Chapter 18 #3
"No. But my mother would prefer he not get caught up in the stress of all that again."
As we crossed the street, my gaze moved back to the yellow house. "Do you know who lives in my dad's old house now?"
"A couple with two kids. They moved in about five years ago. Moved up here from Boston so they could live in a small town."
"Do you live with your parents?" I asked as we walked up to the front door.
"No, I have an apartment in town." He opened the door and stepped inside. "Mom, Dad, we have a visitor."
The house was warm and smelled like cookies. The woman who came out of the kitchen with curly brown hair and blue eyes, much like her son, wore an apron covered with flour.
"Finn, what are you doing here?" she asked with surprise.
"I brought someone for you to meet. This is Cassidy Clarke, Ellen's granddaughter. My mother, Katherine Kelly."
"Hello," I said.
"Oh, my goodness." Her gaze ran across my face with surprise. "I had no idea Ellen had a granddaughter. Or that David had a daughter, for that matter."
"What's going on here?" an older man said as he shuffled down the hall.
Finn's dad's hair was gray, but he also had warm blue eyes like his son.
"This is Ellen's granddaughter, Cassidy, John," Katherine told her husband. "David's daughter."
"Seriously? That's surprising. I've often wondered what happened to David. Is he with you?"
"No. He's in Connecticut. That's where he lives." I cleared my throat. "I actually don't know anything about Ellen or my dad's life here. He never wanted to talk about it, and Finn said you might be able to tell me about his childhood, that you knew him."
John nodded. "David and I were in the same grade, and he lived right down the street."
"And I was a year younger," Katherine put in. "But I knew him, too. Why don't we go into the living room and sit down? I just made some cookies. I'll bring them out. Would you like something to drink? I can make tea."
"You don't need to go to any trouble," I said.
"Oh, it's no trouble. Sit." She waved her hand toward the living room.
I followed Finn and his father into the room. His dad settled in the brown leather recliner while Finn and I sat on the couch. There was a ball game on the TV, but John instantly muted it.
"So, what do you want to know, Cassidy?" John asked.
"Well, my dad never wanted to talk about his past or his family.
It feels like something terrible happened to cause that rift, but he won't say what it was, and when I asked my grandmother, she said it was his story to tell.
But he's not going to talk, and neither is she, and I need to do something to end the standoff.
If I could get some insight into what could have occurred, that would be helpful.
Also, I would just love to know more about him as a kid. "
"Well, I don't really know what happened between David and his mother. I have my theories, like everyone else. But it's their truth to tell or not tell." He paused as Katherine came into the room with a plate of cookies.
"The water is just heating up for our tea," she said, sitting in the chair across from the couch. "But you can start with a cookie. These are chocolate chip with coconut and oatmeal, my special mix."
I picked up a small napkin and a cookie, taking a bite to be polite, but the cookie might have been one of the most amazing cookies I'd ever tasted. "Wow," I said with genuine sincerity. "This is a great cookie."
Katherine smiled. "I am known for them."
"How do you have time to bake cookies?" Finn asked. "I thought you were swamped with sewing that wedding dress."
"I was, but the bride is postponing the wedding for a few weeks because her brother was in an accident. He's going to be all right, but they want to wait until he can be there."
"Sorry to hear that."
"Luckily, it's going to be easy enough for them to reschedule. Since I had some breathing room, I decided to bake." Katherine gave me a smile. "Now, you want to know about your father."
"She wants to know why David left," John interjected.
"We wish we knew," Katherine said.
"Margaret told me there were rumors that my father and grandfather got in a fight and during that fight, my grandfather fell to his death. She suggested that my grandmother sent him away, and that’s why they never spoke again.
But my grandmother said that my grandfather's death was an accident, and that it was ridiculous for anyone to think that David killed his father.
