by Kathi Daley
The poor thing really did look like she was half frozen. She reluctantly nodded and then headed toward the car. She slipped into the backseat and wrapped herself up in the blanket I’d brought. I turned the heater on high as Colt pulled away.
“Do you have anything you need to pick up?” he asked.
“No,” Melody answered. “I didn’t have time to grab anything when we left. Ned was frantic. Really half out of his mind. He told me to get into the car, so I did. After we dropped the two of you off at the hunting cabin, we just drove aimlessly. Eventually, I was able to convince him to drop me off. I spent the night in a barn.”
Colt pulled into the parking area of a small diner. “Let’s grab some coffee, and you can tell me how this whole thing happened. Once we have all the facts, we can figure out what to do from there.”
As we suspected might be the case, it turned out that it had been Ned who’d partnered with William to scare Henri into selling. The amount of money Brighton and Baxter was willing to pay for his land was double the amount that he’d ever be able to get from any other buyer. Of course, the developer only wanted his land in conjunction with Henri’s. If she didn’t sell her land, they weren’t interested in his. The plan started simply enough – set up some props that would create strange sounds and lights late at night and then sit back and wait for Henri’s natural paranoia to set in. The problem was that she wasn’t easy to scare, and Ned had begun to think she would never agree to sell to Brighton and Baxter, so he’d decided to turn up the scare factor by sneaking into the house and providing an actual ghost for the woman to see. According to Melody, who’d only just learned about the series of events leading up to Colt and me being hit over the head and left in the hunting cabin, Ned hadn’t meant to hurt Henri, but when she saw him cloaked in dark garb behind her, she’d freaked out and had taken off running. According to what Ned told Melody, Henri’s fleeing from the ghost Ned had added to the mix resulted in her falling down the stairs. There was really no way to know with certainty if she’d tripped or he’d pushed her at this point, but either way, he was responsible for her death.
When William found out what Ned had done, he’d decided to use that information to get a bigger piece of the pie. Up to that point, he stood to receive the bonus he’d worked out with Abbot Baxter if he could get Henri to sell, but the amount of money Ned stood to receive for his property was ten times that much. William knew what Ned had done since Ned had unwisely told him, so he used that information to get Ned to agree to a fifty-fifty split of all profits from the enterprise.
At some point, Ned realized that it was crazy to give William so much of his money since he really didn’t need him anyway, so he followed him out to the estate when he went to haunt the sisters, hit him over the head hard enough to kill him, and then stashed him in the garden shed. He figured that once the sisters agreed to sell, which he’d heard they planned to do, he’d sell his land and keep all the profit for himself.
The plan might have worked if he hadn’t gotten greedy. It was the search for William’s killer that had led Colt to Ned in the first place. The man was a longtime resident who had friends in town, and when he found out that both Colt and I were asking around about him, he decided to flee. He’d stopped by Melody’s place in an attempt to convince her to go with him. It was while Ned was at her home that Colt arrived. Ned had a gun, which he threatened to use if Melody didn’t agree to distract Colt at the front door while he snuck around behind and hit him over the head. Initially, an unconscious Colt had been taken to a bedroom, where he was left while Melody and Ned argued about what to do next. Then I arrived, and when Ned knocked me out, he had two hostages to deal with. After a bit of discussion between Ned and Melody, Ned agreed to leave Colt and me at the hunting cabin, and then he and Melody made a run for it. The thing was that Melody didn’t want to run, so as soon as she was able to convince Ned to drop her off, she did so. She waited as he asked and then called Colt, whose number was in her phone from when he’d called her earlier to let her know that he needed to talk to her.
Melody’s story made sense from where I was sitting. It didn’t seem to me that she was to blame for what happened. She agreed to go to the police station with Colt, where she would give an official statement. Colt called Conroy and told him that things were under control and that he could go back to his holiday, and then Colt, Melody, and I headed back into town.
Once Melody gave her statement, Colt took her home, and then he took me home. He called the state police with an update on what he knew about Ned’s movements, and then he headed home to clean up. We were supposed to have dinner with Lonnie, Lacy, and their children, and after a bit of discussion, we decided to do just that.
I showered and then changed into the black leggings and the bright red sweater I’d planned to wear that night. I dug out my Santa hat and gathered the gifts for all eight Parkers, hoping that they’d enjoy the gifts I’d selected as much as I’d enjoyed selecting them. I had to admit if only to myself, that the idea of spending Christmas Eve with six children when my own child was in heaven had left me feeling a little sad. Johnathan would have been old enough to really enjoy the whole Santa thing this year had he lived. Had he lived, we would have had photos with Santa and a night out on the town to look at the lights. Ben would have read ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, and we would have hung stockings and set out milk and cookies. The night would have been so different from the one I had planned. Yet the one I had planned didn’t seem so bad.
