Tied Up with a Bow Read online

  As she scanned the room, she realized that the construction guys were still in the crowd. Sean had cornered Mick and they were talking intently. She didn’t see Danny, but she’d guess he’d found another hidey-hole, probably near Mick. She decided to talk to the foreman.

  “Paddy, you guys about finished with your sculpture building?”

  “Close enough. We’ll add a few touches in the mornin’, and then we’ll unveil it after church. Yeh’d better order another keg.”

  “And what’s to stop anyone from sneaking a peek at it before morning?”

  “One or another of us will hang around and keep an eye on things. But yer raffle will be over by closin’ tonight?”

  “It will. I don’t think this will stay a secret long. I’ll announce the winner and his—or her—guess when you take off the tarps. Will a garda be there to handle traffic?”

  “No worries—we’re set.”

  Maura went back to the bar, where Mick and Sean seemed to have wrapped up their conversation. She spied Danny where she thought he might be, tucked under the bar, and smiled at him. Sean said, “I’d best be going over to the inn. Near closing, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” Maura agreed. “We’ll talk tomorrow, right?”

  “That we will. Danny?” Sean said, without looking down. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, and Maura will see to yeh after that.” Danny nodded silently.

  After Sean had left, Maura announced last call, not that she stuck rigidly to it, but there were things to do before anyone got any sleep. “We’ll announce the winner of the raffle prize at the unveiling tomorrow. You’ve still got half an hour to make your guesses about that thing we’ve been looking at for days.” Maura held up the entry jar, which had grown much heavier and clinked in a satisfying way.

  There was some minor grumbling in the crowd, but nobody argued with her.

  Sean hadn’t come back when Maura ushered the last customer out. Maybe he was just being cautious, making sure that as few people as possible saw Hannah sneak in. While she waited, she leaned toward Mick. “Did he tell you . . . ?”

  “He did. It’s a daft plan, but I can’t say I can think of a better one. I only hope he finds something tomorrow. Or later today as it happens. We’re all stayin’ here, the rest of the night.”

  “Looks that way. Safety in numbers, right?

  Chapter Eleven

  When Sean returned with Hannah, she looked both terrified and exhausted, but she brightened up when she spotted Danny, who had crept out from behind the bar once all the patrons had left. Danny was clearly fighting to stay awake, but the sight of his mother, safe and sound, perked him up quickly and he ran into her arms.

  Maura looked past her at Sean. “No problems?”

  “No,” he said, “not once I arrived, and not earlier. I took some time to talk to Hannah, though Anne had no wish to listen.”

  “Hannah, are you all right?” Maura asked her.

  Hannah smiled weakly. “Fer now, God be praised. I’m sorry I’ve brought such trouble to this little town, but I’d no idea where else to go. I’ll just take my son and be on my way now.”

  “No!” Maura said, surprising herself with her own vehemence. “Didn’t Sean explain? You can stay here with us for the night—we’ve got rooms upstairs—and tomorrow Sean will see what he can find out about the man who’s after you, and whether your sister is all right. If you leave now, or even if we take you to where you’re staying, you won’t be safe. I know I’d feel awful if something happened to you. And you have to think of Danny.”

  Where had all that come from? Maura had to wonder. But clearly Hannah needed help, and Maura could offer help, along with Mick. It was that simple. People in this village—and beyond—helped each other. She glanced at Mick, standing silently behind the bar, and he gave her a slight nod. “Look, like I said, we’ve got a couple of rooms upstairs, with beds. They aren’t fancy, but they’re clean. Stay here for tonight, and we’ll figure things out in the morning.”

  Hannah looked drained. She stared at Maura for a long moment, still holding her son, and finally nodded. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll show you where to go,” Maura said, relieved. “There’s a bathroom up there too. And you know we won’t open until past noon tomorrow, so there’s no rush.”

