This story takes place shortly after the events of the episode “Batten Down The Hatches” (Kenny/missing photo/charity auction).  It is an Alternate Universe story, not taking place in the same ‘universe’ as that of the series Hope Island or F/X: The Series.  Therefore, events in it may result in things happening differently than what we saw in later episodes of Hope Island.

PROLOGUE

Daniel Cooper strolled down the dirt road, heading for the Hope Island ferry landing.  He could hear the sound of the ferry’s horn as it approached.

“Hi, Daniel.”

The young minister turned to see Alex Stone walking toward him, a plate of food in her hands.  “Hi, Alex.  Whose breakfast is that?”

“Oh, it’s for Nub,” said the owner of Hope Island’s one and only inn.  “Brian’s got him working like a slave over at the dock, and I figured I’d better bring him some food before he passes out from hunger.  So, are you going to the mainland or something?”

“Yeah, I need to get some tools to do some work on the church, some things that Ruby and Bonita don’t have at the general store.”

Alex glanced down at the fingers of Daniel’s hands, which were adorned with band-aids.  “Do you think your fingers can survive more work on the church?”

The reverend glanced down at his injured digits.  “Actually, it’s usually only the hammer I have trouble with, unless I’m distracted.  I always did have trouble with hammers.  I used to use other tools quite a lot, and I still have all my fingers, as you can see.”

“Really.  And here I thought that your disability was with all tools,” Alex said, smiling mischievously.

Daniel gave her a slightly sarcastic smile.  He looked toward the landing.  The ferry had docked and the passengers were getting off.  As he and Alex continued walking toward it, he studied the faces of the people disembarking.  Suddenly, he came to an abrupt halt, his face losing all color.

“Daniel?  What’s wrong?” Alex asked in concern.

Daniel just kept staring toward the ferry, clearly oblivious to what she’d said.  All at once, he spun around and quickly walked away from the dock.

“Daniel, what is it?” Alex called after him.

“I have to get back to the church, Alex.  I’ll see you later.”  He sped up his pace and was soon heading up the hill toward the church.

Alex watched him leave, confused and very curious.  She turned back toward the ferry and looked at the passengers who had gotten off it.  Most were islanders and relatives of residents.  There was one stranger, though, a young blond woman with an athletic build.  Alex watched as Callie Pender ran toward the blonde and the two women hugged.    The woman had to be the reason for Daniel's odd behavior.

“So, who are you, and what made Daniel run away like that?”  There was something going on here, and Alex intended to find out what it was.

Daniel shut the door of the church and leaned against it.  Why here?  Of all the places that she could go, why did it have to be Hope Island?  Did she know he was there?  How could she have found out?

Daniel sat down heavily on one of the pews.  ‘What am I going to do?  I don’t want to run again.  I finally feel at home here.  But if she found me, then. . . .’  Daniel stood up and went to the house.  He stared at the phone, torn between picking it up and making the call that would end his life on Hope Island or remaining silent and praying that doing so didn’t result in the end of his life on Earth.

Daniel sat on the kitchen chair, resting his face in his hands.  It had been wonderful to see her.  He had believed that he never would again.  He had missed her terribly these months that he’d been away from her.

‘If she doesn’t know I’m here, then I have to stay out of sight.  I can’t let her see me.’  And what if she did know?

Daniel went to his bedroom.  He pulled out the bottom drawer of the bureau and felt underneath it.  He removed a manila envelope.  Opening it, he dumped out the contents.  The minister picked up one of the photos that had fallen to the floor.  It was a picture of him, with longer hair, standing beside the woman who had just arrived, his arm around her shoulder.

“Why are you here?  What if he followed you?”

He stared at the picture for a long time, then the man who was once Rollie Tyler put it and the rest of the envelope’s contents back in their hiding place.
 

CHAPTER ONE

Angie Ramirez walked beside Callie, listening to the journalist talk happily about her visit.  The blonde smiled but could not share the woman’s enthusiasm.  Ever since Rollie’s disappearance over eight months ago, she had found little to get enthusiastic about.  A part of her still felt numb, in denial.  Every time she walked in the door of the loft, she half-expected him to be there, even though everyone believed that he was dead.

Callie glanced over at Angie and saw the expression on her face.  “Come on.  Let’s go to my place and we’ll talk.”  She led the blonde to her home, which was also the newspaper office, and they both sat down.  “How are you doing?” Callie asked in concern.

“I’m all right,” Angie replied softly.

“Angie, I’m so sorry about Rollie.  Even though I never met him, I feel as if I knew him after all the things you said about him in your email letters.  Did they. . . .  Was he ever found?”

“No.  Everyone has accepted that he’s dead.”  A single tear fell down her cheek to be swept away by her fingers.

“What about you?  Do you think he’s dead?” Callie asked gently.

“I . . . don’t want to think that.  Every time I do. . . .”  Angie took a shaky breath.  “But I . . . I know now that he is, that he must be.  I can’t pretend anymore.”  Her voice caught.

Callie took hold of Angie’s hands.  “I’m sorry.  Angie, I’ll understand if you don’t want to tell me, but what’s the whole story behind this?  What happened?”

Her face mirroring the pain of the memories she was bringing up, Angie began telling the long story of the incidents that had led to Rollie’s disappearance.   “It all started with a man named Victor Loubar.  He’s an international arms dealer and assassin and the most evil person I’ve ever met.  A few years ago, he tried to steal a top secret weapon.  As part of his plan, he impersonated Rollie.  He’s a master of disguise and can make himself look like almost anyone.  Well, because of Rollie, his plan was foiled, but he ended up getting away.  Months later, we tangled with him again, and, again, Rollie screwed up his plans.  A few months after that, Loubar returned for revenge against Rollie.  He tried to frame Rollie for murder.  He also . . . hurt me because it would hurt Rollie.  We ruined his plans again, and Loubar fled through Central Park.  Rollie went after him.  I found them fighting in the lake.  Loubar was wearing the mask that made him look like Rollie, so I couldn’t tell who was who.  Rollie told me something that only he would know and Loubar, realizing that he’d been found out, dived under the water.  I had a gun, his gun, and I fired at him, but I didn’t know if I’d hit him.  A body was never found.

“As the months passed, we came to believe that he was dead.  Then, almost a year later, he came back.  I don’t know why it took so long for him to show up again.  Maybe I did hit him, and it took that long for him to heal.  Whatever the reason was, he was just as determined as ever to get payback.  He had been hired to do a hit by an underworld organization, and, like last time, he planned to get his revenge while completing the job.”

“What did he do?” Callie asked, every journalist instinct she possessed dying to hear the conclusion of the incredible story.

“Well, if he had succeeded, Rollie would have ended up accidentally killing me, a policewoman friend of ours, and Loubar’s intended target.  Loubar knew . . . he knew that it would destroy Rollie, that he wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt.  It would have killed him as surely as if Loubar had put a bullet through his head.”

“But Loubar’s plan failed.”

“Yeah.  Yet again we stopped him.  And we also got the guys who hired him.  It was Rollie who got them.  He brought them down big time.  But Loubar got away again.”  Angie closed her eyes for a moment.  “We thought that was the end of it as far as the organization was concerned, but we were wrong.  Other members of the organization put out a contract on Rollie’s life.  We didn’t find out about it until . . . until it was too late.  One day, he just vanished.  We looked everywhere for him, tried everything we could to find out what had happened, but there was nothing, no trace at all.  I even hacked into the FBI’s central computer system to see if I could find any evidence that Rollie had been put in the Witness Protection Program.”

“So, everyone thinks that. . . .”

“That the organization or somebody they hired killed him and dumped his . . . body somewhere where it’ll never be found.”

“What about Victor Loubar?  Could he have been the one?”

“No, if Loubar had killed Rollie, he’d want me to know it.  He’d do it so that I’d find Rollie’s body.  That would be his revenge against me.”  Angie was crying again.  This time, she didn’t bother wiping away the tears.  She’d gotten used to them.  She’d shed a great many in the last eight and a half months.

“I’m sorry, Angie.”  Callie looked at the blonde, recognizing the signs of depression.  “Have you talked to anyone about what you’re going through?”

“You mean have I gotten counseling?  No, I haven’t.  I don’t want to talk to a psychiatrist about this.  It isn’t going to make me feel better.”

“What about talking to a priest or a minister?”

Angie shook her head.  “I haven’t been inside a church in eight years, not since my father’s funeral.  My dad was Catholic, as most Cubans are, but, while he did go to church on occasion, he wasn’t really devout.”

“Angie, I really think that you’d feel better if you talked to someone.  We have a priest on the island, Father Mac, but I think that you should talk to Daniel.”

“Who’s Daniel?”

“He’s our new minister.  He came to the island a few months ago, and we all love him.  He’s a great guy, and he’s become a good friend.”  Callie smiled.  “There’s also the fact that he’s gorgeous, a regular tall, dark, and handsome type--and a wonderful smile.”

Angie smiled faintly.  “Sounds like you really like him, Callie.”

“No, no.  I mean, not that way, but I’d have to be blind not to notice his looks.  Thinking about it, I never did get the info for his obituary.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, I write obits for everyone on the island so that I’ll be prepared ahead of time when somebody dies.”

“You’re joking.”

“No, it makes things a lot easier that way.  Then I don’t have to try finding out the information after they’re dead.”

Angie shook her head in disbelief.  “Callie, you’re strange.  Um, why did you invite me to come here?”

“Because I thought you needed some time in a place where you could feel welcome and cared for.  Hope Island is a wonderful place, Angie.  People care about each other here.  I think that you could grow to love it, and I believe that it could help you--if you let it.  I also think that it might help get your mind off your other problems.”  Callie stood.  “Let’s go get you checked into your room.”

Angie wiped the last traces of tears from her face, nodding.  “I am pretty tired.  I didn’t sleep at all on the plane.”  Not that she ever got much sleep anyway.  That’s why she’d taken a night flight.  The insomnia that she’d been suffering was making her feel even more depressed.

Angie picked up her suitcase and followed Callie to a green two-story building with a sign saying Widow’s Walk.  Inside, Angie saw tables around which several people sat.  Callie was leading her to a bar, behind which stood a tall woman with red hair.

“Hi, Alex.  This is Angie Ramirez.  She’s a friend of mine visiting from New York.  You’ve got rooms available, don’t you?”

