Unforgettable Christmas Dreams: Gifts of Joy

by Rebecca York

  Lexie tried the desk first. The lock on the middle drawer was old-fashioned, the kind that would take a key like the one found on the grounds. She tried to slip the key in the lock, but it didn’t quite fit.

  She moved to the cabinet with file drawers and her pulse sped up as did her breath when she noticed that the leaf pattern in the veneer trim matched the pattern at the end of the key. Taking a deep breath, she inserted the key into the lock. It slipped in easily, but didn’t turn. The fit was close enough, however, for her to believe that her key would fit a similar cabinet.

  Undoubtedly, the cabinets had been bought by the same Drake, Brandon’s grandfather Henry. The matching file cabinet then would most likely be found in one of the Drake Enterprises offices.

  Lexie had just taken the key from the lock when she realized she wasn’t alone. Palming the key, she turned to face Isabella.

  “Can I help you with something?” Isabella asked as if she were the mistress of the house rather than the maid.

  Considering that she hadn’t brought any plants or decorations into the office, Lexie figured she couldn’t use that as an excuse, so she said the first thing that came to mind. “I lost something yesterday and thought it might be in here.”

  “Hmm, I don’t remember your being in Brandon’s office yesterday.”

  Lexie raised her eyebrows. Isabella did have an inflated sense of self-importance. “I didn’t realize you were keeping track of my every move.”

  Isabella ignored the dig. “I can help you look for whatever it is you lost.”

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  “No trouble.”

  “You have more important things to do.”

  “Not at the moment.”

  “Then perhaps you should ask Marie for something to do.”

  “I don’t work for Marie.”

  Getting more irritated with Isabella by the second, Lexie said, “Then find something else to do away from here!”

  Isabella backed down and gave her a sulky expression before leaving the room. Lexie sagged against the desk and slipped the key into her back pocket.

  She had more than one reason to be relieved. While she couldn’t say for certain that Brandon was innocent, the fact that she couldn’t open his file drawer with the key meant it belonged to a different if matching cabinet, one that undoubtedly would be found at the Drake Enterprises offices.

  And the person really in charge of the business was Doug Heller.

  Chapter Eight

  “Your daughter’s on the move, Mr. Shea,” the bodyguard assigned to watch Katie informed Simon.

  A call from Bray Sloane having woken him up a short while ago, Simon was getting ready to go into town to meet the man. “With whom?”

  “Alone. She’s on foot. Looks like she’s heading for Main Street.”

  “I’m ready to leave now,” Simon said, shrugging into his leather jacket. “I’ll be in Jenkins Cove in ten. Call me back when you know where Katie’s going.”

  “Will do.”

  Simon shoved the cell in his inner jacket pocket, grabbed his car keys and left the fishing shack. He pulled on his gloves as he ran to the truck, which he’d parked on the other side of the camp, since again there had been no patrol car parked at the mass gravesite.

  A sense of excitement filled him as he clambered into the truck, put on his sunglasses and a brimmed hat. The day was as bright as his sudden change in mood.

  He couldn’t help himself. Couldn’t keep himself from grinning.

  Katie. His daughter.

  He still had trouble fathoming that he’d fathered a child. A child he would finally get to see in a few minutes. Not just a photo like the one of her and Lexie, but Katie herself. Not that he would actually introduce himself. He just wanted to get a look at her, even if from afar.

  He started the truck and edged out of the stand of trees and headed for town.

  For so many years, he’d been without family. He was an only child. His mother died when he was still a kid and his father was usually too drunk to know he existed, other than to make his life miserable. Once Rufus Shea had loved him — Simon was sure of that — but it was as if he’d blamed Simon for his wife’s death. That’s when his father’s drinking had gone from social to serious. That’s when Simon’s home life had collapsed.

  How desperately he’d been looking forward to starting his own family with Lexie that Christmas Eve thirteen years ago. Unbeknownst to him, he had. Sort of. If Katie wasn’t aware that he was her dad, if he wasn’t allowed to know her, to influence her as she grew into a lovely young lady, did his having fathered her count?

