mixed up in anything that would keep me from getting my captain’s license,” Luke said. “When those fellows mysteriously showed up at the coordinates you gave me, I thought you were using me. And then, when it looked like they were going to swing a couple of crates of B C bud onto our deck, I’d had the course.”

“What’s this?” Aaron asked.

“Luke can tell you all about it in a minute. Here’s your clean sweats from the other day,” Cassie said, handing him the shopping bag. “Will you walk me to my car?”

“Let me get your suitcase,” Aaron offered as he opened the door for her.

“Thank you.” Cassie spied a sack Aaron had in his hand. “Oh, that’s my package from the gift shop in Cedar Cove.”

Aaron gave it to her. “I found it on the boat. Patty must have transferred it after we got you aboard yesterday.”

“It’s a present for a little boy I know. I hope his dad is all right . . .”

“What’s wrong?”

“Never mind. Another matter. I’ll find out soon enough.” Cassie found her keys and opened the trunk. While Aaron stowed her suitcase, she pulled the Jensen and Sjoding envelope out of her purse. “I want you to give this to Amy,” she told him.   

Aaron took the envelope. “What is it?”

“It’s the bill of sale for the Red Swan. I’ve signed it over to Amy.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Actually, the question is not why, but how can I do that? It isn’t legally mine, since I was never married to the man who bought it. Jared may have used another name, and he may have used ill-gotten gains, but the fact is, Amy is, or was, still his wife when he bought it. Now that he’s dead, it should be hers. If she wants it, she can do what she has to do to untangle the threads. Give me a dollar.”

“Beg pardon?”

“Give me a dollar. I said that I sold it to her for that sum. She can pay you back. Tell her to find a lawyer. Figure it out. I’ll do whatever needs to be done to make it right.”

Aaron fished in his pocket for his wallet and took out a dollar, which he gave to Cassie.

She put it in her purse and took out one of her business cards. Tucking it in Aaron’s pocket, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Good-bye, Aaron. You are the best of good men. I’m truly sorry you’re not my brother-in-law.”

“Good-bye, Cassie.” He opened the door and closed it after she was in.

She started the engine and rolled down the window. “The fog is getting thicker,” she said. “Any chance that will delay the ferry?”

“This is just a mist. It has to be pretty thick to stop the ferry. They have radar and GPS.”

“Let me know how things turn out,” Cassie said, “between you and Amy.”

“I will.” He stepped away from the car and waved. Cassie waved too and headed out the parking lot and up the hill. As she gained the top, she was suddenly out of the mist. The air was crystal clear and the stars were twinkling overhead, and Cassie’s heart was light as she contemplated the prospect of going home.

Nothing is ever simple, and Cassie’s return trip got complicated immediately. As she rounded the corner at the top of the hill in Shingle Bay, it looked as if everyone on St. Mary’s Island was lined up to get on the ferry. With a sinking heart, Cassie took her place at the end of the long line of parked cars. “Looks like I’ve got a bit of a wait,” she muttered. “But I will get off the island tonight, if I have to wait ’til midnight.”

She got out of the car, opened the trunk, and took the crossword puzzle book out of her suitcase. Then she sat with the motor running and the dome light and heater on and worked her puzzle until the ferry arrived. Everyone cheered and honked their horns, and after the ferry had unloaded, the line of cars began to crawl forward. Cassie didn’t make it on the ferry, but she did make it through the ticket gate and lined up in the waiting area. Looking at all the cars in front of her, she doubted that she would make the next sailing either.

Determined to be philosophic about it, she continued to work her puzzle, pausing every now and then to think about the chain of events ever since that day in St. George when she met . . . who? Chan Jordain or Jared Fletcher? Chan Jordain didn’t exist. Her marriage never existed. It was just what it seemed: a fairytale. Cassie remembered what Amy had said: “I chose flash over substance.”

“She’s not the only one,” Cassie muttered. “And now I’ve lost my chance. If he’s not lying dead somewhere, he’s fallen for Punky. Serves me right. He wouldn’t want me now.”

On that sad note, she saw that the ferry was returning. Impatiently she watched it dock and unload its cargo. As the line of cars moved forward, she whispered, “Oh, please, please, please be enough room for me.”

There was, barely. She was the next to the last car on the ferry, and she cheered as she put the car in park and turned off the key. As she got out of her car, she thought she heard someone call her name, but the roaring of the engines as the ferry prepared to pull away from the dock drowned out any other sound. Turning to look around, she saw someone sprinting down the dock toward the departing ferry. There was something familiar about that form that made her heart beat quicker. A brawny deckhand shouted something and held up his hand, palm outward, when it was obvious the sprinter wasn’t slowing down. The ferry started moving away, and the runner made a desperate leap. He seemed to hang in the air, arms outstretched, and then he came down half on and half off of the back of the ferry. It was all slick metal, and there was nothing to hang on to. As he began slipping, the deckhand stepped outside the chain barrier and pulled him up.

Cassie could see them in silhouette against the lights of the retreating Shingle Bay ferry terminal. The deckhand was laying down the law, hulking over the shorter man, jabbing him in the chest. The sprinter took his wallet out of his pocket, opened it, and showed something to the deckhand, who shook his head and walked away.

