Chapter 15
The restaurant was bustling again, but not like in summer. They found a table by the window that looked out to the outdoor patio and the landmark vintage rail car that Grandma said no one really knew how the heck it got there or why.
“So,” Brandon said once they were settled and had ordered—a Reuben for him, a codfish sandwich for Maddie—“how does it feel to be an official islander?”
She pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Terrifying.”
“Good! If you weren’t terrified it wouldn’t mean as much to you.” He probably was right.
Maddie then sipped her coffee. “By the way, if I haven’t already said it, thanks for your help, especially for your support today.”
“Anything. Anytime. My mother adores you and she’s happy to see your grandmother so ‘energetic’—her word—since you’ve been here. She’s tried to look out for Nancy ever since your mom died.”
“I know. And I appreciate it. I’ve also stopped trying to make up for the years I missed with Grandma. She’s still pretty sharp for ninety, though she does have moments when she’s challenging.”
“The bookshop will be a godsend for her. Between that and you and Rafe, well, her life has had a huge turn for the better.”
“I hope you’re right.” She lowered her eyes and toyed with her fork. “I’ll be honest, though. She gives me mixed messages. Sometimes I think she would have preferred that I moved back to Green Hills and visited a few weeks in summer, like my mother and I used to do.”
Brandon leaned back in his chair. “Nah. She’s just getting used to not living alone. To not needing to fix her own food or dust her house.”
“Ha! I’m not sure she ever did much of either.”
Lunch arrived; they ate in silence for a few, congenial minutes.
Maddie liked being with Brandon, and she liked that he and his husband, Jeremy, had become her friends.
Beyond Brandon’s legal expertise, she trusted him …
and trusted that he could be rational, not emotional, if she told him about the new wrinkle in her life.
“Brandon? May I ask you something … strange?”
He set down the sandwich and took a gulp of coffee. “Ask away. It’s probably nothing I haven’t heard before.” He was a pleasant man with no agenda and no strings.
But as Maddie opened her mouth to speak, a woman stopped beside their table.
“Brandon!” Her white hair was short; her skin was pale, allowing her red lipstick to take center stage. “How are you, dear? How’s your mother?”
“Doris,” he said, as he stood and gave her a small hug. “Nice to see you. Mom’s fine.”
Maddie shifted in her chair and smiled at the woman, who now looked at her suspiciously.
“Do you know Maddie Clarke?” Brandon asked. “Nancy Clieg’s granddaughter?”
No, Doris said she did not.
“My mom and hers were childhood friends.” It was a perfect thing to say because it made it clear that Maddie had deep island ties and hadn’t come over on the boat just for lunch.
“How nice,” Doris said as her face softened in acceptance.
“I’ll tell my mother you asked after her.” He smiled and sat back down, a clear indication that he did not intend to foster a conversation.
Maddie said it was nice to meet her.
Doris took the hint, told them to enjoy their meals, and moved to the dining bar. It occurred to Maddie that the café wasn’t the place to go to if someone didn’t want to be noticed.
“Sorry about that,” Brandon said, and picked up his sandwich again. “You were saying?”
She wondered if she should forget it. What if he told her to go to the police? A dash of bad publicity might not bode well for her soon-to-be retail business. Even though she was a Wampanoag, which purveyed a message of respect, she also was a washashore. As Doris’s first glance had underscored.
“Maddie? You look pensive. What is it?”
She smiled and rubbed her hands together. “Okay. You’re probably the only one I’ll tell this to because it’s kind of weird and others might overreact.” She wondered if she was referring to herself.
He set down his sandwich and fixed his green eyes on her. “And so …?”
“And so, it’s probably nothing, but …”
His eyebrows elevated.
“I received two anonymous notes.”
He said nothing, but he listened.
So she told him. She recited the contents and the method of delivery under the rocks—first at Rex’s cabin, then at the cottage. And she told him about the bizarre “breather call.”
Brandon scowled. “Did you see the number?”
She shook her head and told him the screen simply read “Unknown.”
“Did you tell Rex?”
