Rock Harbor Search and Rescue (29 page)

“Emily, wait.” He grabbed her elbow. “Please. Just come with me, and I’ll explain everything.” His tanned face had gone two shades paler.

She chewed her bottom lip. Mrs. Dancer and the sheriff hadn’t really given her much opportunity to explain. Then again, she’d been innocent. Brandon wasn’t. The proof hung around his neck.

“Please, just hear me out. I didn’t steal it. Just hear me out. In private. If this gets out, I’ll never be able to get into a good college.”

“What do you mean, you didn’t steal it? You’re wearing it! I don’t understand.” But she wouldn’t want to be the reason he was in trouble if he was innocent. “Okay, I’ll listen.”

Brandon kept his hand under her elbow and led her away from the beach, up toward town. He kept a steady hold on her as they passed the tavern and ducked down an alley.

She dug in her heels. “I don’t want to go any farther.”

“I don’t want to be overheard.” He yanked on her arm and half dragged her deeper behind the storefronts. She took in a deep breath as they stopped in back of Rock Harbor Savings and Loan.

Brandon turned to face her. “I know what you must think.”

Emily crossed her arms over her chest. How could he know what she thought when she didn’t even know what she thought?

“I didn’t steal the necklace. Aunt Mary gave it to my mother.”

“I don’t understand. You mean your aunt had it all along?”

Brandon fingered the necklace and nodded. “Aunt Mary needed to sell more of her jewelry because the bank threatened to foreclose on her house. She couldn’t afford to run any ads in the paper or anything, so she decided she’d report her necklace
missing from the festival. It would give her publicity and probably up her sales with people wanting to own something that was worth enough to be stolen.”

Emily’s mouth went drier. “She set me up?” It was hard for her to imagine that the lady whose talent she’d admired for years would set her up.

Brandon shook his head. “You were never part of the deal, at least from what I understand. Aunt Mary planned to report the necklace missing, but she didn’t even know your booth was going to be beside hers.” He rested a heavy hand on her shoulder.

She shrugged it off. “But she didn’t just report it missing, Brandon. She put my copy in its place.” The memory of Mrs. Dancer’s glare made her burn from the inside out. “She even went so far as to suggest I only made a replica because I’d planned to steal hers.” The sheriff sure seemed to give that some serious consideration too.

“That wasn’t planned, as far as I know, Emily.”

“So she just took advantage of the opportunity? Made my parents think I was irresponsible or a thief?” Anger slipped into her blood. “Accepted my earnings my parents made me give her while all the time she had the necklace?”

“I’m so sorry, Emily. Really, I am. You weren’t supposed to be involved.”

“What was she going to do? She couldn’t very well sell the necklace, not with the police looking for it.”

His eyes pleaded with her to understand. “Her plan was to take it apart and just make other pieces with the fused glass and beads.”

Emily pointed to his necklace. “Apparently she didn’t.”

“My mother saw it the next day. She recognized it from the
picture in the paper.”

“And?”

“Well, Mom confronted her about it. Mom never wanted her to sell it in the first place—it was blessed so it should stay in the tribe. Aunt Mary explained how the bank was going to take her house. She begged Mom to keep quiet. What could Mom say? That’s her sister.”

Well, Emily could understand . . . kinda. She wouldn’t want Timmy to lose his house. But that still didn’t explain him wearing the necklace. “So why didn’t she take it apart like she’d originally planned?”

“Aunt Mary had the necklace blessed by some of our tribal leaders. It truly is blessed with protection against the Windigo. If the necklace was taken apart, the protection would be gone. Any pieces she tried to reuse would prevent any further blessing from that new item.”

“You really believe that Windigo stuff?”

Brandon nodded. “I told you I believe in good and evil.”

“God is good, not some enchantment charm on some necklace. Windigos aren’t real. Evil, real evil, is sin.”

Brandon shook his head. “My elders wouldn’t say the Windigo was real unless it was true. And this necklace did protect me. Like the night we searched and found the kid.”

