Page 12 of Dead Calm (Cold Case Psychic #38)
Everyone’s mood lightened when Fitzgibbon hit the road for Newport. The kids sang songs with the adults joining in. Ronan drew the line when Lizbet wanted a third encore of “Let it Go.”
Forty long and earsplitting minutes later, they arrived in Newport, Gilded Age capital of the rich and famous.
The Vanderbilt family had famous mansions named The Breakers and Marble House.
There was Rosecliff, built by a silver heiress and modeled after part of the Palace of Versailles, among other famous and equally opulent homes.
Ronan would have loved to tour the so-called “summer cottages,” but knew the kids would be bored stiff.
Maybe he and Ten could come back for a couples weekend in November for their anniversary.
Fitzgibbon found a place to park and the process of offloading the kids began. “I don’t want to shop for clothes, Dad,” Wolf said, sounding adamant.
“Here’s the deal, pal,” Jude said, kneeling in front of his son.
“We’re gonna check out all of the shops and see what they have.
If you aren’t interested in what the store is selling, you and I can wait outside.
I had a talk with Ten and Jace and they promised to keep the clothes shopping down to a few minutes in each shop. How does that sound?”
Wolf sighed, sounding as if the weight of the world was on his small shoulders. “It sounds okay, but I don’t want to wait while they try stuff on and do model poses in the mirror and take selfies.”
Jude snorted. “I’ll bring that up to Ten and Jace. The girls can put on their own fashion show when we get back to the hotel.”
“That’s good,” Wolf agreed. “I would watch that.”
“Okay, so we’ll shop a little. Grab lunch, and then,” Jude paused and looked around, making it look like he was checking to see if anyone was listening in on the conversation, “we’re getting ice cream.”
Wolf’s eyes lit up.
Jude set a finger against his lips. “That’s between you and I, got it?”
Wolf zipped his lips shut and nodded, sending his shaggy dark hair flying.
Once Lizbet and Ezra were strapped into their double stroller, Ronan took off down Thames Street which was packed with summer tourists. It reminded him of Essex Street in Salem and the pier at Old Orchard Beach. Summer was in full swing and the Newport shops had something for everyone.
The first shop they came to was a clothing boutique. Wolf rolled his eyes.
“Look at the pretty dresses!” Everly waved Aurora toward her.
“Oh, I like the sparkly ones.”
“Unfortunately, this is a store for grownups,” Fitz said. “There won’t be anything in there that will fit the two of you.”
The store was filled with dresses for expensive nights out. Ronan wasn’t so sure they didn’t have kids’ clothes, but he had a feeling if they did, the price would be higher than his mortgage payment.
“Daddy! Here’s the shark store!” Wolf jumped up and down in front of the shop window.
“This looks really cool,” Jude said. He turned to the rest of the group. “We’re going in here.”
“’Harks!” Lizbet cooed, holding her arms out for Cope to pluck her out of the stroller.
“Do you girls want to go into the store?” Ronan asked. “I think I saw some pink tee-shirts and shark stuffies. I bet they’d be good friends with your unicorn herd.”
“Sharks and unicorns?” Aurora asked, sounding like Ronan was out of his mind.
“It will be fun. Let’s go check it out.” Everly held out her hand, which Aurora took.
Ronan followed the girls into the shop. It was filled with sharks as far as the eye could see.
Rubber toys, posters, LEGO sets, travel tumblers, mugs.
You name it, this store had it. He’d seen Jaws for the first time at Bobby Hale’s sleepover party when they were in the fourth grade.
The movie had scared Ronan half to death, but he’d fallen in love with sharks.
He was about to join Ten and Ezra, who were looking at t-shirts, when his phone buzzed with a message.
Pulling his device out of his pocket, he saw that it was a text message from Officer Daniels, one of the men who’d arrested Kurt that morning. Ronan caught Jude and Fitz’s attention and motioned them over to him.
“What’s up?” Jude asked. He carried a basket filled with shark toys for Wolf.
“Just got a message from the officer who arrested Kurt.”
“What’s it say?” Fitz whispered.
“The arraignment judge set a ten thousand dollar bond on Kurt.” Ronan sighed. “He has no criminal record, so the judge didn’t have a lot of leeway. You only have to pay ten percent to get him out of jail, which is a thousand bucks. I can’t imagine he’ll stay in jail for very long.”
“Fuck,” Jude mumbled under his breath. “He’s gonna be pissed at Lainie for getting him locked up.”
Ronan had been afraid of the same thing. “I just hope she’s not the one who bails him out.”
“All we can do is keep our eyes open for signs of trouble,” Fitz said.
“We’re out of our jurisdiction and out of state, there’s nothing we can do here, aside from what we did this morning, which was to call the police.
” He gave his head a sad shake. “Lainie has your number to call if she needs help or wants to talk.”
Nodding, Ronan shoved his phone back into his pocket.
Over the course of his career, he’d investigated his fair share of domestic violence cases.
Unfortunately, violence against women was something that would never go away.
