Page 52 of The Glass Dolphin

“I think Rose Worthington was a member of the Coalition,” Alice said slowly. She took back the aged paper and slipped it back into the box. “Women couldn’t be members, but we have a witness who says she came to meetings all the time. She was close with some of the leadership in the Sixties, before she turned the lighthouse duties over to her son.”

“So are you saying she never sold it?” Mom asked.

Alice nodded. “I think it might’ve been a publicity stunt. I have a source who says Rose was close with the writer of the paper. She’s seen at Coalition meetings.” She let the words hang there. “And here’s the real smoking gun.”

She took out a folder that couldn’t have more than a dozen pages in it. “She got one check per year from the Coalition. She didn’t write the checktothem. She got itfromthem.”

“The Coalition doesn’t pay its members,” Robin said quickly. “You pay dues to belong to it.”

“Okay,” Clara said, eager to see the contents of the folder.

Alice finally opened it, and she handed each person a paper from it. Clara’s had a copy of a check on it, made out to Rose Worthington, from the Coalition in 1955. “One thousand dollars.” She looked up, trying to make this piece fit in. “Alice?”

“She got paid from the Coalition,” she said. “The only people who get paid from the Coalition are the officers.”

“But women couldn’t be officers.” Jean looked up from her paper too.

“She was acting like one, even if she wasn’t on the official records,” Alice said. “Someone was paying her, and she attended the meetings.”

“I think the title was burned in the fire,” Robin said. “But if we still had it, it would have Rose’s name on it. I don’t think she ever sold the lighthouse.”

“I agree with Robin.”

Robin’s face split into a grin. “Don’t worry, I got her to say that while I was recording.” The two of them laughed, but Clara had a hard time joining in.

“Okay.” Her mother ran her hands through her hair. “So what do I do now?’

“Now, I’m going to file—with your permission—with the state of Massachusetts to get a replacement title, in Reuben’s name, as we should be transferring titles when a new owner takes over the lighthouse, according to the Destroyed Public Records Act.” She took back the papers and refiled them.

“I’ll argue the case before the judge, and we’ll see what happens.” She sat back, then sprang to her feet. “I need another cookie.”

“She went to yoga with Kelli this morning,” Robin explained. “She’s acting like it rejuvenated her metabolism.”

“It was a metabolic class,” Alice called from the kitchen. “I’m starving.”

“Yeah,” Robin said under her breath. “She’s starving.”

That finally coaxed a smile from Clara, and she looked over to her mother. She wiped at her eyes quickly, and Clara got up and went to hug her. They didn’t say anything as they embraced, and Clara was so glad she’d returned to the cove to rebuild specifically this relationship.

“Thank you, Clara.”

“I didn’t do anything, Mom.”

“You’re here,” she said, and that seemed to mean so much.

ChapterNineteen

Maddy tapped on the tablet in the back of The Glass Dolphin, her shoulders feeling like someone had been winching them tighter and tighter all day long. She had been working a lot in the past few weeks, because she only had six more weeks until her wedding.

She’d be taking time off then—two full weeks—and she didn’t want any of her employees to feel like she wasn’t willing to pull her weight around the restaurant.

“Taylor,” she said to her head waitress. “I’m off, but I’m having a meeting in the Sands, okay?”

“Sounds good, Maddy,” the woman said. “I’ll come get you if I need anything.”

“Darren will be here in an hour.” They’d reached the dead time of day, when hardly anyone came to eat. At The Glass Dolphin, that hour stretched from three to four p.m, as plenty of ladies came for a late lunch and lingered over cocktails.

She went back out into the front of the restaurant, unsurprised to catch her hostess taking Robin into the Sands. Maddy detoured to the restroom quickly, washed her hands thoroughly, and went to join her friend and wedding planner in the small conference room.

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