Mistletoe Justice

by Carol J. Post

  He touched the button clipped to his visor and waited for the garage door to rise. If anyone could handle Kyle, it would be Mrs. Peggart. She’d recently retired after almost forty years of teaching.

  When he slipped into the kitchen, the zing of lasers and the boom of explosions came from the living room. Kyle was playing with the Xbox. Likely the same thing he’d been doing all day. Conner frowned. Come Friday, he would have to make him buckle down and get his homework done.

  Sure enough, when he walked into the living room, Kyle sat on the couch with a controller in his hands. What Conner didn’t expect to see was Mrs. Peggart sitting next to him, holding the other controller.

  She spoke without taking her eyes off the TV screen. “His homework’s on the dining room table.”

  “It’s finished?”

  “Of course it’s finished. You don’t think I’d let him play without having his homework done, do you?”

  “No, I guess not.” He shook his head. He was still trying to digest the fact that there was a sixty-five-year-old woman sitting on his couch playing video games with his nephew. “Was he good?”

  “Good is a relative term. What’s he usually like?”

  “You’re the sixth babysitter in less than six months.”

  “Then I’d say he was a model child.”

  She suddenly gave Kyle a hard shove sideways. “You just blew me up.”

  Kyle responded with a couple of fist pumps, and she rose from the couch. After retrieving her purse from the top of the bookcase, she moved toward the front door. “I’ll be here tomorrow before you leave for work.”

  “Thank you.” Conner stifled a sigh of relief. Maybe this one was going to work out.

  He locked the door behind her and stepped back into the living room. “So what do you think of Mrs. Peggart?”

  “She’s mean.”

  “Good.”

  He strolled into the kitchen to check the refrigerator magnet for Pizza Hut’s number, then after making the call, headed down the hall to shower. He’d just reached his room when his phone rang.

  The number wasn’t familiar. But the voice was. It was Darci who greeted him. But something was off. Her words held an uncharacteristic tremor.

  “Everything okay?”

  “I’ve been...delayed.” She took a deep breath. “Someone ran me off the road.”

  Fire pumped through his veins. “Where are you?”

  “On Highway 19-98, about six or eight minutes away from you.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  “No, stay put. The car is drivable, and Jayden and I are fine. The cop is here, writing everything up, and they’ve got a BOLO out on the other vehicle.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come?” Staying home when she was out there didn’t sit right with him.

  “I’m positive. I’ll be heading your way in ten minutes. Fifteen tops.”

  He reluctantly agreed and ended the call. By the time the doorbell rang, he was in clean clothes and had a salad made. As soon as he let them in, Jayden went for the controller that Mrs. Peggart had relinquished.

  Darci stopped in the foyer, and he looked her up and down. She was still wearing the black dress pants and multicolored blouse she’d worn to work. There wasn’t a mark on her. Her hair and makeup even still looked good. “You’re sure you’re all right?”

  “I’m fine. I have a lot to be thankful for.”

  He raised his brows. With all the emotions circling through him, gratitude wasn’t among them.

  She continued, “Jayden and I are both fine. I could have flipped the car or slammed into a tree, but didn’t. There was a Levy County Sheriff’s deputy who saw the other vehicle tailgating me and turned around to investigate. My car is even drivable.” The smile she flashed him lit her eyes. “We can always find something to be thankful for if we look hard enough.”

  He returned her smile, trying to ignore the effect hers had on him. It drew him to her in a way that went beyond mere physical attraction. “You must be an optimist.”

  Her smile broadened. “Yep. Looking for the good in situations makes everything seem much less bleak. But I can’t lie. Sometimes I have to work at it.”

  He turned and led her toward the kitchen.

  “Any idea who ran you off the road?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t recognize the car. It wasn’t the SUV. But it wasn’t random, either. After riding on my tail for a couple of minutes, he pulled up beside me, jerked the wheel right and slammed into me.”

  “You said someone ran you off the road. You didn’t tell me you were hit.” His chest tightened. “I don’t suppose you got a tag number.”

  “I was too busy trying to keep from rolling the car. By the time I got safely stopped, he was gone.”

  The doorbell rang a second time, signaling the arrival of dinner. It took some cajoling and a few threats to get both boys seated at the table. The only thing Kyle liked better than pizza was the Xbox. Conner sank into his chair. He should probably do something about the kid’s obsession with video games. But he wasn’t ready to tackle that issue yet.

  “Kyle, would you like to say grace?”

  That was something Claire had taught him, something Kyle insisted on before every meal. A month before Claire disappeared, she’d started taking him to church. And though Conner had never attended a service in his life, he found a local church and continued the habit. He couldn’t say that it was helping Kyle, but it sure couldn’t hurt him.

  Kyle began in his little child’s voice, “God is great...”

  Conner started when a soft hand slid into his, and he opened one eye. Darci’s head was bowed, her left hand stretched across the table to grip Jayden’s, her other holding his own. When Jayden reached for Kyle’s hand, Kyle faltered for only a moment.