“Sure, no problem.”  Alex looked Angie over, noticing that her eyes appeared to be a bit red, like she’d been crying.  She retrieved the key for one of the rooms and led Callie and Angie upstairs, trying not to show that she was dying of curiosity over who this Angie was and why Daniel had acted so strangely upon seeing her.

Angie put her suitcase on the bed, then thanked them, saying that she was going to get a little rest.  Alex managed to make it back downstairs with Callie before asking her questions.

“Who is she?”

“She’s a friend of mine.  We met on the Internet and really hit it off.  Remember that vacation I took to Florida?  Well, Angie and I finally met in person there.  We spent the whole two weeks together.  We had a great time and got to know each other a lot better.”

“What’s wrong with her?  She looked upset.”

“Yeah.  Her best friend and partner died a few months ago, and she’s still in a bad way over it.”

“Oh.  That’s too bad.  You said her partner?”

“Well, technically, she was his assistant, but I got the impression that they were more like partners.  She’d known him since she was eleven, practically grew up with him.  He worked for her father, Manny, as his apprentice before Manny died and willed the company to him.”

“What kind of company?”

“Special effects for movies.”

“Wow.  That sounds interesting.”

“Yeah.  You should have heard the way Angie talked about it.  It was hers and Rollie’s passion.”

“Excuse me, Callie,” said a voice behind her.  She turned to see Mayor Brian Brewster, a familiar light in his eyes.  “Did I just hear you say something about your friend being in the movie business?”

“Yes, Brian, but I want you to leave her alone.  She’s been through a lot lately, and I don’t want you upsetting her.”

Brian adopted a look that was halfway between innocence and offence.  “Callie, I wouldn’t dream of upsetting her.  What harm could there be in asking her to mention to her movie friends that Hope Island would be a great place for filming a movie?”

“Brian,” Callie said with a warning tone.  “Not one word, you hear me?  I mean it.”

The man held up his hands in surrender.  “Okay, okay.  I won’t say a word.”  He straightened his shoulders and jacket and walked away.

“I swear that Brian never thinks about anything but selling real estate and coming up with schemes to bring in the big bucks.  He never quits.”

“Yeah, but he’s always been that way, Callie, and he always will be.  That’s just Brian,” Alex said.  “So, is Angie going to be all right?”

“I hope so.  I’m trying to get her to go talk to Daniel.”

“Daniel?  Why?  Do they know each other?”

“No.  I just thought that he might be able to help her come to terms with Rollie’s death.”

“Oh.  So, they don’t know each other.”

“No.  Why would you think they did?” Callie asked.

“Um, no reason.  Well, I hope that she feels better.”

Callie nodded and headed back to her office, wondering why Alex had thought Angie and Daniel knew each other.

The journalist was halfway to her destination when an idea came to her.  Maybe she should talk to Daniel about Angie.  Knowing the reverend, he’d probably come talk to Angie if she didn’t go talk to him first.

Deciding that it was a good idea, Callie changed directions and headed up the road leading to the church.
 

CHAPTER TWO

Daniel had spent the last hour trying to decide what he was going to do and was no closer to an answer than he’d been when he first saw Angie get off the ferry.  Finally deciding to get his mind off the problem for a while, he went back to the church and started sweeping the floor, even though it didn’t need it.  Sometime later, he heard the door open and saw Callie come in.

“Hi, Callie,” he greeted warmly.

“Hi.  Can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure.” Daniel put the broom away and sat next to Callie on one of the pews.  “Is there a problem?”

“Not with me.  It’s a friend of mine visiting from New York.  Her name is Angie.”

Daniel tried not to react to the sound of that name, to keep his face neutral.  He must have succeeded because Callie seemed unaware of the fact that his heart rate had doubled and every muscle in his body had tensed.

“I think she really needs someone to talk to,” Callie told him.

“Why is that?”  How in the world was he managing to keep his voice steady?

“Her best friend disappeared several months ago.  He’s presumed dead.  Angie is still grieving over it, and I’m worried about her.”

Daniel’s eyes dropped from Callie’s.  He felt an ache grow in his heart as guilt over what he’d put Angie through filled him.  ‘I’m sorry, Angie.  I wish there had been another way,’ he whispered in his mind.  His gaze returned to Callie, realizing what the woman was going to ask him and knowing that he had no choice but to refuse.  “You want me to talk to her.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if she’d want to talk to you.  She doesn’t think that talking to somebody about this will help, and she can be pretty stubborn when she doesn’t want to do something.”

‘Yeah, I know.’  Aloud, Daniel said, “If she doesn’t want to talk about this, I don’t want to force her.  It would be best if it’s her decision.”

Callie sighed.  “I know.  I just thought that if you went to visit her, you might get her to open up.”

“If I went to see her against her will, it could do just the opposite, and I wouldn’t want that to happen.”

Daniel stood and took a few steps toward the altar.  Not a day of the past eight and a half months had gone by in which he didn’t think of Angie and wonder how she was.  Not a day had passed that he didn’t wish he could pick up the phone and call her.  He wished so much that he could walk right over to where Angie was, take her in his arms, and tell her how sorry he was for having to leave like he did.  But he couldn’t.  He sighed silently, wishing that there was something else he could do.  That’s when a thought came to him.  He turned back toward Callie.  “How about if I write her a letter?”

A hopeful smile came to the journalist’s face.  “Would you?  That would be wonderful, Daniel.”

“I’ll get started on it right away.”

“Could you bring it to the office when it’s finished?”

“Um, would you be able to come get it?  I . . . need to stay by the phone today.”

“Sure, no problem.  Just call me when it’s done.”  Callie stood.  “Thanks a lot, Daniel.”

As soon as she’d gone, Daniel returned to the house.  He pulled out the typewriter and stuck a sheet of paper in.  Then he just sat staring at it, wondering what he was going to write.  This was Angie he was writing to.  What could he say to her?  He closed his eyes for a moment, picturing her in his mind, and, slowly, the words came to him.

Half an hour later, Daniel removed the letter from the typewriter, carefully folded it, and placed it in an envelope.  He then called Callie.

“Thank you so much, Daniel,” she said as he handed her the envelope a while later.  “She was still in her room when I checked last, but I’ll give this to her as soon as she gets up.”

Daniel nodded.  “How long is Angie going to be staying?”

“Her return flight is in a week, but I’m hoping that she’ll stay longer.”

“Well, maybe I’ll see her sometime.”

After Callie had left, Daniel went back inside the house.  A week.  He couldn’t hide for that long.  People were accustomed to seeing him just about every day.  If he didn’t come around for a week, everyone would begin to wonder what was going on.  He might have to make up some story that would take him off the island.  Yes, that’s what he would have to do.  It was the only way that he would be able to avoid Angie.  He just wished that he didn’t have to avoid her.  He wished that he could see her again and tell her the whole story.  But that would not be wise.  It would be far too dangerous, for him and for her.

Daniel chuckled softly.  Since when did he do what was wise and not dangerous?  “You’d hardly recognize me now, Ange.  I’m finally doing the sensible thing instead of rushing into the lion’s den.  I just wish you were here with me to appreciate it.”

Angie came down the stairs, feeling a little better for the rest she’d gotten.  When she reached the first floor, she noticed that there was a different woman behind the bar.

“Hi, I’m Molly.  You must be Angie,” the pretty blonde woman said with a smile.

“Hi.  Do you know if Callie is in her office?”

“She probably is.  She wanted to know when you got up.  Would you like me to call her?”

“No, that’s all right.  I’ll just go over there.”

Angie headed over to Callie’s and found her busily typing away at the computer.

“Hi, Angie.  Did you get some sleep?” the journalist asked.

“Yes, I did.  It’s a lot quieter here than New York.  It also smells better.”

Callie smiled.  “I’m glad you got some rest.  You definitely look better.”  She picked up an envelope that was sitting on her desk.  “Now, don’t be mad at me, but I went to see Daniel a while ago, and I told him about you.”

“Callie, I wish you hadn’t done that.  I really don’t want to talk to him.”

“Daniel respects that, Angie.  He isn’t going to come to see you, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”  Callie handed the envelope to Angie.  “He wrote you a letter.”

Angie stared at the envelope for a moment before taking it.  She suspected what kind of letter it would be, something quoting a lot of scriptures and talking about the mystery of God’s plan.  Though she respected the reverend’s beliefs, she really didn’t want to hear what the bible said about heaven, and she didn’t want to hear how God has a plan for everyone and that it had been Rollie’s time to be with Him.  It had not been his time to die.  It had been way too soon.  There were still so many things that he’d had left to do with his life, so many wonderful times yet to have.  She’d always teased him about how much older he was than her.  A little more than eight years, that’s all it was.  It wasn’t right that he should die so young, not someone who had been so full of life.

“Thank the reverend for me,” Angie said without enthusiasm.

“Angie, you really should read it,” Callie said, guessing that her friend wasn’t planning to.  “You may be surprised by what it says.  Daniel isn’t like a lot of other ministers I’ve known.  Sometimes, I even forget that he is a minister.  A lot of the time, he’s just one of the guys, although I haven’t known many guys who are as kind and caring as he is.  But he isn’t perfect, and he doesn’t pretend to be.  He’s also not preachy, so don’t worry about that.”

Angie looked at the envelope again, deciding that it wouldn’t hurt just to take a look at the letter.  She had to admit that she was curious about this reverend.  “Okay, I’ll read it.  Thanks.”

She headed back to her room.  Sitting on the bed, Angie opened the envelope.
 

Dear Angie,

Callie has told me of your loss.  I know firsthand the anguish of losing someone I love.  I know how it can fill your heart until you feel as if you can’t live with it.  Everyone deals with the loss of a loved one in their own way.  I withdrew into a shell where no one could reach me, not my family, not my friends, no one, not even God.  I lost myself in my grief, and it was almost my undoing.  It took something pretty big to make me realize that I wanted to live, to feel joy again.  After that, things got better.  Though the pain has never truly gone away, it is a pain I can live with.

When someone we love dies, we sometimes feel as if all that they were has died with them, but that is not true.  Every human being, when they are known and loved, leave marks behind them, like footprints, not in sand, but in stone.  The people they know, the people they love, are changed in some way by their existence.  They are in the hearts and the memories of those people, and even when they are gone, those things remain.  In that way, they are still alive and always will be, as long as there are people who remember them, as long the things they did in their life have some meaning--as long as the footprints they left behind remain.

