The Inn At Ocean's Edge Part 20

Priscilla nodded and launched into the identical story she'd told the first time, right down to the note on her top. Claire watched her face as she spoke and saw no sign of deceit. The food manager held her gaze and spoke as if she'd told the story a thousand times. Could Harry have been lying? And if so, for what purpose?

Claire reached down and picked up the bread crumb the sparrow was still eying, then tossed it to him. "How quickly did my father arrive?"

"He flew in on his plane about three hours later. I kept you in the kitchen decorating cupcakes." Priscilla smiled at the memory. "You mentioned another name, but for the life of me, I can't remember it. We never did figure out who you were asking for. You had a bit of a lisp."

Another discrepancy that should have warned her mother. "My mother didn't come with my dad?"

Priscilla shook her head. "He told me she was ill, but seeing you would be enough to get her back on her feet. He was very appreciative of our help and tried to give me five thousand dollars. I turned it down, of course. I'd done what anyone else would have."

Claire could picture the scene. She'd often seen Harry throw money around like that. Though he demanded good service, he paid well to ensure it. If only she could remember. She closed her eyes and tried to summon up the taste of cupcake icing and sprinkles, but there was no sweet taste on her tongue.

Only the bitterness of betrayal.

The birds chirped overhead, and the wind rustled through the trees as Luke stood waiting on the phone to talk to Beau. He'd walked far enough away from the two women that he wouldn't disturb them, but he was getting tired of the elevator music. The hold time had already been five minutes, and he looked back at Claire to make sure she was doing all right. Her face turned away from him, she still sat on the bench with Priscilla.

Beau finally came on the line. "Sorry for the wait, Luke. What's up?"

Luke told him what Harry had said. "So could you check and see who reported a little girl missing about the same time?"

"What?" Beau's voice sharpened. "I'm sure no child was reported missing. I've been over and over those old files in the past week."

"You might not have noticed it since it wasn't really connected to Claire's safe return."

"Hold on."

There was a click, then cla.s.sical music came back on. Great. He leaned against the rough bark of an oak tree and watched a porcupine lumber out from under a shrub. The animal meandered across the path and disappeared into the woods again. Luke eyed Claire again and saw the tension in her outline. What was Priscilla telling her?

The music in his ear cut off, and Beau's voice came back on. "Luke, the sheriff wants to talk to you. Hang on."

Several clicks jittered across the line, then the sheriff spoke. "Beau tells me you think there's a little girl who went missing about the same time Claire was found. Well, whoever that woman is."

Luke tensed at the hostility in Danny's voice. "That's right."

"Bunch of baloney is what it is. Claire Dellamare is the only missing child we've had in these parts during my lifetime. Where'd you hear such a crazy story?"

"Harry told her he found her in the woods and just took her. If that's what happened, wouldn't her real parents have reported her missing?"

"I'd sure think so. Tell me exactly what Dellamare said."

"He told Claire as soon as he saw her, he knew she was his and that he just s.n.a.t.c.hed her up and took her to Lisa, who had been committed to a mental hospital after a suicide attempt. Of course, now we know she never really was his daughter, so where is the outcry from the parents of a child literally kidnapped by him?"

"Luke, I'm telling you, I think there's way more to this story than we know and that the pretty woman masquerading as Claire is playing you for a fool. All these stories coming out." His voice was thick with disgust.

"Someone attacked her last night. What did you find when you got to the hotel?"

"Well, yes, something happened last night. I found no sign of a break-in, though. So if there had been an intruder, he had a pa.s.skey to the door."

"Claire was clearly traumatized. I saw her this morning, and she was still very upset."

"The hotel room had been torn up some." Danny's admission held reluctance. "But for all I know, Claire might have torn it up herself."

"The painting of her attacker was missing."

"So she said. Again, you seem to believe every word out of her pretty mouth."

"You've been listening to Andy, haven't you? He's got it in his head Claire had something to do with Jenny's death. Open your eyes, Danny, and investigate this for yourself. Don't let a grief-stricken deputy with an agenda keep you from having an open mind."

There was a long pause on the line. For a moment Luke thought Danny might have hung up on him. "Danny?"

"I'm here, Luke. I'll try to lower my suspicions of her if you'll raise them. Don't take everything she says at face value. Test it against what you know. You're a smart guy."

"Why are you so defensive about this? I expected you to be more open-minded."

Danny didn't answer at first. "Maybe I am defensive. It was my first big case all those years ago. I feel like maybe I missed something."

Luke pressed his lips together and bent to dislodge a burr from his shoelace. "And you're sure there's no child reported missing? You've checked neighboring counties?"

"Yep."

"What if someone had taken her from somewhere else and she got away? Could you run a check on the entire country?"

