The Edge of Paradise: Christmas Key Book Three Read online

Holly rushes back through the lobby and out the front door, approaching the pool deck via the gate again rather than barging into the middle of the scene by exiting through the building’s side door that leads to the pool.

  As Holly carefully approaches Calista, Fiona gives a final chest compression that seems to jolt Mori to life. He turns his head, coughing out water and gagging hoarsely. Fiona rolls him onto his side, placing her hand between his head and the concrete. After expelling what looks like a half-gallon of chlorinated water, he immediately throws up and starts crying.

  “Oh my God!” Calista screams, trying to stand. Instead, she ends up doing an animal-like crawl over to where her little boy is curled on the wet ground. Vance meets her there and they surround Mori, covering him with their parental love and concern; this forces everyone else to take several steps back.

  Fiona walks in a big circle, hands on her hips as she blows out a breath and pulls in another one. She does this a few times as water drips from her body and hair. The soles of her feet leave wet prints on the concrete.

  “What happened?” Holly whispers, pulling her best friend into a hug when she finally stops pacing.

  Fiona hugs Holly back and then turns to look at Mori and his parents. “I came down here to swim some laps, and when I got here, I found this little guy in the pool. He was facedown and not breathing.”

  Jimmy brings Fiona a towel. He holds it open to her, wrapping it around her shoulders. “Nice work, doc,” he says, giving her a single nod before walking out the gate and away from the scene. The other people on the pool deck discreetly disappear as well, leaving the family together. Holly and Fiona stand off to the side.

  “I hate to dump on you, Fee, but it seems like tragedy keeps happening in twos around here,” Holly says, putting her hand on Fiona’s back and steering her out onto the sidewalk.

  “I really need to make sure Mori is okay and check his vitals—” Fiona clutches the towel around her shoulders with one hand like it’s a superhero’s cape.

  “Heddie and Cap ran into Hal Pillory with Cap’s cart.”

  “What?” Fiona drops the towel and starts to cross the street in just her yellow bathing suit. “Where is he? I’ll open up the office and get my stuff.”

  “Fee, you don’t have your keys,” Holly points out. Fiona stops in the middle of the street and looks down at herself. She’s cast in a pool of pale, golden light from the old-fashioned street lamp that stands in front of Poinsettia Plaza. Her freckled chest heaves as the adrenaline pumps through her system, and her strong, toned legs are naked and still dotted with water. Fiona’s red-painted toes stare up at her from the center of the paved street.

  “I don’t have anything,” she says, sounding lost. “I have no idea what I’m doing.” She looks around like she’s just realizing where she is.

  Holly watches as Fiona rides the crest of emotion that all doctors must feel when they’re in crisis mode. She’s obviously got her medical faculties about her, but her focus is so laser-sharp that the rest of the world has faded out around her.

  “Hey, wait here. I’ll get my keys from the B&B office,” Holly says, remembering the set of master keys she keeps in her desk so that she can open up any building on the island in case of an emergency. “And I’ll grab you a robe.”

  She rushes through the lobby again at full-speed, pausing in the doorway of the Sea Turtle Suite. “Hey,” Holly says, bracing herself against the frame of the open door. Mexi is inside, sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the edge of the bed as he stares, open-mouthed, at a Disney cartoon. Hal lies prone on the other bed with Heddie next to him, holding his hand. He’s moaning and staring at the ceiling.

  “What, Holly? What is it?” Cap is across the room in three long strides to meet her at the door. He talks in low tones, obviously expecting the worst.

  “Mori is fine—he’s with his parents,” she says, looking up into Cap’s concerned face. For the first time all evening, Holly feels something release inside of her. The fear and adrenaline that have pushed her forward sink back like a retreating wave, and the gate that’s been holding her emotions in check is unlatched. Hot, salty tears run down her cheeks. “How is Hal?” she asks on a quiet sob.

  “Not making any sense,” Cap says, putting both of his large, rough hands on Holly’s shoulders and guiding her out into the quiet hallway. He reaches back and closes the door to the room behind them so they can speak. “He’s asking about Sadie and telling Heddie that he’s lost her again, and I…he’s confused, Holly,” Cap says carefully, his hands still on both of her shoulders as he looks down the hallway with sad eyes. “I know this is my fault, but I didn’t see him.”