Remember your friend and the good times you shared.  Remember the things that you loved about him and the things that drove you up the wall.  Remember how he made you laugh when you really didn’t want to, all the times you wondered where he’d left his brain, the times that he was there for you when you needed him the most.  Bring to your mind all the silly habits he had, the things he did that you wished he wouldn’t, the things he didn’t do that you wished he would.  Remember the moments you held each other, when you cried together, played together, laughed together.  He is alive, Angie, even though he is no longer with you.  He will always be alive, as long as you are alive and as long as all the other people whose lives he touched yet live.

May God go with you, 

Daniel

Angie wiped the tears from her face, touched by Daniel’s word in a way she had not expected.  What he had said in this letter was so much like what Rollie had said at her father’s funeral, the words he had stayed up all night writing.  It was not a way that Rollie normally spoke, and she remembered how surprised she had been to see a side of him that she’d never known existed.  This letter was making her think of Rollie and how much she had known--and not known--about him.

Angie sat staring at nothing and began to think back on her life with her best friend.  Before, she hadn’t wanted to think about those things, afraid that they would make her miss him even more.  But it was doing just the opposite.  Somehow, it made him feel closer, like he wasn’t really gone.

Angie reread the final paragraph of the letter, again amazed by it.  It was as if Daniel had known Rollie and the relationship that she’d had with him.  But he couldn’t know.  Their relationship had been so unique, like brother and sister, business partners, and friends.  Even like. . . .  No, there had never been anything like that between them, not on Rollie’s part, at least.  As for her, she couldn’t deny that she had felt something more than friendship toward him.  How could she deny it when she slept with a man she had thought was him?  But she had never let those feelings grow.  She had kept them pushed away in the deep recesses of her heart.  It was good that she had.  If she had been in love with him, these months would have been even more unbearable.

Even more than before, Angie was curious about the reverend.  She wondered what loved one he had lost that caused him the pain reflected in the first words of his letter.  In that way, she felt a kinship with him.  She wondered if he’d had someone to give him comfort when he needed it.

Angie washed away the marks of her tears, then went back over to see Callie.  The woman searched her face, looking for a hint of how she felt.

“You were right about the letter,” the blonde told her.  “It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.  It was . . . surprising.”

“Did it help?”

Angie smiled softly.  “Yeah.  Yeah, it did.  Callie, in this letter, he mentioned losing someone close to him.  Do you know who it was?”

“No, I don’t.  Daniel doesn’t talk much about his past.  I know that he and his father have been at odds with each other for a long time, and that Daniel wishes he could fix things between them.  He was married, but he’s divorced now.  There’s a really interesting story behind that, but a lot of it is stuff that I promised not to tell anyone.  It’s possible that Alex might know some things that I don’t.  She and Daniel talk a lot.”

“Oh.  Is there something going on between them?”

“No, not that I know of.  I don’t think Alex would want to get involved with a minister.  She has some, uh, issues with religion.”

“Well, I’d like to write Daniel a letter thanking him.”

“Why don’t you come up to the church with me, and you can thank him in person?” Callie suggested.  “I promise he won’t bite.  I really think that you’d like him.”

Angie hesitated for a moment, then agreed.

“Great!” Callie said with a smile.  “How about if we go after lunch?  I haven’t eaten yet.  I was waiting for you.”

They ate lunch at the Widow’s Walk, talking about trivial things.  Angie noticed a balding man dressed in a suit come in.  He looked over at her and smiled, then began walking toward their table.  Callie turned and glared at him with a look that was clearly a warning.  The man instantly changed directions, the smile becoming an expression of feigned disinterest.

“Who’s that?” Angie asked.

“That’s Brian Brewster, the island’s one and only real estate agent, as well as a one-man tourism and publicity department and Chamber of Commerce.  Oh, yeah.  He’s also the mayor.  If he manages to get you in a conversation, he’ll try to finagle you into telling your connections in the movie industry that this is the perfect location to film a movie.  And he won’t let up either.  He has a one-track mind.”

Angie chuckled.  “I see.  I really don’t think you’d want movie crews invading here.  That would be the end of any peace and quiet.”

“You know that and I know that, but all Brian thinks about is the money and tourists it would bring in.”

They finished their lunch and went back out into the sunlight.

“It’s a bit of a walk to the church.  Would you rather go on foot or in the car?” Callie asked.

“It’s a nice day.  I feel like a walk.”

“Okay, let’s go then.”

Angie enjoyed the walk, feeling the peacefulness of the woods soothe her.  Though this was not the kind of life that she was accustomed to, she could understand why Callie liked it here.  There was something to say for the simplicity of living in a small community, and she liked how people they passed knew Callie by name and greeted her with a smile, or a nod of the head, or a warm hello.  That was something you’d never see in a city like New York.

As they walked, Angie told Callie more about Rollie’s disappearance and things that had happened recently.  It hurt to speak of them, but it also helped in a way.

As they drew near the church, Angie was surprised to see that it looked in need of some work.  Callie, apparently noticing her expression, spoke up.

“Before Daniel came, the church hadn’t been used in thirty years.  You should have seen what it looked like before he started fixing it up.  It was a mess.  Daniel’s done a tremendous amount of work on it, and he’s got the scars to prove it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he seems to have some trouble with using a hammer, maybe other tools as well, although I’ve noticed that he appears to be improving.”

Angie smiled.  “Rollie wasn’t the most talented in the world when it came to a hammer either.  He could wield a screwdriver or soldering iron with the best of ‘em, but stick a hammer in his hand, and he was bound to hit something he wasn’t intending to.  He generally steered clear of them because of that.  I don’t know if it was because he usually used a hammer with his right hand or if it was just poor aim.”

“What do you mean?  Was Rollie left-handed?”

“Actually, he was pretty much ambidextrous, but he favored his left hand for some things, like writing.”

“Hmm.  You know, thinking about it, Daniel’s left-handed, too.  I didn’t even think about it before.  He uses his left hand for writing and such, but I see him use his right hand for a lot of other things.”

“Well, there are more left-handed people than many think there are, and a lot of lefthanders can do more with their right hand than righthanders can with their left hand.  It really isn’t all that uncommon.”

“Yes, I know.  I’m left-handed, too,” Callie said.

“You are?  I never noticed.  As it so happens, I am, too.”  She smiled gently.  “Rollie sometimes joked about us being so in sync when we worked because the same half of our brains were dominant.”  The smile faded as she thought about the fact that she’d never hear Rollie making those jokes again.

They went to the church first, but found it empty, so they went over to the house.  There was no answer to Callie’s knock.  The journalist stuck her head in the door.

“Daniel?  Are you here?” she called.  She was greeted by silence.  “Huh.  That’s funny.  I wonder where he is.”

“Maybe he took a walk.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.  He does like to exercise.”

“Oh, well.  We can come back another time.”

As they turned to leave, Angie got a strange feeling, like she was being watched.  She glanced about, but saw no sign of anyone.  Deciding it had just been her imagination, she shook the feeling off and headed back down the hill with Callie.

Daniel slipped out from behind the trees, looking down the road at the place where Angie and Callie had last been visible.  He’d been lucky that he was outside and saw the two women before they saw him.  Even so, it had been a close call.  If he stayed here another day, he might not be able to prevent Angie from seeing him.  He would have to leave for the mainland first thing in the morning.

Daniel sat on the porch steps, thinking about Angie.  She had looked thinner than he remembered, and there had been faint circles under her eyes.  It had been really hard to be so close to her and not say something, not touch her.  Was he doing the right thing by hiding from her?  Maybe if. . . .  No.  Angie thought he was dead, and it was best if it remained that way.  In time, she would move on, and he would become just a memory.  He could never be Rollie Tyler again, and he would never be able to return to New York.  That life was over forever.  This was the best thing for everyone.  Yet, he couldn’t help but think that Angie had a right to know that he was alive, well, and happy.  Torn between what his heart and his head were telling him was the right thing to do, Daniel stood and went inside.
 

CHAPTER THREE

Angie reread the letter for about the seventh time, trying to picture in her mind what the man who had written it might look like.  Callie had said he was tall, dark, and handsome, with a wonderful smile.  The problem was that every time she formed a mental image of a guy like that, he ended up looking like Rollie.  Daniel probably looked nothing at all like Rollie.

Callie was busy putting together the next issue of the island’s newspaper.  Not really having anything else to do, Angie was now sitting on a bench overlooking the bay, her mind traveling back and forth between thoughts of Rollie and her curiosity over Daniel.  Callie had told her about some of the things Daniel had done since coming to the island.  He sounded like a really good person and somebody whom she could talk to about her feelings, somebody who would really care about what she was going through.

Angie let her gaze wander over the water.  Maybe talking to someone would be good for her, especially someone who could understand her grief, as she suspected Daniel would.

“Hello.”

Angie turned at the sound of the soft voice and saw a man in his early to mid-twenties standing a few feet away.  He wore a black knitted cap over his blond hair and was dressed in work clothes.  There was something about his light blue eyes and rather shy expression that warmed her to him immediately.

“Hello,” she said, smiling.

“I saw you sitting here alone.  Are you waiting for someone?”

“No.  I’m a friend of Callie Pender’s.  She’s working right now, so I was just spending some time thinking.”

“Oh.  You’re Angie, the woman that works in the movies.  Brian told me about you.  He’s hoping that you’ll get people to come here to film movies and TV shows.”

Angie’s smile widened.  “What do you think about that?”

The young man looked about at the quiet town.  “I think that if lots of people see Hope in a movie, then come here because they want to be in a place like this, then it wouldn’t be that kind of place anymore.”

Angie nodded, appreciating the simple wisdom in his words.

The man sat beside her.  “I’m Nub.”

“Hi, Nub.  I’m Angie Ramirez.”

“You’re from New York, aren’t you?”

“Uh huh.”

“I thought that Daniel was from New York too, but later, I found out that he’s from California.  He doesn’t really sound like he’s from California.”  A puzzled frown came to Nub’s face.  “I get confused by his accent sometimes.  It sounds odd every once in a while, like he’s from another country.”

“Well, maybe he lived overseas for a while.”

Nub seemed to ponder that for a moment.  “That might be it.”  He looked at the letter in her hand.  “Is that from a friend?”

“Actually, it’s from Daniel.”

“Ah.  Then it is from a friend,” Nub said.

Angie looked at him in surprise.  “Yeah, I think you may be right.”  Her eyes dropped to the piece of paper.  “Someone I cared about very much . . . died a few months ago.  Callie told Daniel about it, and he wrote me this letter as a way to help me get through it.”  Angie swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.  It had been hard speaking that word, admitting out loud that Rollie was dead.

