Caffrey Aloha

Chapter 8

The members of Local Devastation had arrived in Hawaii, and when they contacted Neal to schedule time to rehearse, he invited them to join the Burke-Caffrey-Winslow family for dinner. Their group was so large the restaurant placed them in a private terrace, where they ate under the stars.

Peter had met Trevor Merchant, the group's drummer, over the summer during the Masterson Music case. Trevor loved being the center of attention and had plenty of stories to share to keep everyone entertained. That would have been more than enough to make it a memorable evening, but somewhat to Peter's consternation, guitarist Theo Guy took over the storytelling. Theo thanked Peter profusely for stopping Masterson Music's extortion scheme, which had threatened the recording studio he'd opened after retiring from his career as a rock musician.

Peter's parents, brother, and nieces were all fascinated by the story, and Neal helped fill in the blanks to make Peter sound like some kind of conquering hero. Any more praise and he was going to start blushing.

And then dessert arrived, and keyboardist/composer turned music professor Michael Darling started telling a story, with the help of his wife Tara. They described a time that Michael had received threatening messages and how he nearly left his wife and daughter in order to protect them because he didn't think anyone in law enforcement would take the threats seriously. "When Neal dropped in on a choir practice out of the blue and told me he had connections in the FBI, I was convinced it was a Christmas miracle," Michael said.

"We called Neal our Christmas angel," Tara added, "like Clarence in 'It's a Wonderful Life.' If he hadn't convinced Peter to investigate, I hate to think what would have happened. After Peter told us what they'd discovered..." She leaned against her husband and smiled mistily. "It saved our marriage."

Now Peter was certain he was blushing. His family looked so impressed, he didn't have the heart to tell them that the "case" he'd taken on for the Darlings had barely been a case at all. In normal circumstances he wouldn't have agreed to work it, but it had been the first case Neal had brought to the FBI, and it had seemed important to keep the kid engaged and learning FBI procedures while they worked out the details for officially granting him immunity and hiring him. El had heard Peter's much more plainspoken version of the story a year ago, but she clearly found Tara's version captivating. She smiled at Tara and then looked up at Peter in approval. "Our hero. Solving cases and saving marriages."

"It wasn't like that." He felt he had to protest. "A little deductive reasoning and pulling in the IT department to analyze the emails after Neal saw the pattern. It's the job."

"Oh, I think it's much more heroic than you realize."

"Neal's the one with the romantic streak and white knight tendencies. I just get dragged along." But Peter gave up because he could tell El was not going to budge from her belief that he was a hero.

Fortunately lead singer Ty Merchant didn't have any embarrassing stories to add, and the meal wrapped up as the Darlings' four-year-old daughter fell asleep. Neal and Henry had been amusing her with some sleight-of-hand, but she'd been too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

Back up in the suite with El, Peter said, "Neal's good with kids."

"It certainly seems so," she agreed. "But I take it from your tone there's something more behind this announcement."

"I've been trying to puzzle out what's been bothering him recently. He won't say exactly what it is, but today he did admit it's tied to the anniversary of my recruiting him."

"That coincides with the anniversary of the case with the Darlings," El added. "But he didn't seem uncomfortable around them."

"No, he seemed at ease, like they were distracting him from whatever it is." Peter sat down on the bed. "I keep asking myself if it's my fault."