  And Conner’s heart skipped a beat.

  They made a perfect picture—he and Darci and the two boys, seated around the table. Like a family.

  Not that he’d had a whole lot of experience with family mealtime. When he was Jayden’s age, his dad would hit the bars right after work and often not get home until after he was in bed. His mom had her own issues and usually disappeared to her room with a TV tray. That left him and Claire to battle out what show they were going to watch while they ate. Being five years older and quite a bit bigger, Claire always won.

  Throughout dinner, Kyle was much more talkative than usual. He seemed to have taken a liking to Darci. Of course, over the past six months, his life had been lacking in female attention. Not that there was anything Conner could do about it. The women he dated weren’t the motherly type.

  When Kyle finished eating, he slid from his chair and made a dash for the living room. Jayden started to follow, but Darci reached across the table and clasped his wrist.

  “What do you say?”

  Several seconds passed. Finally he answered, “Scoos, peas.”

  Darci released him, and he, too, disappeared.

  “What did he say?”

  “That was Jaydese for May I be excused, please? I try to force him to communicate verbally whenever I can.”

  Conner smiled. Darci had it so much harder than he did, but seemed to take it all in stride. Suddenly his own load didn’t seem so heavy.

  After tossing their trash into the empty pizza box and closing the lid, he leaned back in his chair. “The kids are occupied and we’re both pleasantly full...”

  “So it’s time to get down to business,” she finished for him. Her mouth was curved upward in a half smile. She almost looked relieved.

  “When I saw you leaving the mine that night, you looked as if you’d seen a ghost.”

  She frowned. “It wasn’t what I saw. It was what I heard.”

  “Wiggins?”

 
“Yeah, and somebody else.”

  “Any idea who?”

  “No. Maybe. The guy had laryngitis, but his voice was familiar. And he knew me, mentioned me by name.”

  He frowned. That wasn’t good. “What did they say?”

  “They were arguing. The other guy said he didn’t like how Wiggins was doing things, that he’d crossed a line. Then he asked if I knew anything. Wiggins assured him that I didn’t, but that if I found out, he would make sure I didn’t talk.”

  His heart began to pound. What was the line Wiggins had crossed? Killing someone because she uncovered some kind of fraud?

  “You need to be extra careful.” She could be in the same position as Claire, caught up in something that was way over her head.

  “I know. I would have been perfectly content to forget what I heard and go about my business. But last Tuesday, I found a folder on my computer titled D. Tucker Personal. Inside are two files that are password protected. The folder and both files were created the day after that conversation.” She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and met his gaze. “I’m pretty sure I’m being framed.”

  “Have you tried getting into the files?”

  She shook her head. “Wiggins is watching me, not just popping into my office several times a day, but shadowing me on my computer. He sent me a threatening email, then deleted it as I watched.”

  The pizza he’d eaten congealed into a doughy lump. “I’m sorry. I should never have asked you to check that equipment purchase. I didn’t know you were being watched. You need to get out of there. Turn in your notice and apply somewhere else.” The anxiety circling through him came out in his tone. There had to be another job she could get. He would even make a spot for her at C. S. Equipment.

  “I can’t. As much as I need my job, it’s not just that. I can’t walk away not knowing what’s in those files. What Wiggins is trying to pin on me could follow me wherever I go. I can’t take that chance.”

  “Then we need to get the police involved.”

  “Are you nuts? If Wiggins has been thorough, I’ll be arrested.” She sighed. “I talked to my friend Hunter Kingston. He’s a Cedar Key police officer, and I’ve asked for his help in an unofficial capacity. He’s going to pull up a background check on Wiggins. I’m also going to have him check out a phone number.”

  “A phone number?”

  “Yeah. When I got back to my office after the meeting today, a call had been made from my phone.”

  “Why use your phone when there are phones all over the office?”

  “That was my question. I haven’t had a chance yet, but I’m going to call the number and see if I recognize whoever answers. I’ll see what Hunter can track down, too.”

  Conner nodded. “What about the files? We need to crack those passwords.”

  “That’s impossible. The number of combinations is infinite.”

  “Not necessarily. Wiggins wants those files to appear that they were created by you. He would protect them with passwords that you would be likely to use.”

  “Like what?”

  “Name, date of birth, address, et cetera.”

  A spark of hope flashed in her eyes, then sputtered out. “I’d never be able to try them. Wiggins is watching me too closely.”

  “Not on the weekend.”

  She put her fingers around her tea glass and began moving it in a slow circle, spreading the condensation in an oval shape on the glass tabletop. “As much as I don’t want to go back there alone, I may not have a choice.”

  “You won’t be going alone.”

  Her eyes shifted to his face, and something flashed across her features—tenderness, maybe even longing. She was probably used to handling everything, alone. And it was likely getting old. What would it be like to be the one to provide that companionship, to help create that undivided front?

  He mentally shook himself. Now he was entertaining crazy thoughts. When Darci decided to let a man back into her life, it would be someone firm and stable, with a good foundation. Someone who had what it took to step into the role of father and husband. That someone wasn’t him.