Nub nodded.  “Daniel’s really good when it comes to helping people and making them feel better. I like his sermons.  They’re about love, and hope, and beauty.  They’re not like the ones where the reverend talks about all of us being sinners and needing to repent.”  He looked at her, gentle compassion in his eyes.  “I’m sorry about your friend.  Maybe you should talk to Daniel.  When I was sick, he came and kept me company, and we talked about dying.  It really isn’t something to be afraid of, you know.  Dying is a part of living, and there’s something better waiting for us afterwards.”  His words rang with a deep, unquestioning faith.

Someone in the distance called Nub’s name, and he stood.  “That’s Brian.  I’d better go.  It was nice meeting you, Angie Ramirez.”

“It was nice meeting you too, Nub.”

Angie’s gaze returned to the sea.  Nub’s words had helped make up her mind.  Folding the letter and putting it in her pocket, she stood and headed in the direction of the church, hoping that, this time, the reverend would be there.  She noticed Alex walking in her direction and decided to talk to her.

“Hello, Alex,” she greeted.

“Hello, Angie.  Did you get some sleep?”

“Yeah, a bit.”

“I was sorry to hear about your friend.  Callie said something about you going to see Daniel.  Did you?”  Alex was careful to keep her tone only mildly interested.

“Yes, but he wasn’t there.  I was just about to go back up there and try again.”  Angie paused.  “I was wondering about something.  At first, I didn’t want to go see the reverend.  Callie went up there sort of behind my back and talked to him about me.  Anyway, he wrote me a letter.  In it, he talked about somebody he loved dying, but Callie didn’t know who it was.  I was wondering if you did.”

A look of surprise came to Alex’s face.  “So that’s what happened.”

“What?”

“Um, let’s go over here.”  Alex led Angie to a bench.  “I don’t know if I should tell you this, but I don’t think Daniel would be mad if I did.  Sometime before he came to the island, Daniel fell in love with a woman, but, apparently, his father wasn’t happy about it for some reason, and I guess things got pretty unpleasant.  Then something happened, but Daniel didn’t tell me what it was.  Now, I realize that she died, and that’s what sent him over the edge.”

“How so?”

“Daniel said that he ran away, from his father, from life, and everything else.  He took the next plane out, which happened to be going to Las Vegas.  There, he went on a major bender.  He woke up one morning to discover that he’d gotten married to a showgirl named Stella.”

“Oh no,” Angie said, both saddened by Daniel’s loss and faintly amused that he’d gone off and married some showgirl while he was dead drunk.  But then she thought about the reason behind what he’d done and realized that it wasn’t amusing at all. 

“Well, according to Daniel, his father is pretty well-known, so when the media got wind of what was going on with Daniel, they zeroed in on him and Stella.  Daniel didn’t want his father’s reputation ruined, so he sort of went into hiding and ended up coming here, a place where nobody knew who he or his father were.”

“What about Stella?”

“She showed up here a while back, but she didn’t stay long.  She took with her the divorce papers that Daniel had.  She filed them a short time later.  The last I heard, she was engaged to a dentist.”  Alex smiled.  “She invited Daniel to the wedding.”

So, this is what Daniel was talking about in his letter.  A lot of things were clearer now, and she felt as if she had gotten to know the reverend better.

“He sounds like a pretty interesting guy.”

“Yeah, Daniel’s something else.  When he first came to the island, I was pretty ticked off when he made my son, Dylan, his acolyte.  I don’t go to church, and I didn’t want religion shoved down my son’s throat.  But it’s been really good for him.  Dylan's father never comes to see him and rarely writes.  Daniel has been a good friend to him, sort of a substitute father.  He’s certainly been a lot better father that Steve ever was.”  There was a note of bitterness in Alex’s voice.

“Well, thank you for telling me this.  I’d better get going.”

“Would you like to call first and make sure he’s there?”

“No, I think I’d rather just go on up there.”

“Okay.  Well, I hope things go well.”

Both women stood.  Alex watched as Angie headed up the road toward the church.  She was even more puzzled now that she’d talked to the blonde.  Angie definitely seemed not to know Daniel, yet his reaction to her had looked like one of recognition.  How was that possible?  Alex had a feeling that something strange was going on.  There was definitely a mystery between those two, but what it was and what it might mean for Hope Island was something Alex had no clue about.

Angie walked up the road quickly, not taking the time to enjoy the scenery like she did before.  The more she thought about Daniel and what she’d learned about him, the more excited she was about meeting him.  All the things that everyone had said about him had painted a picture of a guy who was kind, compassionate, and sensitive, yet was human enough to make dumb mistakes like everyone else and not too proud to admit it.  She liked that picture; she liked it a lot.  She was now dying to put a face with that picture.  Angie had a feeling that Daniel would be someone she could grow close to.

The closer Angie got to the church, the more anxious she was to get there.  When she realized that her heart rate had increased more than what was warranted by the exercise, she had to laugh at herself.

‘Get a grip, Angie,’ she told herself.  ‘You haven’t even met the guy yet.  He might turn out to be a big disappointment.’  Somehow, she doubted that he would be.  Strangely, she still tended to see Rollie’s face when she thought of Daniel.  Maybe it was because some of the things that she’d learned about him reminded her of the Aussie.  Rollie had been someone who cared about people and wanted to help them when he could, often putting himself at risk to do so.  He had been good with children too, treating them with respect and not talking down to them.  Rollie had been someone who felt grief deeply and had known a lot of it in his life.  First, he’d lost his mother when he was a child, then there had been the death of Angie’s father, who had almost been like a father to him as well.  After that, he’d lost Rick and less than a year later, Leo, two of his closest friends.  Angie had seen how he’d suffered over the deaths of Manny, Rick, and Leo, and, though he never talked about it, she knew that his mother’s death had left a scar that never fully healed.  From what Alex had said, and from Daniel’s own words, he appeared to be the same way when it came to the loss of a loved one.

Angie smiled when she thought about how Rollie had been the type of guy who just might make the same kind of dumb mistake that Daniel had.  And he would have been horrified afterwards, as she was sure Daniel had been.  Then there was the fact that Daniel seemed to be at odds with his father, just as Rollie had been with his.  She wondered if Daniel had felt neglected and misunderstood by his dad, too.

Most of all, Rollie had been someone who could be the best friend that anyone could ever hope to have, someone who could give you comfort when you needed it and would stand by you no matter what.  By what Callie, Nub, and Alex had said about Daniel, he was that kind of person, too.

As the church came in sight, Angie sped up her pace even more.  Soon, she hoped, she would meet this man face to face and would find out if what she had come to believe about him was true.

Daniel’s duffel bag was all packed.  He had decided to catch a ride on one of the fishing boats early in the morning, when there would be no danger of Angie being up.  He would have to call somebody tonight and let them know that he’d be gone for at least a week.  Daniel had come up with a story for his sudden departure: a family emergency.

He felt like he was running away again, hiding, and he hated it.  There had been a time when he wouldn’t have considered hiding, when he would have rushed into danger without hesitation, a time when he had felt the thrill of being on the edge.  Danger had not been something he ran from.  But, as was bound to happen, a threat finally came that he’d had no choice but to run from.

Daniel went to the church to pick up a couple of books he’d left in the back room, but, instead, found himself wandering throughout the church.  He looked around at the altar and the pews, at the pulpit where he stood to give his sermons.  How strange it was that, before coming to Hope Island, he hadn’t gone to church since his mother’s death, yet, now, it was a place where he felt safe and at home.  Daniel had found something within himself, a reverence and depth of faith that amazed him.  In that way, what had happened to him had been a blessing.  He had changed in these months, become a better person.  His cynicism was gone, as was a lot of his sarcasm.  He’d found that he didn’t need the excitement of being a special effects expert or playing cops and robbers to feel alive and happy.  He’d discovered a life that was far more deeply fulfilling here on Hope Island, and he didn’t want to lose it.

Daniel returned to the back room, shutting the door behind him.  He was reaching for the books when he thought he heard someone come in the front.  He turned around and went back to the door, intending to see who it was.  But, as his hand stretched out for the doorknob, a familiar voice rang out that made him freeze, his heart instantly thundering in his chest.

“Hello?” Angie’s voice called.

Panic assailed Daniel.  He stood utterly still, afraid to move even a muscle lest she hear him.  ‘What am I going to do?  What if she comes back here?’  His mind racing, he heard her footsteps as she drew closer to the door.  He nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of her knock.  Daniel’s eyes fixed upon the doorknob, expecting to see it start to turn.

“Hello?” Angie called again, more softly this time.  There was silence for a couple of heartbeats, then a sigh.

Daniel heard her moving away.  The sound of her departure broke his frozen stance and made him move toward the door.  She was going away; she was leaving.  If he remained hidden there in that room, if he took a boat out in the morning, he would never see her again.  Daniel had thought that he’d accepted that months ago, but, suddenly, the thought of never seeing her face, never hearing her voice ever again, seemed more than he could bear.  But if he did open that door, his life here on Hope Island would probably end.  There was a good chance that he would have to leave, start yet another life somewhere else.

Daniel listened to Angie’s footsteps getting further and further away, feeling like they were carrying away a part of his heart with them.  In that moment, he closed his eyes and prayed, asking God for the answer to what he should do.  And, all at once, he knew.  Taking a deep breath, Daniel opened the door.
 

CHAPTER FOUR

Feeling a strong sense of disappointment, Angie walked toward the door of the church.  She hadn’t realized how very much she wanted to meet the reverend until then.  A spark of hope lit within her.  Maybe he was at the house.  She would have to see.

She was crossing the threshold of the door when something happened that shattered everything she had accepted as reality.

“Angie?” said a soft voice behind her, a voice that made her mind spin wildly in disbelief and her heart still for a moment in her chest.  It couldn’t be.  It just couldn’t be.  But that voice!  Her heart in her throat, Angie turned around--and saw the face that she had thought she would never see again.  He stood in the back doorway, a ghost come to life before her eyes.

“R-Rollie?” she said, her voice shaking.

The familiar face smiled gently.  “Yeah, it’s me, Ange.”

“Oh my God,” Angie whispered.  She ran forward, throwing herself into his waiting arms.  He lifted her up off the floor, holding her body against his with almost crushing force.  They clung to each other, overwhelmed by the tide of emotion that had arisen in them.  Angie was crying, her tears wetting the collar of his shirt.  He could feel her body trembling against his, hear her soft sobs in his ear.  He pulled her even more tightly against him and buried his face in the crook of her neck, wanting to hold her forever.