“That necklace had nothing to do with any protection, Brandon.” The more she talked, the more certain she was that everything she’d been taught was true. “God loves us all. He protects us. He made sure that we found Pansy and returned safely. Not a stupid necklace. The Bible tells us not to make idols like that but to put our trust and faith in God.”

Brandon didn’t look at all convinced. But she couldn’t make
someone accept the truth. “So why did your aunt give your mom the necklace anyway? Wasn’t she worried someone would see it, like I did?”

“Mom told Aunt Mary she wanted to give it to me, knowing the competition was coming up and that some of our elders had said the Windigo was on the prowl. They both wanted to make sure I was protected.”

“What your aunt did was wrong. Lying about something being stolen is fraud. It’s a crime. And you and your mom not saying anything, that was wrong too.”

“It’s not so bad. I mean, nobody got hurt. Nobody lost anything.”

That made her angry. “It hurt me and my reputation. I lost the money I’d made at the festival—my dad made me give it to your aunt because her necklace went missing while I was responsible for it.”

“I’ll pay you back.” Brandon took a step closer to her.

She shook her head. “My reputation got hurt. People thought I might have something to do with it.”

“Not really. Everyone knows what a goody-goody you are.”

Her face grew hotter. Was that how people thought of her? As a goody-goody? Well, maybe she was. “That doesn’t matter, Brandon. It’s wrong.”

Her cell phone rang. She fished it out of her jacket pocket and glanced at the caller ID. It was Olivia.

Brandon snatched it from her hand before she could answer.

“Give me back my phone.” She reached for it, but he raised it over her head.

She curled her hands into fists at her side. “I said, give it back.”

“You have to agree not to say anything. I’ll get your money back, I promise.” He sounded desperate.

She took a step toward him. “Give me my phone. Now.”

He turned off the phone. “Let it go, Emily. Seriously. Just let it go.” His face twisted. “I’m not going to let you mess up my future.”

Suddenly she wasn’t sure about him.
Oh, God, I don’t know
what to do. He’s scaring me. I don’t know what to say. Please help
me. Nobody knows where I am. I need your help.

She grabbed her phone from his grip but didn’t take the time to turn it back on. There was no telling what he’d do. “Brandon, you have to do the right thing. No matter what. Lying is wrong, even if it’s for family.” She took two steps backward, toward the mouth of the alley. “God loves you, and he’ll take care of you, but you have to do what’s right.”

Brandon didn’t say anything, just stared at her like she’d grown another head. “I can’t tell anyone or the Windigo will come for me. My aunt knows about these things, and she told me what it would do.”

Her mouth went dry. “One of my favorite Bible verses is Psalm 106:3: ‘Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.’ That means God blesses those who do what’s right. You need to tell Sheriff Kaleva the truth. What your aunt did. The truth. All of it.”

He shook his head. “I’ll get into a lot of trouble. I’ll probably get kicked off the surf team, and there’s no way I’ll get into a college like Stanford with a criminal record.”

“Maybe you won’t get in trouble. Your aunt is to blame for this—not you. Sure, you should have told someone, but just wearing the necklace isn’t a crime. You have the chance to come forward on your own. That will account for a lot, I think.” She turned and headed toward the beach.

Brandon stepped in front of her. “You can’t tell anyone.”

Fear gripped her by the throat, but she couldn’t show it. “I have to tell the truth, Brandon. And you should want to.”

He reached out, grabbing her arm. Her heart beat double time.

The foghorn sounded out across the water, and the sound sent shivers up Emily’s spine. “Please, Brandon, you need to do the right thing here.” She pulled away from his tight grip, and he let her go.

She pointed at the necklace around his neck. “That won’t protect you from God’s disapproval. What you and your aunt did was wrong. You need to tell the sheriff the truth.”

He hesitated. “I can’t bring shame to my family.”

“There’s no shame in telling the truth. You aunt is the one who should be ashamed.”