  “It’s not your fault, Cap,” she says. He looks down at her. “It isn’t,” Holly says with conviction. “Vance and I were out looking for Mori at Candy Cane Beach, and we found someone out there on the sand in the dark, digging holes.”

  “What for?” Cap takes his hands off Holly’s shoulders.

  “For the same reason they’ve been digging holes around the island since January, I suppose,” Holly says, raising both shoulders and turning her palms up. “Your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, I think it was Hal.”

  “You think what was Hal—the holes?” Cap pulls his bushy, white eyebrows together in a deep frown. “Why on earth would Hal Pillory be digging holes?”

  “He’d have to tell us that, but Vance and I thought it was Mori and we chased him. He ran away in the dark, and my guess is that he ducked into Turtle Dove Estates and got nicked with your cart as he cut across Heddie’s property.”

  “Noooo,” Cap says, pulling back in disbelief. “Do you think?”

  “He left a shovel behind when he ran.” Holly examines the giant banana leaves on the wallpaper behind Cap as she remembers the scene on the beach. “But before we solve that mystery, we need to make sure he’s okay.”

  “We do,” Cap agrees.

  “I’m getting my keys for Fiona so she can open up her office. If we bring one of those flat board stretcher things over here, can you help us get Hal onto it and carry him across the street?”

  “Of course.” Cap opens the door and steps back inside to let Heddie and Hal know what they’re about to do, and Holly goes to her office to grab the keys. She makes a pit stop in the laundry room and pulls a clean, white hotel robe off its hanger on the rack for Fiona.

  It takes about ten minutes to get Hal rolled onto a stretcher, secured with velcro straps, and carried over to Poinsettia Plaza (in the end, Cap and Jimmy do the heavy-lifting, with Fiona directing everyone in her white bathrobe and stethoscope). Fiona spends an hour behind the closed door of her exam room, giving Hal X-rays and a thorough physical to check for broken bones and internal bleeding while the word spreads across the island that tragedy has narrowly been avoided. By the time she gets Hal settled into the only hospital bed she has and gives him enough pain medicine to keep him comfortable, the islanders are starting to gather over in the B&B’s dining room.

  Bonnie is the first person Holly calls, and she comes over right away wearing a velvety black sweatsuit and clean white Keds. Her reading glasses dangle from a chain around her neck as she bustles around the dining room, asking whether people want coffee, tea, or sparkling water. Iris Cafferkey has enlisted Maggie Sutter to help her in the kitchen, and they’re sifting through the refrigerator and the cupboards, trying to piece together enough food to put out so that people can nibble nervously while they wait for news.

  Fiona strides across the paved street in a pair of flip-flops and the robe, hands shoved into the deep pockets like it’s a lab coat. “Is my other patient handy?” she asks Holly, black bag in hand.

  “I’ll take you to him.” Holly gets up from behind the front desk and leads the way to the Sea Turtle Suite. She knocks softly on the door and Vance opens it a crack. He pulls it open all the way when he sees that it’s Holly and Fiona.

  With Hal transported over to Fiona’s office, Vance and Calista have moved into the room with Mori
, who is on the bed next to his brother. They’ve bathed Mori and wrapped him in clean towels, but neither parent wanted to leave his side to drive home for new clothes, so they’ve simply tucked him into bed with Mexi. Holly watches the boys in awe as they curl around one another in a deep, untroubled sleep, their hot breath warming one another’s cheeks.

  Calista stands up and crosses the room. Without a word, she throws her arms around Fiona and buries her face in the fuzzy shoulder of her white robe. The women are both petite and of similar size, and Holly and Vance stand there while they clutch one another like sisters. Calista cries with relief.

  “Thank you,” she whispers. “Thank you for finding my baby. Thank you for saving him.” Calista pulls back and wipes under both of her eyes.

  “It was lucky I was there,” Fiona says, swiping at her own eyes. “I just came for a late night swim, and I happened to walk in at the right time.”

  “Some might say luck, some would say divine intervention,” Vance says in his rumbling voice, putting his hands together and holding his fingertips in front of his mouth in gratitude and prayer. His tall frame fills the room.

  “Either way, Mori is a lucky little boy,” Fiona says, smiling at both of them. “Things could have ended differently.”