I pulled my boots on and took a minute to think about how my life might evolve without children in my future. I supposed, if I were honest, the idea of never having the perfect family to share a Christmas Eve with did leave an empty feeling in my soul. But the last thing I wanted to do was sink into a depression on Christmas Eve when I had a night with loved ones planned, so I poured myself a glass of wine, took extra care with my makeup, and then toasted the life I might have had a final time before preparing to enjoy the life I had.
Chapter 15
“Can you believe Christmas has come and gone?” Georgia asked me as we worked together to take down the decorations we worked so hard to put up just a month earlier.
“It did seem to be a bit of a blur,” I agreed. “It was nice, though.” I thought of the fun Colt and I had had with Lonnie, Lacy, and their children on Christmas Eve, followed by the very adult fun we’d had at the cottage once we returned. Georgia had decided to spend the night at Tanner’s, so it had only been the two of us. “Really nice.” I smiled as I remembered the huge custom made stocking filled with lotions, perfumes, candles, and paperback books that Colt had given me on Christmas morning. Of course, the real gift was the stocking itself, and then there was the romantic getaway he’d planned, and the two tickets for the Broadway play he was taking me to in two weeks. I couldn’t wait for our romantic getaway to vibrant New York City.
“What time are the sisters supposed to be by?” I asked as I began gently placing glass bulbs into a box.
“They said they’d be by around noon,” Georgia answered. “They said they won’t have long but wanted to stop in and talk to us about their decision concerning the house before they left.”
“I’m anxious to hear what they decided to do.”
Georgia paused. “Yeah, me too. I really hope they decided to keep the house. I mean, I’d get it if they decided to sell. It is worth a lot of money. But I’ve grown fond of all of them, and I’d like to know that they will continue to be part of our lives.”
“Yeah, me too,” I agreed. I glanced at the clock on the wall. “We have a little time before they get here. I’m going to head back to the cottage and check in with Colt. He was supposed to call when he landed, but I haven’t heard from him.”
Ned Ballard had been arrested for driving while intoxicated by the highway patrol in North Dakota. When they found out the man was wanted for murder, they’d called Colt, who’d flown out to accompany him back to Maine for prosecution. I was glad the man
was going to be tried for his part in both Henri and William’s deaths and hoped that the evidence Colt had been able to piece together would be enough to send him away for a very long time.
“Hey, you answered,” I said when Colt came on the line. “You must have landed.”
“We just landed. I’m actually still on the plane. I need to drop Ned off and fill out some paperwork, but I think I should be done by five. I’m hoping we can talk about our trip. I called a friend who lives in New York City, and he had some good ideas for additional sightseeing options, but he said we’ll need to make reservations for some of them.”
“Georgia and I are cleaning up, and the sisters are stopping by on their way out of town, but the inn is empty until the weekend, so I’m totally free. Just come by whenever you get back into town.”
“Okay, I will. I need to go. I’ll see you this evening.”
After I hung up with Colt, I decided to walk out to the drive to pick up the mail. I figured the dogs needed to go out anyway, and if I picked up the mail now, it would save one of us a trip later. The walk from the cottage to the mailbox was a long one when there was snow on the ground, and all we received most days was junk mail, but today there was a thank you card from Poppy Sinclair. I waited until I got back to the inn to read it, so I could share it with Georgia.
“Dear Everyone,” I read aloud. “I can’t tell you how much spending Christmas at the Inn at Holiday Bay meant to the kids and me. I was sure that Christmas this year was going to be about as bleak as they came, but being there with you and your guests really did make all the difference. I want to thank Jeremy and Mylie for all the events. Of course, the children were sad, given the recent loss of their parents, but they both told me that having so many fun things to do each day really did make all the difference. And thank you to Georgia for all the wonderful food, and Nikki, who was wonderful and thoughtful for babysitting as often as she did.” I paused and took a breath before I continued. “Annabelle, I especially want to thank you. I want you to know that your open and giving heart helped us more than I can say. I know that Avalon and Alex will remember this Christmas with joy in addition to the pain. And finally, I want to thank Abby. The talk we had really helped me to put things into perspective. After much consideration, I’ve decided to quit my job and go to work for Blaine Beckett. We chatted extensively, and he managed to convince me that I would be an asset to his new company as he works to get it off the ground. The focus of his company will be family, so he has no problem with my divided loyalty the way my old employer did. I came to Holiday Bay with an impossible choice in front of me, but I came away from this experience with a whole new life. Thank you to everyone for making that possible. Love, Poppy Sinclair.”