At last, Rollie lowered Angie’s feet to the floor.  He pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead, then rested his cheek against her hair, taking a deep breath of its scent as she nestled against his chest.  Finally, their gazes met.  Angie looked into the eyes she loved more than any other.  Those eyes were smiling down at her with the warmest light she’d ever seen.

“I thought you were dead,” she said brokenly, reaching up to touch his cheek as if to assure herself that he was really there, that he would not suddenly vanish into her imagination.

“I know, Angie.  I’m sorry.”

The blonde drew away slightly and studied his face.  “What happened, Rol?  Where have you been all these months?”  She felt her anger rise.  “Don’t you know what I’ve been going through, what we’ve all been going through?  We spent months looking for you.  We sent your picture to every law enforcement agency, to all the hospitals and the . . . the morgues.  We didn’t stop looking.  After Mira and Frank were pulled off the case, I even hired private investigators to look for you.  Everyone thinks you were murdered.  Last month. . . .”  She took a deep breath.  “Last month, your dad decided that it was time to accept that you were dead.  We had a memorial service.”  Tears filled her eyes again.

“Angie, I am so sorry.”  The Aussie led her over to a pew and sat down with her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.  “I never ever wanted to hurt you, or Dad, or anyone else, but I had to leave.”

“What are you doing here?  I came here to see Daniel, to talk to him.  Have you been staying with him?”

Rollie looked deeply into her eyes.  “No, Angie, I’m Daniel.”

The blonde’s mouth dropped open.  “What?”

“It’s true.  I’ve been living here as Daniel Cooper.  Nobody knows who I really am.  They haven’t a clue.”

Angie felt numb with shock.  Rollie was Daniel?  Rollie was the man that everyone had told her about?  “But why, Rollie?  How?”

“It’s because of Loubar and the organization that hired him.  After we foiled that last job of his and those guys were arrested, a contract was put out on me.”

“Yes, I know.  Shortly after you disappeared, Mira and Frank found out about it.”

“Well, I found out a bit sooner, almost too late.  I was getting into the Acura when somebody took a shot at me.”  He lifted his hair to reveal a scar in his scalp.  “But then, somebody else took out the shooter.  It turned out to be Elena Serrano.  She’d come to warn me about the contract, which the feds had just found out about.  Before I knew it, I had been taken to a safe house for protection.  The body of the killer and all evidence of what had happened was removed.  But that was only the beginning.  It turned out that the organization who hired Loubar was suspected of having connections in a lot of high places.  It was also clear that they wouldn’t give up until I was dead.  The feds decided to put me in the Witness Protection Program.”

“But, Rollie, I checked the FBI’s database, and found no hint that you’d been put in the program.”

The Aussie grinned.  “Which is exactly what Elena knew you’d do.  Don’t forget that she’s seen how easily you can access classified data.  She had all records of what had happened and the plan to put me in the program hidden under a different name.  Only key people at the bureau and with the U.S. Marshals knew where to look for the records.”

“So, they sent you here?”

“No.  Something happened.  There was a leak somewhere.  We’re almost certain that a fed was in on it.  The safe house was attacked by gunmen.  Three agents were killed, and Elena and I just barely managed to get out alive.  We fled to a small town in upstate New York.  Since we had no way of knowing where the leak came from, Elena knew that she couldn’t let anyone else know where we were.  She made up a story to the bureau, saying that we’d gotten separated and that she was looking for me.  They wanted her to come in, but she refused, telling them that I was her responsibility and that she was going to keep looking.  We then hid from everyone, not knowing who to trust, afraid that every person we saw on the street might be an assassin come to kill me.”

Angie took Rollie’s hand, thinking about the fear that he must have been going though then.  The Aussie gave her hand a squeeze, then continued with his narrative.

“We’d been there just a few days when, completely by accident, I met a man named Daniel Cooper.  He looked almost exactly like me, and, at first, I thought he was Loubar, but I soon realized that he wasn’t.  He was a newly ordained minister.  He’d just gone through a really bad time in his life.  The woman he loved had died, and he’d gone off on a real bender.  He’d gotten drunk one day and ended up marrying this showgirl in Las Vegas.”

“Yeah, I know.  Alex told me about that.”

“She did?  So much for keeping her mouth shut.  Remind me not to tell her any more secrets,” Rollie said with a smile.  “Anyway, because Daniel’s father is a well-known televangelist, there was a real media circus about the whole thing, though, fortunately, the press never found out that Daniel and Stella got married.  Daniel went into hiding and came to that small town.  He had a friend there.  He was so tired of it all, the media hounding him, the magazine articles, feeling as if he couldn’t make a life for himself where people wouldn’t judge him by his father’s merits.  But, at the same time, he loved his father and didn’t want to hurt him, even though things between them hadn’t been good for a long time.  Daniel had just made the decision to leave the country, go off to some remote place where nobody would recognize him and become a missionary.”

“So, what happened?”

“Well, Elena and I had been trying to figure out what to do.  We didn’t know who to trust, and we were afraid that if the feds and U.S. Marshals were involved again I’d end up dead.  With Daniel’s help, we came up with another plan.  I became Daniel Cooper.  I learned everything I could about him, his likes and dislikes, his past, everything.  His voice was very much like mine, almost identical, except that he has no Australian accent.  I trained myself to speak at all times without the accent, though I still slip occasionally.”  The Aussie smiled faintly.

“While all this was going on, Cliff Cooper’s people called Daniel and said that there had been a request for a minister at a place called Hope Island.  We decided that a quiet, out-of-the-way place like that would probably never have heard of Cliff Cooper’s son.  It would be the perfect place for me to be Daniel.  Finally, when I was ready, I called his father and, pretending to be him, said that I was ready to go to the island.  So, here I am.”

“What about the real Daniel Cooper?”

“He’s in Africa working as a missionary.  I’ve gotten some letters from him, sent through Elena.  He’s happy there.  He’s continued to give me information about himself, trying to fill in some of the gaps.  I now know just about his whole life’s story.  In fact, I’ve come to know him so well, that I’m almost thinking like him.  I even had a dream about his father once.”

“How many people know you’re here?” Angie asked.

“Only Elena and Daniel.  Like I said, this was all done without the knowledge of the other feds and the marshals.  As far as they’re concerned, I’ve disappeared without a trace and am believed to be dead.  There are no records of where I am.  It was the only way that we could be sure I’d never be found.”

“Rollie, you should have told me.  I could have helped, and I wouldn’t have told anyone.”

“Don’t you know how much I wanted to tell you?” the Aussie said, his voice tight with emotion.  “When the feds first took me, I begged them to let me contact you, but they wouldn’t allow it.  After the attack on the safe house, it was just too dangerous.  Angie, there may be people in the government involved in this, high-ranking officials, not to mention that there are clearly members of the FBI or U.S. Marshals tied in with this organization.  It would have been so easy for someone to discover that you knew where I was.  If the wrong people had even suspected that you did, it would have put both your life and mine in danger.”

Angie had to admit that for weeks after Rollie’s disappearance, she had often felt as if she was being watched.  There had been times when she was certain she was being followed, and one occasion when she’d had the feeling that someone had been in her apartment, even though nothing had been disturbed--except for Chiops, who had been a basket case when she arrived home.

“But, Rollie, it’s been over eight months.  Why couldn’t you have sent word to me just to let me know you were alive?”

“Angie, what would you have done if you’d learned that I was alive and in hiding?” the Aussie asked.  “Would you have just sat there in New York and done nothing about it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I do.  I know you, Ange.  You would have wanted to find me.  Not only that, but you would have tried to do something so that I could come home.  Even if you hadn’t, even if you didn’t even try to find me, if the people who want me dead guessed that you knew something about me, they might have tortured you to get the information.  I couldn’t take that chance.  I couldn’t do anything that would endanger you.  I’ve lost count of how many times I wanted to pick up the phone and call you.  I’m so sorry, Angie.  Can you forgive me?”

Angie gave a deep sigh.  “I guess you really had no choice.  I’m sorry I got mad at you, Rol.  You did the right thing.”  She took hold of his other hand.  “But I’m glad that I’ve found you.”  A smile came to her lips.  “So, I guess I should start calling you Daniel, huh?  Wait a minute.  So this means that you’ve been acting as minister here?”  There was amusement in her voice.

“What’s so funny about that?  I admit that it’s been pretty hard at times, but Daniel taught me some things, and I’ve learned a lot since coming here.  Besides, I. . . .”

“What?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Okay.”  Angie studied his face.  “Are you happy here?”

“Yeah, I am.  I wasn’t at first.  It was really hard.  My life here is so different, and I missed doing F/X.  Also, there are some ways in which Daniel is not at all like me.  For one thing, he has absolutely no knowledge of computers and isn’t technologically-minded at all.  He calls himself a real low-tech kind of guy.  Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to pretend that I know nothing about computers and other electronic equipment?  I even had to pretend that I couldn’t type worth a darn.”

“Darn?” Angie repeated, amused at Rollie’s use of the word.

“Yes, darn.  It doesn’t look too good for a reverend to swear, Ange.  Daniel’s also a lot more health conscious than I am.  Sometimes, I feel like I could kill for a piece of chocolate cake.  Then there’s the poetry.”

“Poetry?”

“Yeah.  He’s really into it.  I had to cram my head full of passages of poetry and stuff about poets.  The funny thing is, once I started reading the stuff, I actually got to liking it, quite a bit, in fact.”

“You’re kidding,” Angie said, her voice dripping with skepticism.

“No, I’m not kidding . . . and stop snickering, Angela.”

She fought down the grin that had spread across her face.  “I see that you also had to cut your hair.”

The Aussie’s hand went to his shorn locks.  “Yeah, but I’ve been thinking that I might start letting it grow out just a little.”

Angie then noticed something else, something that made her stiffen, suddenly doubting the identity of the man sitting beside her.  “What happened to the scar?”

Rollie’s fingers touched the place where the small scar from the bullet graze had marred his cheek.  “Plastic surgery.  A plastic surgeon who owed Elena a big favor came out and did it.”  He studied Angie’s expression.  “It’s really me, Ange.  Do you think that Loubar would make that kind of mistake in his disguise?”

“No.  No, he wouldn’t,” she said quietly.  “So, what now, Rollie?”