  “Is he going to be okay—I mean, long-term?” Calista asks. Her eyes brim with hope and trepidation.

  Fiona levels her gaze at Vance and Calista. “I don’t know how long he was in the water.” It’s an honest answer, but one that doesn’t necessarily give the Guys what they want to hear. “We should let him sleep tonight. Tomorrow we’ll make arrangements to get him to Key West. They’ll want to run more tests at the hospital and then go from there.”

  “He was talking while we had him in the bathtub,” Calista says, nodding at Vance. “Right, honey?”

  “He said he was sorry for running away, and that he just wanted to show us that he could swim.” Vance looks at his wife. “Calista told the boys yesterday that they weren’t allowed to go near the pool or the beach without us, but he thought that because he watched the Olympics, he knew how to swim.”

  “How did he get into the pool area?” Holly finally asks the question that’s been weighing on her since the moment she arrived on the scene. The safety of anyone visiting the B&B is her responsibility, and she’s been combing through her mind, trying to figure out how he might have gotten in. “I feel responsible for him having access to it in the first place, but all of my fences and locks are up to code, so…”

  “No, Holly,” Calista says, holding up a hand. “Don’t even go there. Jimmy said they found an outdoor table that Mori must have dragged over from the coffee shop and used to climb over the fence. He was determined to get in that pool, no matter how many things you did right.”

  Relief and horror wash over Holly in equal parts as she accepts that her own negligence hadn’t played any part in Mori’s ending up in the pool.

  “I need you guys to stay awake tonight—you might want to do it in shifts,” Fiona instructs, bending over Mori as he sleeps. She watches as his eyes flicker beneath his lids. The long, dark fringe of lashes that rim his hazel eyes brushes against his soft cheek. “Just stay here in this room for the night. Keep an eye on him, make sure he’s breathing normally, and if he wakes up and wants anything then you should be right there to comfort him.”

  “Of course,” Calista says.

  “If anything at all happens—if he throws up, feels dizzy, or seems disoriented—call me on my cell phone, okay? Doesn’t matter what time.” Fiona picks up the pad and pen on the nightstand between the beds and scribbles her phone number on it.

  “We will. Thank you.” Vance takes the sheet of paper from Fiona’s hand as she and Holly walk to the door. “If nothing happens tonight, then we’ll talk to you in the morning, right?” he asks.

  “I’ll make arrangements for transport to Key West first thing in the morning,” Fiona promises. She and Holly step into the hallway. They wait until the door clicks shut and Vance locks it. “I’ve been here for, what, two years? And all I’ve seen so far are hemorrhoids and bunions. Now all of a sudden we’ve got traffic accidents, near-drownings, miscarriages…” Fiona leans her back against the banana leaf wallpaper. Her wild strawberry waves are nearly dry after jumping into the pool to save Mori, and the frizz of her long hair frames her tired face.

  “You okay, Fee?” Holly puts her back against the wall so that she’s standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Fiona. “What can I do for you?”

  “I need to run back to the office to make sure Hal’s sleeping comfortably. I also need to call Lower Keys Medical to let them know that Mori will be headed their way tomorrow. But then I want a burger,” she looks down at the robe, gesturing at it with one hand, “some underwear, and dry clothes.”

  Holly nods at each request. “I can arrange all of those things.”

  Fiona pushes herself away from the wall, straightening the stethoscope around her neck. She’s partway down the hall, flip-flops slapping against the carpet, when she turns to Holly. “Oh, and if you’re going to delegate duties, then send Bonnie to dig through the underwear drawer in my house, not one of the men, okay?”

  Holly laughs. “Got it.”

  “And one more thing: see if you can’t get Buckhunter to mix me up a strong screwdriver and send it over here with the burger.”

  “In a to-go cup with a straw?” Holly jokes.

  “That’ll work,” Fiona says. “See you in twenty.”

  Chapter 28

  “Here’s what we know,” Holly says, presiding over the informal gathering at the Jingle Bell Bistro two nights after Mori was found in the pool. “Vance’s mom has agreed to come down here and give them a hand with the boys for a while, just to see how it goes.”

  “Amen!” Mrs. Agnelli says, putting both arthritic hands in the air.