  Hannah leaned over and whispered something to Danny, who looked like he was asleep on his feet. Maura headed for the stairs that led up to the bedrooms. Hannah and Danny followed silently. Maura was glad to see that Rose had put sheets on the beds and found some towels—old and a bit tattered, but clean. It would do. “This okay?” Maura asked. She was about to leave, but then she stopped. “Hannah, please don’t try to sneak out, thinking you’d be helping us. We know you’ve got a serious problem, and we want to help, all of us. Give us a chance to work things out, will you?”

  “I won’t leave without tellin’ yeh I’m goin’.”

  “Fair enough. Good night.”

  Back downstairs Sean, Rose and Mick were still in the front room, perched on stools in front of the bar. “I told her not to leave,” Maura said. “I asked her to stay until we could help her. Doesn’t sound much like me, does it?”

  Mick reached out and pulled her against him. “In fact it does. Don’t run yerself down.”

  Maura leaned against him for a moment, then turned around. “So, tomorrow. Sean, you’re going to do whatever the gardaí do to find out what happened in Dublin. Mick and I will stay here and keep things going at the pub. Rose, you should stay the night too—if we let you go, the man could be watching and he may still want to know where Hannah is and try to get you to tell him. In the morning I’m hoping that Hannah will explain what’s going on, at least to me—I don’t know if she’ll be up for talking to all of us at once. But I think there are things we need to know that might not matter to the gardaí. As for the pub, we can read the entries not long after opening—and I never said people had to be here to win—and then we can announce the winner when the sculpture is unveiled. So right now we should go to bed and get some sleep! And thanks for helping. I couldn’t do this alone.”

  “Good night, then, Maura,” Sean said. “I’ll let yeh know what I find. Take care, all of yiz.”

  Maura locked the door behind him after he left. Rose volunteered, “Let me clean up. You and Mick can go on. I won’t be long.”

  “Thanks, Rose. And thanks for fixing up the rooms.”

  “Yeh said we might be needin’ them. All three of ’em. Good night.”

  As they went up the stairs, Maura told Mick, “Tactful, isn’t she?”

  “About who’s goin’ to sleep where? She figured out how the wind blows a while ago.”

  • • •

  The next morning Maura crept down the stairs and was surprised to see Hannah in the main room, trying to figure out the coffee maker. “Danny still asleep?” she asked quietly.

  “He is. I never meant to drag him into all of this. So, you and Mick?” Hannah quirked an eyebrow.

  “Yup, for a few months now. Long story. You want to come with me to see if there’s any food in the kitchen? We’ve been thinking about making it into a real kitchen and serving food, but it hasn’t happened yet.” Maybe being alone with Hannah in the back room would let her open up a bit.

  Hannah followed Maura to the back of the building, where the kitchen had been shoehorned in. “Needs a bit of work,” Hannah said.

  “That it does. But at least everything works, including the stove. You hungry?”

  “I must be. I can’t remember if I ate anything yesterday, what with . . . the problems.”

  “I think we’ve got some eggs and rashers, and some stale bread. And coffee, of course. Or tea, if you’d prefer that.” Maura turned away from the refrigerator, where she’d been rummaging. “Look, let me get this out of the way and then I’ll shut up. Have you committed any crime?”

  Hannah looked startled. “What, me? No!”

  “You know who the man who’s after you is?”
>
  Hannah hesitated. “I do. And I know why he’s chasin’ after us.”

  “Which is?”

  “He’s Danny’s father.”

  Ah. Well, that made a certain amount of sense, although it didn’t explain anything. “Danny said he’d never known him.”

  “That’s because he’s been in prison since Danny was a baby.”

  “Did he serve his time, or did he just escape?”

  “He got a four-year sentence. He beat up a man in a pub in Dublin, near killed him. He just got out.”

  “And why is he hunting for you? Does he want to see Danny?”

  “He’s not one for children. No, he thinks it’s my fault he was caught and tried. Clearly he’s been gnawing on that fer years now. Before you ask, all I ever did was refuse to hide him, and pointed the gardaí to where I thought he might be.”