  Darci’s mask of independence snapped back into place, and she shook her head. “I refuse to put you in danger. This is my fight, not yours.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  One side of her mouth lifted in the slightest hint of a smile. “I thought I might be. So spill it. Who are you? How did you know about the bulldozer purchase?”

  “Claire’s diary.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “All the investigating the police did and came up with nothing, but you were able to get your hands on her diary?”

  “I just found it last weekend. Kyle had it. Claire was my sister.”

  Her eyes widened for the second time. “You really do have a stake in this. What other information did Claire give?”

  “Her May 19 entry said something big was going down the night of May 20. Then she was going to have all the proof she needed to have Wiggins put away for good.”

  “So what happened?”

  “She called me. Said she was scared and was on her way over.”

  He picked up his glass and took a couple swigs of tea, swallowing past the sudden lump in his throat. He should have asked her where she was. If he had gone to her instead of waiting for her to come to him...

  No. Second-guessing himself now was wasted energy. All the regrets in the world wouldn’t bring her back.

  “And?”

  He again met her eyes. “She never made it. Wiggins apparently got to her first.”

  * * *

  Darci cleared the lunch dishes off her mother’s oak table and carried them to the sink. Jayden had already asked to be excused, after a couple of prompts, and had headed for the living room. She glanced at the clock. Conner would pick her up shortly. But what she really needed was a nap.

  She’d thought she would sleep better at her parents’ place. Instead, another nightmare had come. In this one, a car was pursuing her, the same one that had run her off the road. But she was on foot. The engine revved, and the vehicle bore down on her. When she turned a final time, instead of the car, it was the gray Escalade. She’d never been prone to nightmares, but this was the second one in a week and a half.

  She closed the dishwasher door and straightened as her mom finished wiping the table.

  “Sweetheart, can you check the mail before you head out?”

  “Sure.” Conner wouldn’t be there for another twenty minutes.

  All she’d told her mom was that she was going for a ride with a guy from work. She hadn’t broken it to her yet that Conner would be picking her up on his motorcycle. Like all moms, hers tended to worry, sometimes needlessly. Darci used to find it annoying. Not so much anymore. Becoming a mother herself had changed her perspective.

  When she passed through the living room, Jayden was seated on the couch, her mother’s iPad in his lap. The sight always made her nervous, even though her mom insisted he couldn’t hurt it.

  She swung open the front door and stepped onto the porch. As she lifted her gaze to the road, a vehicle turned into her parents’ driveway. Everything within her screamed for her to run, while at the same time held her rooted to the spot.

  The gray Escalade eased to a stop fifteen feet from where she stood.

  It was too late to slip back inside. The driver had already seen her. Besides, she wouldn’t lead Wiggins’s goon to her mom and Jayden. She would face him outside alone.

  She held her position on the porch, her spine ramrod straight. Dappled sunlight shone through the tree that shaded the drive, its speckled glare on the windshield camouflaging the figure inside. The door swung open, and one foot, then the other, stepped down to the concrete.

  When the driver straightened, her jaw went slack an
d a tangle of emotions circled through her. Wiggins hadn’t sent anyone. But beneath the relief, everything inside her tightened into a knot, and a watery weakness settled in her limbs.

  After almost five years with no contact, Jayden’s father had decided to make an appearance.

  She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “What are you doing here?”

  A change of heart wasn’t likely. Doug’s number-one priority was Doug, and he didn’t let anything interfere with his freedom and happiness. What he’d seen as a minor inconvenience easily remedied with his stepdad’s money, she’d seen as a little life, and when Doug had given her an ultimatum, she’d walked away.

  So why was he standing in her parents’ driveway almost five years later?

  He closed the door and sauntered toward her. “Is that any way to greet the father of your child?”

  A slow, easy smile climbed up his face. That smile, full of warmth and charm, had toppled many defenses and given him access to more than one female heart. Now she recognized it for what it was—just another con job, a way to manipulate others into doing what he wanted.

  She crossed her arms and watched him approach. He hadn’t changed much since their college days. He had the same dark hair and even darker eyes that seemed to always hold a mischievous sparkle. But the lines of his face had matured, maybe even hardened a little, as if the world had slapped him with reality a time or two and life was no longer all fun and games.

  He stopped in front of her and hooked a thumb through his belt hoop, shifting his weight to one foot. “I’ve missed you, Darci. You’ve been on my mind a lot lately.”

  Had she? What about during her pregnancy and the first four years of Jayden’s life? Apparently neither of them were on his mind then. She stood unmoving, arms still crossed, waiting for him to continue.

  “I was crazy to ever let you go. I’d like to be a part of your life, be a father to the boy.”

  “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?” Her tone was as uninviting as her posture.

  He shifted his weight to the other foot, that ever-present confidence slipping. “I made a mistake, and I’d like to rectify it. With some of us, it takes a little longer to grow up.” He flashed her a sheepish smile. This one looked more sincere than the prior one had.