  “It might not be a permanent solution,” Holly warns, “but it will at least allow the family to get used to island life, and it will allow us the time to put some things in place.”

  The crowd has gathered after dark at Iris and Jimmy Cafferkey’s restaurant, and while the invitations were passed furtively from ear to ear and phone to phone, they’ve intentionally chosen not to extend an invite to Jake and Bridget, to Hal Pillory, or to Vance and Calista. This semi-secret meeting allows the islanders the opportunity to discuss things off the record—something they can’t do at a normal village council meeting.

  “To that end,” Bonnie says, standing up and sliding her reading glasses up her nose, “Holly and I have come up with some ideas.”

  “We won’t get anywhere without some good ideas,” Wyatt Bender says, tapping the table in front of him with two weathered fingers as he waits for whatever Bonnie has to say.

  “As luck would have it,” Bonnie shifts her gaze to Wyatt, “you’re on my list of people to impose upon, Mr. Bender.”

  “Please, Miss Lane, impose upon me to your heart’s content.” Wyatt raises an eyebrow at Bonnie and elicits laughter from the crowd.

  “Oh, you mind your manners, you dirty cowboy.” Bonnie leans forward and swats Wyatt on the knee with the stack of white papers in her hand.

  Holly reaches for the papers and Bonnie passes them to her. “I’ll hand them out,” she says, walking through the crowd and giving a sheet to each person. “What we’ve come up with is a fairly comprehensive—if not official in the eyes of the state’s Board of Education—curriculum of activities for the kids,” Holly explains. “Even with Vance’s mother here on the island, we need to consider ways to contribute to the growth of our youngest Christmas Key residents.”

  People around the room pull reading glasses from shirt pockets and hold the sheets out in front of them at a distance in order to see the words.

  “Now,” Holly says, coming back to stand next to Bonnie. “Several of you have reservations about little ones roaming our island, but I think there’s strong a possibility that Mexi and Mori won’t always be the only kids on Christmas K
ey.”

  “Are Jake and Bridget going to give it another go?” Cap frowns.

  “Maybe they’ll get married first this time.” Mrs. Agnelli gives a disapproving shake of her head.

  “No,” Holly assures them. “I don’t think so. I just meant that we might have other people wanting to move here at some point, and those people might have kids. I mean—maybe. I don’t know.” She feels flustered at the thought of Jake and Bridget trying for another baby. In fact, it brings her to the next topic of conversation. “Actually, my understanding is that Bridget and Jake are splitting up.”

  Holly watches her neighbors’ faces to see if any of them register shock at this news; most don’t.

  “When is she leaving?” Buckhunter asks, as succinct and to-the-point as always.

  “Well,” Holly stalls. “I’m not sure. All I know is that they broke up and she’s leaving at some point.”

  “Now you and Jake can get back together!” Mrs. Agnelli says, snapping her fingers like she’s just come up with a fabulous idea.

  “That is—wow,” Holly laughs nervously. “That’s not even a discussion point.”

  “Maybe it should be,” Maria Agnelli says.

  Holly claps her hands together and pretends not to hear this last comment. “Okay, the next thing we need to discuss is Hal.”

  “Oh, sweet Hal,” Millie Bradford says, putting one hand over her heart and looking around at the people sitting closest to her. “That poor dear.”

  “He’s had a rough go of it,” Holly agrees. “But Fiona got him all patched up.”

  “Again,” Fiona points out.

  “Yes, again—and we called his daughter in Ohio to talk about what happened.”

  “What did happen?” Jimmy Cafferkey is standing at the back of the crowd near the window that opens onto his kitchen. He’s still wearing a stained apron over his red t-shirt and khaki shorts, and he’s got a snug, white skull cap covering his gray hair.

  “We all know that Hal is the one who’s been digging all the holes around here, but now we know why.” Holly leans against the edge of the table behind her. The bistro has been re-set for breakfast the next morning, and Iris and Emily look tired as they sit in a booth in the back near Jimmy. Running the bistro keeps them busy, and they work incredibly hard. Holly smiles at the Cafferkey women and goes on. “So, the night we found out that he was the one behind the holes, he ran away from me and Vance and disappeared. Not long after that he was hit by Cap and Heddie’s golf cart in Turtle Dove Estates.”