“I don’t know.  I never expected you to show up here.  It was a real shocker seeing you get off that ferry.  I’ve been trying to figure out what I was going to do ever since then.  How are you and Callie acquainted?”

“We met on the Internet to start with, but then we met in person in Florida during that vacation I took there.  We’ve talked on the phone quite a few times since then.”

“Why did you come out here?”

“Callie invited me.  She knew that things weren’t going well for me, what with your disappearance and the stuff with the business.  She was hoping that spending time here would make me feel better.”

“What’s this about the business?  What’s wrong?”

“Rol, I might have joked with you about you going out of business in under a week if you didn’t have me, but the same is true for you.  Without you, there hasn’t been a Tyler F/X.  I didn’t even think about doing any jobs the first three months.  I was too upset and too involved in trying to find you.  Later, Frank and Mira convinced me that I needed to try focusing on other things.  But, without you, there just weren’t any F/X jobs to be had.  I could do the computer work, but you were the one who had the head for the mechanical side of things.  Without you. . . .”

“You could have hired someone to do what I did.”

“Even if I could have found someone, even if I had wanted to find someone, the producers just weren’t interested in hiring Tyler F/X without Tyler.  Maybe, in time, that would have changed, but I just decided that it wasn’t worth fighting for.  I decided that I really didn’t want to do F/X without you.”

“What have you been doing, then?”

“Computer graphics for other companies.  I’ve had a couple of job offers, but I decided to stay independent.”  She searched his face.  “I didn’t sell the loft, Rol.  It’s all still there, everything.  I moved in there permanently about three weeks ago.”

“How’s Bluey?” Rollie asked softly.

“I think he misses you, at least that’s how he acts.  Rol, what are you going to do?  Are you going to spend the rest of your life here?”

“I don’t know.  As long as that organization is around, my life is in danger and yours too if they think you know something.  Then there’s Loubar.  I found out from Elena that word on the street is that he’s a screw-up.  He blew four major jobs in the space of a little over two years because of us.  We’ve ruined his reputation.  He’d be out for blood now.  He wouldn’t mess around with trying to frame me for murder or anything like that.  If he found out where I am, he’d kill both me and you.”

“But I haven’t seen a sign of him.  He hasn’t come after me.”

“Because I’m not there to be hurt when he does,” Rollie said softly.  “He hates me, Angie, and he probably thinks that I may still be alive.  He wants me to suffer before I die, and there isn’t anything that would hurt me more than him killing you before my eyes.  If he finds out where I am, he’ll try to do that.”

There was a long, heavy silence as both of them thought about what Rollie had said.  It was Rollie who broke the silence.

“Until Loubar and all the others are either dead or in prison, I have no choice but to stay here and continue being Daniel Cooper.”  The Aussie searched Angie’s eyes.  “What about you, Ange?  Now that you know where I am, you could be in danger.  I know that I shouldn’t have let you know I was here.  I just couldn’t--”

“Rollie, as far as everyone is concerned, I just came here to visit a friend,” Angie interrupted.  “No one would have any reason to believe that my trip had anything to do with you.  I think we’re both safe.”

The Aussie got up and walked away a few paces.  “So, after your visit, you’ll be going back to New York?”

“That’s what I had planned on doing.  Of course, I didn’t know that I’d find you here.”  She came up behind him.  “I can do computer graphics anywhere, as long as there’s electricity, a phone line, and a way to ship packages.  Although, having access to a T1 or DSL does make things easier.  I suppose that would be out of the question here, though.”

Rollie turned and stared at her.  “Are you talking about moving here?  To Hope Island?”

“Sure.  Why not?”

“Angie, you’d go nuts living in a small town.  You’ve been a big city girl since you were a little kid.”

“Yeah, but before then, I lived in a small town in Cuba.  It might take some getting used to, but I can handle it.”

“You should go back to New York.  You’d be better off,” the Aussie said.

“So, you don’t want me to stay?  Are you afraid I’ll blow your cover?”  There was a hurt tone in Angie’s voice.

“Angie, no.  That’s not it at all.  I’d love for you to stay.  I just think that you’d be happier in New York.”

“Well, that’s for me to decide, isn’t it.  How about if I see how I like this place after I’ve been here for a couple of weeks?”

“Okay, that sounds fair,” Rollie said, smiling.  He pulled her into his arms.  “It is so good to see you again.”

“It’s good to see you too, Rol.  I really missed you.”

The two friends held each other tightly, not noticing that a figure had just stepped through the open front door.  Alex stared at the two of them, seeing a look of joy on the faces of Daniel and Angie.  It was clear from their embrace that they had deep feelings for each other.

Feeling as if she was spying, Alex backed out the door, got in her truck, and drove away, ignoring the twinge of jealousy that had sprung up inside her.
 

CHAPTER FIVE

Callie entered the Widow’s Walk and headed for the stairs, intending to see if Angie was in her room.

“She’s not up there,” Alex called to her.

“She isn’t?  Do you know where she is?”

“She went to see Daniel,” the redhead told her, focusing her attention on the stain she was scrubbing off a table.

“Really?  That’s great.  How long ago did she leave.”

“Around two, two and a half hours ago, I guess.”

“He must have been there this time,”

“Yeah, must have,” Alex muttered.

Callie watched the owner of the Widow’s Walk attack the stain like she was venting her anger on it.  “Is there something wrong, Alex?”

“Huh?”  The redhead finally looked up at her.  “No, I’m fine.  I’m just having a hard time getting this stain out.”  She gave a sigh, apparently giving up for the moment, and turned fully toward the journalist.  “Callie, how much do you know about Angie’s past, the relationships she’s had?”

Callie’s eyebrows came together in a frown.  Why was Alex asking a question like that?  “Not a whole lot.  I got the impression from Angie that she hasn’t had many relationships and none that lasted for very long.  Why do you ask?”

“I was just curious.  She kind of struck me as being lonely.”

“Oh.  Well, yeah, she has been lonely.  Rollie was the only person she had that was close to being family.  Both of her parents are dead, and she has no siblings.”  Callie glanced at her watch.  “Maybe I’ll go up to Daniel’s and see how things are going.  I really hope that talking with him is helping Angie.”

“I’d say it is,” Alex murmured in an odd tone of voice.

Still puzzled by the redhead’s behavior, Callie went to her jeep, hoping that she’d find a happier Angie when she got to the church.

“So, just about the entire population began digging up the island looking for the buried treasure,” Rollie told Angie.  No, correction. Daniel.  She had to remember to think of him as Daniel.  It was the only way she could prevent herself from accidentally calling him Rollie.  To help her adjust, he had dropped his Australian accent.  It was strange hearing him speak without it, though not as strange as it might have been if it wasn’t for the times he had adopted another accent while ‘undercover’ for the cops.  She had to admit that she missed his native accent.

Angie drew her attention back to what Daniel had said.  She chuckled.  “Sort of like gold rush fever, huh?”

“You’d better believe it.”

“So, did anyone find the treasure?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Daniel said.

Angie blinked in surprise.  “You went treasure-hunting, too?”

“No.  I was in town when Father Mac was reading a bit of Latin that was in the old journal that started the whole mess.  From what the Latin passage said, I realized that the treasure was buried right here near the church.”

“Since when do you understand Latin?”

“Well, I took kind of a crash course in it with Daniel, and I’ve continued studying it some since I came here.”

Angie nodded.  “So, what did you do with the treasure?”

“Seasoned a lot of food.”

“Huh?”

Daniel grinned.  “The so-called treasure turned out to be a chest full of salt.  According to Father Mac, salt was considered a kind of treasure to sailors back then.”

Angie laughed delightedly.  “I bet there were a lot of disappointed people.”

“Oh, yeah.”  Daniel chuckled.  “But get this.  Brian decided that they should sell it as genuine pirate salt to the tourists.”

Angie laughed even harder.  She was thoroughly enjoying the stories Daniel had been telling her about his life on Hope Island.  She was amazed at how much he had changed in the last few months, yet had remained very much the man she had known since childhood.

“Callie was telling me about this Brian.  He sounds a little like your Dad, always looking for ways to make a buck.”

“No, it’s not really that way with Brian.  Yes, he is constantly trying to sell real estate and bring the tourists in, but he does it because he loves Hope Island and wants to see it prosper.  He just goes too far sometimes,” Daniel explained.  “When I first came here, he and I . . . well, you could say that we definitely didn’t see eye to eye about what he wanted to use the church for, which, I’m sure you could guess, was to bring in more tourists.  But, later, I came to understand him.  He’s an okay guy.”  Daniel smiled.  “Lousy singer, though.”

“Speaking of music, you never told me you could play the guitar.”  She glanced over at the instrument, which was sitting propped against the coffee table.

“That was Mom’s doing.  I took lessons when I was a kid, but I haven’t played one in years.  Playing it helps me write my sermons.  I took piano lessons back then, too.  Mom was pretty musically inclined.  Daniel can play both the guitar and the piano, so I brushed up on those things while I was with him.”

“Well, you just have all kinds of hidden talents, don’t you.  So, when are you going to read poetry to me?” Angie asked, her eyes twinkling.  She’d been teasing him about that since learning of his new interest.

“Oh, you’d just love that, wouldn’t you.  Well, you’ll just have to get your amusement from elsewhere, Ms. Ramirez.”

Angie gave him an exaggerated pout, but couldn’t hold it.  It was so good to be here with him, to actually be talking to him, touching him, when only a couple of hours ago, she’d thought he was dead.

Daniel noticed the way she was looking at him.  He reached out and gave her hand a comforting squeeze.  “How have you been, Ange?”

“The truth?”

He nodded.

“Not so good.  For the first seven months, I refused to believe that you were dead.  I just couldn’t accept it, even though almost everyone else had given up on you.  I was certain that you were hiding somewhere.  But then, after. . . .”  She paused.  “When Dingo said that it was time to accept that you were dead, I just. . . .  Things really fell apart for me at the memorial service.  That’s when I finally gave up hope.”  And that was when the depression had really set in and the insomnia had gotten worse.  But she wasn’t going to tell him about that.  He felt bad enough as it was.

Daniel pulled her close and pressed his lips to her forehead.  “But you were right, and they were wrong,” he murmured.

“Yeah.  I guess I was right about you having too much dumb luck to get yourself killed.”  With an effort, she pulled her thoughts away from the grief of the past and focused on the happiness of finding Rollie again.  “Okay, so tell me more about this baby that was left on your doorstep.  Callie mentioned something about it earlier.”