"Yeah, I can do that. It will take awhile to get results back, and I'm not sure what they will tell us. You're saying someone is taking little girls and turning them loose in our woods?"

Put like that, it was a stupid thought. "Okay, okay, sounds dumb, I know. But Claire had to have come from somewhere. I just don't understand why her parents didn't report her missing. It's like she was born at age five and just suddenly appeared."

"Maybe she was born under a cabbage plant." Danny guffawed at his joke.

Luke rolled his eyes but couldn't muster a laugh. "Thanks for checking, Danny. Let me know if you find anything. I'm going to post copies around town of Claire's painting and over in Bar Harbor. I put your office's number on the poster."

"Great. Now I have to deal with every slug that crawls out of the woodwork. Nice job." But the sheriff's voice held an interested edge.

"According to you, we shouldn't get a single call. I thought you'd want to field anything that came in yourself. Just in case you could pin it to Claire."

Danny laughed again. "You're wicked sharp, boy. I'll let you know if we get any leads. Not that I'm expecting to, mind you. Oh, and we're releasing your mom's remains. Where do you want them sent?"

Pressure built in Luke's chest at the thought of another argument with their dad. "Send them over to the funeral home. I'll make arrangements for a memorial and burial."

"Will do."

Luke ended the call and turned to look at Claire again. She sat on the bench alone, her shoulders slumped and her face in her hands. He started that way with his gut churning. Things hadn't gone well.

THIRTY-TWO.

The equipment around Kate in the outpatient room beeped rea.s.suringly. Though the room bore a coat of happy yellow, it did nothing to help her mood. She focused on a pair of seascape pictures and could almost smell the sea breeze instead of the pungent odor of alcohol and floor wax. Soon she could get out of this blue-and-white cotton gown and into real clothes.

Her arm ached a bit, but she ignored it and looked across the room at Sh.e.l.ley. "Thanks for coming so fast when I called."

Her red hair up in a messy ponytail, Sh.e.l.ley wore pink workout clothes and gray sneakers since she'd been at the gym when Kate called. "You sounded on death's door." Tipping her head, she studied Kate. "You've got more color now. The way you looked when I came to get you scared me to death. And you weren't making much sense." She put a cool hand on Kate's forehead. "Feeling better?"

"Much." Kate glanced at the IV cart. The last unit of blood was almost empty. Soon she could get dressed to go home. "Did you hear anything I told you? You know, before."

Sh.e.l.ley poured her a cup of ice water and adjusted the straw, then held it up to Kate's lips. "You said something about Claire not being Claire. I figured you were not quite with it."

Kate struggled to sit up better against the too-soft pillows. "It's true. I went to the hotel to tell her I was her sister and she came up with some kind of c.o.c.k-and-bull story about not being Claire. And my father . . ." Bile rose in her throat at the thought of her conniving father.

Sh.e.l.ley zipped her jacket up and down and didn't look at her for a moment. "Didn't you read this morning's paper? Some bones were found out on a cranberry farm. One set belonged to a little girl, and the prelim identification seems to indicate they are Claire Dellamare's."

It felt as though an elephant stepped on Kate's chest. She sat up, then flopped back down when the room began to spin again. "I didn't see it. Wait, let me understand this. If the real Claire is dead, how did that happen? I mean, there she is, living with my dad and her mom. And we look alike!"

"Maybe we should talk about this later."

"I need to get to the bottom of this now!"

Sh.e.l.ley's shoes squeaked on the tile floor as she went back to her chair. "Well, at least you both have blue eyes. You might have seen a resemblance because you expected to see one, Kate. It's easy to do."

She opened her mouth to deny it, then closed it. Maybe Sh.e.l.ley was right, but she could have sworn when she saw Claire for the first time in the ladies' room that they were two peas in a pod. Expectations were funny things, though.

Sh.e.l.ley pulled a bottle of water from her purse. "And as far as how did the existing Claire take the place of the real one, I don't know. She seemed surprised by this news?"

"Surprise is a mild word for how traumatized she looked. She'd just found out, so she said." Kate went back through what she knew of the situation. "She was missing a year, then reunited with her parents. That's all I really know."

Sh.e.l.ley's brown eyes glimmered with interest. "Everyone was talking about it in the teacher's lounge today. I guess the sheriff got a letter from Jenny indicating Claire wasn't who she said she was. Some thought Jenny knew something about it and was blackmailing Claire. They say Claire had Jenny killed."

"Claire wouldn't do that! Sheesh, Sh.e.l.ley, what a thought."

Her friend shrugged. "Just repeating the gossip. Someone had to know she wasn't really Claire Dellamare."