All Ronan could do was raise the kind of daughter who wouldn’t allow anyone to treat her that way and a son who would never raise a hand to anyone unless it was in self-defense.
Ronan felt helpless when it came to Lainie and Kurt.
Fifteen minutes later, everyone walked out of the store with shopping bags, mostly t-shirts and toys. The girls got pink shark stuffies, a hammerhead for Aurora, a whale shark for Everly, and a tiger shark for Lizbet.
The rest of the morning flew by as everyone shopped until they dropped.
Everly and Aurora found a shop that sold pretty sundresses.
They grabbed three each, with Cope doing the same for Lizbet.
Everyone’s favorite stop was the candy shop.
The kids got different types of gummy candies, all weighed by the pound.
Ronan’s eyeballs had nearly popped out of his skull when he saw the cost. He felt bad for whichever set of parents hosted the moving sleepover that night and hoped it wasn’t his and Ten’s turn.
After all the shopping, it was off to lunch. Thankfully, Fitz had made a lunch reservation at The Red Parrot, so they didn’t have to worry about waiting in a long line for a table with hungry, cranky kids and crankier detectives.
Settling around the table, Ronan called out drink orders, Shirley Temples for the kids, and iced teas for the adults. When the waitress walked away, Ronan grabbed his menu. “Look at all the lobster and crab dishes!” Ronan was in crustacean heaven.
“Lunch is on me,” Jace said. “Help yourself to anything.”
“Lobster for me!” Aurora said. “Maybe shrimp too.”
When the waitress came back for their order, Ronan ordered lobster rangoons, lobster quesadillas and fried pickles for starters.
Jude also ordered lobster bisque, Ronan had considered that, but it was too hot for soup.
Nearly everyone ordered lobster for their entrée, the kids’ with mac and cheese and the adults having theirs steamed or baked and stuffed.
Judging by the plates on the tables around them, no one was going to be hungry for dinner and maybe not even breakfast the next morning.
While they waited for the meal to come, Ronan colored with Ezra. The placemat had an ocean scene filled with dolphins, fish and mermaids.
“Oh my goodness, Dad! It’s Sophie!” Everly half-shouted, grabbing Ten’s arm.
“Where?” Ten asked.
“On the television. Look!” Everly pointed toward the large screen mounted on the wall across from the table.
“Hurricane Sophie barrels up the east coast,” Ten read. “Wait a minute, Sophie isn’t a little girl for you to play with?”
“Guess not,” Everly said with a shrug.
“Everly knew a hurricane was coming and this is the first you’re telling me?” Ronan asked, feeling off-balance.
“The day before we left on this trip, Everly mentioned meeting Sophie on this trip. I assumed she was talking about a kid her age. Neither of us had any idea she was a hurricane.”
Ronan leaned close to Ten. “I didn’t mean to accuse you. This looks like it’s going to be a monster storm when it hits New England.”
“I hear you. I’m worried too. We need to make a plan of action.” Ten turned his attention back to the television.
Ronan watched in horror as the news broadcast images of Sophie’s path of destruction through the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
People were being evacuated from their homes by boat.
Streets were flooded in Norfolk, Virgina, and beaches as far north as New York were red flag warned for rip currents.
“Holy shit,” Ronan muttered as the forecaster showed a projected path for the storm.
Long Island, then the southern New England Coast. Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts were all in the bullseye.
The meteorologist was unsure which state would take a head-on hit.
“Why is this the first I’ve heard about this?” Jude asked.
“I haven’t seen or read any news since we got here,” Fitz said. “The world could have ended and I’d be the last to know.”
“Me too,” Cope agreed.
It had been the same for Ronan. Very rarely did he tune out completely from the news and social media, but he’d wanted to have a true vacation where he left his worries and cares back in Salem and focused on sand, sun, and surf.
Unfortunately, a fourth “S,” Sophie, was about to smack him back to reality.
“What do we do?” It was Thursday and they weren’t scheduled to go home until Monday.
The news was saying the storm could arrive in Rhode Island by Sunday.
“We’re not going to panic, for a start,” Fitz said. “Let’s keep an eye on the forecast and see what happens over the next few days. For all we know, the storm could hook right and stay out to sea.”
“Sophie is taking the same path as the hurricane in 1933, the one that hit our hotel and killed Vivienne,” Ten said, sounding ominous, almost as if he thought Sophie had a mind to repeat history.
After hearing Vivienne’s story, Ten and Ronan had done a lot of research, not only on the hotel, but on the hurricane as well.
The storm claimed almost three hundred lives in New York and New England.
Granted, weather forecasting and information dissemination were more advanced now than they had been ninety-plus years ago, but technology in no way diminished the danger and destruction Sophie could bring.
As the television news turned to the dismal season the Red Sox were having, two servers brought their lunch to the table. If Sophie was going to put an early end to their vacation, at least their last meal would be the best Ronan had ever eaten.
Digging into his lunch, Ronan vowed to put thoughts of Lanie and Sophie out of his mind so he could enjoy the rest of the afternoon in Newport. There would be plenty of time later to reckon with Mother Nature.