With a tender smile, Daniel began telling the story of the baby they had named Moses.

“. . . then she came forward and took the baby from Nub’s arms,” the minister said a few minutes later as he concluded the story.

“So, Melissa was Moses’s mother.”

“Yeah.  She’d given him up because, already having one baby, her husband being gone on his fishing boat all the time, and there being no money, she just didn’t think she could take care of him.  She and her husband are doing a lot better now.  They’ve learned to be honest and open about their feelings and doubts instead of bottling them up inside, which is what led to that whole thing in the first place.”  He grew silent for a moment.  “I’ll tell you, Angie.  Taking care of that baby, holding him in my arms, was like nothing I’ve ever felt before.  I saw the love and commitment that it takes to be a good father, and I found out how wonderful it can be.  They just take your heart in their little hands and don’t let go.”

“I bet you’d make a good father,” Angie commented.

“Me?  I don’t know.  I’d like to think I would.”  He got up.  “Would you like some soda?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

While Daniel went off to the kitchen, Angie looked around the place.  It was pretty much a typical bachelor’s house, with a few exceptions, one of which was the reading material.  Books of poetry took up a good portion of the small bookcase. She pulled one out and accidentally knocked a case off the shelf.  The lid sprung open, and dozens of cassette tapes scattered across the floor.  She knelt to pick them up, then noticed the titles on the tapes.

Angie heard Daniel come back in the room.  She looked up at him.  “What are these?”

Daniel’s eyes went from her face to the tapes and back again.  “That’s what I was going to tell you about later.  You’ve had to absorb so much in the last couple of hours that I didn’t want to throw this at you, too.”

“Rol . . . Daniel, these are all seminary tapes.”  She glanced through them.  “They’re like something that. . . .”

“Someone who was studying to be a minister might have,” Daniel finished.  “Come here, Ange.”

The blonde put the tapes back in the case, then returned to her place beside Daniel on the couch.

“You don’t have to explain,” she told him.  “It would make sense that you’d have to study these things since you’re posing as a minister.”

“No, Angie, you don’t understand.  I’m not posing.  I am a minister.”

The blonde’s jaw dropped.  “What?!”  She stared at him, speechless.  Rollie Tyler was really a minister?  Oh, man.  This was too unreal.  She felt like humming the tune to The Twilight Zone.

Her best friend reached out and gently closed her mouth with his finger.  “You’re catching flies, Love,” he said, for a moment slipping back into his Aussie accent.  The smile that had turned up the corners of his mouth then faded away.  “I suppose I should explain.”

Angie nodded numbly.

“When Daniel chose to let me assume his identity, he had one condition, that I become ordained,” he told her.

“And you agreed?”

“Not at first.  Being a minister was just about the last thing on Earth that I ever considered as a vocation.”

“What changed your mind?”

“A couple of things, necessity being one.  Without the resources of the FBI and U.S. Marshals, Elena and I knew that we would not be able to create a fictitious identity for me that would hold up under intense scrutiny.”  A smile came to his face.  “Of course, if we’d had you around, you could have hacked into all the necessary databases and made me whomever we pleased.”  He again grew serious.  “We figured that the safest thing would be for me to assume the identity of a real person, namely Daniel, and to be Daniel, I had to become ordained, not just because he insisted on it, but also because, if I wasn’t ordained, any marriages I performed would be illegal, not to mention doing things like baptisms and funerals.”

“You said there were two reasons.”

“Yeah.  I watched Daniel give a sermon.  A minister in the town where we were staying had an accident and broke his hip.  There wasn’t enough time for the congregation to get another minister for the Sunday service, so he agreed to conduct it.  He asked me to attend so that I could see what it was that he was asking me to become.  I’ll tell you, it wasn’t what I expected.  I was expecting one of those fire and brimstone sermons, but, instead, he stood up there and talked about love, and God’s mercy, and helping each other.  I realized that I was way off in my assumptions on what I’d have to do if I became a minister.  I thought that I’d have to be like those televangelists who are constantly talking about sinners and repentance and spending half their time trying to get people to dig deeper into their pockets for contributions.  I knew that I couldn’t be that kind of person.  Daniel didn’t mention contributions even once throughout his entire sermon.

“In watching him, I realized that there was a lot I didn’t know about how ministers view their vocation and that the ideals and viewpoints of each minister can be vastly different from that of another.  After the sermon, I agreed to study to be a minister.”

“Did Daniel train you?”

“He helped me, but most of the training came from those tapes.”

“So, what are those tapes anyway, a seminary correspondence course?” Angie asked with a laugh.

“Actually, that’s exactly what they are.”

“You’re kidding.  I didn’t know that you could become a minister by mail.”

“It isn’t the way you make it sound,” Daniel said, somewhat irritated.  “The program is equal to any college or university-level training.  It’s the real thing, Angie.”

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to imply it wasn’t.  Why didn’t Daniel teach you himself?”

“For one thing, he didn’t feel like he was ready to ordain someone else as a minister.  He hadn’t been one for very long himself, and he felt like he still had a lot to learn.  The other reason was more practical.  If Daniel had ordained me, it would have been put in the records.  We couldn’t have any traceable connections between us just in case the people who are after me somehow learned that I’d taken the course.  I was taking a chance as it was in becoming ordained under my own name.  But I had to for it to be legal.”

Daniel took a sip of soda, his throat suddenly dry.  It was going to be hard trying to explain to Angie what had happened while he was training to be a minister.  He just hoped she would understand.  “At first, I mostly did it because I had to, but then I . . . I began to look at things differently.  I realized that something important had been missing from my life all these years.  I can’t explain it, but I really started becoming a minister.”

Angie stared into Daniel’s eyes, realizing what he was saying.  He truly was a minister, in every way.  She knew that Rollie had always believed in the existence of a higher power, but he had never been a churchgoer.  And now, he was an ordained minister.  It was almost impossible to believe.

“If things hadn’t changed for me, I really don’t think I could have gone through with it,” Daniel said.

“Why not?”

“I just don’t think it would be right for me to play the preacher if I didn’t believe in what I was doing, even if I was ordained.  I mean, in the end, ordination is just a piece of paper.  It doesn’t mean anything if you’re not a minister in your heart.  There are some Christian religions that don’t even ordain their ministers.  Their ordainment is in here,” he tapped on his chest, “and that’s a lot more important than any formal ceremony or training.”

Angie nodded, silently agreeing with what he’d said.  “How long did it take to be ordained?”

“Four months.  Sixteen weeks to be exact.  That’s how long it took to complete the Basic Ordination Course.”

“That’s all?”

“Yeah.  It’s a good thing that it didn’t take any longer than that.  As it was, we just barely made it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember how I told you that Cliff Cooper’s people had contacted Daniel about the request for a minister here?  Well, when he got the call, his father wanted to know what he’d been doing there all that time.  Daniel managed to avoid giving any straight answers, but he knew that if he didn’t get out of there soon, his father would send somebody to come check up on him.  For the next two weeks, we were just about sweating blood that some of his father’s men would show up before I completed the course.  Pretending to be Daniel, I called his father’s office the day I got my certificate of ordainment.  The next day, I was on a plane to Seattle.  I didn’t think I was ready to pose as Daniel and certainly not ready to be a minister, but Daniel thought I was.  He said that he wouldn’t have let me go otherwise.”

Angie sat in silence, still trying to accept the fact that Rollie Tyler was a reverend.  “I can’t believe this,” she murmured.

Daniel chuckled.  “Angie, if someone had told me a year ago that I’d be an ordained minister by that time next year, I’d have called somebody to take them away to the mental ward.  My life has changed so much in the last eight months, two weeks, and,” he glanced at the date on his watch, “one day that I can barely believe I’m the same person.  It’s like I’m really not Rollie Tyler anymore, in more than name.”

“So, you’re now the Reverend Roland Tyler.”  Even as Angie said it, the unreality of the whole thing made her head spin.

“Yeah, but to you, and me, and everyone else on this island, I have to be the Reverend Daniel Cooper.”

Callie pulled up to the church.  She looked inside, but did not see either Daniel or Angie, so she headed over to the house.  As she climbed the steps, she heard laughter coming from inside, Angie’s laughter.  Delighted at the sound, Callie knocked on the door.  There was instant silence within, then the sound of footsteps approaching.  The door opened to reveal Daniel.

“Hi,” he said with a smile.

“Hi, Daniel.  I understand that Angie’s here.”

“Yeah.  Come on in.”  He moved aside to let her pass.

Callie saw Angie sitting on the couch and did a double take.  The difference in her appearance from earlier in the day was nothing short of miraculous.  There was a glow of happiness in her eyes and, as she got up and moved toward them, a bounce in her step that had been sorely lacking before.  She looked like the Angie Ramirez that Callie had met in Florida.  No, actually, she looked even better.  What in the world had Daniel done to cause such a transformation?

“Angie!  You look fantastic!”  Callie looked from the blonde to the minister, noticing that he looked extremely happy as well.  Her journalist’s curiosity arose.  “Is there something going on here?”

Daniel and Angie glanced at each other.  Okay, the time had come to put what they had decided on into action.

“Well, you’re not going to believe this, but Angie and I know each other,” Daniel said.

“You do?”

“Uh huh, though we haven’t seen each other in a long time.”

“Okay, this I gotta hear.”  Callie sat on the edge of a chair, eagerly leaning forward, and watched as the other two made themselves comfortable on the couch, sitting quite close to each other, she was pleased to note.

Preparing himself mentally and emotionally for the lie he would have to tell, Daniel began telling the story.  “Well, we met back when Angie was in college.  I was living in New York at the time.  This was before I began studying to be a minister.  We got along really well and spent a lot of time together.  Then I went back to California, and we hadn’t seen each other since.”  It had taken a while to come up with a story that wouldn’t contradict something the islanders knew about Daniel’s life or anything that Angie had told Callie about herself.

“Oh, come on.  There has to be more to it than that,” the journalist said, pressing for details.  “Were you two . . . well, you know, involved?”

Daniel’s gaze went to Angie.  This was something else they had discussed.  To explain their closeness, which everyone was going to be able to see, they had decided to fabricate a past romantic relationship.

“Yeah, we were.  We got pretty close,” Daniel said softly.

“So, why didn’t you keep in touch?” Callie asked.

“We did for a while, but, eventually, things just . . . drifted away.  I now wish that we had kept in touch,” Angie said.