As the sprinter turned to look around, Cassie saw his face in the light shining down from an upper deck. “Ben!” she called, running to him.

“Cassie? Is that you?”

“Oh, Ben! You’re safe!” Cassie flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tight.

“Well, yes. It was a near run thing, there, though. I don’t know what would have happened if that fellow hadn’t given me a hand. He wasn’t any too happy with me.” He hugged her back, but it was a perfunctory gesture.

“I’ve been frantic with worry. I heard about the two policemen killed in Phoenix, and I couldn’t get any information about who they were. I was afraid it was you.”

“I heard about it, too, but it was clear across town from the precinct I work in. Listen, Cassie, I need to talk to you, and the sooner the better. Is there a place we can go to be private?”

“We can probably find a place upstairs.” She led the way.

The lounge was crowded, so Cassie pushed through the door to the open deck at the back of the ferry. “It may be a little chilly, but it will be private,” she said.

They sat on a bench behind a glass windscreen, and Cassie said, “Where did you come from? How did you get here?”

“I came on the first ferry,” Ben said. “I figured since it was late, you would wait and take the ferry back tomorrow. But when I got to the hotel, they said you had just left. I drove back like a madman, parked, and looked in every car that was lined up before I figured out you must be on this one. You saw the rest.”

“I was too anxious to get home,” she said. “I couldn’t wait. But Ben, why are you here?”

“Two reasons. First, you were scaring me with some of the things you were saying—about how you had found out that Chan was in drug enforcement. I was afraid you would get into a sticky situation if you weren’t careful.”

Cassie smiled. “Sticky situations. Okay, that’s the first reason. What’s the second?”

“Ah, well.” Ben hesitated. “The second is that I’ve got some information that I wanted you to hear from me. I didn’t want you to hear it from anyone else.”

The smile was gone. “It’s Punky, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“You’re in love with Punky. You think you need to tell me that you’re going to marry her, because of what . . . because of, you know . . .”

“Cassie. What are you talking about?”

“You mean you’re not in love with Punky? But she called all twitterpated about someone sending her flowers and said she was in love. She was going to surprise me at church. And you were sooooo complimentary of her performance. I figured it had to be you.”

“Well, she was great. But she’s dating the fellow who played opposite her. She brought him to church.”

“The Gideon?”

“Gideon? No. His name is Ray.”

Cassie was going to pursue that but changed her mind. “Then what is it that you wanted to tell me yourself?”

“Well, that comes in two parts. The first part is that we found who hit Chan.”

“Who was it? Another wife?”

He looked at her, puzzled. “No. It was a man who had just had a procedure at the cancer center. He had been given some medication that made him unsafe behind a wheel. He wasn’t supposed to be driving, but he told them he had someone to drive him and left. Drove himself to the airport and flew home. He’s dying of cancer, Cassie. I don’t think they’re going to charge him.”

“Charge him! They should give him a medal.” She shivered.

“Are you cold? Shall we go in?”

“No. Tell me the second part.”

“Come over here and sit next to me,” Ben invited, lifting his arm. “We’ll keep each other warm.” When she was nestled close beside him, he said, “Well, here’s the thing, Cassie. When you started talking about Chan being involved in the drug trade, and you went up to northwest Washington because of something you found in his papers, I started doing some investigating. I found out—”

Cassie broke in. “You found out that his name isn’t Chandler Jordain, it’s Jared Fletcher. There is a warrant out for his arrest, and he has a wife and child already.”

Ben’s brows went up. “You know? How did you find out?”

Cassie smiled. “It’s a long story, and very involved.”

“You seem to be taking all this very calmly.”

“I am now, but you should have seen me this morning.” She rested her head on Ben’s shoulder. “The thing about it is, I was never in love with Jared. I can’t really think of him as Chan any more, because Chan wasn’t a real person. I was in love with a façade, with a story that someone made up. I didn’t spend enough time with the man to really get to know him, so when he was gone, I was grieving for the loss of my fairytale, not for the loss of him. I tumbled into love so quickly, and there was nothing to sustain it. I guess I fell out of love just as quickly. I don’t feel anything anymore—except foolish.”

“He fooled us all,” Ben said. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to go home and pick up the threads of my life. Take back my name, teach my seminars, find some new clients.” Cassie sighed. “I’m over him, Ben. My love for him was an illusion. But my marriage . . . the intimacy, you know, was very real. Very, very real. That’s what I have to work through. In the meantime, I’ll go to Chuckwagon Chicken with my friends, take Ricky to the park to float his little boat.”

“Does Ricky have a boat?”

“I brought him one.”

Ben took Cassie’s hand in his. “I don’t want to rush anything, but do you think your plans could include me as well?”

She leaned back and looked at him. “You didn’t even return my hug!”

“When?”

“Down on the car deck. I hugged you like crazy and you just stood there.”

“Well, last I saw you, you were a grieving widow. How was I to know things had changed?” He flashed that attractive smile. “So what do you say, Cassie? Could your plans include me, too?”

She laid her head back on his shoulder. “Mmmm,” she murmured. “We’ll take it slow, but I wouldn’t wonder if I didn’t turn out to be crazy about you.”