The morning came far too quickly. In the end, I think I got maybe two or three hours of sleep. Maybe it was because of the lack of sleep that I became resolute in my decision to fix this for Azalea. I was going to find out what had happened. Maybe I couldn’t find out who killed Tess, but I could learn more about those documents Rory claimed to have. One way or another, I was going to learn if the missing covers were truly here, or if it was all just an elaborate hoax and what Harmony had meant about whatever Rory had done to Tess.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the tiny bathroom. My face looked like it’d aged a few years overnight. I half expected my short dark hair to have turned white.
I threw on a pair of ballet flats and a simple sundress, tucked some doggie treats in the dress’s pockets, and took Clover into the garden to give him a quick break. I promised him a longer walk later, but he didn’t seem to mind, as he became invested in an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that was exploring the aptly named butterfly weed. He then noticed the gigantic pool of water beyond us and pulled hard on the leash, wanting to take a swim in the Chesapeake Bay.
“Whoa, Clove, not this time. Later, though, I promise.”
He cocked his head to the side and looked up at me, seemingly uncertain if I would keep my word. I gave him a few pats and dug out a Purple Oyster doggie biscuit from my pocket for him to enjoy. As he munched on his treat, I knew I had been forgiven.
Afterwards, I walked into the main house to find Azalea cleaning. She had a microfiber cloth in one hand and some unidentified liquid bubbling inside a spray bottle in the other, but she was just going back and forth over the same spot again and again with an absent expression. Clover ran to her feet, helping by chewing at the obviously evil rug. I wondered if Violet was still asleep or not. I came over and took the cloth from Azalea to clean more widely. She shook her head and looked at me, cocking her head to the side as Clover had done minutes before.
“How are you?” I asked.
She didn’t answer at first. She stared at me.
“What? Do I have something on my face? My dress?” I turned around and ran my hands down my dress, hoping to smooth down any remaining wrinkles.
“What were you doing there? At the cemetery?”
That wasn’t a question I could answer without some caffeine. I put the cloth down and headed towards the kitchen. Clover bounded ahead of me, obviously hopeful someone was getting him food. Azalea also followed, asking, “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Coffee,” was all I replied. Azalea jumped up in front of me.
“Don’t blow me off.”
“I’m not. But I need coffee.” I tried pushing her aside as gently as I could manage. She wasn’t having any of that. She pushed me back. Clover growled and nipped at both of our feet. I threw my hands up in surrender. I didn’t want to fight with her. “Let’s at least sit down to talk.”
Her face remained locked with anger, but she nodded slightly. I led us both to the kitchen table but took a detour when I spied the coffee pot on a nearby counter. Thank goodness the coffee pot had worked its magic. I poured two cups. I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, remembering pouring the tea last night.
“Okay, so what were you doing there? What happened?”
“It’s where he wanted to meet,” I said. Clover resumed playing games with our feet.
“At Tidewater Cemetery? At midnight?” She sounded incredulous.
“I know, I know.” I felt like such an idiot. After everything Azalea had said last night, I knew she was right. “I let my curiosity get the better of me. I wanted this to be right. To be real.”
“I’m still angry with you,” Azalea said quietly.
“I’m angry with myself. I’m sorry, Azalea. Everything you’ve said. It’s all true.” I hung my head to my chest. “I missed you. I missed Violet. But coming here was too hard. At least, at first. Then, after it stopped being too hard, I was ashamed for how long I’d been away and that kept me away longer. This adventure felt like an opening to finally return.”
“You didn’t even call.”
“I didn’t know what to say. I was a coward,” I said.
Azalea rubbed the temple behind her eyebrows with her middle finger. “Yeah, yeah, you were. But I’m glad you’re here now. I thought I had lost you.”
I leaned over and clasped her in a hug. “Never again. I promise.”
She held her hand out with just her left pinky up, like we used to do as kids. “Swear?”
I took her left pinky with mine and nodded. “I swear.”
She sighed and rested her chin on her left hand. “Do you…. Do you think Rory’s okay?”
I took both of her hands in mine. “He wasn’t there, so I’m sure he’s fine.”
“I just have so many questions. Where was he? Why was Tess there? Who hurt her?” She let go of my hands to rub her temples. “Rory’s been acting so strangely. What’d he get himself involved with?”
I tried smiling reassuringly. She didn’t need me to echo her concerns. “The police will find him. My guess is that he fell asleep before midnight. He probably wasn’t there. Honestly, he might still be asleep now. It’s pretty early.”
I heard movement on the floors above us. We both checked the clock on the wall. I was wrong. It wasn’t that early anymore.
“I should get back to cleaning. The television crew’s up already. I shouldn’t stop yet,” Azalea said suddenly. She poured the rest of her coffee into the sink drain and put the mug in the dishwasher. Before she headed back, Keisha appeared in the doorway carrying a covered casserole of some sort. Clover piped up to see her and the potential of food. He danced around her legs.
“Here. From my mom. A mix of various vegetables and probably some soups. I don’t know what exactly,” Keisha said, holding the casserole out as if it were a baby with a dirty diaper. I rushed over to take it and found room in the fridge for it.
