Catherine's Cross (15 page)

“Mose, the father of the young lady that was killed on the boat has put up a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individuals responsible.”

Mose shook his head and frowned, “Mister Seth—I don't know nuttin' ‘bout no reward. De folks dats responsible for da wreck needs to meet with justice—plain and simple.”

“Yes, you're right, Mose.”

“Come dis way, and I'll show you where dey try and bury da beer cans.”

Within thirty minutes, two police boats arrived and began to examine the scuttled motorboat and the beer cans. Jenks sat at the controls of Dr. Walker's boat and listened to Seth and Mose answer questions. After an hour, Seth told Jenks he was sorry about the afternoon, but he needed to take her back to the Walker home so she could get her car.

When he let her off at the dock, Seth apologized again and told her he would call her later. Her palms were still sweating from seeing the boat. Blood was on the hull, and she trembled as she thought of the couple killed in the collision.

When she got home, she gathered her notes on the ship
Defiance
that sank in St. Helena Sound and took out her laptop. On the Naval History and Heritage Command website was a listing of the names of United States Naval ships. There were three ships named
Defiance
, and they were all commissioned and decommissioned after the turn of the twentieth century. Under a listing of Civil War ships was a Confederate States ship named
Defiance
that was burned by her own crew in the Mississippi Delta to prevent the ship from falling into Union hands.

Jenks continued to research the website and selected the operational archives for the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, DC. The department of archives page stated they had limited staffing and were unable to do extensive research for patrons. However, Jenks composed an e-mail with a lot of detail about the
Defiance
under Federal Navy command at Port Royal during 1862 and the reasons for her inquiry. She sent the e-mail and hoped for the best.

Closing her laptop, she started to go through Gigi's home and put away items. Agnes Manning had explained that while selling a home, only a few personal possessions should be displayed. She'd said several times, “Less is better.”

Jenks started with Gigi's bedroom. While putting away some of Gigi's personal items into the bureau beside the bed, she discovered a prescription for birth-control pills in the top drawer. She examined the packet; Dr. Natalie Wray was the prescribing physician. Setting the prescription aside, she reached into the back of the drawer and found an index card box. Jenks opened the lid, and saw a number of receipts. There were invoices for the powerboat that Gigi had leased, diving equipment, and ongoing business with Patterson's Dive Shop. Numerous receipts were for maintenance on diving tanks and refilling them with oxygen. At the back of the box was a receipt for a Garmin GPS. She recalled Seth mentioning that the boat Gigi had leased from the Morgan River Marina had been set up for a GPS unit, but that it had been removed.

The phone began to ring and Seth was on the line.

“Jenks, I've just returned from Nairne Point. I apologize for today, and I'd like to make things up to you. I'm going in to work early tomorrow, and I should be off around five-thirty. I'd like to pick you up and have you over for dinner.”

“Seth—I have something to show you.”

“Bring it with you when you come.”

After she hung up the phone, she examined the prescription for birth-control pills that had been prescribed for Gigi. Jenks's first and only intimate relationship with Alex Connors had ended in heartbreak, and she had vowed to be certain about her feelings before she shared her heart with anyone again. Jenks knew she had fallen in love with Seth, and she picked up the phone and dialed the office of Dr. Natalie Wray.

Mose Lafitte had a sheepshead fish and stone crab claws to sell to Seth. He looked up from the catch he was bagging for them and said, “Miss Jenkins, how are you today?”

“I'm fine, Mose.”

“Dat's good. Mr. Seth, was you able to find out who was de operator of de boat dat I found at Nairne Point?”

“The boat was registered to Gary Donald. His fingerprints and DNA were located on the boat as well as on the beer cans they attempted to bury. When I say ‘they,' I'm referring to Gary Donald and another person that was also on board the boat. The FBI database confirmed another set of prints belong to Albert Scott. Both men have been in trouble with the law on several occasions, and warrants have been issued for their arrest.” Seth was quiet for a moment. “The victims' DNA was found on Donald's boat and the cans. Mose, I gave your name to Captain Barrett as the person responsible for finding the concealed watercraft. I think you should accept the reward when we bring those two to justice. Without you, we might have never found it.”

Mose shook his head. “Reward—dis about justice. Dat man done lost his child. I don't want his money.”

Seth paid him for the fish and they watched from the pier as Mose started his engine. He waved to them as he headed toward Lemon Island.

“Mose should accept the reward,” Seth said.

“Maybe he'll change his mind.”

“I doubt it.”

When they arrived at the Walker home, Jenks removed Gigi's card box from her tote bag and showed it to Seth.

He looked through all the receipts. “Your sister was diving a great deal. I already knew from Dave Patterson that Gigi was doing business with his shop.” He paused for a moment as he studied the invoice for the Garmin GPS. “She had purchased a state-of-the-art GPS system, but what happened to it?”

“Gigi could be very secretive, though usually not with me,” Jenks said, shaking her head.

He looked at her and then pushed an errant curl behind her ear.

“Well, let's get busy. I'll clean the fish and you work on the vegetables.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Before I go outside can I get you a glass of wine?”

“Absolutely.”

After he cleaned the fish, he grilled it over a charcoal fire. When Jenks took her first bite, she said, “I think your trial-and-error method of cooking has paid off . . . this is delicious.”

“Thank you.”

When the meal was almost over Jenks asked, “Can I ask you something personal?”

“Yes.”