  “For Danny’s sake?”

  “Yes. I needed to keep him safe, and meself as well, since I was the only person who could look after him. The thing is, Jack was hidin’ out at me sister’s place. They’d been carrying on since I got pregnant with Danny. He must have gone to her when he got out, and she’d know where to find me. She didn’t dare show her face to me when he got out. I don’t know if they’re together now, but I wasn’t going to stick round to find out.”

  Was that why she’d stopped coming around to watch Danny after school? “So if it’s not that he wants Danny back, then he wants his revenge on you.”

  “That’d be my guess. I don’t know what to do. He’s a big man, strong, and angry most of the time, or he was, and if the shambles he made of the house are any clue, he still is. He thinks life hasn’t treated him fair. And he can’t think I have any money to give him, so the only reason he’d hunt me down is to punish me. Can the gardaí arrest someone for what he might do?”

  “Heck, I don’t know. Sean’s the only garda I know to talk to. Do you think your ex would have harmed your sister?”

  “Maura, I don’t know! He’s been no part of my life fer years now. All I’ve wanted is to raise my son and to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. I don’t wish Jack any harm, but I don’t want him in my life. Or Danny’s.”

  “Did he ever harm you while you were still together?”

  Hannah couldn’t meet Maura’s eyes. “Not that the gardaí knew about.”

  The sounded like a “yes” to Maura. “You could try to get whatever they call a restraining order over here, to keep him away from you.”

  “It’s a safety order here, I think. Anyways, Jack doesn’t hold with most laws—a piece of paper, or even the gardaí at the door, wouldn’t mean much to him. I can’t think what to do, only that I want to keep him away from Danny, and from me. If I never have to see him again, I’ll be happy. I wish I could think he’d found religion or become a new man in prison, but after what Danny told me about his smashing up the house, I don’t hold out much hope.”

  “Better to be safe. Let’s see what Sean finds out. He may look young, but he’s good at his job. So are the other guys at the station. Maybe if we band together we can talk him into leaving the country?”

  Danny stumbled in then and made a beeline for his mother. “I couldn’t find you and I got scared.”

  Hannah knelt and hugged him. “I only wanted a word with Maura, and you were asleep. Don’t worry, love—I won’t leave you. We’re facing this together. You hungry?”

  “I am that. Does that stove really work?” He eyed the rusty hulk dubiously.

  Hannah smiled. “Maura says it does. Shall we give it a try?”

  Mick arrived a few minutes later, while they were scrambling eggs, followed by Rose. “Is there enough fer us all?” he asked.

  “I hope so,” Maura told him. “If it’s not I’ll send you out on a hunting trip to get more.”

  “What’s the plan fer the rest of the day?” he asked, leaning on the doorjamb.

  “Unveiling’s in the early afternoon, I think—after church lets out. We’ll announce the winner of the raffle then. Sullivan’s will be open the usual hours, and we can hope for a crowd. And I’ll talk to Sean sometime during the day. Anybody want to add anything?”

  “No more entries into the raffle?” Rose asked.

  “No, we’re done with that,” Maura said. “It would be too easy to peek at Thing now. Although I have to say the builders really have it neatly tied up—even now you can’t tell what it is. I hope nobody gave it away.”

  “The builder guys were out there in the middle of the night,” Rose said. “I guess they had some finishing touches to add. And I thought I saw Seamus out there too.”

  “Seamus? What would he be doing there?”

  Rose shrugged. “I’ve no idea. But I’m sure it was him. No doubt he’ll be by later and we can ask him.”

  “At least the weather has worked out, and it’s not too cold. It would be a shame if it rained, now that we’ve created so much curiosity.”

  Once everyone had eaten, Hannah said, “I’d love to get some clean clothes for Danny and me. Would it be safe to walk to the place we’ve been stayin’, do yeh think?”

