Free Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding by Lea Wait Page A

rang the bell. A minute later Diana came down the stairs.
    “Oh, it’s you, Maggie. I wondered what Cordelia wanted.”
    “Sorry to disturb you. But you mentioned helping with Gussie’s wedding. This isn’t directly wedding-related, but Gussie and Jim are trying to consolidate their households and move into their new home and get Gussie’s shop set up before their wedding. I know you have a lot on your mind, but if you’d like to earn a few extra dollars, we could use some help packing this afternoon.”
    Diana looked from Cordelia to Maggie. “Was this Cordelia’s idea?”
    “No; but if you’d like to come, I’ll ask her if it’s all right.”
    “I make my own decisions. I’ll get a jacket.” Diana ran back up the stairs.
    Maggie signed, “Diana’s going to help Gussie and me pack some of Gussie’s things; she’s hoping to finish moving to the new house before her wedding.”
    Cordelia nodded. “Good. The girl’s restless. She has nothing to do. Thank Gussie for me.”
    Maggie nodded. They’d wanted to help Diana. If Cordelia thought they were helping her, so much the better.
    “Let’s go,” said Diana, heading out the door. Maggie waved at Cordelia, and followed her.
    “I’ll take my car and follow you,” said Diana. “That way I can leave when we’re finished.”
    “Fine.” Maggie headed back to Gussie’s, the VW following close behind.
    Was this a good decision? There was plenty to pack; that wasn’t the issue. But with Diana there it meant she and Gussie wouldn’t have as much time alone together as they’d hoped.
    She hoped Ike Irons was making headway in figuring out who’d killed Diana’s father. She’d had a few experiences with murder investigations, and usually the “why” came first. That led to the “who.”
    The chief certainly should be looking at why Dan Jeffrey disappeared such a short time after his daughter had found him. Could that just be a coincidence? Maggie shook her head. She’d lived long enough not to believe in coincidences.
    If Ike Irons wasn’t interested in Dan Jeffrey’s history pre-Winslow, then he wouldn’t worry about Dan’s daughter. The more Maggie thought about it, the more she worried about Diana.
    What happened in Colorado that made Diana’s father leave his daughter? A daughter who’d already lost her mother? Starting a new life somewhere else, with a new name, was something people did only when they were desperate, and either they didn’t care about those they left behind, or they needed to protect them.
    Diana certainly acted as though she felt her father cared about her.
    That only left one other possibility.
    By the time Maggie pulled her van into a space in back of Gussie’s shop she was determined to find out whatever she could. And make sure no other bodies were found on the beach, or anywhere else, in Winslow.

Chapter 12
    EXTRA! PRES. ROOSEVELT DIES! One page, one side, broadside, issued by the SCIO Tribune , Linn County, Oregon, Thursday, April 12, 1945, to announce President Franklin Roosevelt’s death. Paper tanned, but in perfect condition. “The United States and the World was shocked suddenly this afternoon when the news was flashed over the wires—“President Roosevelt dies suddenly!” Death came at 4:35 P.M. Eastern War Time (2:35 Pacific War Time), at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he had gone two weeks ago to rest before going to the United Nations’ Conference called for the 25th of this month at San Francisco.” 13 x 20 inches. Price: $350.
    “Welcome!” said Gussie, as Maggie walked in the back door of her old shop.
    Diana followed, looking curiously around her. “I thought we were going to your house.”
    “You’re here. I live on the second floor, above the shop,” Gussie explained.
    Diana walked around the back room, looking at the inventory items Gussie hadn’t packed yet: boxes of antique doll arms, legs, wigs, and bodies. Dolls’ clothes, one box of hats, one of shoes. Two shelves of china