“The other evening I asked you why you weren't married, and you said you had been while you were in the Marines.”

“Oh, you remember that?”

“Yes, I do. What happened?”

“I think I told you that while I was growing up, my father was a strict disciplinarian.”

She nodded.

“Well, that was only part of his parenting style. He could be verbally abusive and controlling. I met Hayden while I was in my second year of the Marines. She was a sweet, young girl with a caring heart. At the time, I didn't appreciate those qualities, and I didn't show her the respect she deserved. I confess, at that point in my life I didn't show any woman proper respect.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I'll explain. One evening, Hayden made a special supper for me. I was tired from work and instead of showing my gratitude, I made an unnecessary remark about her dinner. She got up from the table and told me that she could not stand to live with me any longer and she was going to leave me.”

“Oh, my.”

“You see, the person whose behavior I detested the most was my father's, and I was acting just like him. She left me, and I don't blame her for it. We got divorced, and she wrote me a couple of years later, wished me well, and told me she was happily remarried. I hope she's still content.” He took a sip of iced water and then continued. “I learned something very important from my failed marriage. Before I make a criticism, I ask myself two things—is it nice and is it necessary? If the answer is not yes to both questions, then I keep my comments to myself.”

“The scar on your arm . . . you said you got it in a fight with your father?”

He looked into her eyes. “When I say my father was a strict disciplinarian, I mean that he inflicted severe corporal punishment on both my brother and me.”

“Oh, no.”

“My father, Ed—Ed Mason—enjoyed a daily visit with his favorite bourbon. When Steel and I were eleven, Ed drank himself into a stupor and then decided to get angry over a fishing pole that wasn't stored properly. Ed couldn't remember that he had put the pole away, and he decided that either Steel or I were to blame. He beat us both with a belt, and when I begged him to stop, he jerked my arm so hard it came out of the socket. My terrified mother lied to the doctors at the emergency room and told them I had fallen out of a tree. I'm not sure how they missed the belt marks on my legs.”

Jenks cringed with his admission. “I'm so sorry.”

“When I was seventeen, my father had been on a weekend drinking binge. He became angry with me over a spot I missed while mowing the grass, and he started to hit me. He broke a beer bottle and sliced my arm with it. By then, I was bigger and stronger than him, and I fought back. In fact, if Steel had not pulled me off of him, I'm sure I would have killed him. I was beating his head on the concrete floor of the carport when Steel stopped me.”

“Oh, my—please go on.”

“As soon as we turned eighteen, we both joined the Marines and left home. My mother—Eleanor—I don't think she could stand to be with him anymore, and she moved to Atlanta to be with her sister. My mother was just fifteen when she gave birth to Steel and me. I think she wanted a new life. She was thirty-four when she got remarried and then had children with her new husband. I think she finally found happiness.”

“Didn't she write to you?”

“A few times . . . Steel and I wrote to her often, but usually our letters weren't answered. I think she wanted to push her bad recollections aside, and Steel and I were part of those memories. When I finished college, I invited my mother and father to come to my graduation. I didn't hear back from either of them. Steel was stationed in San Diego, and he came all the way to South Carolina to see me graduate—God, I miss him.”

“I know you do. I have the same feelings about Gigi.”

They both looked at one another for a moment, but Jenks's curiosity was piqued. “You were going to explain why you didn't show proper respect to women while you were married.”

He took her hand in his and gazed into her eyes. “I did some psychological research on my own that caused me to do some soul searching. My mother was intimidated by my father, but she didn't protect Steel and me from
him
.” He paused for a moment. “It's true; there were no women's shelters in the Asbury area.” A deep frown crossed his brow. “I've tried hard to overcome my personal issues—and my resentment.”

“I'm so sorry,” Jenks said as she studied his face.

Seth stood up from the table. “Enough depressing talk. Will you please join me in the living room?”

He took her hand and led her into the living room. They stopped in front of the grand piano.

“Steinway. What a beautiful instrument,” Jenks remarked.

He sat down on the piano bench and lifted the fallboard. He smiled at her and then began to play a Burt Bacharach song. Jenks sang along to his music, “You see this guy, this guy's in love with you. Yes, I'm in love, who looks at you the way I do?”

When he finished, she clapped. “I didn't know you could play the piano.”

“I've been taking lessons for two years. I find playing the piano to be therapeutic.”

“I can believe that.”

“Do you play?” Seth asked.

“‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.'”

He played another Bacharach song and then rose from the piano bench, closing the fallboard. “You should hear Dr. Walker play. He's brilliant.”

“I think you performed beautifully.”

He took a small bow and then started a CD. Willie Nelson began to sing: “Sometimes I wonder why I spend the lonely nights dreaming of a song. . .”

Jenks listened to the lyrics and said, “Willie Nelson's rendition of ‘Stardust.' You played that in the car for me the first time you took me to the Shrimp Shack.”

“
Stardust
was my mother's favorite album. She played it often while Steel and I were young. Usually she was in tears when Willie got to the last song, ‘Someone to Watch over Me.'” She needed someone to watch over her. I hope she found happiness.”

“I'm sorry,” Jenks softly said.

“Me too,” Seth said as he stroked her cheek with his hand. Taking her in his arms, he held her tightly and began to slow dance. Whispering in her ear he said, “Don't ask me to try any other dance style. I'm lucky to be able to figure this out.”

“There are certain advantages to slow dancing,” Jenks whispered back.

“What's that?”