Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
SURPRISE MOVES
Goldie already had a level of notoriety in Sparkledove, but after the AP story broke, she couldn’t go anywhere without people stopping and talking to her.
Some were happy and grateful for her investigative efforts, while others were concerned about the negative impact the scandal would have on the city’s tourism business.
She told person after person that while she’d never want to do anything to hurt the economy of the town, the Banyans and their plans had to be stopped.
Despite the scandal, or perhaps even because of it, the town was jammed packed with visitors Friday night.
Members from the volunteer fire department acted as traffic cops, and the city council even allowed Eli to hire two off-duty state policemen to act as designated deputies for the night.
In total, there were nineteen homes open to the public, and one of those was Stephie Banyan’s.
Although heartbroken, she decided to face any gossip head-on and support her community the best way she could.
Many townsfolk viewed her decision as both brave and classy, and although it was too soon to tell, it seemed like the sins of Charles and Peter would not necessarily be held against her.
Dressed in slacks and her outerwear from Miller’s, Goldie visited five homes on the tour, listened to carolers, bought a candy apple from a vendor on River Street, and watched the kids standing in line for their chance to tell Santa their Christmas wishes.
She was alone as she moved through the town, yet she wasn’t alone at all.
She ran into Lupe and her family, whom she had met before at the Thanksgiving potluck.
She stopped and spoke with Maddie and Dean, who were taking a twenty-minute break from their duties at the hotel to stroll among the crowd and absorb some of the festive fun.
She saw Herb Pontz, who was taking the night off from the munitions factory in Denver, and met his wife, Sharon.
Goldie asked Herb about where he had come up with the line: “It’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog.
” But, like Ed Peterson, who quoted the Bee Gees at the community dance, he couldn’t remember where he’d heard the saying.
She didn’t like this ongoing mystery, but she took it in stride.
She was accepting that there were some things about Sparkledove she might never figure out.
About 8:30, she ran into Eli, who had been busy all night making sure everything was running smoothly.
Even though it was one of the busiest nights of the year, he asked Goldie to hop in his police cruiser and said he wanted to show her something special.
Intrigued, she followed him to a side street and climbed into his Ford sedan.
He circled downtown, passing dozens of cars parked on the sides of streets, until he was just a few yards from Bridge Street.
When they got there, she noticed Bridge Street was closed off, like River Street, but she couldn’t see why.
Eli parked his car in a space with a sign that read: Reserved for Sheriff.
He turned off the engine, then told her to wait until he rounded the car to get her door.
She liked the chivalry but didn’t understand what they were doing.
“So, what’s the deal?” she asked, getting out of the car and not having a clear view of the street from where they parked.
“When the town has some nice snowfalls and freezing weather like this year,” he explained, “we do something special on Bridge Street.”
They came to the street, and Goldie drew a sharp breath in delightful surprise.
The street had not been plowed from the recent snowfall of the past few days, and there were horse-drawn sleighs taking folks for rides up and down the street.
There were one-horse sleighs, two-horse sleighs, and all the houses on both sides of the street had lit candles in every window on every floor.
With the beautiful, clear night, riders bundled in blankets, and the sleighs clanging with bells, it was like a scene from a Currier and Ives illustration.
“Wow! This is incredible!” she said, open-mouthed.
Eli walked her over to a single-horse sleigh, where the owner was holding the bridle of his horse and gestured for her to climb aboard.
“You arranged this for me?” she asked with a dazed smile.
“Research for your article,” he replied. “With thanks to Bart, who owns the rig.”
They got into the sleigh, pulled a blanket over their laps, then Bart, the owner, smiled and stepped aside as Eli took the reins.
This was unusual since the other sleighs were being driven by their owners.
As the horse slowly clip-clopped away, she felt self-conscious about all the other people waiting their turn for a sleigh ride, but she also loved being treated as someone special.
“So, how does this work with the people who live on the street?” she asked.
“You mean, with their cars?”
She nodded.
“They either put chains on their tires or park over on the next block,” he replied. “Next weekend, weather permitting, a couple more streets will be left unplowed for sleigh rides.” He looked around. “This is my favorite part of the town’s Christmas season.”
“I can see why,” she smiled.
“You warm enough?”
“Perfect.”
“Good. So, what did you mean when you said you’d been conditioned to think cops were the enemy unless they were on the payroll?”
She looked at him with an arched eyebrow.
“You really gonna do this? Interrogate me on a beautiful candle-lit street in the middle of a sleigh ride?”
“Um, yep.”
She took a deep, reconciled breath. “My former boyfriend, the one I told you about, we kinda grew up together. When he was a teenager, he became involved with a large crime family in New York and never left it. I’m sure my years of mixing with the criminal element helped me to figure out what Charles and Peter were up to.