But she didn't offer me a better explanation for why they're estranged. "
"Richard and David were fighting in the months before his death," John said. "Richard wanted David to work in the family business. David wanted to leave town and go to college. Richard said he was deserting his family. David said he wanted to live his own life, that kind of thing."
"But there's no way David killed his father," Katherine said. "I agree with Ellen on that."
"At least not on purpose," John said. "It could have been an accident that occurred while they were fighting."
"I'd like to believe my father isn't a killer. But if he had done something to his dad, I don't understand why my father would be so angry at my grandmother. It seems like she should be the one who is furious and resentful for what he'd done."
"That's why I never bought into that story," Katherine said. "I thought there was something else going on with David. He had a lot of problems around that time."
"What kind of problems?" I asked curiously.
John and Katherine exchanged a brief look, then John said, "David was sweet on a girl named Lily. She was two years younger than us. Very pretty."
"But she had a hard family life," Katherine said. "Dad had a drinking problem. Mother had to work to make ends meet, and sometimes Lily and her mother looked like they’d taken a few punches, but they'd never told that to the sheriff, when he was called out a few times."
"Did my father go out with this girl?"
"David wanted to take her out," John said. "But Tom Holloway had staked his claim, and Lily seemed caught between them."
I was surprised by his words. "My father was in a love triangle with the sheriff?"
"Well, Tom wasn't the sheriff then; his dad was. And Tom was a troublemaker. Rumor has it that his dad used to knock him around, which is why he usually came out swinging when someone tried to cross him," John said.
"Tom told David to stay away from Lily," Katherine continued.
"But David didn't want to listen. He was in love with Lily, and after his dad died, I think David was a little out of his mind.
He was pressuring Lily to break up with Tom, and Tom was telling her that she couldn't leave him.
I think Lily was scared of both of them.
They were eighteen; she was sixteen. She was out of her depth. "
I felt like they were describing someone passionate and romantic, and that didn't sound at all like my father. "What happened? Who won?"
Katherine's smile turned sad. "Nobody. Lily ended up taking her own life."
I clapped a hand to my mouth. "Oh, my God, the girl who committed suicide, who drowned at the beach below the inn—her name was Lily? That's the girl my father was mad about?"
Katherine nodded. "Yes. She left a note by her clothes on the beach, saying she was sorry, but she couldn't go on anymore. She didn't mention David or Tom, and everyone knew her home life was bad, so she had a lot of reasons to be unhappy beyond them."
"And that's when my dad left?"
"Pretty much right after the funeral," Katherine said.
"I think it was too much for him, losing his dad, all the rumors swirling around him, and Ellen was also in a bad place, which is understandable since she'd just lost her husband.
The next thing we knew, David was gone, and Ellen said she didn't know when he'd come back. "
"For years, we thought he was just at college somewhere," John said. "But we never knew where. Katherine and I moved to California to go to college and live a different life, so we lost touch."
I was less interested in John and Katherine's story than I was in my father's. "Did anyone stay connected to my dad? This is a small town. Didn't he have friends?"
"We all scattered after graduation, and David didn’t seem interested in talking to anyone from here."
"And Ellen doesn't talk about him at all," Katherine said. "I once asked her about him. It was probably at least ten years ago now. She said she didn't know what he was up to, and she would prefer that I not speak his name to her. So, I didn't. She's a little on the intimidating side."
"I'll say," I muttered. "She just found out I'm her granddaughter last night, and I'm not sure she knows how to feel about that."
"She has to be happy," Katherine said. "I'm sure she misses David. And now she has a granddaughter."
"I didn't tell her who I was when I first got here. I actually also came because I have a podcast that investigates true crime stories, and my friend and I were looking into Natalie Warren's disappearance. The fact that it happened at my grandmother's inn made it a story I had to follow."
"I heard something about a podcast when I went to the market this morning. I didn't realize that was you."
"That was me."
"Well, I don't know what's going on at that inn, and I'm concerned about Sophie working there," Katherine said.
