Three Dog Island Read online

  “Mom! Are you okay?” Matthew came flying down Sasha’s porch stairs with Josh close behind.

  “Go back inside.” I ran toward them.

  “What’s going on?” they asked once we were all inside.

  I filled them in on what I had discovered on Aurora Island and about Deputy Dan. “Looks like your intuition was right,” I told Josh. “Imagine if you’d come home with me the time he took me to Aurora Island.”

  He sat on Sasha’s couch with his hands resting on his knees. “Do you think he was snooping around that time because he knew I was in your house?”

  “I thought he was just following up on some break-in attempts,” Sasha said.

  I took the cup of tea she handed me. “Break-in attempts he never reported to Sam.”

  “Now maybe we know why,” Sasha said.

  “So, what do we do now?” Matthew asked.

  I took another quick sip of tea and handed my cup back to Sasha. “You leave for Seattle. Now.”

  “Now?” Matthew asked. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “Best one I have right now. And Josh, even with your disguise, you stay hidden in the backseat of Matthew’s car until you’re on the Anacortes ferry.”

  “And then?” Josh asked.

  “And then, both of you keep a low profile and stay in the car and lock it until you’re home. And Matthew, keep an eye in the rear view mirror at all times.”

  They didn’t argue.

  We drove to the cottage where they packed up their things. Josh dressed in the same disguise he had been wearing when he arrived. I packed sandwiches, snacks, and bottles of water for their trip.

  “There are restrooms on the car deck. Use those if you need to,” I told them.

  “Don’t worry, Mom. We’ll be careful.”

  “I know that, but I won’t stop worrying until I know you’re safe at your dorm and Josh is safe at MacGregor’s. Actually, maybe you should stay at Charlie’s,” I told him.

  “Why?”

  “MacGregor and I are going to Portland tomorrow.”

  “Why?” Josh asked again.

  “Because I’m tired of waiting to catch Mark Simpson on Waterloo.”

  “You be careful too, Jenny,” Josh said. “He’s dangerous.”

  “I know. I won’t be alone. And it’s not him I’m going to see.”

  “Who are you going to see?” Josh asked. “My mother?”

  “Possibly. I’ll fill you in as soon as we get back. Now, promise you’ll call me. Every half hour.”

  “Promise,” they said as they trotted down my front porch stairs. They really could have been brothers.

  As soon as they were out of sight, I called Rocky to the car and headed for Jasper’s. I wasn’t looking forward to breaking the news to him but I was grateful for the distraction.

  I pulled over when my cell phone rang, answering on the fourth ring. “MacGregor?”

  “Did you forget something, lassie? Such as to call me when you arrived on Anamcara?”

  “I’m sorry. I got busy.”

  I could hear him trying to stay patient. “Do you want to tell me about it now?” There was no hostility in his voice, no hint that said I had let him down.

  I gave him the brief version of what had happened on Aurora Island and what I had learned about Deputy Dan.

  “Where are the boys now?”

  “On their way to Seattle. I’m headed for Jasper’s now. Can you call Charlie for me and fill him in and see if Josh can stay with him while we’re in Portland. Oh, Manny needs an update too.”

  “Aye, lassie. I’ll call them both as soon as I hang up. You’re certain you’re all right?”

  “I am. I’ll spend the night here but will be on the first ferry—well, make that the second—out in the morning so we can head down to Portland right away.”

  “You’re sure you can’t come tonight?”

  He really did miss me. As much as I would have loved spending tonight with him, I needed to be home. I didn’t know why. I just knew it was important. Besides, I’d been going since 3:30 in the morning. “I’m not sure how long this will take me with Jasper. And I feel as though I need to be here tonight.”

  “Not pressuring you. Just missing you.” One more thing I loved about the man—his honesty. I hung up with a promise to call him before I went to sleep.

  Jasper was hard at work in his studio when I arrived with his cloud model in my arms and my dog at my side.

  “Jenny! You found it!” Even from across the room, he knew it was his original.

  “Yes.”

  He left behind the project he was working on and came and sat down with me, taking his beloved clay model into his lap. He listened attentively as I told him the story from beginning to end. It wasn’t until I had finished that he looked up from his model and responded. First came the sigh, then the shake of his head and finally the tears in his eyes.

  I put my hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry. I know you were friends at one time.”

  “We were very close.”

  “But it’s been a while.”

  “Yes.”

  “And that doesn’t assuage the pain. Or the feeling of betrayal.”

  “No.”

  “Sam will be coming by tomorrow to talk to you. He’ll be asking you if you want to press charges.”

  His hands caressed his model. “You know, I think this one is identical to the new one I created. It’s hard to imagine, but I think my hands actually created two identical pieces from memory.”

  “I’m not surprised, Jasper. Those hands hold a lot of wisdom.”

  “Jenny, please tell Sam I won’t be pressing charges.”

  “They’ve been doing this for several years now. I counted eight imitation models when I was there. It’s possible there are more. Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  I waited, knowing there was more he wanted to say.

  “I need your help with this, Jenny. Could you find out the names and phone numbers of the people who bought the imitation sculptures? I’d like to replace them all with original work. It might take me a while, but I want to do that.”

