Page 89 of Echoes at Driftwood Cottage

Theo smiled. “But law enforcement has tools that private individuals don’t have.” He stepped out into the hallway and motioned for a woman about Rowan’s age to enter the conference room.

The woman had a wide smile and sparkling eyes that scanned the room until she found her brother. “Willie! Oh, my God, Willie!”

“Hallie,” Will called out scrambling out of his chair and skirting the table. He wrapped his arms around his sister, who by now had tears streaming down her face. “I’ve waited for this day for so long.”

“I thought you were dead. They told me you were dead.”

“I never gave up hope of seeing you again. Even though everyone told me I was ridiculous for thinking like that, I knew you were alive.”

“How did you do that?” Rowan asked Theo in wonder.

Theo shrugged. “Brent assigned me the task of tracking her down. With a little persuasion, I found a judge who unsealed all the adoption records that looked fishy. Hallie’s had all the earmarks of forged signatures and phony paperwork. Will’s persistence didn’t hurt, either. Or yours, Rowan.”

“Thank you,” Rowan said, giving Theo a hug. “I hope you realize you’ve made Will’s year.”

Daniel stuck out his hand to shake Theo’s. “If it’s any consolation my start here wasn’t without its rocky road. No pun intended. I should’ve mentioned that earlier.”

“It’s okay. I’m settling in, beginning to like the town a lot. How about you, Rowan, are you sticking around?”

“Absolutely.” She looped an arm through Daniel’s. “Believe it or not, I love it here. I’m glad I made the move, even though it seems like I’ve turned my world upside down.” She laid her head on Daniel’s shoulder. “As a bonus, I found this guy. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find the happiness you seek right here.”

“If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about, I’m done with relationships,” Theo declared. “I’m off all that. Never again.”

“You’ve jinxed it now,” Daniel cracked. “Never say never. Life has a way of laughing at that sentiment and shoving it in your face.”

Eastlyn came up next to Rowan. “What will you do with the reward money?”

“That’s easy,” Rowan said glancing over at the Will and Hallie reunion. “The look on their faces when they saw each other is worth tracking down the rest of the kids who were adopted and reuniting them with their families. The worst thing Lynette did wasn’t running an illegal adoption racket. Murdering my parents puts her at rock bottom. But I can try to make it up to the rest of the kids by helping them find their birth parents. Let’s hope it isn’t too late.”

“We’ll make sure they get the chance to have their own reunion,” Daniel whispered, taking her hand. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll buy you an ice cream cone.”

Epilogue

Two weeks later

Smuggler’s Bay

At the height of summer, on a Sunday afternoon, Daniel found Rowan standing near the pier looking out over the shimmering water in the bay. She wore a tiered summer dress in bold green and white. She’d left her red-gold hair loose around her shoulders. In her hands, she held two large-sized disposable cups from The Perky Pelican.

“You look like you’re a million miles away,” Daniel commented, eyeing the coffee. “Is one of those for me? Or are you looking for a major caffeine rush?”

She grinned and handed off one of the cups. “No. Just doing some serious soul-searching. I’ve decided to keep Driftwood Cottage.”

“I didn’t realize you were thinking of letting it go.”

“Will offered to buy it. And Eastlyn assured me the cadaver dogs she brought to the house that day didn’t pick up the scent of any dead bodies. So there’s that. I mean, I still have good memories of living there with a lady who could be very sweet when she wanted to be. Lynette hid her dark side very well. I think back to what Tansy Perkins told us. Remember? She said she feared something wasn’t right about that place. Seems like she had Lynette pegged all along. But in the end, Driftwood Cottage is just a house, not sinister or otherwise. So, I’m keeping it and fixing it up the way I want. Despite what Lynette did, she was good to me. How was I supposed to know she had this dark past that included murder, a drug empire, and hoarding insane amounts of cash in an overseas account?”

Daniel took a sip from his coffee and leaned his elbows against the railing. “I can’t believe she tried to kill Gwynn. Of course, we didn’t see any of this coming when we started down this road.”

“For me, I have big questions about Gwynn. Under what circumstances did Lynette steal her? And from where exactly? Is Gwynn from Arizona, from the time Lynette spent with Jim?”

“We’ll never know.”

“Maybe not but Will and Hallie offered to help me track down Gwynn’s relatives, if there are any, along with the other adoptees.”

“What happened to Jim’s Dodge Prospector? I haven’t seen it since Theo brought it back from the lab.”

“Yeah, well, Jim’s pickup had to go. Wally found a buyer for it in Redding. So I won’t have to look at it again. I couldn’t keep it around knowing they used it to dispose of the bodies, could I?” She held up her new set of car keys and pointed toward Ocean Street. “I bought something a little more appropriate for living at the beach.”

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