Deadly Christmas Pretense

by Dana Mentink

  “That’s okay. I’ll go see what I can turn up,” Maggie said.

  “I’m coming with you,” Tammy said.

  “No way,” Maggie and Joe said at the same time.

  Maggie smiled at her sister’s frustration. “Liam’s coming. I won’t be alone.”

  Joe stood. “And there’s no way you should be doing any sleuthing after what Virgil did. You’re safest here with me. Besides, your ankle is still swollen. As a matter of fact, I’m going to get you an ice pack.” He kissed her and walked away.

  Tammy smiled. “He’s good to me.”

  “I never would have thought you’d pair up with a computer programmer.”

  She laughed. “You sound like Liam. Neither did I, but Joe balances out my wild side. He loves to take care of me. He’s told me everything about his life. He’s the only boy in a family of five girls. Can you believe it? The baby, yet. I think he never got a chance to be in charge of anything until he moved out.” Tammy cocked her chin. “I hope you find someone like that, Mags, a guy who loves to take care of you.” Her look went sly. “Or maybe you already have?”

  “What?”

  “I saw the way Liam looked at you in the restaurant.”

  Maggie felt the flush creep up her neck. “Oh, it’s just all the weird circumstances. There’s nothing between us. He’s...”

  “My ex-boyfriend?” Tammy said.

  “Well, yeah.”

  “And we liked each other, but that wasn’t enough of a connection for me. He would perpetually steer clear of sharing too much. There was always a sort of hesitation in him. But I think you two have something different.”

  “We don’t have anything at all.” Maggie knocked her foot on the coffee table, nearly upsetting Tammy’s mug of tea. “I mean, he’s just helping out because you two dated and he’s a good guy.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s not why he’s hanging around. Not entirely anyway.”

  Maggie squirmed. “I have to go, Tam. I should see if Helen needs anyone to help in the kitchen.”

  “Always got your work to protect you, huh, Mags?”

  Irritation flashed through her. “Work is what keeps our family afloat, in case you didn’t notice. Pays my bills and sometimes yours.”

  “I have noticed, and I appreciate it, Maggie. I’m just saying—”

  Maggie cut her off. “If we’re ever going to reopen Dad’s restaurant...”

  “Dad wouldn’t want you to miss out on your own dreams while trying to breathe life back into his. He’s told you as much.”

  Now the irritation flipped to anger. “It’s my dream, too.”

  Tammy reached up and grabbed Maggie’s hand. “I know, and I am so proud of your work ethic and how you’ve been the rock of our family, even when I was busy shipwrecking myself. You are selfless, more than I could ever be, but sometimes I worry that your work is a way to keep out other messier things that God might want you to experience.”

  Maggie let out a breath and kissed Tammy. “I love you, sis.”

  “I love you, too, Mags, and I just want you to know, if there was anything developing between you and Liam...that would be totally fine with me.”

  Maggie grinned in spite of herself. “What happened to the ‘sisters’ exes are completely off-limits’ rule?”

  She shrugged. “You could stand to break a few rules, little sister.”

  “Says the person two whole minutes older than me.” Their laughter mingled with the cheerful hum of the lobby.

  Maggie said goodbye and headed for the door, thinking about broken pieces and broken rules.

  That’s not why he’s hanging around. Not entirely anyway.

  She hoped the kitchen would help her sort out the muddle in her heart and head.

  * * *

  At two o’clock Liam was showered, dressed in jeans and a clean T-shirt under his barn jacket. He wore his second-best cowboy hat since his other had been blackened in the Chuckwagon parking lot. His hands were cold, his stomach tight as he waited for Maggie in the lobby of the Lodge.

  Start with a joke? A thank-you nestled in some self-deprecating comment?

  She wore a green shirt under her jean jacket and it set off the cream of her skin and reflected the iridescent green glimmer in her eyes. He swallowed hard, remembering her cupping his cheeks, watching him, washing his face, anchoring him. He yearned to forget those hours, but at the same time he desperately wanted to hold them close, to hold her close. What was wrong with him?

