Her head was whirling. But one huge piece of the puzzle was still missing. “It’s not quite the end of the story, though. Why did you leak it to the papers twenty years later? Was it for revenge?”

He chortled. “That’s a good one. If I’d ever thought of it, I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to leak information the way they love to do these days. No. The photo from the arrest disappeared very conveniently that same night. I guess the chief figured that if I did try anything, it would be my word against his and the good councilman. But I’d taken a couple of pictures, see? I always did. In case one didn’t turn out.”

He sat back and sipped more tea. “I clipped the clearest one to the file and I kept the backup.”

“Why?”

“I suppose that photograph was a reminder to myself that I wasn’t any better than the next man.”

“So you kept that photo all these years?”

“Sure did. I probably should have tossed it when I retired, but I’d mostly forgotten about it by then. My daughter was up here a few months back. She’s married to a fellow that works for the Sentinel. She was going through some old boxes in the storage locker, looking for I don’t know what, and she found that picture. Like I said, I’d almost forgotten about it. Well, after she got through wondering what I was doing with a picture of two people going at it, I told her the story. I guess maybe it eased my conscience a little.

“I never expected she’d take that picture with her and run straight to her husband.” Joe stopped to rub his jaw and a sly twinkle flickered in his eyes. “At least, I don’t think I did.” He chuckled a little. “Maybe I wasn’t sorry, though, that the truth finally came out.”

Oh, and was the truth ever coming out. She felt ill. Faint and nauseous. Her uncle had always been someone she admired and looked up to. He loved his wife, and he loved her. How could he go to a prostitute in the first place? Then use political influence to get the charge dropped, and then lie to his own wife and niece about the incident? The only truthful thing he’d told them was that he believed Patrick had planted the story.

And he’d jumped to that conclusion because he knew all about political dirty tricks and influence peddling.

And the irony was, that was the only part of the story that wasn’t true.

Her uncle had been wrong on so many levels. Patrick hadn’t set Uncle Cecil up. Patrick hadn’t known a thing about the arrest until he’d read it in the paper. It was the arresting officer’s son-in-law who’d made a timely news story out of an averted scandal.

The only person who’d been set up, she now saw, was her own gullible self.

“Are you all right over there?”

She’d dropped her head in her hand and closed her eyes as the shock of the truth hit her. “Yes. Yes, thank you. I’m fine. I-I’m glad to hear that Mayor Patrick O’Shea had nothing to do with starting false rumors.” That at least was true.

“If that mayor of yours is anything like he was ten years ago, when he was a young fireman, why, he’s as honest as the day is long. He comes from a good family, but he was one of the biggest sticklers for honesty and integrity I ever saw.” The older man leaned forward. “After the scandal with the last mayor, I’m awfully glad you’ve got a good man doing the job now. Especially since you’ve had all that trouble down there.”

“Yes,” Briana said, smiling shakily. “Yes, Mayor O’Shea is a good man.” And she wished the same could be said of her uncle.

Silence stretched between them. “I’m not sure I can tell you any more.”

“You’ve been very helpful,” she said, rising to her feet. “Thank you.”

“I’m not going to tell you it was a pleasure, but it was a duty, and I’m glad I’ve discharged that duty.”

She looked at him and saw a fine man who’d done something he wasn’t altogether proud of, something he’d been forced to do because of her uncle. She felt like crying. “Is there…I hate to ask you this, but do you think I could talk to your daughter?”

“You think I made all this up?” Joe had risen, too, and now he was staring at her as if she were nuts.

“No. Of course I don’t think you made it up, but I have to be sure. A lot is at stake here.”

He glanced at her with those cop’s eyes again. “Knowing my daughter, she’d be more than happy to talk about anything.” He reached for the pencil that perched on top of his newspaper. He’d been doing the crossword puzzle, she saw, and had more than half of the squares filled in. She was sorry she’d had to interrupt such a quiet Sunday afternoon activity with reminders of an incident in the past that he’d rather forget. He tore off a corner of the paper and carefully wrote down a name and phone number. “That’s their home. Joan will talk to you. Tell her I said it’s okay.”

“Thank you, Joe. Thank you very much.”

“Well, I’m ashamed I had any part in that, but I’m glad the truth is finally coming out.”

“It can’t have been easy for you,” she said, sorry he was still beating himself up over something that had happened two decades earlier. “You had a family. I’m sure you needed the job.”

Joe shook his head at her. “Young lady, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that doing the right thing is always the right thing to do. I’ve regretted keeping quiet for a lot of years.” He smiled at her. “One of the nice things about getting old is you’re allowed to give a lot of unwanted advice. But here’s a piece of advice I hope you’ll take to heart. Don’t ever make the mistake of compromising your integrity for someone else.”

She felt tears spring to her eyes at his words.

Too late. She’d already compromised her integrity by agreeing to go undercover in Patrick’s office with the express purpose of destroying his career.

Loyalty and integrity. She’d misplaced the first and compromised the second.

She only hoped she wasn’t too late to act with both.

After saying her goodbyes to Joe, she realized she was going to have to confront her uncle before she did anything else.

Her thoughts were grim on the drive back to Courage Bay. She’d imagined a lot of scenarios, but never had it seemed possible that the uncle who’d helped her so much when she was growing up would use her so despicably.

She was furious on her own behalf, and she was equally furious on her aunt’s. How could he profess to love that woman so deeply and do something so awful behind her back? She could still barely believe he had gone with a hooker. Had it been a regular thing? she wondered. Her poor aunt.

Yes, she needed to see Patrick and come clean about what she’d done, but she had to see Uncle Cecil first.

Then she was going to have to tell Patrick the truth about why she’d applied to be his admin assistant.

She really hoped his love was blind. She needed him to be blind to her faults when she finally told him the truth.