“Thank you, Keisha, but you’re here really early for your shift,” Azalea said.
“I know, but I heard about what happened, and I wanted to help,” she replied. Azalea wrapped her in a big hug. Although she was only seventeen, Keisha was very tall and towered over my petite sister. Her colorful locs descended around them. “Oh, is that fresh coffee?”
“Help yourself,” Azalea said. She headed back into the hallway to continue work.
Keisha poured herself a cup of coffee and added a few generous helpings of creamer. “Honestly,” she said to me with a lower voice and a conspiratorial gleam, “The casserole was for my cousin’s baby shower tomorrow, but the place will be overflowing with food, so I convinced Mom to give this one to Azalea.”
“That was kind of you,” I said. She joined me at the table. “How are you doing with it all? Did you know Tess?”
Keisha sighed. “Yeah. She’s my older sister Desiree’s roommate. Well, she was…” She paused. She looked like she wanted to say something more but wasn’t sure how to.
“What happened?” I asked as gently as I could.
“Well, see, that’s the thing. They were roommates until a few weeks ago. Tess gave sudden notice about leaving, but she didn’t really give any details. My sister was upset because she thought they were best friends. I mean, she hadn’t moved out yet, but she had packed her things.” Keisha took a sip of the coffee.
That was strange, but it could be for many reasons. “I assume you know Rory?”
“Well, yeah, of course, I know him.” She cocked her head towards the hallway Azalea had walked down.
“I mean, yes, of course. What about your sister? Did Tess say anything to her about him?”
“It’s a small town. Everyone knows everyone here. But I don’t know anything more.” She looked around and then leaned in across the table. In a whisper, she asked, “Where do you think he is?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“I walked along the boardwalk to come here. There were people talking about it.”
“About the murder?” I asked. I knew this was a small town, but I didn’t realize that everyone already knew about what had happened overnight.
“Here’s the thing, they think he did it,” Keisha said.
“He? You mean Rory? They think Rory killed Tess?”
“Well, yeah. People think Rory killed Tess and ran off. That he’s hiding,” she replied.
“But why would he do that?” I remembered what Harmony said in her rambling about moving a curse onto Rory. I still didn’t know why she felt he was involved, but I figured that was the source of the gossip.
“I don’t know. Do you think he could do that?” she asked.
“No,” I said, although my voice was firmer than I felt. After what Azalea told me about the so-called trinkets, I didn’t know what to believe. I’d known Rory for nearly twenty years, but I’d never have thought him capable of such meanness. Maybe I didn’t know him well after all.
“I don’t know. Azalea won’t tell me much, but I know he’s hurt her. I mean, not in the same way as what happened with Tess, but….” She stopped, apparently realizing she was tripping over her own words. She took a breath. “Look, people are already talking. I think they just want to know where he is. Running away makes him look guilty.”
“You think he ran away?”
“You think he didn’t?”
Fair enough. I knew nothing more than anyone else at this point. Before yesterday, I never would have dreamed Rory capable of hurting anyone, let alone a seemingly sweet young woman like Tess, but as I thought about it, I really wasn’t sure anymore. I hoped the police found Rory soon.
“I’m going to poke around online later and see what I can turn up,” Keisha said.
“I’m sorry—what?”
“Oh, nothing major. Just going to pour through social media and look through a few feeds.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “I think it’d be better if you stayed out of it. Let the police do their job.”
“I won’t do anything dangerous. I want to help Azalea find out what happened. Rory might be her ex, but he’s still Violet’s dad, and they’ve at least been polite together in front of me. That’s more than I can say about my own parents when they had marriage problems.” Keisha rolled her eyes and shook her head. She went over and refilled her coffee mug.
“Okay,” I said. “Let me know if you find anything. Can you do that?”
“Of course,” she replied.
I ran into the Chronos Channel crew packing up in the Wildflower’s lobby. There were four people checking what I presumed were camera, light, and sound equipment. Maybe other things, too. I avoided Ms. Collins and the goateed man and headed instead towards a young woman with bouncy curls. She sported a tattoo that looked straight out of the children’s book Dinotopia. Now, that was someone I was interested in.
“What’s going on?” I asked her.
“Prepping for Bradford’s big announcement,” she replied as she futzed with a camera case. Then she looked up and said, “Oh, hey, aren’t you the chick who found the dead barista girl last night?”
Well, that was one way to put it.
“Yeah, unfortunately.”
“I’m so sorry.” She sounded genuinely concerned. “What were you doing out there?”
I shrugged, uncertain of how much to tell her or anyone. Obviously, word was getting around quickly. Rose Mallow was a small town, sure, but this all happened just last night, and these were hotel guests, not townsfolk hanging out at the local watering hole. Maybe I should put it out there and try to control what people were imagining on their own.
“I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you.”
“Oh yeah?” She motioned over to one of her colleagues, an older man who was probably at least six-foot-six, if not taller. He towered over us. “Try us.”
“Have you ever heard of the Book of Kells?”
The woman’s eyes went wide. She looked at the man and then back at me a few times in a near-comical fashion. “Wait, wait, did you go through our stuff?”
“Your stuff? No, why would I do that?”