  He would take what he could get. When this was over, he wouldn’t deserve more.

  His cell rang when he was about a minute from town. The ID told him it was the bodyguard.

  “So where is she?”

  “Katie headed straight into the supermarket. Just went inside. Do you want me to take off when you get here?”

  “Not at all. I just want to see her for myself, you know, so that I can be sure she’s okay. And then I have a meeting with your boss.”

  “Bray’s in town?”

  “He will be shortly. You keep an eye on my girl. Don’t let anything happen to her.”

  “Check.”

  Simon drove past the bodyguard’s car on the street across from Jenkins Cove Market and pulled into the parking lot. His pulse ticked faster as he left the car and went inside, still wearing the dark glasses and hat so that he wouldn’t be recognized if anyone still remembered him after all these years.

  Christmas music blasted him as he grabbed a cart and raced down the aisles, looking for Katie. He found her in the aisle with baking goods. She was just putting a bag of sugar in her cart. Slowing, he pretended to be looking for something when he really was checking out his daughter. She was beautiful, a young Lexie. He couldn’t stop looking at her.

  She was tall for twelve, maybe five-six, and slender. Her short, dark hair was fashionably spiked, but her face was free of makeup, leaving her with a clear complexion and natural color in her cheeks. She looked up and even from a distance, he could see the clear green of her large round eyes.

  His eyes.

  Apparently sensing that he’d been watching her, Katie froze and gave him a weird look. Not wanting to freak her out, he picked something off the shelf, threw it in his cart and headed for the checkout.

  As he passed her, from the corner of his eye, Simon saw Katie move away slightly. Damn! He hadn’t meant to scare her. He’d just wanted a close-up look at his daughter without her having to know who he was, and now he’d ruined it. He fought the urge to look back at her.

  “Will that be all, sir?” The kid at the register raised his voice to be heard over the piped-in Christmas music.

  Simon grunted and looked down to see what he’d thrown in his cart. Cherry pie filling. “Yeah,” he muttered, placing the can on the counter and pulling out his wallet.

  As much as he wanted to glance back, to see what Katie was doing, he kept his focus where it belonged.

  His heart hurt for the years they’d missed. Surely there was some way he could be in his daughter’s life. He was already regretting severing his relationship with his own father. He should have tried to help the old man get over his alcoholism instead of running out on him.

  If he had, he would never have been forced to fight in a war he’d wanted no part of, would have a totally different life now.

  On the way out of the market, Simon spotted a Christmas food drop for needy families and added the cherry pie filling to the cans and boxes already there. And then he kept going, to the lot, to his truck, never once looking back just in case Katie was there.

  He headed straight for the diner at the east end of town in hopes that there would be fewer people who might recognize him. The place wasn’t fancy, though there were Christmas lights in the window and a small tree near the register. Bray was in a back booth waiting for him. Simon waved, but stopped at the counter
where a redheaded waitress with a big name tag identifying her as Wanda was giving one of the customers his check.

  He got her attention. “Morning, Wanda. I could use coffee and breakfast if you’re still serving it.”

  “We’re still serving it, sugar. What’s your pleasure?”

  “The works. Surprise me. I’m about hungry enough to eat a snake.”

  “We serve snakes here, but we don’t feed snakes to our customers.” She laughed at her own joke and poked her head through the window to the kitchen to order a breakfast. “Hey, Sam, one Lumberjack!”

  His stomach already growling, Simon moved to the table and gave the big man there the once-over. His dark hair was spiked, his gray eyes seemingly free of the nightmares they’d once reflected, his body muscular.

  “Bray.” He held out his hand and the other man stood to take it. They were of equal height and strength. “It’s been a long time.”

  “A lot of years,” Bray agreed.

  They both sat as Wanda arrived with Simon’s coffee. “Brought you boys a pot,” she said, setting it in the middle of the table and a mug in front of Simon. “That breakfast will be up in a few minutes.”