  Plastering on a relaxed expression, he shoved his hat back and greeted her with a jaunty grin. “Managed to secure Jingles this time at the bunkhouse. Filled up the hole he dug under the gate.”

  “That was a good trick.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s like some sort of Houdini and, no matter what I do, he seems to turn up.”

  Maggie nodded. “I spoke to Tammy and Joe.” She related her conversation with them. He listened and responded. A question here, a comment there, and then the conversation sputtered and died like a match dropped into a puddle.

  “So, um, are you, feeling okay?” he asked as he led her to the truck and helped her in.

  “Yes. Just a minor burn on my arm. Losing the Vette was sad.”

  “Tragic,” he agreed. “That was one sweet machine, but you’re far more important than any car.” Again the silence became awkward between them and he felt the weight of her gaze. There was no more avoiding the elephant that sat between them. Might as well saddle up and ride the ungainly thing. “So uh, thank you, for what you did last night. I mean, I was sort of freaked out, but I shouldn’t have been such a toddler about it. Charlie probably would have handled it better.” He tried for a laugh, which sounded hollow. “Guess I worried everyone, especially Helen...and you.”

  She put her hand over the top of his where it lay on the seat. “You were scared, Liam. You don’t have to be ashamed about feeling that way, or sharing it with me.”

  He didn’t? No shame about baring his deepest insecurity and fear? All of a sudden he was a seven-year-old boy again, putting on his father’s coat, using his ferocious intellect to fool, to protect Helen, to bury his childhood deep down dark. Back then he’d prayed every night that God would help him hide the truth, be a man, that he wouldn’t be found out for what he was, a frightened little boy.

  Get it together, Liam.

  “I guess... I mean, I should get used to it because I’m going to be that way someday. Deaf.” There, he’d said it. “And then it will all be over and done with.”

  “No,” Maggie said. “You’ll learn to hear in other ways, with people to help you.”

  Other ways...people to help you. How sure she was, how steady. But he was not. Inside he was stumbling still, the boy playing the man, little feet in grown-up shoes. It was too much.

  “Yeah, well, that’s a problem for another day, right?” He gently slid his hand from underneath hers. He felt her hurt. It was not fair what he’d just done, especially when he knew she’d stepped far out on a limb to prop him up the night before. Now, right now, she was offering him the chance to have something richer, a relationship that mattered, a soul-deep connection. He knew it, he craved it, yet the little boy in the man clothes was still terrified to have his vulnerability on display. So he turned the conversation to other things.

  Maggie leaned away slightly, almost imperceptibly, and he was both relieved and grieved.

  The miles passed with polite conversation until he noticed a car in his rearview mirror, far enough back but holding steady.

  She picked up on his tension. “Someone behind us?”

  “Maybe. White car, noticed it a mile or two back.” Liam guided the truck over one lane. The white car stayed right with them. She heard Liam’s sharp intake of breath as the car zoomed closer. With a spine-jarring jolt, it rammed their rear bumper.

>   Maggie was hurled forward against the tightening seat belt.

  “Hold on,” Liam said.

  She clutched the door handle as he labored to keep the truck from skidding into the shoulder.

  Her senses dizzied. He shot off the freeway onto an off-ramp. “Gonna try and lose him. Can you get a license number?”

  Though she twisted in the seat and peered behind them, she could not make out the driver or the plates. “I think the front plate is obscured,” she said.

  They rolled into town and joined in a line of cars squeaking through a yellow light.

  Maggie stared out the back window, heart thundering. “He’s gone.”

  Liam exhaled. “Excellent. I’ll pull in somewhere to call Danny.”

  She nodded, and he peeled off at a busy strip mall, engine idling. The minutes passed. No white car followed them in.

