arrested this time, a distinct possibility. Something he would do anything to avoid.
What happened to his little “Angel”? His daughter had changed, especially lately, and he didn’t know what to do about it. Maybe he deserved this. His karma for giving his mother so much grief when he was a teen. Maddie Blackthorne had been and was a great mother and person, a social worker who helped the homeless on the local Chippewa reservation find housing and health care and jobs. He’d never met his father, who’d disappeared without even knowing his mother was pregnant. Though she’d been on her own, his mother had given him a settled, safe life.
Despite his trying to do the same for his daughter but with more money than his mom had been able to make, Angela was as wild as he had been at her age. Now that she’d done something illegal, how long would it be before the local police came to pick her up? Was there any way to avoid that happening?
He couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Whose idea was this stunt? Yours or Kiki’s? Why do you want to hang around with her?”
That did it—Angela came out of her silent funk, shouting, “No! I’m not going to stop seeing her. She likes the same things that I do. She understands me. Kiki is my best friend!”
He knew both the girls thought of themselves as artists. “And you’re the only friend she has. That girl is a bad influence on you.”
“I don’t care what you say. I won’t stop seeing her. You can’t take someone else away from me!”
“I didn’t take anyone away from you.”
“What about my mother?”
Caleb gritted his teeth at that. Angela had seemed okay that it had been just the two of them all these years. What had brought this up now?
“I didn’t make your mother leave.” At sixteen, he’d been a too-young father with an irresponsible baby mama. “She wanted you...” And then she hadn’t. Lily had run away, leaving a month-old baby girl in his arms. “...but she was really young and scared.”
“You always tell me what to do and make me do what you want. You could have made her stay.”
“I only wish that was true. Lily made a bad decision because she was so young, Angel. I’m sure she’s regretted it a million times over the years.” At least he wanted his daughter to believe that.
“Then why didn’t she come back for me?”
A question he’d never been able to answer.
And then it came to him. The mural. The woman walking away from the jailed girl—Lily walking away from Angela and Angela feeling helpless to do anything about it. That had to be it. Something had brought up a hornet’s nest of emotion in his daughter. Not hard to envision. Angela was fifteen now, questioning everything, especially him and anything he wanted for her. But why was her absentee mother suddenly so important to her?
He flicked a look over to his daughter, who once more was staring out the side window, her shoulders set so tight he knew she wouldn’t answer if he asked. He wondered if she would talk to her grandmother, tell her the truth. Mom was his go-to person when it came to Angela. His daughter never resented her grandmother the way she did him. He would call Mom as soon as they got home, then he would settle this mural mess.
But how to do that other than manage the cleanup?
The woman who’d told everyone that no one was grabbing his daughter had appeared to be in charge at Green Meadows. She seemed like a decent sort. Attractive, too, he thought, remembering her lush dark hair and the spark in her pretty blue eyes as she’d controlled the situation. A strong woman. One who didn’t shirk from responsibility.
When he went back to take care of the mural, he would look for her. Talk to her. See if she could help.
He would do it for his daughter.
Still, the thought of getting to know a woman like that was extra incentive.
IT WAS STILL MORNING, and Grace felt wrung out from the stress of everything happening at once. At least the reporter looking for a ghost story had spent only a few minutes with Nellie before leaving in disappointment. Thankfully, Nellie hadn’t been able to give him any details other than having seen some kind of faint movement through the trees. Just as Grace had expected. Apparently some of the other residents had blown up what they’d heard into something more exciting.
The community center had an area with tables for the residents to get together. Sitting opposite the older woman, Grace winced when Nellie raised her soda can with a bandaged hand.
“That’s quite some experience you had last night, Nellie. I’m very sorry you were hurt.”
“I was just so worried about Olive disappearing. And I let myself get distracted.” Nellie shook her head and her big glasses wobbled on her nose so that she had to punch them back in place. “I don’t believe in ghosts. It probably was just fog and wind.”
Relief washed through Grace. But not because of Nellie’s disbelief in ghosts. It didn’t sound as if the older woman wanted to sue the company.
“Are you sure you don’t want to have a doctor check you out?” Grace asked her.
“For a bruised knee and scraped palms?” Her surprisingly sharp blue eyes, magnified by thick lenses, gave Nellie an owlish expression reinforced by small tufts of silver hair around her face. “Really, no, but thank you for your concern.”
“Of course I’m concerned about all the residents of our new community. I’m going to make certain that area around your apartment is cleared of any debris.”
Nodding, Nellie said, “That would be good. Now if that darned cat of mine will get it into her head to appreciate her new home, we’ll be fine.” She glanced at the clock on the opposite wall. “Uh-oh, it’s time for me to go. I need to get to my shop. Nellie’s Treasures opens in half an hour.” She gathered up her things. “I don’t know what else I can tell you anyway.”
Grace still hadn’t been to Nellie’s consignment shop and now vowed to do so as soon as she had some free time. “I don’t have anything else to offer. I just wanted to find out what happened and to be sure that you were all right.”
Nellie got to her feet. “Like I said, I hope Olive doesn’t try to escape again. The new apartment is nice, but it’s so small compared to our old house. At least there are no stairs,” she said, putting a positive spin on the complaint.
The woman didn’t have a car, so Grace asked, “Can I give you a ride to your shop?”
“That’s nice of you, but I’m good. Walking is the only exercise I get these days.”
Grace followed Nellie out of the building and headed straight for the parking lot, where she picked up the abandoned art supplies from the table. By the time she carried them to her car, she was a little breathless. Just walked too fast, she told herself. Nothing to do with looking forward to meeting the impressive-looking Caleb Blackthorne. Wondering if she was also going to meet Mrs. Blackthorne, she drove out of the parking lot and onto the road.
She