Maybe Brandon had figured out that she and Rex were sort of a couple. After all, he was a smart man.
“No.”
“Did you save the notes?”
She nodded.
“Okay. What do you want to do about it?”
She thought for a moment. “I have no idea. The first note came over two months ago; the second one on New Year’s Day. The phone call was yesterday—and might not even be connected. Maybe I just needed to tell someone, and I knew you wouldn’t overreact and make a big deal out of it.”
He nodded slowly. “Let’s hope there’s no reason for that. But you haven’t gone to the police?”
“No. And I don’t want to if I can help it. My grandmother …”
Brandon nodded. “She doesn’t need this kind of stress.”
“Exactly. Besides, though it’s disturbing, it seems as if there was any real threat, something would have happened by now.”
They sat quietly, then he asked, “Will you do me one favor?”
She looked into his eyes. “Of course.”
“I have to go back to Boston tomorrow.” His primary practice was in the city, where he mostly worked until the summer. “I have a new client in Montreal, so I might be in Canada on and off. Even if I am, will you let me know if you get another note? Or another weird call?”
She agreed. And felt better already.
When they finished eating and Brandon walked her to her car, her phone rang in her purse. They stopped and glanced at one another; at least if it was another mystery call, Maddie knew at least she had support right there. So she quickly pulled out her phone and checked caller ID.
She blinked. “It’s Kevin. All the way from sunny California.”
Brandon nodded and waved. “Give him my best,” he said, then waved, and started toward his car.
“Hi, Kevin,” Maddie said into the phone. “How’s it going out there? Is everyone having fun?”
There was dead air for a moment, then Kevin spoke. His voice sounded wavy, uneven. He sounded almost childlike, as if he’d been crying.
“Maddie,” he whispered. “There’s been an accident.” He paused, then added, “It’s Rex.” He paused again. “And it’s bad.”
Her eyes blinked. Her breathing felt like it stopped. Then her phone slipped through her hand as her body toppled to the ground.
The next thing Maddie knew, Brandon was bent down beside her, helping her up. He snatched her phone out of the grass.
“Kevin?” he shouted as he opened Maddie’s car door and nudged her to sit down, leaving the door ajar. “Are you there?”
Maddie didn’t hear anything else. She sat, shaking, watching Brandon’s every move, trying to interpret his expression as he listened to Kevin.
Later, she had no recollection of Brandon having driven her home. She remembered nothing until she and Brandon and Grandma were sitting in the living room at the cottage—the same room where, only three nights earlier, Maddie had kissed Rex good-bye.
“The strap of his helmet broke when he landed on the rocks,” Brandon was telling Grandma now. “He and Kevin were riding motorcycles in the San Gabriel Mountains. Kevin’s fine, but Rex … Rex broke his neck in two places. He’s in surgery now.”
Rex broke his neck but is alive?
Then Maddie remembered that Brandon already had told her that. She set both elbows on her lap and pressed her hands over her face.
“I told Kevin I’ll go to Chappy and check on Taylor. He called her before he called Maddie. Taylor might not want company, but, still, he’s the only family she’s got. And Kevin, of course.”
Maddie wondered if she should offer to go and sit with Taylor.
She couldn’t do that. She wasn’t sure she could stand up, let alone drive to the On Time ferry, the little raft-like boat that provided the ninety-second link from Edgartown to Chappaquiddick.
Besides, Maddie was not family. She wasn’t even an official half-a-couple.
“I already contacted Joe,” Brandon added. “He’ll pick up Maddie’s keys and have someone take him to the Black Dog. Then he’ll drive her car back here.”
See? she thought. I can’t go to Taylor’s. I don’t have my car. She was ashamed she was glad to have a solid excuse.
Then Brandon said, “It’s going to be a while until they know the extent of his injuries or his prognosis. Until then, the doctor said we’ll need to be patient. For a while.”
Grandma let out a sound, a kind of whimper.
Maddie found a way to stand up and make her way to the front door. Then she opened it, went out onto the hateful granite steps, leaned over, and threw up on the ground.