It was more than Kate could unravel in her weakened state. She glanced down to see Miss Edith tucked into her side. The doll's round blue eyes comforted her. Her pink dress could use a was.h.i.+ng.

"You had a death grip on that thing when I picked you up, so I didn't fight you." Sh.e.l.ley uncapped her bottle of water and took a sip. "Why didn't your mother bring you here? You were kind of incoherent about that too."

Kate hadn't wanted to examine the pain of her mother's rejection. "She was mad at me. Uncle Paul too."

"Because you went to the hotel to confront your dad?"

Kate studied her hands with their short, stubby nails. "Yeah. I guess it was a stupid thing to do, but I'd given him an ultimatum. I didn't want him to think he could get away with treating me the way he'd always treated Mom. Uncle Paul was so mad he tore off in his car. Mom actually, well, she threw up."

Sh.e.l.ley slowly put the cap back on her water. "You're telling me your mom was so upset she vomited?"

Kate put her ugly hands under the sheet and nodded. "I didn't get why they were so upset. I thought Uncle Paul might hit me. And Mom said I had destroyed the family."

"What did she mean by that?"

"I know she thinks she'll lose the blueberry barrens, but you know I checked with the attorney, and that can't happen. There's no accounting for fear, though." Maybe she should call and make sure Mom was okay.

The door opened, and Dr. Bain poked his head inside. His genial smile seemed dimmer today, somehow guarded. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. "How's my favorite patient?"

"Much better."

He crossed his arms over his chest, his expression somber. "I should think so. Your counts were scary low. If you'd delayed getting in here even another twenty-four hours, I don't think you'd be walking out today." He pressed his lips together. "We really need to find a bone-marrow donor from your family. Is there anyone else you can send in to be tested?"

She exchanged a long glance with Sh.e.l.ley. Her father? It wasn't likely she could talk him into it. "What if I give you my father's number and you call him? Maybe he'd listen to a doctor."

"I'm game." Dr. Bain pulled out his cell phone. "What's the number? I'll go back to my office and call him."

Her father had lied. Claire waited until Priscilla's footsteps faded away into the hum of bees and the rumble of the mower on the other side of the hotel. She sat numbly as Luke came toward her. What did she do now? The more she dug, the worse the situation became.

Luke dropped onto the bench beside her and slipped his arm around her back. "How'd it go?"

There would be time to deal with this later. Right now she wanted to know her last name. "Okay. How about you?"

"Not so good." His voice dropped to a lower timbre.

She straightened and looked up at him. "What's happened?" His warm hand stroked her forearm, but she didn't want comfort now. Her need for answers overwhelmed everything else. "Tell me."

He pulled his arm away and leaned forward a bit to stare in her face directly. "No one reported you missing."

A bee hovered near her face, and she shooed it away, then stood to pace the walk. "That's not possible, Luke. What parent wouldn't report a missing five year old?"

He rose and thrust his hands in his pockets. A lock of dark hair fell across his forehead as he leaned down to pick up a stick and toss it into the woods. "Exactly what I said to Danny. He's checking nationwide in case the little girl got away from someone who had taken her in another state."

"You mean like some kind of pervert?" She hugged herself and shuddered. "Maybe that's why I can't remember anything at all about being lost or found. It was so horrible I blocked it out." A sour taste rose to her tongue, and she pushed away the lurid images she'd seen on TV over the years.

He stepped over and put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't try to second-guess what happened, Claire. Right now we just have to wait until we know more."

Heat flashed over her, and Claire pulled away, then went to perch on the edge of the water fountain. She held her hand under the cold water, then splashed some on her face until her heart quit trying to climb out of her chest. "I can't sit by and do nothing, Luke. That man might come back. I have to know who I am. Once I do, I'll know who he is. I'm sure of it."

Luke took a step her way, but his phone rang. He muttered under his breath and glanced at it before answering. "Danny, you find anything?" He turned his back and walked a few steps away.

She shook the water off her hand and followed him so she could hear. From his side of the conversation, she gathered that the news wasn't good.

Luke ended the call. "You heard? There is no little girl missing from that time period who is still unaccounted for."

She gestured toward the back of the hotel where a few guests lingered over coffee on the patio. "Priscilla says she found me with a note with the name Claire Dellamare pinned to my top and called my dad who flew in to get me. Yet Dad, I mean Harry, says he found me in the woods and took me. I think he's lying."

Luke nodded. "Beau read the full transcript of the day you were found. He mentioned a woman from the hotel called the office to report having found you. She'd already called your dad too. Why would Harry lie about that? He has to know we could check those details."

"I don't know. I think there's something in how I was found that he doesn't want me to know."

"I'll be surprised if we can get the truth out of him."