Free A Spirited Gift by Joyce Lavene

“You must’ve had a hard time getting here from Manteo. I know the roads are a mess.”
    They started talking about the storm, and it turned out both of them were volunteer firefighters. I got up and got them both a cup of coffee, glad the tension had eased.
    Marissa was peeking around the corner as I walked by. “Is everything okay? I hope that big guy isn’t going to hurt Kevin.”
    â€œI think it’s fine now. It was just a shock.”
    â€œI guess it would be a shock to find out the person you loved was cheating on you.”
    I didn’t say anything, refusing to add to the local grapevine. There were bound to be rumors and speculation about everything that had gone on before and after the storm. The best thing was to leave them alone and not add to the problem. Gossip wouldn’t help find out what had happened to Sandi.
    I looked in the bar after that—Matthew was still there, his head resting against Barker’s shoulder while both men took a nap. I left them alone and looked for other things to do.
    I had just started helping Althea with Sandi’s daughters in the lobby when the front door opened and Mrs. Euly Stanley bounded into the inn. She was an older lady with a shock of curly gray hair that almost overwhelmed her fragile face. Mrs. Stanley was a great patron of the Duck Historical Museum.
    â€œDae, we need help at the museum next door. There’s been some damage, and I think we better get it taken care of in case it rains again. Mildred and I are the only ones over there. Thank God we live close by. Think you could spare a few men for us?”
    Althea seemed to have everything in hand with the two little girls. Marissa waved me on when I told her I was going to the museum for a few minutes. I was glad for the chance to get out of the Blue Whale for a while—even if it was on cleanup detail.
    The Duck Historical Museum was right next door to the Blue Whale Inn. It held all the treasures of our sometimes checkered past, from pirates to the present day. Before leaving, I rounded up some volunteers from among the hotel guests who were looking for anything to pass the time. A few bored mayors’ assistants came with us, along with a few Duck residents who’d been put out of their homes by the storm.
    The museum was one of my favorite places. Not that it mattered much in this case. I just wanted to get away from what had become an impossible atmosphere next door. Something ached inside of me when I thought of Sandi dying alone out in the storm.
    Maybe we hadn’t been the closest of friends, but no one should have to die that way. Looking into the faces of her two little girls, I felt heartsick. What a terrible thing for them. At least I’d been an adult when my mother died.
    It would be simpler—safer—to think that the strong winds had collapsed the shed on her. And maybe that was exactly what had happened—once she got outside.
    But Sandi hadn’t lost her ring outside. She’d lost it while she was still in the ballroom. The fear I’d felt from the ring—Sandi had experienced that fear—while she was inside, relatively safe from the storm.
    Maybe I was too emotional about it, I thought as I walked around the museum with Mrs. Stanley, surveying the damage. Maybe I wasn’t seeing clearly. The whole evening had been strange, even for me.
    But why had Sandi been outside in the shed while the storm was raging over Duck? Sandi wasn’t exactly a back-to-nature kind of person. I didn’t have to know her well to know that about her. She’d probably been terrified out there.
    Rationally, I supposed she could’ve run out of the back door after being with Matthew upstairs. Maybe she was looking for a place to be by herself. It was possible she got outside before she’d realized how bad the storm was. Maybe she’d gone into the shed to get away from wind and rain. People had died from