  He relaxed, but not completely. “Guess we’re clear. Let’s wait a while, make sure he’s not going to surprise us.”

  “I’m going to use the restroom. Then I’ll wait in the coffee shop,” she said, letting herself out of the truck. “Tell me when you want to leave.”

  He watched her for a moment, striding for the shop, jacket zipped up to her chin. It was her way of detaching from him, like he’d done to her. He deserved it.

  I’m sorry, Maggie. Real sorry.

  He had to wait on hold for a while to talk to Danny. When they hung up, he decided to go inside and fetch Maggie rather than text her. It was the least he could do. With a sigh, he heaved himself out of the truck, determined that he would still be a good-mannered cowboy, even if he was a coward.

  SIXTEEN

  Maggie was on the phone with Tammy when Liam entered the coffee shop. She stepped onto the porch to finish the call, dreading getting back into the truck with Liam.

  She’d understood his earlier rebuff. He’d needed her the night before, but when morning came and his hearing had returned, he hadn’t wanted her close, not in that way. How had she ever let herself imagine for one red second that there might be something possible between them? Maybe it was her sister’s silly talk.

  But Tammy had never managed to secure a relationship that didn’t end in angst or downright disaster. So why on earth had she listened to her twin about Liam? She loved her sister with every atom of her being, but Tammy was not exactly qualified to dispense advice in the romance department, even if she had found a doting computer programmer.

  Maggie finished assuring Tammy that they’d seen no further sign of the white car that had rammed them and ended the call as Liam exited the shop. She followed him to the parking lot, determined at least to let herself into the truck before he did, but he stopped so suddenly she plowed into him. He didn’t budge, but she stumbled back and he shot out an arm to keep her behind.

  “Stay here.”

  She stayed put but watched closely as he did a quick walk around the truck and the nearby cars. He smacked his hat on his thigh and she saw what disturbed him. Two flat tires, the puncture marks showing clearly.

  “He must have parked down the road and snuck in on foot, stayed low under cover of the other cars when I went in to get you.” He looked at her. “Who knew we were headed to see Yoriko?”

  She tried to recall. “Tammy and Joe. Whoever was around in the Lodge when we discussed it.” Her stomach clenched and she bit her lip.

  “What?”

  “Virgil. At the parade. He was close by when I talked to Yoriko. He could have heard.” She groaned. “I’m just real bad at the subterfuge thing.”

  He smiled at her. “I’d worry if you were real good at keeping secrets.”

  Not as good as you.

  He pulled out his phone.

  “Who are you calling?”

  “Chad. We need some backup.”

  After the call Liam went to work on one flattened tire. By the time Chad arrived with a second spare tire, he had already finished changing the first.

  Chad rolled out the tire. He opened his mouth to say something when Jingles exploded from the back seat, bounding over to Liam and yipping with excitement.

  “What did you bring him for?” Liam demanded.

  Chad looked sheepish. “He whined all day in the yard. After I took your call, he jumped the fence and climbed into my vehicle and wouldn’t get out for anything. Dunno how he knew I was coming to meet you.”

  Liam’s utter befuddlement made Maggie burst into an uncontrollable spurt of laughter. She was still wiping her eyes when Liam and Chad muscled on the second tire, Jingles sitting contentedly by her side, watching their every move.

  Liam did not even try to redirect Jingles to Chad’s vehicle when they loaded up again. “The dog is like a bad cold. You just can’t shake him,” Liam sighed. “It’s ludicrous.”

  Maggie scratched Jingles behind the ears. “I guess since you’ve given him a candy cane, he’s yours for life, Cowboy Santa.”

  Liam grimaced and rolled his eyes. They started out of the parking lot, Chad keeping pace behind them.

  “Is he coming with us?” she asked.

  “He’s going to hang back, keep an eye on things.”

  Maggie considered that if Virgil had slashed the tires, he might be trying to slow them down to get ahead of them to Yoriko’s shop. The clock was ticking for Virgil. If Tammy had left the jewelry with Yoriko, Virgil would do anything to stop them from retrieving it.