Unlike Stephie Banyan, though, I can’t plead ignorance.
I-I knew who my boyfriend was and what he did. ”
Eli fell silent for several seconds while he absorbed what she shared.
“Were you—did you—” he began.
“Go on crime sprees with him? No,” she answered.
“But—you’re not with him now. You live in Columbus.”
“Yeah, but we were together for a long time. We still would be if he hadn’t dumped me. That’s the kind of lousy person I am. I’m just a gangster’s broad.”
He thought for several more seconds, then shook his head.
“I don’t buy it. Even if he hadn’t dumped you, you wouldn’t have stayed with him.”
“You can’t say that. How could you know that?”
“Because I know you. You’re not a lousy person, Goldie. Maybe you stayed with him out of habit. You said it yourself, you grew up together. Maybe you were blinded by love. Maybe it was a little of both, but you do have a moral compass, and a good one! You had the sense to move away.”
“About that,” she started to say, “I didn’t really have any control—”
“Plus, look at what you put a stop to in this town single-handed,” he cut in. “Like you said, your past actually served you well. You sniffed out things nobody else did.”
“Yeah, well… there’s somethin’ about this town that makes ya care, y’know? Sparkledove has been good for me.”
“Then stay,” he suggested.
She looked at him, surprised.
“What?”
“Stay.”
“I can’t do that, Eli.”
“Why not? The Wing is going to need a new editor, it puts more distance between you and old problems, and the whole town knows and likes you.”
“I can’t stay.”
“Why?”
“Because I have a job and a life in Columbus.”
“Can you build a better life in Columbus than here? I bet not.”
“I-I…” She paused, unable to answer the question because she knew nothing about Goldie Maraschino’s 1942 life in Columbus, Ohio.
“Just think about it,” he said. “Things happen for a reason.”
The horse’s hooves clopped onto the covered bridge, where volunteers had shoveled snow over the plank floor so the sleighs could continue.
They passed another sleigh on the opposite side of the bridge, where the driver had stopped so passengers could look out the window at the downriver view.
They slowed down to take in the upriver view, and by the time they reached the other end of the bridge and turned the horse around, the other sleigh had moved on, so they could stop next, since it was the better of the two views.
“Would you like to stop for a moment and look at the river?” he offered. “Or would it just remind you of Claude Bolton?”
“I would like to stop. It probably will remind me of that poor soul, but it’s also a great view.”
“That it is,” he agreed.
They pulled up to the window and Eli called, “Whoa,” as another sleigh approached on the other side of Bridge Street.
Goldie looked out at the river and the beautiful night, then back toward the street.
All the flickering candles in the windows on the first and second floors in the distance looked like dozens of golden fireflies.
“Thanks for arrangin’ this,” she smiled. “This is seriously cool!”
He reciprocated with a smile, then, in a surprise move, leaned over and kissed her. Although caught off guard, she didn’t pull away. The embrace lasted about seven seconds, but in its tender warmth was the whisper of much longer implications.
After their mouths separated, Goldie squinted her green eyes and looked at the lawman, not knowing what to conclude.
“I’ve wanted to do that since the first moment I saw you walking around River Street without a coat,” he confessed.
She cocked her head slightly, still squinting and thinking about the kiss.
He looked at her, unsure. “W-would you say something, please?” he urged.
“You used your tongue,” she noted.
“Yeah. It was something I heard about in the service and wanted to try. But only with someone special. Sorry if it—”
“No. Tongue is good. I… I just…” she looked toward the approaching sleigh now coming onto the bridge. “We’d better go,” she suggested.
Eli nodded, turned toward the horse, and jerked the reins.
It was mostly a quiet ride back to the end of the street. He wondered if he’d upset her, and she wondered if a subconscious attraction to Eli was a contributing factor to how she often felt bugged by him.
After what seemed like a long time, she asked, “If you’ve wanted to do that since I first came to town, why did you wait until I’m on the verge of leaving?”
“On your first day, the afternoon you sat down at my table in the hotel restaurant, you told me your boyfriend had cheated on you for several months, and you’d just found out about it the day before.”
She thought for a moment, recalling.
“It makes more sense to me now because he was in New York, you live in Columbus, and are frequently on assignment,” he explained.
“But the wound was brand new, and there are rules about that. A gentleman doesn’t play on a young woman’s emotions when she’s hurting.
I wouldn’t have kissed you now, except we’re out of time and I was gonna bust if you didn’t know how I felt. ”
She compared his answer with things that Peter said and did, and began to look at Eli in an entirely new light.