Chapter 2

Lydia looked up grateful handing the files over to him. "Look Lydia if you have an Incubus working the area, no woman is safe from him. You might see about posting a curfew and warn women about being out late and if a guy is too good to be true he probably is. I will go and see what I can find out and what the women that have been assaulted remembers."

The sound of voices in the hallway brought a soft flush to Lydia's face. Cameron noticed her pulse had quicken at the sound of the male's voice and then he appeared in the door and stopped short, his smile froze as he looked from Lydia to the handsome man sitting on her desk. "Am I intruding?"

Cameron stood and nodded to Lydia. "I will get back with you." He turned to face Gerard.

"Cameron, an associate of Lydia's. We belong to different agencies but cooperate on cases together."

Gerard smiled and extended his hand, "Gerard Stiles, pleasure to meet you."

The two men nodded to each other and then Cameron turned, "I will be back in touch Lydia once I track down this person for you." She smiled her appreciation watching him leave her office and disappeared from sight.

Lydia knew the minute he had left the office he had folded and was back at the SHADOWS operations center, she turned and smiled a welcome to Gerard and flushed when he move to place a light kiss on her forehead. "Interesting man, co-worker?"

She nodded, "Another agency, he kind of works with Josette and Jeanette through the Government Science program. And yes he is a very interesting man, I think he has the hots for Jobeth."

Gerard moved his hip to the corner of her desk and watched her play with her Newton's Cradle. "So you ready for lunch? I have had a busy day and could use a nice crab salad."

He leaned over and planted a light kiss on her lips. "I would love to take you for lunch. Come on." He stood and waited for her to grab her jacket and he escorted her to the door.

"I would like a little afternoon delight." He wiggled his eyebrows and she laughed.

"Like I have time for that."

She flushed deeply and he was enchanted by her modesty. "Perhaps some day you will have time." He chuckled leading her to the door and out into the warm sunshine.

She led him over to her car and waited for him to get in. "Yah, well tell the criminals around here to slow down. Then I might be able to breathe and maybe could find time for that Afternoon Delight you are always talking about. I am beginning to think its Mrs. Miller's pie you are more interested in and not I."

She smiled and he winked, "You never can tell, pie is good too."

She put the car in gear and set it towards the Collinsport Café. "I am sure today its rhubarb pie."

He wrinkled his nose and smiled, "Then I guess I will have to wait for my side order of you."

She was starting to get uncomfortable with the nature of the talk and changed the topic. "So how goes the negotiations on the Egypt property for Quentin?" The rest of the drive was made mostly discussing his business dealings.

Lydia enjoyed the light lunch she was having with Gerard and noticed that the café was slow on business. Glancing over she saw Maggie having dinner with Joe Jr. and waved. "Hey you two!"

She smiled looking from Maggie to Joe. "Looks like business is really slow."

Gerard looked from Maggie to Joe and waited patiently while she held her conversation. "Yes, well guess with the arrival of that ship this morning the towns people are more interested in that."

Lydia looked confused, "What ship?"

Maggie shifted. "Why don't you two join us? It is slow and I am sure Betty can wait on one table a lot easier than two tables. Unless you wanted to be alone."

Gerard smiled and shook his head; "I can share my date with her friends. By the way Gerard Stiles."

He held out his hand and Maggie smiled, "Maggie Garner."

She shook his hand and then Joe smiled, "Joe Haskell Jr.," he held his hand out and then stood, "If you will excuse me a moment Mom, I need to call the office and check on things."

He bent and kissed her cheek then stepped back, he was not about to tell her the ship that had just turned up and floated into port this morning was the one his father had went missing from almost 20 years ago.

"Oh Gerard, Maggie's husband is also an attorney. He has a practice here in town."

Gerard watched Joe stand and leave and turned to look back at the pretty auburn haired woman sitting at the table. "Oh by any chance is it Frank Garner?"

Maggie brightened and her smile lit up her face she nodded, "Why yes it is."

He looked at Joe in the lobby, "And your son's name is Haskell?"

She sighed and looked down a brief moment of sadness crossed her lovely features and a tinge of sadness edged her beautiful brown eyes. "My husband was lost at sea some years ago, and I met Frank when Joe was barely six years old. He offered me a job and well after five years we had Joe declared dead. I later married Frank. I understand you are Quentin Collins attorney?"

He laughed, "Word travels fast in these here parts."

She laughed, "Well this place used to be the hub of the gossip between here and the Blue Whale not much went unnoticed."

Gerard looked at the cute waitress making her way over with her notebook "What can I get you to drink?" She smiled looking over to where Joe stood on his phone call. Lydia thought a moment, "How about a soda with ice Betty."