I was perplexed. Meanwhile, the goateed man joined our trio. Ms. Collins pretended we didn’t exist, but she stayed within earshot. The group all started talking at once, largely ignoring me.
“Out of everything you could have said.”
“She’s just messing with us.”
“But what if this has something to do with what he’s planning?”
“Has anyone actually seen the book?”
“Okay, everyone, stop,” said Ms. Collins from her spot at the registration desk. She strolled over to us. “Let’s try this one at a time, shall we?” Her attitude reminded me of my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Cloister. She pointedly turned towards me. “Miss Blume, why don’t you explain further about what you mean and what took place last night at the cemetery?”
I tried to summarize as best as I could. As I did, I saw the group exchange glances. Some checked their notes. When I finished, Miss Collins nodded. “Well, that’s interesting, isn’t it? Uncanny, really.”
“It seems like everyone here knows something that I don’t,” I said.
Miss Collins nodded. “Yes, it certainly does. But we can fix that for you. You should join us at Bradford’s announcement. I think you’ll find it… illuminating.” With that, she walked back away to go back to whatever it was she was working on.
“If Ruth says you should come, then you’re welcome to join us,” said the woman with the Dinotopia tattoo. “Happening around 11 a.m. at the Calverton Golf Course. If you can get there by 10:30, that’d be ideal.”
“Isn’t he promoting his book? Why is he talking at a golf course?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know all the details. He’s staying with Leonard Calverton at their family estate, though. So maybe that’s why. All I know is that he was adamant about being there.”
Interesting. I had long heard about the Calverton family, one of the oldest in Maryland. I also knew they ran a big bank and owned much of the land in the area and. Every now and then, one of them became a local politician or small-time celebrity, but more than anything, I knew they were incredibly rich, unlike most of the town. Even as just a summer visitor, I was well aware that everyone in Rose Mallow knew of the Calvertons. They were more mysterious than anything else, rarely, if ever, commingling with the commoners. I sometimes saw them at one of Nana Z’s charity benefits, but that was about it. I mainly remembered some old, white-haired people in outfits that probably cost more than my annual salary.
Before going to the announcement, though, I needed to get my phone fixed to get the photos from the texts. Finding an actual carrier retailer was a good forty-minute drive out of the way. I knew I’d never make it there and back in time. I’d need to find some other way to find the images off my phone. Keisha was back at the front desk. Perfect.
“Okay, you’re my digital sleuth, right?” I asked her. Keisha grinned at my description. “I broke my phone during my misadventure last night. Rory had texted me two images, and I’m trying to figure out how to get to them.”
She thought about it. “Have you tried logging into your service provider’s account? Or do you know if things get backed up to the cloud?”
I wasn’t sure, but it was worth trying. We took turns on the inn’s laptop, trying to figure it out. After about fifteen minutes and a few wrong turns, we found them. I couldn’t resist hugging her. Keisha sharpened the images as best as she could and then printed them out as large as possible on the inn’s printer.
Even adjusted and enlarged, the images remained hard to see and read. I laid them out on the registration table and used an inn notepad to take notes. Keisha took one look at them and shook her head, unable to provide any additional help.
“You’ve already gone above and beyond,” I said. She beamed at me and watched as I tried to unravel the pages’ mysteries. However, one of the Chronos Channel team needed something, so she went back to helping them as they readied for the press conference.
“Okay, Rory, where’d you get these from? What do they say?” I said to myself. I started with the map. It had the word “Mallow,” but there was a different word in front of it. I wasn’t positive about what that one said. Could this be somewhere else entirely? I thought of the inn’s library. Maybe there was a history of the area here. That seemed like something Nana Z would have had. I darted over and skimmed the books. No luck. I’d have to tell Azalea to get one. Or maybe I could find a copy to give her.
“Hey Keisha, can I borrow the laptop? I want to see if there are old histories of the town that have been digitized,” I asked when she finished with the television crew. She handed it over to me. I searched as best as I could, but I only found snippets of things, nothing comprehensive. I gave the laptop back to her and wondered the best next steps to take.
“Is the historical society’s office open?” I asked.
She searched online. “Yes, but it’s open for limited hours, basically whenever they have volunteers to staff it. Looks like they might be open this afternoon.”
Okay, so I wouldn’t make it there before the announcement. But maybe I could get there afterwards. It was certainly worth trying, at least.
Next, I focused on the page from the O’Doyle diary. Parts of the sheet were so faded that I couldn’t read anything. Of what was legible, some words appeared to be in Irish, or maybe they were encoded. If they’d been in Hebrew, I would have at least been able to put some of my Bat Mitzvah training to use, but unfortunately, that wasn’t any help here. I spent the next thirty minutes piecing together what I could. When I finished, this is what I had put together:
Saving K- from Crom…. priority…. Dublin is not…. Maryland provides…. welcomes Catholics…. ó Dubh….
It wasn’t much, but at least it was something. My spidey research sense was definitely tingling, but I wasn’t yet sure what all it meant.
“Didn’t you want to get to that announcement thing by 10:30?” Keisha asked.
“Yes.”
“You better get going. You’re going to be late.”