Chapter Eighteen

It was weeks before Kathryn was able to bring herself to enter the Morgan Mausoleum again, time taken up with meetings with government officials who had relentlessly questioned her and examined all the Morgan assets, including several different sets of books which led them directly to organized crime gangs. As a result, a spate of arrests of major crime figures was about to be announced.

Much of the Morgan empire, including the bank and the shoe factory, were confiscated by the government for back taxes and other penalties and would be auctioned off to recoup some of the money the Morgans had failed to declare. The house was the only thing left to Kathryn as Ket’s widow and heir. She told them she didn’t even want that, but the government agent had just shrugged and left the papers he’d brought with him on the table in Fitz’s cottage.

She’d suffered nightmares about returning to the house where she’d experienced such unhappiness in a story that had such a bloody and violent ending.

Ben finally persuaded her to go and put those ghosts to rest. She couldn’t stop herself from shivering as she entered the house, even with his strong arm around her. To her surprise, everything had been cleaned and polished. No trace of the horrors that had happened there was left behind.

They were joined by a smiling Fitz and a blushing Cynthia who were ready to put the final postscript on the Morgan story. “We want to rent the house from you,” Fitz said. “That is, if you’re agreeable. Cynthia and me, we want to turn it into a bed and breakfast. There’s always a terrible need for good lodging in Lobster Cove. With my brawn and Cynthia’s brains, and her excellent cooking, I think we can make a go of it.”

She’d never seen her father so focussed and happy, and she knew it was more than a business venture when Cynthia shyly slipped her arm through Fitz’s. “How can I refuse an offer like that?”

Now the Morgan Mausoleum would finally become a home that would welcome visitors and family alike.

****

Ben’s supervisor in the FBI forensic accounting department called Ben to congratulate him on his work in breaking the money laundering and drug dealing cartel in which the Morgans had been such important participants.

“Take a few days off, you’re owed vacation time,” he had added.

So, finally clear of the last vestiges of the investigation, it was time to once again leave Lobster Cove. Ben revved the clutch of the motorcycle, enjoying the strident roar of the well-tuned engine. He wasn’t riding this time, but loading the vehicle up onto a trailer. The guttural roar of the machine sent a flock of gulls skyward, abandoning their wait for scraps from the hotel restaurant with outraged squawks.

He paused and looked out across the town, down to where the lobster boats bobbed on the tide and tourists queued to take whale-watching cruises under the warm sun.

The last time he’d left Lobster Cove, he hadn’t been able to get away fast enough. This leaving was tinged with sadness, especially when some of the good friends he’d made came out to say goodbye—Tess, Jesse, Roy, retired Sheriff Amos Lawton and his wife, Officer Jack Medley, Maggie and all the diner staff, Fitz and Cynthia, and Sheriff Lynn Lawton, newly returned and glowing from her honeymoon. They were the same people who’d stood by himself and Kathryn as they’d spoken wedding vows in front of a judge just a week earlier. The quiet ceremony had seemed in keeping with the events of the last few weeks, a declaration of their love and commitment to each other no matter what the future held.

Now these same people were gathered to say goodbye and wish the newlyweds well as they embarked on a new life together. Their goodbyes made him think that maybe they’d be back in town one day.

Kathryn stood watching as her new husband loaded the motorcycle onto a trailer. Their son, Alex, laughed with delight as he straddled the saddle, his still bandaged hands barely able to reach the handlebars. Some of Ben’s feeling about leaving Lobster Cove had communicated to her and tears ran down her cheeks.

But this time there was no anxiety about whether he’d come back to her. She was coming with Ben and Alex to start a new life together as a family. The crowd of well-wishers cheered as he kissed her thoroughly before helping her and Alex up into the passenger seats of his Jeep.