Gerard smiled charmingly and said, "I would love a cup of coffee black."

She looked to Maggie, "Oh Joe and I both will have a soda too."

She nodded handed out menus and left them to look them over. Joe moved back into the room sat down next to his mother and sighed. "So, what sounds good for today?"

Lydia had been looking at her menu and smiled, "I am going to have soup and salad, I thought the clam chowder and then crab salad."

Maggie wrinkled her nose and laughed, "That does sound good."

Joe frowned and looked at the menu, "I am going to have a steak and baked potato and then maybe a house salad."

Gerard laughed, "Sounds like a man after my own heart. Steak potato and salad, will give me a boost to get me through the day."

Lydia laughed, "Men they have to have their meat and potatoes."

Maggie nodded, "I found with boys that the more meat the happier they are."

Betty had written down their order from the counter what they had wanted and put in their order. Moving over with their drinks and salads for the men and soup for the women she looked to Lydia. "How are things down at the cop shop?"

Lydia sighed, "It's been really busy lately. We still have three active murder investigations going on and State has offered to give us a couple of officers to help while our second shift boys are off on sick leave."

Betty stood and shook her head, "Its hard to believe a bear could do as much damage as was done to Rucker's that night."

Lydia felt uncomfortable with the subject. "Yeah, I know but it may have had rabies so they think it went berserk and just tore the place up."

Betty nodded, "So what about your brother, he really must be busy, we have not seen him I here much, he used to come by and have breakfast every morning."

Lydia shook her head "No big mystery there, Connie is on second shift this month so she is home and able to fix his breakfast for him. I am pretty sure he will be back next month when she goes back on first shift."

Betty chuckled, "I see home cooking will always tear them away from here. Things have been so slow that I am almost going broke. No tips to speak of and things are tough now that I am pregnant."

Lydia tensed and looked to Betty, "Betty, I thought you were going to wait until you were married before you, well you know did the ugly dance."

Betty flushed, "Truth be told I did not think I would be able to get pregnant and well I guess I should have used a better method of birth control."

Lydia would take this up with her later this was not the venue or place to be discussing such things. "Well congratulations honey. I hope your pregnancy goes well for you."

She smiled brightly and nodded, "Thanks Lydia so do I." Hearing the ding of the service bell she smiled, "Foods up be right hack."

Lydia had grown silent after receiving this news from Betty; the conversation between Joe and Gerard had gravitated towards the mundane topics of the sale of fish and the cost of canning them and how Collinsport had always depended on the cannery and its business to keep the town alive.

Maggie had briefly talked about Frank and their other son that was going to be joining the firm as another attorney. Gerard had commented on Carolyn being married to Tony Peterson another attorney.

The conversation was becoming more about the types of cases that were mostly prevalent in Collinsport when Betty delivered the lunch. Lydia had sat listening quietly her gaze shifting to Betty then back to her soup and when her salad came she played with the food on her plate.

Betty had been a sweet girl barely nineteen and the last Lydia had heard she really was not seeing anyone steady. She nibbled the salad and finally her distraction was apparent enough to draw comment from Gerard. "Hey sweetie, what is going on you said you were hungry and you have barely touched your salad."

Lydia smiled and looked apologetically, "Sorry, I was just thinking of that bear." She took another bite and chewed slowly. The pressure in the room changed and the door to the outside opened and a gust of wind blew in.

"Crap feels like another storm headed this way." Maggie had thought about the weather when they had first come through the door.

"I thought I saw a cloud bank earlier." Looking up Lydia saw her brother as he entered the room. Seeing her immediately he moved to her and then stopped seeing Joe and Maggie.

"Lydia I need to see you in the hallway." Lydia stood up, sipped her drink and smiled at those at the table. "Excuse me I guess its official business."

She had closed her fingers around "official" as quotes and turned to follow Thomas into the main hallway of the Inn. "So what is up brother?"

He looked over her shoulder to Maggie and Joe sitting in the café. "I need you to go down to the pier and talk to the Chief of the Coast Guard cutter and see what they have on the Maggie Mae."

Lydia frowned, "What do you mean the Maggie Mae? She has been missing for over 20 years."

Thom leaned over and whispered in her ear. "No Penny, she was towed into the harbor this morning. They found her just drifting about 40 miles out at sea. The hurricane hunter planes were flying out to check that depression and they found her just adrift. I need to know if they have any idea how that ship that has been missing for 20 years has suddenly just turned up with no damage forty miles off the coast line."

Lydia nodded, "Okay, you going to tell Maggie?" He looked anxiously over to where Maggie sat with her back to him and Joe looked over and closed his eyes.

"Joe knows and I am going to have to have more information before I tell them about the Maggie Mae."

