Epilogue

“Way to go, Merlin!”

Joe was right again. There were no ghosts on Castle Cay. Julie felt nothing but exhilaration as she reached the top of the ridge. The view of the island, the sea and the ocean liner was spectacular.

She was glad the ship on the horizon wouldn’t be stopping there. Matt Castle had kept his family’s island and built a private resort on it.

Julie thought wistfully of Dan O’Hara and Marc Solomon…especially Marc. It was almost a year since Marc’s murder; a year of inevitabilities, some good things and some surprises.

It’s been said that when one door closes, another opens. When Solomon Chrysler closed its doors, Pete and Joan Soldano bought the Lynn store.

Julie smiled, glad for her two friends.

Her thoughts turned to Tom Connor, Marc’s father. Matt Castle had seen to it that his friend and law partner was given all of his son’s paintings. Tom, in gratitude, had given one each to Julie and Joe, and had chosen for the rest to remain as a permanent exhibit in the expanded Sandpiper Art Gallery in Key West, managed by David Harris.

The best news of all, however, had come just two weeks ago, when they located Avram Solomon, in spite of his new identity. It was all over the news…

It happened during Silvio Tambini’s trial. One of the state’s witnesses, a certain William Bonafacci, also known as “Billy Bones,” was testifying about the order of events leading up to Silvio Tambini’s decision to move the drug lab out of the Waltham warehouse owned by Solomon Chrysler.

“So, Mr. Bonafacci, please tell us, in your own words, exactly what triggered this decision to ‘clear out’ of Waltham.”

“Well, see, we was watchin’ the car...”

“And what car was that?”

“It was a gray Sebring sedan…you know, a new one…on the storage lot. We seen Avram Solomon drive it there and put this bag in the trunk. So we popped it.”

“You ‘popped it’. Do you mean you opened the trunk?”

“Yeah.”

“And what was in the bag?”

“Money, papers. A passport and stuff.”

“And did you report this to Silvio Tambini?”

“Of course!”

“All right, Mr. Bonafacci. You mentioned that there was ‘a passport’ in the bag. Did you see the picture on the passport?”

“Yeah, it was Avram Solomon.”

“For the record, Mr. Bonafacci, do you remember the name on the passport?”

“No. But it wasn’t Houdini…He didn’t get out of the trunk.”

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