A Spirited Gift

“The chief said I should head over here and make sure everything is okay,” he said in his quiet, almost shy way.

I liked Scott. He wasn’t from Duck, but, like Kevin, he’d settled in so completely, it felt like he’d been here forever. I wanted to hug him at that moment but didn’t want him to take it the wrong way. He was a very serious, reserved young man.

“Thanks for coming.” I drew him into the kitchen and shooed some children out who were raiding the refrigerator. “How are things out there?”

He shook his head. “About the worst I’ve seen. The roads are impassable—all kinds of debris covering them. A few houses lost their roofs, a few more are flooded. There’s not much electricity anywhere on the island. To make matters worse, the bridges are closed.”

That sounded worse than I’d anticipated. “What happened to the bridges? They should’ve been able to withstand some feeder bands.”

“Yes, ma’am. I understand the high winds impacted the bridges. Department of Transportation wants to make sure they’re safe—once they can get down here. They said to expect them to be closed for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”

That was a worry in itself. No bridges meant no supplies for stores. With no power, food in freezers and refrigerators would go bad pretty quickly. That could also mean water shortages if the pumps weren’t working.

The only good thing was that it was October and the thousands of visitors who’d been here over the summer were now safely back in their own homes.

“Was there something you wanted me to do here?” Scott asked. “If not, I’m heading back out to do what I can.”

I could tell from the sound of his voice that he wanted to be back out on the streets. But we had our own crisis here—I explained everything that had happened—at least what we knew for sure. Gramps always taught me to repeat the facts and not the fears, as he called it. I kept myself from jumping to conclusions and waited to see what Scott had to say when I was finished.

He finally nodded. “You’ve done the right thing, Mayor. I’ll take over from here. Where did you say the man is who was with Mayor Foxx?”

We found Matthew being detained by Mayors Barker Whiteside and David Manning. They’d taken the liberty of raiding Kevin’s bar and were halfway through a bottle of his best scotch.

When Scott questioned Matthew again, the young man repeated everything he’d told us upstairs. But this time he was a little less antagonistic. Maybe the police uniform made a difference—or maybe he was beginning to understand that this was serious.

After hearing what Matthew had to say, Scott thanked the two mayors for keeping track of him and asked them if they would continue to do so. Barker and David were happy to continue sitting there with Matthew between them.

“So the only places you haven’t searched for Mayor Foxx are down here on the first floor, is that correct, Mayor O’Donnell?”

“That’s right,” I said without my customary admonishment to have him call me Dae. This wasn’t the time or the place. “I found Sandi’s ring in the ballroom. Shall we start there?”

I left Nancy with the others, but Marissa came with us. We searched all the closets, cupboards and pantries, even the walk-in freezers. We checked in the laundry room and in Kevin’s downstairs suite. But there was no sign of Sandi.

“She could’ve just left on her own,” Marissa said. “That man she came with made it plain he didn’t want to be with her. Maybe when they were done upstairs, she just left.”

“What time do you think that would’ve been, Miss Endy?” Scott asked her.

Marissa shrugged her shoulders and looked at me. “I don’t know. I think they took us out of the ballroom about nine thirty. I’m not sure how long we were in the lobby.”

“The first time I looked at the clock, it was around midnight.” I tried to help fill in the gaps.

“If Mayor Foxx went upstairs with Mr. Wright at nine thirty or around there, then came downstairs an hour or so later, the storm was pretty fierce right then. It didn’t really let up until about two A.M.” He looked at both of us to verify that.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I lost track of everything while we were all sitting around.”

“So we really don’t know,” Marissa said again. “She could be back home for all we know. Maybe we should give it a rest until we can contact someone in Manteo.”

“That’s a good idea,” Scott said. “I have a friend with a ham radio. He should be able to get through to the police in Manteo. They could check on Mayor Foxx and find out if she made it back okay.”

“There’s only one problem with that theory,” I said. “Sandi came in Matthew’s car. I can’t imagine her hot wiring a car or hitchhiking to get home.”

“I’ve hitched rides before when I was desperate to get home,” Marissa said. “Mayor Foxx might’ve been desperate after that confrontation with her boyfriend. If she put her whole heart on the line for him and he rejected her, she would’ve walked home if she had to.”