Lydia nodded, reaching into her pocket she pulled out a ten. "Give this to Betty for the meal and a tip. I will go on down, you may need to give Gerard a ride back to his car."

She turned and left out the door headed to the pier. Thomas moved in and took her seat. "Sorry, I had to send Lydia on information trip."

Joe had ducked his head and looked down at his plate. "Is it about the Maggie Mae?"

Which Maggie immediately snapped her neck up and looked at her son. "The Maggie Mae?"

Joe looked over to Thomas for some help. Thom took a deep breath and said softly, "Maggie, they found her and that is the ship that was brought in by the coast guard this morning. We are not sure what is going on or if this is Joe's ship but it does look like it and well we all are kind of just stumped by the whole situation. I sent Penny down to get us some answers from the Coast Guard." Maggie felt a sting of tears sitting back her appetite was now gone.

Betty walked over to the table with a cup in a saucer and a pot of coffee, "Sheriff, staying for lunch?"

Thomas looked down at his sister's meal and frowned, "Not right now Betty, how about boxing this up and I can take it back for Penny. She had to make a run and wanted me to give you this for tip and meal."

Gerard took the ten and handed it back to Thomas. "Give that back to her, I am buying lunch today for everyone."

He reached in his jacket and pulled his wallet out and pulled out a fifty-dollar bill. "Here Betty this should cover all our meals and a nice tip."

Her face flushed as she saw the big bill and nodded. "Thank you Mr. Stiles that is very nice of you. You have no idea how much this helps me out."

Gerard folded it into her hand and smiled charmingly at her. "Think nothing of it."

Thomas glanced over to Gerard and looked down at the last of his steak. "You know Betty that steak dinner looks mighty nice, why not fix me up one to go and I can eat it at the station later."

Jason Patterson drove down the main street of Collinsport and seeing Thomas truck stopped in front. Getting out of his truck he looked up at the green in the cloudbank moving in. "Crap hail too." He moved up to the front entrance and entered the main hallway of the Inn and moved into the dining area. "Hey Thomas got a minute?" He moved up nodded to Maggie and Joe then nodded to Gerard. "Looks like green in those clouds means we got hail mixed in with it."

All eyes turned to peer out the front window of the café. "This is more than just a cloud bank of rain. There could be some funnel clouds in that mess heading this way." Almost on cue to that prediction the sirens went off alerting the diners to severe weather.

Betty moved to pull the hurricane shutters close over the windows. Jason sighed, "Looks like we are going to be stuck here."

The residents of the inn were being evacuated to the café and the room started to fill up. Thomas stood up and nodded to the interior wall. 'We should get everyone down in the cellar."

Jason nodded, "I got it covered Thom you go on and take care of whatever you were going to do before I got here."

Thomas shrugged," I was waiting for some dinner to take back to the station. Turning to Joe he asked,, "Do you think you can help Jason get everyone downstairs in the cellar?"

Joe nodded, "Come on Mom." He helped his mother stand.

"Jason, I am going to get in the car and make sure we don't have any vagrants walking the city while this mess is headed our way, you take care of the guests here and I will swing back by." Reaching on his back hip he pulled his walkie-talkie off and handed it over to Jason.

"You can call me if you need me" Jason stood and started herding everyone to the cellar. Joe stepped up and began helping the older residents down into the large basement area under the inn. Guiding them to the area against the interior wall, he found old chairs and rugs for everyone to get comfortable.

Thomas sighed and looked at the sky exiting the inn and shook his head. "I really don't need this crap right now Mother Nature."

Crawling into his bronco cruiser he started the vehicle and putting it in gear just that was when the weather vane from the top of the Inn flew off the roof and landed in the front of his grill. "Shit."

The vehicle began to steam as the radiator was struck. Getting out, he took his foot to kick the damn thing out of his grill and felt more debris being flung his way. Diving to the interior of his truck he watched one of the two hundred year old land marks that was the gazebo on the square get pulled up and shattered into splinters. He actually felt bad about the gazebo; it had been there since he could remember.

Trying to avoid any further flying debris he crawled into the front of his cruiser. "Karen, its Thom, I need a tow truck in front of the Collinsport Inn and have one of the day shift guys meet me with another car here."

Karen acknowledged and Thomas sat back in his cruiser and watched the hail arrived. He felt so frustrated sitting in the middle of Main Street with his car pinned to the ground by a flying rooster weather vane.

The hail came with a vengeance pelting his car and from the size of the hail he was sure that if it came down any harder he would very well have dents and broken windows from the onslaught. Then he heard it, the sound of a freight train and it looked like it was bearing down on him.