“Ah. That’s so sweet,” Georgia said.
“It really is. I’m so glad things worked out for Poppy. I felt so bad for her when we spoke that day.”
“She really was in a tough spot, but I think going to work for Blaine was a good move. He understands where she’s coming from since he’s been there, and having been forced to have made a similar decision himself should make him sensitive to her needs. I think if Poppy is able to engage in work she enjoys and spend time with Avalon and Alex, she’ll find her life fuller and more rewarding than she ever imagined.”
“I agree.” I set the card on the dining table. “Let’s be sure to share this with the others.”
Georgia smiled. “You know, we really do have a pretty awesome team.”
I had to agree with that, only in my mind, we were more than a team – we were a family.
Later that evening, I lay in bed and looked out the window at the gently falling snow. Colt was sleeping behind me, his arm across my waist as he snored gently in my ear. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t sleep. I should be exhausted, but my mind was having a hard time shutting down. It had been a good day. A really good day. The sisters had stopped by and shared that, for the time being at least, they planned to keep the house. Shelby and Scot planned to pack up and move to Holiday Bay. They would take on the responsibility of the maintenance of the house and the management of the estate. Sierra had to go back to school, but she planned to spend every school break here in Holiday Bay. Sage had a business in California to get back to, but she was having serious discussions with the man who wanted to partner with her on a new line of outerwear. If that worked out, she expressed her intent to divide her time between the two coasts.
When Jeremy and Annabelle got home, I showed them the card we’d received from Poppy. It made Annabelle cry, but in a good way. I could tell that Poppy’s words meant a lot to her.
After Colt dropped Ned off and made it to the cottage, he informed me that he was off for a few days and hoped we could spend some time together. Georgia was going to head to Tanner’s for a few days since the inn was empty, which meant that Colt and I would be able to spend his days off with just the two of us. Well, mostly just the two of us. Jeremy and Annabelle were still over at the inn, but they had plans of their own, which seemed to work out well for everyone.
There were times such as this when it was so quiet and peaceful that I found a clarity that seemed clouded during everyday life. I’d been a different person when I’d first come to Holiday Bay. Not that the person I’d been was necessarily less than the person I was now, although the person I’d been when I arrived had certainly been a lot more damaged. I thought about the family I’d lost, and then I thought about the family I’d gained. I’d miss Ben and Johnathan every day of my life, but I couldn’t help feeling good about having a family who’d all worked together to bring me a series of very special gifts throughout the holiday season.
I guess the whole thing had started when Georgia had seen my Christmas photo album sitting on the coffee table and had looked through it. As she’d thumbed through the pages of photographs, she recognized the cookies I’d been eating as a child as the same ones that a close friend of hers from Germany used to make. Georgia decided to make them for me as a treat once it got closer to Christmas. She’d mentioned her plan to Nikki, who’d come up with the idea of creating a mystery to accompany the gift since I seemed to enjoy mysteries so much. At that point, Georgia and Nikki went through the album, looking for additional ideas. After making a list, they brought other members of my tribe in on the plan.
As I’d suspected, Nikki had painted the ornament, Velma had ordered the custom snow globe, Lacy had found the discontinued mug online, Jeremy and Annabelle had bought the birthstone necklace, the sisters had bought the ice skates after I’d run into Sierra, Annie had ordered the custom made earrings like the ones our mother used to have, and Colt, of course, had given me the stocking, which Mylie had made to look exactly like the one I’d had as a child.
Of course, the sisters’ gift hadn’t been part of the original plan since their participation was a bit more spontaneous, so Colt delivered his gift, the trip to New York City and the tickets for a Broadway play, in the stocking Mylie had made, so the days would work themselves out.
To say that I felt loved and appreciated as I lay there watching it snow would be putting it mildly. What I really felt, I realized, was whole in a way I’d never thought I’d feel again. There had been a time when I was sure I’d never be happy, but now I had to admit that in some ways, I was happier than I’d ever been. Where the future had once been dark, now all I saw was potential. I had no idea what the new year would bring, but I, for one, was more than eager to find out.
Up Next from Holiday Bay
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USA Today best-selling author Kathi Daley lives in beautiful Lake Tahoe with her husband, Ken. When she isn’t writing, she likes spending time hiking the miles of desolate trails surrounding her home. She has authored more than a hundred and fifty books in thirteen series. Find out more about her books at www.kathidaley.com
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