  “My stomach’s already growling,” Simon told her. Then, when she left, he turned to Bray. Before he’d left Afghanistan, Bray had been a mess. His eyes had held that look identifying him as a man on the verge of a breakdown. Not anymore. Simon would bet Bray’s wife, Claire, had everything to do with that. “Good to see you.”

  “If only the circumstances were better,” Bray said, keeping his voice low.

  “Hopefully, when I’m done with this town, they will be.” But did he want to be done with the town if that meant he was done with Lexie and Katie? Did he want to take the kind of revenge that would push them away forever? Not wanting to complicate things right at the moment, Simon focused on the reason for the meeting. “So what do you have for me?”

  “Claire got a response to her ad. A Hans Zanko claims to be one of the survivors. He’s in Annapolis, not too far from the Five Star Security offices.” Bray handed Simon a folder. “Do you want Claire to follow up and interview him about what happened? He wants to be paid $10,000 for the information. He checks out as far as we can tell, but of course there aren’t any records to prove his claim that he was brought over for his kidney. He could be in it for the money.”

  “That what you think?” When Bray shrugged, Simon opened the folder to find a photo and contact info for a man who looked to be in his forties.

  “He didn’t send that photo, by the way. Claire got it off the Internet.”

  Which seemed to legitimize Hans Zanko, though Simon was still uncertain. “I would have guessed they would pick someone younger to be a donor. Like in his twenties, not forties.”

  “Except we don’t know how long ago the operation started. Some of those bodies they’ve dug up from the mass grave go way back. This guy has been in the country for a dozen years at least.”

  “I’ll check it out myself. If this Zanko is legit, I may be able to get more out of him, since I do have something in common with him. You just get me the cash from the account as soon as you get back to the office.” Simon had put $25,000 at Bray’s disposal for expenses and could move money into the account electronically. “And thank your wife for this.”

  “I’ll do that. I know you’re in an odd situation, what with everyone thinking you’re dead and all. You might need some backup other than from me. Someone in the system.”

  “A lawyer?”

  “A cop. A detective for the state police. The detective, actually.”

  “You mean the one investigating the victims of the mass grave site?” When Bray nodded, Simon asked, “How do you know him?”

  “He’s my brother-in-law, Rand McClellan. He’s good. He’s fair. And he knows that things aren’t always what they seem,” Bray said, his tone odd enough that Simon took notice. “He can keep things under wraps until the time is right.”

  “I’ll think about it. So why did you really want to see me?” Simon asked. “You could have sent me Zanko’s photo and contact information. You could have told me about your brother-in-law in a phone conversation.”

  “Well, uh…”

  “C’mon, Bray, what gives?”

  “I only hesitate because you might find this hard to believe,” Bray began. “My former partner at Five Star Security and I had a contract with a scientific company working for DARPA. There was a lab accident — an experiment that was aimed at developing a new biochemical warfare weapon. It left me without my memory for a while…” Bray looked around as if making sure no one could overhear. “…and gave me an ability I didn’t have before.”

  “What kind of ability?”

  “I can, uh… when I touch something, I can see something that happened to the object in the past. If I touch something connected to the murders like that key you told me about, maybe I can give you a lead that’ll help.”

  Simon didn’t immediately respond. He was wondering if his old acquaintance was in as good a condition as he’d first believed. Bray spoke up again. “Let me show you how it works. Give me something of yours and I’ll tell you what I see.”

  Simon thought about it for a moment and pulled out his wallet. From it, he took a flat piece of metal with a picture of a crab. It had once been a pin, but cheaply put together, it had come apart. Still, Simon hadn’t been able to get rid of the souvenir.

  He handed it to Bray and watched the other man’s forehead pull into a frown of concentration.

  “A carnival of some sort… food… corn on the cob… crabs…”

  “You could get that from the picture.”