  I had no doubt that he meant it. “It could take some time to track them all down.”

  “Of course. I understand.”

  “You don’t have to do a similar one to the ‘Tug of Heart’ sculpture for my friend. I made that up because I was trying to confirm that you never made two. We’d located a duplicate of it.”

  His smile was subdued. “I wondered about that. At least tell me your friend really was intrigued by it.”

  “Definitely.”

  “And he is a physicist?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Then I’ll create something especially for him. I’m not sure when, considering how many new pieces I’ll be sculpting, but I want to do that.”

  Again, I did not argue with him. This was not only giving him a goal; it was giving him a reason to get up in the morning.

  He stood up and set his cloud model on the work bench and walked across the room to a large built-in cupboard that resembled garage storage shelves. But when he opened the doors, it was clearly anything but garage storage. There stood his clay models in all their masterful glory. He took his “Tug of Heart” original clay model from the shelf and brought it to me. “For your friend, until I can make him his own piece.”

  “Jasper, no. You’ve never parted with your models.”

  “There’s a first time for everything. Consider it payment for getting me those names and numbers, Jenny, as soon as you’re able. I’ll call these people and get them started thinking about what they’d like me to sculpt for them. Each one will be very personal.”

  “Jasper,” I said on a whisper.

  He patted my hand and leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek. “No, Jenny, I’m not some kind of saint. You mustn’t think that.”

  I cocked my head to the side in disagreement.

  “You have to understand that I played
a part in all of this.”

  “You? How?”

  “Trust me. I did.”

  “You too loved Dawn.”

  He didn’t deny it.

  “Were you having an affair?”

  His eyebrows arched. I had surprised him with the bluntness of my question, or perhaps it was with my knowledge of Dawn’s and his relationship. “No, we didn’t have an affair. We were very close. She would come to me. She would cry and talk and spend time watching me work. But we didn’t have an affair. Only a very close friendship.”

  And perhaps an affair of the heart, I thought, one that had left him wounded. “So, what did you mean you played a part in this?” Aside from the responsibility we all play in what we attract in our lives?

  “If I had never come to the island— If we had not been friends, Angelo would have been better off. He turned our friendship into a fierce competition. We never should have lived on the same island.”

  “But Jasper, if it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else. The truth is, it wasn’t about you. You were just an excuse for the torment he inflicted upon himself.”

  “Winnie told me the very same thing. She believed that Angelo’s fierce need to compete with me had nothing to do with me. In fact, the last time I saw Winnie, she told me not to let any of this destroy my spirit or my art. I promised her I wouldn’t.”

  Ah, my dear aunt with her wisdom and foresight. “But you have.”

  “Yes. Not my art, well, maybe. ‘Boy under Cloud’ is not my usual kind of work.”

  No. It felt darker than his other pieces. “She must have known.”

  “Winnie always knew. You know what else she told me?”

  I shook my head although the words were coming to me as he spoke them.

  “She said that you would be coming to live on the island. For a reason.”

  “Yes, she knew that long before I did. She knew I would come here to heal.”

  “And to help others heal.”

  Chills ran down my spine in validation of his words. “Others?”

  “Yes. Me. Angelo. Emilio. And others. She said you would help us all.”

  Just when I was thinking of spending more time in West Seattle, I was being pulled back to the island.

  I stood up to leave, my trusty dog standing as well. “Do you want me to bring in the other pieces?” I asked. “I have two of Angelo’s imitations with me.”

  “No. Not yet. Maybe another day.” Jasper lay his hand on top of Rocky’s head as if seeking comfort. It was definitely time he had a dog in his life too. I just had to convince him of that.

  It would take him a while to recover from the betrayal. But as I studied his face, I started to realize something else. “You knew, didn’t you, Jasper? You knew it was Angelo who had stolen your model.”

  “I suspected.”

  “How?”

  His shoulders sagged. He had turned away from me. “Two reasons I suppose. As you detectives are prone to saying, he’s the one with a motive. And he’s the only person on the island who has the skill to duplicate my sculptures.”

  Not quite, but close enough. I didn’t tell him about the lack of soul in Angelo’s work. He probably knew.

  “That’s why you told me not to bother with it anymore. Once you realized it was Angelo, you decided to let it go.”

  He nodded. “I didn’t know what he was doing. I suspected, but I wasn’t sure.”

  “But Jasper, if we hadn’t stopped him, he could have ruined your reputation. If it became known that there were duplicate sculptures being sold as though they were originals—”

  “What is a reputation compared to a friendship?”

  Even a friendship that had ended in betrayal?

  Angelo did not know how lucky he was to have a friend like Jasper. I wondered if he would ever be able to appreciate him.

  “Jenny, I have another favor. If you have time, that is.”

  “I have to go out of town for a few days, but when I return, I’ll have some time.”

  “That would be fine.”

  “What is it, Jasper?”

  “Could you take my work that’s at the gallery to Emilio? My ‘Boy under Cloud’ sculpture? I’ll call the gallery and tell them it’s been sold and you’ll be picking it up.”

  “But why?”

