“I had hoped you would discover something that I missed. I know the answers were there, but now they’re lost. Apparently, someone else believed the answers were there too.”
“You said you could tell me about my father and what happened—is that all you have? A covert operation? Dangerous to speak of? That’s not proof of anything nefarious happening to him.”
“This is the taxi driver who struck and killed your father in the alleged accident.” Evelyn thumbed through images on her cell phone and then showed a picture to Cressida.
She stared long and hard at an image of the man who’d attacked her on the beach. At the man whom Evelyn had shot and killed. What? No. That can’t be. She shook her head.
“Now you see why I didn’t hesitate to shoot the man in my house,” Evelyn said. “I believe he was using an alias as the cab driver, and the connection wasn’t made to the incident at my home.”
“He was the taxi driver who struck and killed my father.” Cressida struggled to wrap her mind around it. “Then his death really wasn’t an accident. How didyoumake the connection?”
Evelyn lowered the cell, and her face inched closer, her expression serious. “Because I was suspicious of your father’s death all along. I researched every detail I could find, and I was able to secure the picture of this man. Of course, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t an accident, but with so much at stake, I couldn’t dismiss that he was murdered. I apologize that I wasn’t up-front with you. I ... I was afraid for you.”
Cressida wanted to curl into herself and sink deeper into this plush white sofa, but she sat taller. Had to be stronger.
“One thing I thought curious,” Evelyn said, “and I didn’t understand. After I shared what I knew with him and invited him to research for one of his books, he said...” Evelyn hesitated and stared out the window at the clouds inching forward to once again mask the bluest of skies. She turned her gaze on Cressida again. “He said that he needed to do this for his daughter.”
For me?“But why? I don’t understand.”
“Only you can answer that. But I knew that I had to meet you. I’m glad that I did.”
“I tried to meet you too, but Madeline was there. Someone planted her, and then she was murdered. Someone wants to keep this all under wraps,” Cressida said. “You’re in danger too, you know.”
“No one is afraid of an old lady,” Evelyn said.
Cressida suspected whoever was behind this wanted Evelyn alive, or else she would already have been silenced.Think, Cressida. Ask theright questions.
“What were the pages ripped from your diary about?”
Evelyn picked up the diary and flipped through to find the missing pages. “What I’ve already mentioned—the covert operation. Since Harborstone Shipping already had a reputation for conducting covert operations during the Second World War, I believe it was tapped for a Cold War operation.”
“The Cold War. Interesting. You hadn’t mentioned that earlier. A covert mission during the Cold War. But Caleb went missing after the Cold War. I’m still at a loss to understand what the connection is. What was the name of the vessel Caleb was assigned to if notEndeavor Spirit?”
Evelyn pursed her lips. Did she know more than she was willing to share?
“Did my father go through your library to learn whatever you missed? Where did he go to learn the truth that I haven’t already been? I have to get justice for him and expose the truth. That was my job before. Writing exposés.” And maybe Diggins could tell her more, after all.
Evelyn rose and moved to look at the window, then opened the door to step out onto a veranda built over the cliff face. Cressida followed and wished she hadn’t. Below her, breakers pummeled the rocky beach. The wind tore at her light jacket and whipped her hair into her face.
“I don’t know what it’s about,” Mrs. Monroe said. “Three investigators couldn’t tell me. Your father, however, sent mea trinket. I got it in the mail. I wore it and never took it off, but that day that Madeline tried to kill me, I hid it under the mattress in that room. Silly, I know, but ... I was shaken up by her assault, and I’d shot that man. I wondered who else would come for it. So I hid it well, and the day of the intruder—while you and Detective Sanders were present—I feared the worst and that it had been taken. When Deputy Riker positioned me on the floor next to the bed, I slipped my hand under the mattress to retrieve it without anyone noticing. I think Madeline was there at my house for the sole purpose of finding it.”
She lifted the “trinket” from beneath the collar of her sweater.
Cressida looked at the beautiful mother-of-pearl in the shape of a whale. “Why would he send you this? What is it?”
“Look closer.”
Cressida peered at the pendant. Evelyn finally took the necklace off. “This is what someone was searching for in the house. I keep my jewelry hidden away in a safe in that room where Madeline and Collins were arguing. Madeline had learned that much but never found this because I hid it under the mattress in the guest room. But I retrieved it, keeping it with me, even in the hospital.”
Someone could have easily stolen it from her while she was sleeping. Cressida gently handled the necklace. “Do you mind if we go back inside?”
They returned to the living room, but Cressida remained near the window so she could look at the pendant in the light, and when she turned it at a certain angle, she could barely make it out ... “Coordinates. These are coordinates.”
“Yes. Your father found them, but I don’t know what’s there.”
“A sunken ship—right? Surely you guessed that much.Youcontacted my father. He must have understood that you were looking for your son, and he found your son.”
“True, I did so he could unravel the mystery.”