  The lighthouse.

  The parade.

  The torched Corvette.

  You don’t want to be standing between a man and his goals. Accidents happen.

  Virgil had already been able to get close, very close, and knowing he was out there now, waiting and watching, made her skin crawl.

  “Maggie?”

  She started, unaware that he’d been paying attention to her mood. “He’s not gonna get what he wants. We’re gonna win.”

  She wondered what that would look like. Winning meant Virgil wouldn’t get his money but Tammy might very well go to jail. Or would it be better for Tammy if they didn’t find it? But Bill would be victimized by a traitorous nephew and Virgil might continue to stalk them anyway.

  The truth shall set you free, she thought.

  She prayed that finding out the truth about the jewelry would somehow release them from Virgil’s trap. Then Maggie would be ready to leave Driftwood, and Liam, far behind.

  She watched him from the corner of her eye, broad-shouldered, determined, so strong and so vulnerable at the same time. What they could have had... What she imagined, for the sweetest of moments, they might have meant to each other...

  Ignoring a pain in her chest, Maggie set her shoulders and stared straight ahead as Liam exited the freeway and the crashing Pacific came into view.

  * * *

  They pulled up at the address on Yoriko’s business card, which turned out to be a minuscule shop sandwiched in between a rustic cluster of stores that faced a surf shop, a bicycle rental place and a cliff side with beach access.

  The interior of her shop was cluttered with shelves full of colored glass items: ornaments, bowls, platters and a skinny Christmas tree sparkling with blown glass icicles. There was hardly enough room for three of them, so Chad waited on the doorstep with his hands in his pockets.

  “He told me his dad taught him to pocket his hands whenever they went into a store,” Liam whispered to Maggie.

  She smiled. “Sounds like a smart dad. I’d like to meet him someday.”

  Liam’s grin flickered. “Chad’s got a difficult story. Not my place to tell it. He’s doing great things. Trying to start a therapy program for veterans and horses on the ranch. Good man.”

  She caught Chad’s silent profile as he scanned the parking lot. He had his own troubled path, it seemed, and it didn’t surprise her. Still waters could run very deep indeed.

  Magg
ie rang the tiny bell on the counter. There wasn’t much of a back room, just a tacked-up curtain separating the office area from the front. Liam had circled around the counter, reaching to grasp the curtain, when a young woman walked through, startled.

  Liam apologized. “We’re looking for Yoriko.”

  She flipped her blond ponytail behind her shoulder and Maggie thought something wary crept into her eyes. “You, too?”

  “Too?” Maggie’s eyes rounded. “Someone else was here looking for her?”

  “A guy called. Said he wanted to talk to her, but like I told him, she isn’t here. She asked me to look over the shop for a little while. I work at the bike rental place. Do you want to buy something? I can ring you up.”

  “We need to speak to Yoriko,” Maggie said. “She’s a friend of my sister’s. She asked us to come.”

  Again the woman’s eyes looked over Liam and Maggie and then her gaze drifted to Chad, lingering on him for a moment, then moving back to Maggie. “You look familiar.”

  “I haven’t been here before but you might have seen my sister, Tammy. We’re twins. Like I said, she and Yoriko are friends.”

  That got a smile of recognition. “Oh yeah. Your sister used to help Yoriko out and once in a while she’d rent a bike. That’s why I know your face, or hers anyway.”

  Maggie returned the smile. “We really need to talk to Yoriko. Will she be back soon?”

  “I hope so, but there’s, uh, been some trouble.”

  Tension zinged through Maggie’s nerves. “What kind of trouble?”

  “I guess it’s okay to tell you. Yoriko had a bunch of her merch—you know, her Christmas stock—loaded up in a van to deliver to the Lodge for the festival on Wednesday. It was parked out back and someone broke into it early this morning.”