His face worked, and he swallowed hard. “I don’t know what to do.” He looked like he was about to cry.

A bark came behind her, and she whirled to see Samson running full speed toward her. He skidded to a stop in front of her and leaped onto her leg with his tail wagging fast enough to make a breeze. Well, almost.

She fell to her knees and threw her arms around him. “My family will be right behind him, you know.” Moments later Charley arrived and went into a near spasm of joy at finding her. She endured the licks and excitement.

Brandon backed away and turned toward the other end of the alley as if to run.

“Don’t run, Brandon,” she said. “Be brave and face this. Tell Sheriff Kaleva what really happened. If you don’t, I will.”

He hesitated for a long moment, then covered his face with his hands. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have gotten involved in this. I knew all along it was wrong. I’m so sorry you were accused, Emily.”

Bree’s voice came from down Kitchigami. “Samson!”

Emily released the hero of a dog, and he seized a stick, then ran off. He would lead them here in moments. Charley wasn’t about to leave her. Dusting off her hands, she rose and stood by Brandon. “I’ll help you.”

His shoulders sagged. “What will they do to me?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not like you stole it. Your aunt owned it and gave it to your mom, who gave it to you.”

“I’m an accessory though, right?”

“You’re a kid. And it was your family.” She was trying to encourage herself as much as him. She knew that there was a chance he could get in big trouble for this.

Samson barked, and Bree, with Naomi beside her, emerged out of the fog. The sheriff followed on their heels.

Naomi broke into a run and reached her first. She threw her arms around Emily and hugged her tight. Emily’s face was smashed into Naomi’s shoulder, smelling of woods and dog.

“I’m fine, Naomi,” she said, her voice muffled by Naomi’s jacket. “Brandon didn’t hurt me. He just wanted to talk.”

Naomi released her, and her brows gathered in a fierce frown. “This wasn’t like a date, was it?”

Emily’s cheeks felt like they were on fire. “No, no, nothing like that.” If she’d ever even thought about it before, she definitely couldn’t now.

Brandon stepped forward. “Emily’s trying to protect me, Mrs. O’Reilly, but I can’t let her. I did kind of force her to come with me.” He tugged on the necklace around his neck. “She saw this, and I wanted to talk her into keeping quiet about it.”

“The necklace?” Sheriff Kaleva asked with a hand on his holster belt. “You took the necklace?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly.”

Emily couldn’t stand to watch him struggle. “His aunt took her own necklace for the publicity. She was going to recycle the glass and make something else, but Brandon’s mom talked her out of it.”

The sheriff put his hand on her shoulder gently. “Let him talk, Emily.”

She hung her head. “Sorry.”

Brandon took off the necklace and stared at it. “It’s blessed, and my mom didn’t want my aunt to mess with the magic.” He held out his hand. “Here’s the necklace. I wanted to say something, but I was afraid. My aunt told me that the Windigo would come for me if I told anyone. And I didn’t want to get my aunt into trouble.”

The sheriff took the necklace from Brandon and dropped it into his front shirt pocket.

Emily clenched her hands together. “He couldn’t really turn in his own family, Sheriff. You don’t have to arrest him, do you?”

The sheriff hesitated, then shook his head. “It was his aunt’s property, and she gave it to his mother, who gave it to him. If anyone did something illegal, it was his aunt for filing a fake police report.” The sheriff took off his hat and rubbed his hair. “I guess I’d best go arrest Mary Dancer for filing a false police report.” He stared hard at the boy. “It says a lot that you told the truth now. I’ll make sure the DA knows you told me what really happened.”

Brandon sagged with visible relief. “Thanks, Sheriff. And my mom?”

“We’ll see what the DA says. I hope you know better than to do something like this again, Brandon.”

“I do, sir. Absolutely.”

The sheriff glanced at Naomi and Bree. “I assume you can handle this from here and get Emily home. Brandon, come with me.”