  “A ring tossing game… a young woman… long bare legs… dark hair in a ponytail… big smile. She’s determined to win…”

  Suddenly Simon saw it all again, him and Lexie at the Eastern Shore Crabfest, the day he’d fallen head over heels for her. He’d loved her ever since they were kids, but this one perfect day in August with her had made him see what life could be like if they could spend it together. It had made him want something he’d never had.

  The day had been magic. Lexie had been magic. She’d cast a spell on him. So when she’d won the ring toss and had insisted on giving him her prize, the pin had taken on a value far above its true worth.

  I’ll keep this forever, Lexie. No matter where I am, it’ll remind me of you.

  Simon still remembered his exact words. And he’d been true to his vow. He’d kept the pin, had taken it out to feel closer to home and to her, even in war.

  “She won the game and gave you the pin,” Bray said, seeming as if he were coming out of a trance. “And you said you would keep it forever.”

  Simon cursed under his breath, but before he could say anything, a platter landed on the table before him.

  “Hope it’ll do you,” Wanda said.

  A glance at the plate of pancakes and eggs and potatoes and bacon and sausage and toast was enough to make Simon’s stomach growl.

  But when Simon looked at Bray and said, “I hope it’ll do me, too,” he wasn’t talking about the food.

  Chapter Nine

  “We’re done for the day,” Lexie told Marie late in the afternoon just after her crew had cleared out.

  “You’ve really done a fabulous job on this place,” Marie said. “Better than I even imagined.”

  Lexie glanced back into the ballroom and admitted that it did look pretty good, definitely the holiday wonderland her friend had requested. The scent of pine wafted from the room that now was unrecognizable in gold and red and green splendor. The lights weren’t even on, nor the special snow effect, and still it was transformed into a fairy-tale setting.

  In two days her mood had shifted as greatly as the ballroom had. The Grinch was hiding somewhere, chased away by a sense of expectancy.

  But it wasn’t the holiday that had gotten to her.

  Being with Simon again had lifted her spirits, if only for the moment.

 
; Knowing she couldn’t share her secret with Marie without betraying Simon’s wishes, Lexie decided she’d better leave fast before she folded and gave it up.

  “I’m glad you’re pleased.”

  “I hope it lightens Brandon’s mood,” Marie said. “Something’s been bothering him and he won’t talk about it. Says it’s business and he wants to forget about business when he’s with me.”

  A curl of anxiety tightened Lexie’s stomach. “That’s good. Isn’t it?”

  “I guess.” Marie shrugged. “Although I hate being shut out when I might be able to help him.”

  Lexie prayed that Brandon didn’t know anything about the human trafficking operation. “I’m sure his mood will even out. Give him time to get used to your being around and believing he can share things with you.”

  “You’re right.”

  Hoping she was, Lexie gave Marie a big hug. “See you tomorrow.”

  Lexie left and hurried out to the car. Brandon had to be innocent. Surely his mood had shifted because of some business pressures that had nothing to do with the horrific acts that had been going on in Jenkins Cove. If he was guilty or even knew something about the operation that he hadn’t revealed to the authorities, Marie would be devastated.

  Having gotten a call from Simon just as she was wrapping up for the afternoon, Lexie took off and headed for town to meet him at the diner. When she’d asked him what was up, however, he’d been all mysterious. She expected there was more than a fast dinner together involved. He must have gotten some information.

  Halfway there, Lexie realized that the same vehicle had been behind her since she left the estate.

  From a distance, it looked like it could be the same silver sedan that she’d seen that morning. Surely not. Surely her imagination was working overtime. Wanting to know for certain, Lexie slowed her SUV to let the other vehicle catch up. It slowed, as well.

  Her pulse fluttered. What if someone really was following her? Her assailant?

  She stepped on the gas, now wanting to get away from the car, but the other driver did the same, keeping the same distance between them, just far enough back so that she couldn’t be sure of anything. If only it would get closer, she could use her cell to take a photo, maybe get a shot of the plates that could be blown up.