“So, finding his grave would be impossible,” Hope said.
“I suppose so. I never thought to try. I’m too busy running this place.” Clive winked at Hope. “Someday, I might even turn a profit here.”
“Is there anyone in your family who might know a bit more about Captain Thomas?” Hope asked.
“I suppose you could ask my mother. She lives outside of Wilmington. In fact, give me a minute, and I’ll write down her address. She might know some stories.”
“That would be great,” Hope said.
Clive slid out of the booth. “Those drinks are on me,” he said. “As a first timer, you’re entitled to as many as you want.” He grinned, a very nice grin. “That will keep you coming back.”
Hope watched him walk away, wondering where all the charm came from. She wouldn’t think there would be a lot of opportunities to exude charm in Castle Park.
“So, tell me, Sherlock, did he tell the truth?” Hope asked her daughter.
“Mostly. It wasn’t a hurricane that the ship ran into, just a bad storm. And by one account I read, there was another ship that came right up and grabbed all the stuff he dumped.”
“So, it was planned then?”
Cori shrugged. “I suppose it was. I mean, it’s a big ocean, and the other ship just happened to be there? I’d say that was suspicious.”
“Then it’s no wonder Captain Thomas lost before the commission’s inquiry. I guess when you do the wrong thing, you pay a price.”
“You don’t have to explain a lesson to me, Mom,” Cori said, and then leaning a bit over the table, she kept her voice down. “That guy is kind of icky, isn’t he?”
“He works very hard to be charming. I can see why you would find him icky.”
They laughed together.
True to his word, Clive came back a few minutes later and handed her his business card.
“My mother’s information is on the back. Mine is on the front.” The man’s smile told Hope all she needed to know. He was sort of icky.
Hope thanked him, and he went away. When the bill came, there were no charges for the drinks. Hope wouldn’t have minded if the charges had been there. She had the feeling that Clive was the type that kept score. If he bought a woman a drink, he would expect something in return.
“The burger wasn’t bad,” Cori said as they drove home.
“Neither was the pasta,” Hope added. “Going to study now?”
“Yeah, I think I will. It may not help, but it won’t hurt right?”
“Not one little bit.”
With a nod, Cori retreated to her room as soon as they were inside. Hope knew that somewhere in the house, Maximillian was waiting impatiently for a report on what she’d learned from Clive. As with most things in life, the sooner a challenge was accepted, the better the outcome. Or, as her mother had once told her, bad news must be shared immediately, but good news can wait.
She went up to her attic office and took her seat at the desk, fully expecting Max to begin the interrogation. When it didn’t happen, she was thoroughly surprised. He never missed an opportunity to quiz her about her efforts to find his killer. A century without a meal had left him perpetually hungry.
“Max?” she asked cautiously.
No one answered.
“Max?” she asked louder.
No one appeared. Hope frowned. She knew Max never left the house, so where could he be?
“Maximillian?” she asked a third time.
No answer.
She looked around.
What had happened to Max?
4
Just as Hope started to stand, Max appeared in the office. His smile seemed sheepish to her, but then, she still wasn’t sure she read his emotions properly.
“I apologize,” he said. “I was fixated on the winter moon. It is particularly lovely tonight.”
Hope was relieved to see the ghost. “I don’t blame you. It is pretty.”
“You have news?”
“I do. I spoke to Clive Thomas tonight. He’s descended from Captain Thomas.”
“Tell me then, did that scoundrel of a captain brag about killing off his employer?”
“No, he did not. Frankly, Clive didn’t know a great deal, but he did tell me this much.”
Hope reported what had been said in the Culpepper House. It wasn’t much, and it didn’t take long. As she spoke, she failed to notice the usual chagrin in Max’s face. Usually, bad news put Max in a funk, but this night, he appeared to take the revelations in stride. That surprised her.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Indeed, I am,” he said. “I was not expecting anything from a descendant of Jack Thomas. Deceit and dishonesty runs in their blood. It is difficult to cull the bad seed from the field.”
Hope leaned back in her chair. “You sound as if you’ve thought about this.”
“I have, many times. In a sense, humans are much like animals. Pigs and cattle can be bred for certain characteristics. It’s not difficult, but it is time consuming. It takes a lot of cross breeding to rid a bloodline of some defect. Humans don’t breed for specific traits. A defect is often passed along, from father to son for generations. And it is often a defect that cannot be seen. It is a defect of the brain or heart. It is the bit of something that keeps a man, or a woman, from doing the right thing.”
“Do you think that people can change?”
“Oh, I know people can change. But the sort of change that negates that bad seed must be thorough and constant. It takes conscious effort. It must be such a strong habit that it will supplant the natural bent of someone.”
“I don’t think people, nowadays, believe quite so strongly in genetic traits. They think it’s more a matter of how one is raised.”
“I have witnessed that in the small world I inhabit,” Max said. “Some families do better than others. Yet, I have witnessed loving parents completely eclipsed by their ungrateful offspring. I am happy to say that your daughter does not display such off-putting tendencies.”
“It’s kind of you to say so,” Hope said.
“Are you planning on another search for my killer before Christmas?” he asked.
“No,” Hope said. “But after Christmas, I will see what I can find out. We’ll be on winter break, so I’ll have more time.”
“Excellent. Then, I will leave you to your work.”
“And I will leave you to your moon.” Hope smiled.
“I will take it. You know, even after all this time, there are sights that truly soothe the soul. This moon is one of those sights.”
Hope watched Max slowly fade away before she turned to her computer. She had just enough time to update her grade book before she went to bed. She had learned over the years, that it was important to keep the grade book up to date as the semester ended. There were no excuses for being late with grades. Both parents and students wanted to know how they had performed.
Finishing, Hope stared at Doug’s laptop computer. It held secrets she had not yet been able to unlock. It was another task that waited for the hiatus of winter break. She would have time then, time to study the screenplay Doug had left behind, the one that contained the passwords to his laptop files. She knew the keys were there.