“Come to think of it, I’m not sure why, either,” he teased her before giving her hand a tender, comforting squeeze. “So...where’s the book?” he asked, his tone becoming a bit more serious. “Don’t tell me that old man ended up with the book.”
Grace looked down at the floor regretfully. “Well, no,” she said, pausing. “It actually ended up being taken by the authorities. A bunch of cops came to investigate the scene, and they took it as evidence. They wouldn’t listen to me or let me keep it.”
“Ah, hell,” Kilian sighed, giving Grace a sympathetic look. “So it’s just...gone? Stuck in police custody forever, or at least until the investigation is over? Then what happens to it?”
“Well, it’s kind of a long story,” she replied, running a hand through her long, tousled hair nervously. “In the grand scheme of things, I’m just glad Mark showed up. He helped clean up the mess before the cops came. There may or may not be a body buried on that little island.”
“Really?” he replied, his expression softening in bemused appreciation. “Huh. Wow. What did the cops or doctors say?”
“Honestly? Not much. I think they’re waiting for you to wake up since you’re a cop; they’ll probably take your word for gospel.” She shrugged helplessly, letting out an exhausted sigh. “We still don’t know what’s going to happen with the book, though. I don’t think they know yet, either, really.”
“I’m really sorry, Grace,” Kilian replied, disappointed upon noticing Grace’s defeated expression. “I know all of this meant a lot to you and your family. Despite it all, everything that happened between us and our families and this whole mess...I’m really sorry.”
Grace looked over her shoulder, her expression suddenly becoming somewhat paranoid. She stood up and poked her head out the door, casting a furtive glance in both directions before closing it behind her quietly as she re-entered the hospital room.
“Well, it’s not all bad,” she finally admitted quietly, as if she were fearful someone outside would hear her. “I did actually manage to get one thing out of the book before the police took it from me.” She reached into her front pocket and dug around for a second before pulling out a very worn scrap of paper. “This.”
“Woah, uh, what is it?” Kilian asked curiously, his eyes widening in fascination. “Stealing evidence from police custody, huh, Grace?” he whispered, chuckling. “Never knew you were such a rebel.”
Grace elbowed him roughly in response, rolling her eyes at him but still smirking proudly. “I didn’t STEAL anything...this time, anyway,” she reasoned, smirking and carefully opening up the folded sheet of paper, being extra careful not to damage it. “I just...withheld it against their knowledge, that’s all.”
“Oh, big difference, huh?” He laughed before wincing again and grabbing at his side. “Augh. Every time I laugh, it hurts.”
“Then don’t be a clown,” Grace shot back in her usual sarcastic manner, giggling playfully before becoming serious. “Okay, enough. Look at this.” She held up the sheet of paper. The writing was faded, and the paper looked as ancient as time itself, but it was apparent that it was a very old handwritten letter.
“Is this a letter?” Kilian asked, leaning forward and squinting at the tiny, barely legible handwritten script. “Can you read it? The writing is so tiny and faded.”
“Um, I think so,” Grace replied, holding the paper close to her face. “Let’s see.” She mumbled to herself as she read the letter, her eyes widening in surprise. “This basically explains that Sean Kelly and Matthew Walsh were apparently longtime friends,” she explained, reading further.
“Really?” Kilian asked, sitting up a bit more in the hospital bed, raising an eyebrow in interest. “Go on.”
“So...I guess right before Sean died, he said that his dying wish was for Matthew to care for the book and keep it from falling into the wrong hands,” she continued, her eyes scanning the page. “Well, that ended up great, didn’t it?” she added sarcastically. “Anyway, Sean’s kids, one of which was your grandfather, felt like they were being robbed of the chance to own such a treasure.”
“Kind of makes sense from his perspective,” Kilian chimed in defensively. “And I guess Matthew’s kids didn’t take too kindly to that, huh?”
“Nope,” Grace confirmed. “Definitely not. Of course, they wanted to inherit it for themselves. I guess Matthew didn’t really know what to do in that situation, and he wasn’t sure what Sean would have wanted in that case, either.” She opened her mouth to continue reading, but Kilian interrupted her.
“Okay, wait. Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but…” Kilian gently scratched his head with his arm that wasn’t hooked up to the IV and monitors. “He hid the book out in the middle of nowhere and then left behind a bunch of crazy cryptic clues to one daypotentiallylead someone to its location?” Kilian asked, puzzled. “How does that solve anything or keep it from falling into the wrong hands? How does that even guarantee it’ll ever end up in anyone’s hands at all?”
Grace shrugged in response. “Yeah, I’m not sure, either.” She stared at the letter, reading it to herself once more. “It seems like he left behind the treasure hunt with all those clues so that the person most ‘worthy’ of finding it would eventually get their hands on it.”
“Maybe we’re not worthy, then,” Kilian quipped, rolling his eyes dismissively. “I guess the police were the worthy ones in the end, huh?”
Grace frowned. “For now, I guess so.”
Epilogue
The smellof dinner still hung in the air of the restaurant, insulating the space with the comforting smell of smoked meat and potatoes.
The tall, arched windows shaped out of deep mahogany wood and black iron were lined with tinsel. Among the yellow twinkling lights, Kilian’s mother had placed candles in each of the windows that illuminated the frosted windows like tiny, golden halos. Hung on the inside of the door, a large wreath constructed of pine leaves and thick ribbon swung into the room as the door opened.
Small flakes of snow fluttered in only to melt almost instantly in the warmth of the restaurant—packed full with members of both the Walsh and Kelly families. The silver sleigh bells on the wreath jingled loudly—only adding to the ambience of the holiday music that played through the speaker system overhead—as Mark and Daniel stomp their snow-covered boots on the welcome mat.
Grace stood in front of the fireplace, smiling to herself as she thought about a time that wasn’t so long ago when seeing her brother with a Kelly would’ve only been possible in a dream. She raised her glass of wine up as she turned back to the roaring fireplace and placed it on the mantle among the candy cane- and snowflake-designed candles, her hand lowering to twirl a dark blue stocking to face her.
As she twisted the stocking, she could feel the warmth of the flames on the back of her hand, tickling at the fine hairs on the back of her wrist. On the front, golden thread swirled beautifully amongst the navy-colored fabric, arcing and curling to spell out Kilian’s name.
Grace smiled, dropping her hand away from the stocking to let it hang naturally. She pulled her glass of wine down from the mantle then, raising it to her lips before holding it by the stem with both of her hands. She held the bitter, oaky liquid in her mouth, letting it settle over the surface of her tongue like a freshly-fallen rain. Shutting her eyes for a moment to fully enjoy the depth of the merlot she’d opened, Grace let her mind wander back to the cliff-sides of Kerry.
