The Secret Hour (44 page)

 
Kate smiled, looking down at the little girl’s loose fist.

 
Her fingers opened, and Kate found herself staring at a tiny gold airplane with wings and a propeller that really turned.

 
“Oh,” Kate cried, grabbing the charm, which still bore traces of white dust. “Where did you get this?”

 
“On the bluff,” Maggie said, gaping at Kate’s agitation. “Near the lighthouse…the clamshell road. Why, what’s wrong?”

 
“It was Willa’s,” Kate said, her eyes filling with tears. “I gave it to my sister.”

 
Kate didn’t have a car with her. She had left hers at the East Wind Inn. Perhaps she could have waited for John. Or she could have borrowed Maggie’s bike. But the little gold airplane charm was like a talisman burning a hole in her hand, forcing her to move now.

 
“Judge O’Rourke,” she said, walking downstairs with the children right behind her.

 
“Yes, Kate?” he asked, looking up from the book he was reading to Maeve. They sat in a small study, fire crackling on the hearth as wind roared down the chimney. She lay on a sofa, under a plaid blanket, and he sat upright beside her,
Two Under the Indian Sun
open on his lap. They both smiled up at Kate.

 
“Judge O’Rourke,” Kate repeated, tears pressing against her throat and eyes. She was so independent; she didn’t like to ask for favors. But she held Willa’s charm in her hand; it was covered with familiar white dust, and she knew where she had to go.

“What is it, dear?” he asked, frowning.

 
“She has a mission,” Maeve said quietly, watching Kate’s eyes.

 
“I do,” Kate said, her voice cracking. “May I…I know you don’t know me, but I have to ask…may I borrow your car?”

 
The Judge hesitated, listening to the storm rattle the windowpanes. But just then Maeve struggled upright to take his wrist, look him lovingly in the eye. “Kate and her sister were like Brigid and me,” Maeve said gently, watching Kate with such sad eyes that Kate felt the tug of being understood by another woman who had lost her sister. “Let her use your car, Judge.”

 
“It’s raging out there,” the Judge said. “And she’s right. I don’t know her…”

 
“Aye, but I do,” Maeve said, nodding at Kate. “I know her.”

 
“How?” the Judge asked.

 
“In the ways that are important,” Maeve whispered. “Do you know what it’s like to have a sister? To share the same parents, the same home, the same life…”

 
The Judge sighed, and Kate recognized the tremble of love and emotion that went through his body. He stared at Maeve, at the way tears formed in her eyes as her lips started to move, and Kate could feel him making up his mind.

 
Kate clenched her fists. Maggie had given her something to hold on to, the first real, solid clue she’d had about Willa since coming to Silver Bay.

 
“All right, then,” the Judge said, staring into Maeve’s watery old eyes. “It’s the old Lincoln, in the garage out back. You have to pump the gas pedal a few times to get it started.”

 
“Gramps, you’re letting her take your car?” Teddy asked.

 
“It’s his baby,” Maggie said.

 
“Maeve asked me to,” the Judge said solemnly.

 
“Thank you for that,” Kate said. “Well, I’m going with you,” Teddy said. “Me, too,” Maggie said.

 
“And your father would have my head,” the Judge said. “You two go, and all bets are off.”

 
“Please stay,” Kate said, turning to the kids, trying to smile at them. “You’ve done more for me than you can imagine…I want to go to where you found the charm, Maggie, and feel my sister. Do you know how long I’ve wondered? I’ve been here searching, and you’ve given me a place to…look for her. Maybe one last place.”
Or maybe just a place to say good-bye
, Kate thought. Either way…”Willa was there…this charm tells me for sure.”

 
“I can show you exactly,” Maggie pleaded. “And it’s scary there, by yourself.”

 
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Teddy said sternly, hiding fear in his wide eyes. “Take us and Brainer with you.”

 
But Kate shook her head. The charm was exerting a powerful, sorrowful magic on her, and she knew she had to do this by herself. Now that Kate had met the
 
O’Rourkes, had started to feel the way she felt about John, she knew she couldn’t go on unless she made peace with the past; with the betrayal she’d experienced at the hands, of the person she loved most, with her own rage at her baby, her sister. What if Willa had left more traces behind? Kate had to find out.

 
The storm had brought it on: Even before she had become a scientist, Kate had learned that strong wind and waves could stir up the atmosphere, change conditions so completely that even human chemistry was affected. Full moons, sunspots, hurricanes, blizzards, and even good old northeasters could shake up the ions and make the world a whole new place.

 
Kate and Willa were storm children. Born and raised on a barrier island, a finger of sand standing strong against the powerful Atlantic, they had always loved storms. They’d rush across the dunes, day or night, and stand watching the waves batter the beach.

 
Tonight was the night. Kate felt grief building in her chest. Whatever had happened—whatever Willa had done, wherever she had gone—tonight Kate was going to learn everything she could.

 
Kate already knew that Willa would love the lighthouse. Perhaps she had walked out there, just as Kate had today. Maybe she’d been with Bonnie, stopping to notice the west-running brook. Kate felt a sob in her chest. The gold charm was so much more than a postcard, Willa’s name on an inn register. This was something precious that had always symbolized the love between them, that Willa had worn against her skin.

 
Saying good-bye to the Judge and Maeve, Maggie and Teddy, telling them she’d be back soon, Kate bundled into her green wool coat and soft white beret. Then, head down against the growing wind, her heart filled with sorrow and a strange sort of hope for the future, she ran outside to start up the old Lincoln in the garage out back.

