I raised a brow. “There’s a second story?” I hadn’t noticed when I’d been there.
“Yes. The man who used to own the building lived upstairs. Tegan was already settled here on the peninsula when she purchased the property, so she’d been using the space for storage. She cleaned it out, and Emily and Ashley have lived there ever since.”
“What does Emily look like?” I asked. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her.”
“She has short hair. Dark. Almost black. Her skin is fair, and her eyes are blue. Based on her skin tone, it seemed to me as if her hair had been died, although Ashley has the same color hair, so in the beginning, I wasn’t sure. Then Emily was sick for a week over the summer, so I went upstairs to check on her, and I noticed a thin line of blond at the roots. Emily does a good job of keeping both her roots as well as Ashley’s touched up, but I guess she went a few days longer for a touch up than normal due to being ill. I didn’t say anything, but she must have seen me notice her hair because she became flustered, and when she showed up for work the following day, her roots were dark.”
“Does Ashley go to school?” I wondered. Talking someone into paying you under the table was one thing, but registering a child for school using a fake name was something else.
“No, but Emily makes sure she does her lessons. Tegan has a booth in the rear of the kitchen area where the staff can take a break. Whenever Emily is working, Ashley sits in the booth and either reads, works out math problems, or sometimes draws. She really is quite the artist even at her age. Everyone who works at the Rambling Rose loves Ashley, so we all stop and sit with her during our breaks. Harry, the bartender, tells her stories relating to local history. Sharlene, the hostess who works the breakfast shift, has been teaching her to do easy science experiments. Jemma has her working on the computer a couple days a week, and Tegan is teaching her to create new recipes that the two of them then try out. If the weather is nice, someone will volunteer to take her outside for a walk. All in all, I’d say she is getting an adequate education.”
“How old is she?”
She shrugged. “I guess maybe seven.”
“It must be hard for her not to have any friends her own age.”
“I’m sure it is. Ashley doesn’t have much freedom. I suspect whoever is after them is a real threat. Emily never leaves the kitchen when she’s working. She eats at the restaurant. Tegan is good about buying extras like juice and milk for Emily to keep in the little refrigerator up in the apartment. I don’t think she leaves the place very often, not even to grab supplies. I suppose she and Ashley might go out for walks from time to time, but they don’t seem to socialize. I’m pretty sure the only people they have any sort of relationship with are the staff at the Rambling Rose.”
“You don’t think that Emily might be running from the law, do you?” I asked.
Josie shook her head. “I don’t think so. Emily is sweet and quiet, and she works hard. I really doubt she’s a fugitive. As I said before, I suspect she’s running from a man. Probably a man who was violent toward her. She startles easily, and she’s always looking over her shoulder.”
“Wow,” I said. “The poor thing. How awful it must be to know someone is out there who wants to do you or your child harm. I’m glad Tegan and everyone at the Rambling Rose are watching out for her.”
“Oh, we are,” Josie assured me. “If anyone ever comes snooping around, looking for either Emily or Ashley, the entire staff will be willing to jump in and hide them. Emily doesn’t trust many people, but I think she’ll like you. I’ll introduce you the next time you’re in during one of her shifts.”
“Does she realize that you know she isn’t who she says she is?”
Josie paused and then answered. “Well, it’s not like I’ve ever said as much, but I suspect she knows that I’ve figured out that she may be running from someone. She’s never admitted to me that she’s not exactly who she presents herself to be, but Emily is a smart woman. I’m sure that she must realize by this point that she isn’t exactly living a normal life and that those closest to her would have noticed.”
“So it’s one of those things no one talks about, but everyone knows.”
“Well, not everyone, but everyone who works at the bar and grill realizes that Emily has a secret and we all respect that.”
I thought about the woman in the photo I came to Gooseberry Bay to research. I thought about the fact that Gooseberry Bay was a good place to hide if you needed to get gone. Once again, I had to wonder if perhaps the woman I assumed was my mother had been on the run, trying desperately to hide from her own nightmare.
Jemma came downstairs just as Josie and I were finishing the cheese and fruit platter. She worked remotely for a company based in Seattle and kept an office upstairs, where she could be found a lot of the time.
“Is Parker on her way?” she asked, grabbing a slice of apple and a piece of cheddar cheese.
“She should be here any minute,” Josie informed her.
She bent over to pick up Stefan. He swatted at her nose, and she smiled. “Did they ever find Damon and Stefan’s mother?” she asked me.
“Actually, I got a call from the rescue just this morning. I guess they managed to catch two more kittens and the mother. They’re going to continue to leave food in the traps for a few more days just to be sure they have all the kittens, but they seem pretty sure they have them all. They told me they even put the mama cat in a harness, which they attached to a lead, and then attached the lead to a tree. Once they were sure the mother couldn’t simply take off, they hid behind some shrubs. They watched for almost two hours, but no other kittens showed up. It’s their opinion that if there were additional kittens, they would have approached when the mama was left alone.”
“Yeah. That seems likely,” Jemma agreed. She held the kitten she was caressing up and looked him in the face. “Stefan here comes running anytime he even suspects there might be food involved in whatever anyone might be doing.”
“He’s lucky to have you,” I said.
“We’re the ones lucky to have him and Damon,” she countered.
“It looks like Parker is heading up the path,” Josie said. “I’ll get her a glass of wine. Why don’t you toss another log on the fire,” she instructed Jemma.
I opened the door for Parker, who had her arms full of files. “What’s all this?” I asked.
“Notes from five years ago. I have pages and pages of thoughts and impressions, transcripts of interviews, copies of maps and photographs, and computer searches that never panned out.”
“You seem to have a good head start on the project,” I said.
“At the time of the initial investigation, I thought I was getting somewhere, but in the end, none of my leads panned out.” She accepted her wine glass from Josie. “I realize that it’s going to be nearly impossible to pick up the trail after five years, especially given the fact that there wasn’t much of a trail to follow back when it happened. But I have more experience now, and I have help I didn’t have before, so I figured that nothing would be lost by taking a second look.”