“So do I,” Daniel agreed.

“I can’t believe you didn’t suspect that Daniel was the man you knew, Angie,” Callie said.

“Well, you never mentioned his last name, and when I knew him, he wasn’t a minister and was seriously considering not becoming one because of his father.  I guess that I should have suspected, but it had been so long.”

“Well, this is great!” Callie said, beaming.  “I am so happy you two found each other.”

Again Daniel’s and Angie’s eyes met.  “So are we,” they said in unison.

“So, does this mean that you’ll be staying longer?”  The journalist asked Angie hopefully.

“Yes, I’ve decided to extend my visit another week.  Daniel and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

“I should think so.  Um, were you two planning on having dinner here or at the Widow’s Walk?”

“We hadn’t really thought about it.”  The minister turned to Angie.  “So, what’s it to be, Ange?  I should warn you that I don’t have much in the house to eat.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?  You never were much for cooking.  You didn’t even--” Angie cut herself off abruptly.  She had been about to say that he hadn’t even had a decent kitchen in the loft.  “I vote for the Widow’s Walk,” she quickly said, trying to cover her slip of the tongue.

“And I second the motion,” Daniel agreed with a grin.

“Would you mind some company?” Callie asked.

“Not at all.  You’re welcome to join us,” Daniel said warmly.

The three friends climbed into Callie’s jeep and drove down the hill.

Alex looked up at the sound of laughter and saw Daniel, Callie, and Angie come in.  All three of them looked very happy.

“Hey, Alex!  Three menus, please,” the journalist said, then sat with the other two at a table.

“Well, you three look pleased about something,” Alex commented as she handed them the menus.

“It turns out that Daniel and Angie are old friends,” Callie told her.  “They haven’t seen each other in years, so this is sort of a reunion.”

“Really.  Well, that’s great.”  Alex looked at the minister and the blonde, catching a shared glanced between them.  There was something in that glance, a warmth that spoke of a close friendship, not something that she would have expected to see between people who hadn’t seen each other in years.  Apparently, they must have been very, very close when they’d known each other before.  Again, Alex felt a spark of jealousy and, like before, she pushed it away.  Why should she feel jealous?  There was absolutely nothing between her and Daniel except friendship.

The meals were ordered and Alex went off to give them to Boris.  Daniel, Angie, and Callie then began chatting or, rather, Daniel and Angie talked, while Callie mostly just watched.  She’d never seen two people become so familiar with each other so quickly.  The way they acted, a person would think they’d been friends for many years.

Callie couldn’t get over the change in Angie.  All visible traces of her grief were gone.  The journalist didn’t think there could have been a bigger improvement in her friend if Rollie had suddenly come back to life.  Daniel Cooper had certainly wrought a miracle in Angie Ramirez.

When the food came they focused on eating, saying a sentence or two between mouthfuls.  Angie ate like she was starving, consuming her food with gusto, a big change from lunch, when she had barely touched what was on her plate.  After dinner, they sat around the table, chatting and sipping beer.

Officer Kevin Mitchum came in, immediately spying the unfamiliar face of Angie.  Curious, he went in search of his fiancée, Molly, and found her in the kitchen.

“Who’s the woman out front with Daniel and Callie?”

“That’s Angie Ramirez.  She’s a friend of theirs.”

“Both of theirs?”

“Yeah.  She came here on an invite from Callie.  Neither of them knew that Angie knew Daniel, and Daniel didn’t realize that Angie was someone he knew.”

Kevin looked at her with a blank expression on his face.  “Could you run that by me again?”

Molly stopped what she was doing and patiently explained it again.  “Callie didn’t know that Daniel and Angie had been friends a long time ago, and Angie didn’t know that the Daniel Callie talked about was the same Daniel that she had known.  It was the same way with Daniel.  Callie had told him about Angie, but he didn’t realize that she was the same Angie that he had known.  Then they met and recognized each other.”

“Ah, I get it.  So, who is this Angie Ramirez?  Where’s she from?”

“She’s from New York City, and she does special effects for movies.”

“Movies?” said the cook, Boris, in his thick Russian accent.  “Boris was actor in Russian movie.  Director say I was very good.  Could have been big star.”

“Is that right?” Molly remarked, wondering if there was anything Boris hadn’t done sometime in his life.  Hope Island’s newest resident had been everything from a painter to a cosmonaut candidate and could do everything from cooking with the skill of a chef to teaching swing dance lessons.

“Daniel and this Angie were looking pretty chummy.  Did they have something going on together when they knew each other?” Kevin asked.

Molly smiled.  “Yes, they do look pretty close, don’t they.”  She went to the door and peeked out at the minister and the New Yorker, Kevin looking over her shoulder.  Her head tilted slightly to the side.  “I think they make a cute couple, don’t you?”

“Oh, I don’t know.  They couldn’t have very much in common.  He’s a minister and she’s in the movie business.  What would they talk about?”

“Apparently, they have a lot to talk about, by the looks of things.”

“Well, I doubt she’ll stay.  I’ve met people from New York City, and most of them wouldn’t live anywhere else.”

“Oh, I don’t know.  I think if she had a good reason to stay, she would.”

Kevin walked back into the kitchen.  “Will you be finished with work pretty soon?  I rented a new movie that Ruby and Bonita got.  We could fix some popcorn and. . . .   Molly, are you listening to me?”

“Hmm?  Oh, sorry, Kevin.  I wasn’t listening.”

“Yeah, I noticed.  Well, since you seem to be preoccupied with Daniel and Angie, I’ll just go home and wait for you.”

Molly went to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.  She gave him a gentle kiss.  “I may be preoccupied with them now, but you’re the only one who occupies my thoughts all the time.”

Kevin smiled happily, and they kissed again.  He then shot a rather self-conscious glance over his shoulder at Boris, who was busy at the stove.

“I’ll see you later,” Molly told him.  After he’d gone, she resumed watching Daniel and Angie.  “I wonder why they didn’t stay together,” she murmured to herself.

“Why who didn’t stay together?” Alex asked as she slipped past Molly into the kitchen.

“Daniel and Angie.”

“Who says they were together?  From what they and Callie said, they were just friends.”  The redhead sounded somewhat miffed.

“What’s the matter, Alex?  You’ve been touchy since this afternoon.”

“I’m not touchy.  I’m just busy.  Everybody keeps asking me who Angie is and won’t let me get any work done.”

Molly stared at her best friend, then followed her as she carried a plate of food upstairs to one of the rooms.  “You’re jealous!”

“I am not jealous,” Alex denied vehemently.

A smiled curved Molly’s face.  “Yes, you are.  You’re jealous about Angie and Daniel.”

“That’s ridiculous, Mol.  Daniel and I are just friends.  Why should I be jealous?”

“You tell me.”

“There’s nothing to tell because I am not jealous.”  She knocked on the door of a room.  A moment later, it opened and the person inside took the plate.

“Besides, even if I was interested in Daniel in that way, which I’m not, who says that he and Angie would get back together?” Alex said as they headed back down the hall.  “It was a long time ago that they knew each other.  Just because they were hug--”  The redhead cut herself off, biting her lower lip.

“Hugging?  When?” Molly asked, fairly pouncing on her friend.

“I . . . might have seen them at the church together when I went up there this afternoon,” Alex admitted reluctantly.

A bigger smile spread across Molly’s face.  “So, that’s why you came back in such a mood.”

“I am not in a mood!  Could we just drop this please?”

Molly didn’t say another word as they returned to the kitchen.  Though she had teased her friend, she was worried that, if Alex did have feelings toward Daniel, she might get hurt if he chose to renew his relationship with Angie.  Alex had already been scarred by a bad relationship with a man who had practically abandoned her and their son in favor of his job and a father who had run out on her, her mother, and sister when she was only six years old.  Alex had very recently come to terms with her bitterness over her father, but the anger she harbored toward Dylan’s father was still very much alive.

When they got back, they saw that Daniel, Callie, and Angie had gotten up from the table.

“Well, I’d better be getting back.  It’s a bit of a walk home,” the minister said.

“Don’t be ridiculous.  I’ll drive you back,” Callie said.

Daniel paused a moment, then agreed.  He and Callie left, and Angie headed to her room.  She went to the bathroom to wash her hands.  A bottle of prescription sleeping pills was sitting on the vanity.  She’d started taking them around two weeks ago when her insomnia had gotten to the point where she didn’t sleep at all anymore.  They’d helped a little, but only a little.  There had been a couple of times when she’d toyed with the idea of taking the whole bottle and just letting all her anguish go away forever.  The thought had never lasted for long, but it had been after one of those moments that Angie had gotten the email from Callie and immediately decided to take her friend up on her invitation.

Angie picked up the bottle and dropped it into the wastebasket.  She had a feeling that she wouldn’t be needing the pills anymore.

Sometime later, there was a knock on the door.  Angie opened it to find Callie on the other side.  The two women sat on the bed.

“Okay, Angie, now I want the details.  What went on between you and Daniel way back when?  By the way you two are acting toward each other, it must really have been a close relationship.”

The blonde paused for a moment.  “Um, yeah, it was, very close.”

“Did you ever talk about marriage?”

“No.”

“I can’t believe you guys just stopped writing to each other and never got back together.  I bet if you had, you’d be married and have two or three kids by now.  I saw the way you looked at each other tonight.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it was clear to me that you adore each other.”

Angie shook her head.  “We’re just friends now.”

“Uh huh.  How come you never mentioned Daniel to me?  I got the impression that you’d never had a serious relationship with a man.”

Angie paused.  “It was a long time ago.  I just never really felt like talking about it.”

“Ah.”  Callie scanned Angie’s face, wondering if she should bring up the subject that had caused the blonde so much unhappiness.  “Um . . . how are you doing about . . . you know?”

“Rollie?”

Callie nodded.

Angie thought about her answer for a moment.  She had to be really careful here.  She couldn’t say that she was great and all her grief was gone.  Callie would know something was up if she did that.  Meeting an old friend, no matter how dear, would not have eliminated her sorrow over losing her best friend.

“It still hurts, but Daniel and I had a long talk about it, and it helped a lot.  I’m going to be all right, Callie.”  Angie hated all the lying that she was having to do to her friend, but she had no choice.  Hers and Rollie’s lives depended on this secret being kept.

“I am so glad, Angie.”  She stood.  “Well, I’ll leave you to get some sleep.”

Angie went to bed that night and slept as she hadn’t in eight and a half long months.