 
John and Barkley faced off. Here in the big barn, the great inn annex, John could feel the tension crackle between them. Maggie was safe, but they had some other unfinished business.

 
“Rough times, John,” Barkley said. “I know you’ve been through a lot.”

 
“Not for you to worry about—and besides the point right now. Did Caleb throw that brick through our window?”

 
“Now, relax. We all know about your big case, about you defending Greg Merrill. I got redneck kids working on my construction crew…they talk some shit about you trying to get a serial killer off death row. We know about the brick through your window because we know the plate-glass guy who fixed it—that’s all.”

 
“Caleb knows more than that,” John said.

 
Barkley put his hands up. “He does not. Don’t go making accusations you can’t back up, John. I’m just telling you, for your own good—you’re not very popular around town these days.”

 
“It was a criminal act,” John said harshly. “Whoever did it could have hurt my kids.”

 
“Tell him, Dad,” Caleb said.

 
“Shut up,” Barkley said, his tone sharp.

 
“Okay,” Caleb said, climbing down from the ladder. “Then I will! He deserves to know, Dad. He helped me win my case!”

 
“Don’t shoot your mouth off about something you’re not sure of.”

 
“I’m sure,” Caleb said. He stepped closer to John, his eyes nervous but friendly. He was a big puppy dog of a kid, who’d gotten in with a wrong crowd and done some stupid things that had led to trouble with the law. John’s friendship with his father had changed with the betrayal, but John knew he would be wrong to hold Barkley’s sins against the boy.

 
“Tell me, Caleb.”

 
“I will, Mr. O’Rourke. It was Timmy Bean. He’s a redneck.”

 
“Caleb—Timmy’s one of my best workers, and just because he opens his mouth doesn’t mean he—”

 
“He threw it, Dad. I heard him say so.”

 
“Kids brag,” Barkley scowled. “About stuff they know nothing about.”

 
“Thanks for telling me, Caleb,” John said. “You did the right thing.”

 
Caleb nodded, looking worriedly at his father, Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. He looked nervous, as if he feared what his father would say or do to him after John left.

 
“Merrill has the right to a lawyer, just like everyone else,” John said.

 
“And you’re a lawyer,” Caleb said, smiling back.

 
“A good one, too,” Barkley agreed reluctantly.

 
“We all feel that way,” Hunt pitched in. “Regardless of how we personally feel about Merrill. Hell, I love kids. Teddy’s one of my best players. I really hope there are no hard feelings…Maggie’s safe, everyone’s okay. Right?”

 
“Yeah,” John said.

 
“So, we’re square?” Barkley asked.

 
“I’m going to come talk to Bean—and bring Billy Manning with me.”

 
Barkley shrugged. “Do what you have to do.”

 
The men all stared at him, solemnly, as if they’d been afraid he would go ballistic and beat them up one at a time. John thought of Maggie, Teddy, and Kate safe at home, but for how long: There was still another killer working in Silver Bay.

 
“I will,” John said, turning around and walking out of the barn, hurrying home to his family.

 
Kate drove past the East Wind Inn and parked the Judge’s car by the chain stretched across the way. The wind was blowing so hard, she thought it might take her sailing right off the bluff, onto the rocks below. The beacon flashed overhead, telling her she’d come to the right place; that this was the end of the road.

 
Her throat caught; so many tears were trapped inside, and they had been for the better part of a year. She looked around for John, thinking maybe he’d come out here looking for Maggie. When she didn’t see him, she walked toward the tower.

 
“Willa,” she called out. “I’m here.”

 
Voicing her sister’s name filled her with tenderness and a sense of freedom. Wherever Willa was now, they were together on this stormy night. Kate knew it with everything she had. She held the airplane charm in her hand, feeling strength and love pour from the metal.

 
Elements rushing together, through the skin of her fingers, her palm, her bones and blood drawing strength from this little piece of gold. Kate had bought it for Willa so many years ago, given it to her with complete and utter love.

 
All those years, when Willa was a child and Kate was a new adult, wanting to protect her little sister, give her the tools and skills to make it in this world. How did parents know how to do it? Were they granted wisdom and grace upon the birth of their children? If so, Kate had missed out.

 
She had had to wing it. Do her best, with all the sisterly love at her command, with the help of her brother. Matt had always let her do most of it, but he had been there when she’d needed him. Two accidental parents with the child they adored.

 
Now, standing by the chain across the road, Kate rattled the lock. Willa’s charm, according to Maggie, had been right here, on the clamshell-strewn path leading to the lighthouse. Willa must have come out here for a walk, when she was staying at the East Wind. It was a spot that would attract her—as it had Kate—for its wildness, beauty, majesty: The headland rose a hundred feet above the sea, and the lighthouse stood at least seven stories higher.

 
Holding the charm, Kate stepped over the chain. She started up the path, head down into the wind. Her ears ached in the cold. The night had grown dark, but periods of light flashed from the beacon. Storm clouds scudded through the sky, fitfully revealing the big moon. Kate had no problem finding her way.

 
Her heart was full. This was it. The night felt electric—she could feel her sister’s presence as surely as if they were holding hands.

 
The night had begun with John’s kiss, with Maggie’s gift of this small gold charm, with the growing feeling that Kate had found a place—and a family—to love. A sob rose in her chest. She would never lose Willa now; her sister was with her forever.

 
She walked around the lighthouse once. The white tower gleamed in a slice of moonlight. Her foot crunched on glass; looking up, she tried to see if one of the windows had broken. Waves rolling in from the open Atlantic smashed against the rocks below, sending spray skyward. Down the coast were the breakwaters, the rocky graves of girls who had died.