Wilmington, NC 05 - Murder On The ICW

onto the driveway and headed toward the Airlie oak tree which is reported to be anywhere from four hundred to eight hundred years old. Spanish moss hung from its ancient branches and Resurrection Fern appeared among the leaves here and there.
    I got on the walking trail and walked through the Showcase Gardens that circled around the lake where white swans glided on the water. Mrs. Pembroke had dammed a salt-water lagoon to create a large artificial lake. The lake and the swans reminded me of Italy and how I'd discovered the depth of my feelings for Jon there.
    I'm happy with him, I told myself. With him, I experienced none of the acute anxiety I used to feel with Nick, wondering if and when he'd come home, wondering just where I ranked on his list of priorities. With Jon I came first, and rather than that knowledge causing me take him for granted, it made me value him more. I could relax into this love affair, I didn't have to worry needlessly. I was secure. A girl really grows up between the ages of twenty-four and twenty-six, I realized.
    The tops of the trees swayed in the wind, the branches creaking. A sharp crack sounded. The breaking of a branch? It sounded more like someone had stepped on a dry twig. Was someone else out walking too? I glanced back over my shoulder but the path was empty.
    I maintained my brisk stride and hurried along the path among immense azalea bushes that were taller than I was. In April they would be in full bloom -- red and pink and white -- dazzling because there were hundreds of thousands of them.
    Sarah Pembroke had created these gardens in the early years of the nineteen-hundreds. The gardens had reached their peak in the late 1920s with a half million azaleas and five thousand camellias. People came from Boston and New York to view her gardens, and to attend private concerts by famous singers like the Great Caruso.
    Those days too had been the peak of Prohibition. What a different world it had been then. Wilmington had been nothing like it was today. The Boleyn lodge was nearby and we had proof that illegal alcohol had been distilled there in large quantities. In those days, at social gatherings a flask was passed around so everyone could get a snort of illegal whiskey, and most times the punch bowl would be spiked. The entire era had fostered a sense of lawlessness, a disregard for law and order. People died of whiskey poisoning. Law men were shot while enforcing the law of the nation.
    Thank goodness that unpopular, unenforceable amendment had been repealed. The same thing would happen today if the government ever decided to prohibit cigarettes. They would become more popular than ever.
    I looked up at tall cedar trees and was reminded of an amusing story about Sarah Pembroke that made me smile to myself. She had gone on a tour of the Greek islands where she discovered a beautiful tree. She carefully planted the tree in a tub, tended it, and had porters drag it around for the remainder of her tour. Then she transported it all the way home to Airlie. Smile. Where she discovered it was identical to the sea cedars that grew here in her very own garden.
    Behind me I felt a turbulence of air and heard the whoosh sound of sudden motion. My defense mechanisms knew what it signified before my brain registered what was happening. The hair on the back of my neck stood up on full alert and my adrenalin started to pump. Fight or flight!
    I whirled around just as someone swung a stout limb at my head. I had an impression of a man in black before I threw myself to the ground. At the same time someone else was yelling my name and I heard the footfalls of my attacker as he ran away.
    "Ashley! Are you all right?"
    I looked up and saw Ali Shariff crouching next to me.
    "I'm okay," I said. "I skinned my knees I think."
    He stood up and leaned over me. "Here, let me help you up." He took my arm and assisted me to my feet.
    I brushed off my jeans. They were ripped at the knees.
    "Can you walk?" he asked.
    I took a few faltering steps, forcing my knees to work. "Yes, I can walk. Nothing broken," I said. "Did you see him?" I asked. "He was going to hit me with that branch."
    "I saw him sneak up behind you with that limb and lift it to strike you. I shouted your name."
    I stopped and looked into his face. "Thank you. You saved me from an attacker. Did you recognize him?"
    "I did not recognize him. He was large, I know that. He was dressed in black and had the hood of his wind breaker pulled far forward