  “One of us can drive you,” Maura assured her. “And Danny can stay here and help clean the place up before we open.”

  “He’d be safer here, wouldn’t he?” Hannah said softly.

  “Don’t borrow trouble, Hannah. Mick, can you take her to her place?”

  “No worries. Is there anythin’ else we need while I’m out?”

  “I think we’re fixed for food. Just get Danny set up with the cleanup and you and Hannah can go.”

  While Rose washed up in the kitchen and Danny swept the floors and Mick and Hannah went off to find clean clothes, Maura went out in front to contemplate Thing. It wouldn’t be Thing much longer, though she still had no idea what it really was under all the wrappings. She noticed that a couple of the construction men were standing guard, so she crossed the street to chat with them.

  Paddy Daley called out as she approached, “Halt! Who goes there?” But Maura could see that he was grinning.

  “Just me,” Maura said. “You really are keeping this secret.”

  “That’s what yeh wanted, innit? Yeh’ll just have to wait, like all the rest. How’d your raffle do?”

  “I haven’t counted the guesses, or the euros, but I saw plenty of people putting their slips in the jar. I thought I’d wait until you unwrap the critter to announce the winner.”

  “Fair enough. We’ve asked that gardaí to send a man over to keep an eye on the traffic. Wouldn’t surprise me if drivers were so impressed by what we’ve made that they fergit to look where they’re driving.”

  “Good idea. It would be a shame if somebody had an accident. Who’s doing the official unveiling?”

  “I haven’t heard, but my lot plans to be here, just to watch the people’s expressions when we reveal our work.”

  “You’ve earned it, I’m sure. I’ll be back later—and thanks for keeping quiet about it. You’ll be stopping by Sullivan’s after, won’t you?”

  “We’ll do that.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Maura watched the traffic thicken on the road outside as people gathered for church, and calm down again once the midday service had begun. The builders poked around Thing on the other side of the road, mostly for show, because it was still wrapped up tight. They were joking around and looked very pleased with themselves.

  Sean Murphy appeared while church was still going on, and Maura let him in. “You’re here early.”

  “Is Hannah about?” he asked.

  “No, Mick took her back to get some clean clothes—they should be back any minute now. Anything you can talk about, or should you wait to tell Hannah first?”

  “I think she should know. I can tell yeh, we found the details on the man—Jack Barry.”

  “I already know a lot—Hannah told me this morning. He sounds like a real jerk.”

  “He is that. And there’s a warrant out fer his arrest, if we can f
ind him. Has he been here this mornin’?”

  “No, or not that we’ve seen. We all spent the night here, but it was quiet, and nobody’s stopped by this morning. Is the man dangerous?”

  “He is that, it’s safe to say. But we haven’t seen him yet today, and we’re not sure where to be looking fer him.”

  “What are we supposed to do?”

  “Jest keep yer eyes open and stick together. I’ll be outside keepin’ watch over the cars. I’ve no clue where people will be parkin’, to watch the launch of the sculpture. If they’re smart they’ll stay in the church lot and walk down here.”

  “Is this going to be a big thing?” Maura asked.

  “I’ve no idea. Last year was the first time, but word’s gone out now, and the weather’s fine. You’ll be servin’ the crowd?”

  “I will. And Anne, and the Harbor Bar, I’m sure. It should be nice to see the town get together for a happy event.”

  Sean leaned toward Maura. “I doubt that our man will make any trouble with a crowd around, and I’ll be front and center to watch fer him, but tell Hannah and the boy to stay close, will yeh? And if yeh have a chance, ask Seamus and his lot if they’ve seen him since yesterday, since they’d recognize the man.”

  “I’ll do that. I’m sure they won’t miss this event. And I won’t say anything to Hannah about what you’ve found out—let her enjoy the day, and we’ll keep watch.”

  “Glad to hear it, Maura. I’ll be seein’ yeh later.”