Throwing his body into the floor board of his car, all he could do was hang on and ride out the wind picking his car up rocking and throwing him about like a rag doll inside his vehicle. When the twister finally put him down he had been tossed on the side and through Peterman's' drug store.

Kicking his door open he half crawled and half fell out of his car. "Hello Richard?" The front of the store had been decimated by the arrival of his car through both glass windows. " Peggy!"

He could hear Richard Davis calling for his wife Peg Davis. Stepping on overturned shelving and broken bottles he looked around at the destruction the tornado had just caused. "Richard! Its Thomas Patterson!" He had called out to the frail sounding older man that had run this store since his Grandfather Jack Peterman had died forty years ago.

"Thomas, I can't find Peg, she is buried in here somewhere!" Thomas began to shuffle through the over turned shelves when he heard a soft moan. Rushing to the area he had sought the sound he found. Peg Davis was pinned under several shelves and the counter. "Richard run across the street to the Inn, Jason is there and I am pretty sure he has a medic kit in his truck, tell him that Peg is hurt!"

The older man hobbled out of the door in time for Thom to see he had a chunk of splintered wood stuck in his thigh.

Thomas stopped him, "Richard why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" He moved the old man back to sit with his wife. "Stay here I am going to get Jason."

Richard looked at Thomas, "I figured I was in better shape than you." Thomas did not know what he was talking about while he continued to move through the door headed to his brother's truck and to find his brother.

Jason exited the inn and seeing his brother rushed to his side. "Damnit Tom, sit down you got a big gash on your head!"

Thomas pushed him away, "No go help Peg and Richard, they are hurt worse than me."

Jason pulled the wooden planks from his truck and reached in to get his medic bag. "You sit down and I will be back for you. Here" He handed his brother the walkie-talkie he had just given him earlier. "Call in for rescue squad to meet us here."

Thomas looked up to see the wrecker and day shift court officer driving up with one of the squad cars. He looked at his boss and rushed to him. "Damn Thomas we gotta get you to the hospital."

Thom shook his head. 'No Peg and Richard need to go worse than I do. You need to go help Jason, I am going to sit here for a few minutes."

Penrod shook his head. "Sheriff you have a split head and its bleeding pretty good." Thomas sighed, "If we transport we gotta transport Richard and Peg too."

Penrod took Thomas by the arm and led him back to the squad car. "You wait here I will go get Jason, Richard and Peg." Thomas set down in the car closed his eyes and knew nothing else. He slipped into that abyss of darkness that was blissful.

Lydia arrived at the pier in short order and ahead of the storm, seeing the green and noting the rotation of the clouds she moaned. Moving quickly towards the Harbor Master's room she was met by David Hornby, "Come on Penny we gotta rush we have a twister headed this way."

He snagged her arm and guided her towards the storm shelter near the docks. She along with the others were being hustled along with the heavy pelting hail hit them and when they cleared the docks Lydia turned to see the twister set down near the inn. "Shit, Thom is over there!"

She was grabbed and forcefully jerked into the shelter the door being slammed shut, as they stood huddled together listening to the wind and the sounds of a freight train moved overhead. "You know this is happening because of the ghost ship."

Lydia turned to peer at David, "What Ghost Ship?"

David dropped his voice the seafarers were already mumbling about ill luck with an ill wind. "The Maggie Mae showing up like she did and in pristine condition like she had just set sail this morning. They are all worried about it being a bad sign and bad luck coming to pay a visit. "

Lydia rolled her eyes. "That is just old wives fish tales and they know it. There has to be a perfectly good reason for that ship to be where it was when it was and now its home. Maybe we can get forensic to go over the ship and tell us what happened."

David shook his head. "You can't take the old wives tales out of the old fishermen. You know that Penny. The Coast Guard was going over her pretty much most this morning when they brought her in and there was word that they found dried blood on the ship and I ain't talking about a little bit of blood but a lot of blood. Other than all that blood on the ship, the ship is pretty much the way she was the day she set sail. I am telling there was nothing wrong with her even down to the paint. Twenty years at sea and nothing wrong accept a bunch of blood. Even her paint looks new."

Lydia looked interested and confused. "You are saying it looks just like she left port yesterday or this morning?"

David nodded and looked around. "They are saying the ill wind comes with the Ghost Ship."

Lydia stepped back and glanced around at the nervous men as they waited for the all clear. "Is the Chief still around so I can talk to him about what they found?"

David nodded, "They were staying here until they got some specialist in to go over her from stem to stern." Lydia rubbed her forehead she was getting a headache thinking about this newest mystery of the Maggie Mae. That coupled with her over sexed demon getting the women pregnant she thought she should contact Aden with SHADOWS and see if they could help with the mystery that was the Maggie Mae.