  “It’s his, Jenny. He was the inspiration for it. It belongs to him.”

  It had been a long day. Home felt good. As much as I would have loved to be sitting beside MacGregor on his couch, looking out at the Sound, his arm around my shoulders, this was where I needed to be tonight. I stoked the fire in the living room fireplace and curled up with a glass of wine and the comforting lavender and pink lap blanket my Aunt Winnie had knitted for me. The sound of my dog’s snoring across the room, was soothing as well. Helping to alleviate my anxiety was Matthew’s and Josh’s follow-through on their promise to call me every half hour and their assurance that they had kept an eye on the rear view mirror. They had not stopped calling until they were safe and sound in their respective temporary homes.

  The imitation of Jasper’s “Tug of Heart” model sat on my coffee table as though it were glaring at me. Beside it stood Jasper’s creation, emanating passion and compassion. When my eyes weren’t engaged with the fire, they were focused on the models. If one analyzed the technique alone, it would have been impossible to tell Angelo’s apart from Jasper’s. But adding vibration and energy into the mix, it would be impossible not to feel the vast differences between the two pieces.

  Jasper was indeed a genius. That must have added to Angelo Dante’s consternation. His best friend and greatest rival was a genius. There was no denying it. He could create a piece of stationary art work that gave the impression it was moving. There were moments as I sat there staring at Jasper’s model, that I could swear it had moved, when in truth, I was the one who had moved, just enough to be seeing it from a different angle. The only explanation I could come up with was potential energy.

  Enough staring, I told myself, setting down my glass of wine and scooping up Winnie’s party photo album as Matthew had dubbed it on this recent visit. I flipped through the pages of Winnie with her artist friends, gatherings in the garden, island get-togethers. I turned back to a page that I had whisked past. It displayed the photograph of Jasper with a couple. I had not thought much about it when I had seen it numerous times before. Just a group of friends, gathered in Winnie’s garden. I would never whisk past this photograph again, now that I knew that the people on either side of Jasper were Dawn and Angelo Dante.

  Nothing in their faces hinted at what was to come. But what did strike me was the fact that Jasper was in the middle. Maybe he did play more of a part in Dante’s downfall and Dawn’s leaving than I had initially been willing to believe.

  I closed the album and set it back in its spot on the table, a gesture that reminded me that this case was closed. It was out of my hands now. It was in Jasper’s hands and Sam’s. Other than to deliver his “Boy under Cloud” sculpture to Emilio, I had no further involvement with any of these people. Unless Winnie was right and one of my reasons for coming to the island was to help them in their healing.

  I suppose I had been putting it out to the Universe that I wanted to build my spiritual counseling practice. Could we take things back once we’d put them out there? It wasn’t that I didn’t want to counsel and guide healing groups. I just didn’t want to commit to anything right now, especially on the island, at least until I had time to discover where my relationship with MacGregor was going.

  It must have been the day filled with worrying and tension and all the staring at the “Tug of Heart” models and the thinking about potential energy and different angles that made me wake up with a headache at four o’clock in the morning. My brain felt as though it were going to explode. I resisted taking an aspirin, instead lying flat on the bed, breathing into the pain. It took a good half hour but by the time I sat up, the pain had dulled enough for me to function.

&nb
sp; I went downstairs and made a cup of chamomile tea and settled in with the copy of the police report that Charlie had managed to acquire. I didn’t even know why I was reading it again. All I knew was that suddenly it was urgent that I get to Portland as soon as possible.

  I packed a small suitcase, some dog food, dog dishes, and the clay models, and loaded everything into the car. Rocky whined and gave me his hungry dog look but with some gentle urging, jumped into the middle seat of the Volvo station wagon. His usual spot in the back was occupied by the art work Sam and I had brought back from Aurora Island.

  When I arrived in West Seattle close to four hours later, I parked on the street in front of MacGregor’s house and opened the door for Rocky. He immediately jumped out and made a beeline for the nearest rhododendron.

  MacGregor must have been watching for me, because by the time I closed the car doors, he was standing on the front porch. “You’re early.”

  “Woke up early. I caught the first ferry. Is that okay?”

  “Of course, it’s okay. He was wrapping me in his arms and motioning for Rocky to sit as my extra-large dog tried to wedge his body between us.

  “Hmm,” I said when his lips had released mine. “Nice greeting.”

  “I missed you.” Still hugging me, he leaned back a little in order to see my face. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ll be glad when this mess is over,” I said. “I am anxious to get going. Are you packed?”

  “I will be in five minutes,” he said, “Shall we take my car?”

  I looked from my antiquated Volvo to his Range Rover that was parked in the driveway. “Are you insulting Winston?”

  “I wouldn’t dare. I just thought it might be more comfortable.”

  “Definitely.” I transferred my overnight bag to his car.

  We carried the boxes with the models into the house. When I unpacked them, he stared at them with raised eyebrows. “You weren’t joking when you said it was a close likeness. But I see what you mean about the lack of soul in this piece. The energy is completely different.”

  “Exactly.” I was relieved that someone else knew that. I couldn’t help thinking that Joe would have shaken his head and considered admitting me to the loony bin.