"I told Sophie to quit," Finn said. "I'll lend her the money she needs to go to New York."
Katherine looked rather pained at that statement.
"I keep hoping she'll change her mind, but I know she won't, and I can't blame her.
I had to live somewhere else, too." She paused.
"I just got you back, Finn, and I hate to see her go, but I know everyone has to live their own life, and if there is something happening at the inn, then I don't want her there, either. "
"Tom said that there's nothing to that disappearance, that the woman just wanted to start her life over, and she had a right to do that," John interjected.
"Tom needs to work a little harder," Finn said. "Because Cassidy has brought up some good points, and it's not just one woman with a mysterious disappearance; there are a couple."
"I didn't realize that," John said with concern.
"I don't have any proof," I said. "I just know that too many things have happened that don't make sense and can't be explained away with this plausible doubt I keep hearing."
"Well, that makes me more nervous," Katherine said.
"How long are you going to stay at the inn?
Are you concerned about your grandmother, about getting hurt?
" Her gaze swept my face. "I didn't want to ask, but were you in an accident?
You have cuts on your face. That didn't happen at the inn, did it? "
"No. My car was run off the road last night. Finn actually rescued me."
"You did?" Katherine asked in surprise. "How did that happen?"
"There was a detour, and I ended up on the Upper Ocean Road, not too far behind Cassidy," Finn said.
"Someone ran you off the road?" John questioned, a sharp note in his voice now.
Before I could defend myself against another speculative question, Finn said, "Yes, someone did. I saw the other car. Unfortunately, I was too far away to see the make or the license plate."
"Why would someone want to hurt you?" Katherine asked, concern in her gaze.
"Because I'm asking questions. I'm shaking things up, and someone doesn't like that." I paused, then said, "My grandmother seems very sincere in her belief that Natalie checked out on her own, and her disappearance has nothing to do with the inn. You've known her a long time. Should I believe her?"
"That's a big question," Katherine said. "And we were David's generation. While I've had many short, casual conversations with Ellen over the years, I can't say we're close. I think the fact that we were David's friends has made her less interested in talking to us. We remind her of him."
"But Tom Holloway was David's age, and they seem very tight," Finn put in.
I thought about that. It did seem like an anomaly that Tom would be close to Ellen, since he'd been in David's class, and they'd had that alleged love triangle.
But Tom hadn't liked David, and maybe that animosity had been easier for my grandmother to deal with once David had turned his back on her.
"Perhaps she looks at Tom as the son she never had," I suggested.
"Tom stayed and followed in his father's footsteps when David refused to do that. "
"That's a good point," John murmured. "Personally, I never liked Tom that much, and I still don't. He's always had a short fuse, and it's worse now since his divorce. He rides his son hard, and Cole is unhappy and mixed up, too. I think he needs to get out of here more than Sophie does."
As the kettle began to sing, Katherine got up to get their tea.
After she left, John said, "I think you should be careful, Cassidy. If your father didn't want you to know his mother, your grandmother, then I think he had a pretty damn good reason."
"I just wish I knew what that reason could be."
"Well, I thought the rumors about David killing his father were completely unbelievable. But I always wondered if Ellen didn't have something to do with it."
I sat up straighter at John's unexpected words. "Why?"
"Because David left and never came back. Because he doesn't speak of his mother, and his mother doesn't speak of him. That sounds like a deep, painful trauma, and I can't imagine that trauma could be tied to something as simple as him not wanting to run the Boatworks. It had to be more than that."
"Maybe it was Lily's death," Finn said. "That's when he left."
"Perhaps, but why would he blame his mother for that?"
My heart began to race. "Was Lily's body ever recovered?"
"No, sadly, it was not," John replied.
"Oh, God," I murmured, looking over at Finn, who had the same awareness in his eyes.
"What?" John asked. "What are you thinking?"
"That Lily might have been the first girl to disappear from the inn, and maybe Ellen is responsible for that, too."