Deadly Christmas Pretense

by Dana Mentink

  Liam blew out a breath. “Damage?”

  “Some. Mostly the boxes were thrown around.”

  Thrown around, as if someone was searching. Maggie knew Liam was thinking the same thing.

  The woman glanced at Chad as he knelt to scratch the ears of an old tabby cat that had crept close. “I helped her clean up the mess and she pulled some inventory from the back to replace the broken stuff. That’s where she is now. She left me a note on the door that she’d driven to her house to pick up some other items but she’d be back as soon as she could. She lives on the bluff at Sea Cliff. The only house there. Sorry, but I don’t have her cell number.”

  “Did you tell the man on the phone where Yoriko lives?” Liam said.

  “Nah. I’m only telling you because I know Yoriko really loves Tammy. I’m not sure exactly when she left, so I don’t know when she’ll return. You can wait if you want.”

  Her gaze drifted appreciatively to Chad on the porch. He noticed her attention and gave her a polite nod. “He can come in, too.”

  Maggie squelched a smile. The allure of a handsome dark-eyed cowboy was working. She’d not noticed that Chad had a girlfriend in the time she’d been on the ranch, but it seemed this young lady was eager to remedy that problem.

  An older couple crowded into the shop and Liam and Maggie squeezed out to give them room.

  “Gonna have to split up,” Liam said after he filled Chad in, “so we don’t miss her.”

  Chad nodded. “Okay. I’ll stay here if you two want to go to her house.”

  “All right,” Liam agreed. “But Virgil didn’t find what he was looking for the first time. He rammed us and flattened my tires to slow us down so he could track Yoriko. If he didn’t find out her address, could be he comes back here to look again, only he’s running out of time. Watch yourself.”

  Chad nodded.

  “Oh,” Liam said with a sly grin. “Seems like the lady inside is an admirer of your movie star good looks.”

  Chad’s cheeks went ruddy and he looked at his boots. “Oh, knock it off.”

  “Just thought you should know which way the wind is blowing, brother,” Liam quipped as they made their way to his truck.

  Chad mumbled some sort of a reply, which did not sound complimentary, but Maggie noticed him dart a quick look from under his hat toward the young lady in the shop.

  Liam’s playful mood dissipated as they pulled back onto the road. “Wish we had gotten a cell number for Yoriko. Could have warned her about Virgil.”

  “You think he’ll head for her house? How would he know where to find it?”

  “Same way we know. People here are friendly. They talk.”

  She lives on the bluff at Sea Cliff. The only house there.

  He pressed the accelerator until the truck was taking the turns at the maximum speed limit. To the west stretched green grassy fields dotted with cattle. To the right, black cliffs seemed to reach out to the darkening sky as the day headed toward sunset. And ahead? She prayed they would not find any more evidence of Virgil’s ruthless desire to reclaim what Tammy had taken.

  SEVENTEEN

  Liam parked next to the van in the narrow driveway. Yoriko’s was a more modern house than he’d pictured, a tidy two-story with a composite roof and wide glass windows that faced the sea. Liam figured it would be nice to have a panorama of the ocean, but he’d miss seeing the fields change color from green to the rich gold brown in the dry summer months. No doubt about it, he was a land creature through and through. He saw no sign of any other vehicles, but there were plenty of wooded and rocky places nearby where Virgil could conceal his car if he had found his way there ahead of them.

  “Why don’t you—” he started but Maggie was already out of the truck and approaching the front door. He rolled down the window halfway for Jingles and told him to stay. It was more wishful thinking than a command, he knew.

  As he got out, Jingles fired him a peevish look and plopped down on the seat. Liam goggled when he saw the candy cane tucked under Jingles’s crooked paw. It was covered with lint and dust. “Aren’t you gonna eat that thing after all the trouble?”

  Jingles shot out his tongue to swipe at the cane and then laid his head on his paws with a plaintive sigh.

  “There is something seriously weird about that dog,” he grumbled, catching up to Maggie just as the front door opened a crack. Yoriko peeped out, eyes framed by a fringe of dark bangs threaded with silver.

  “I’m Maggie Lofton,” Maggie said. “You gave me your card at the parade.”

  The woman’s round face relaxed.

  After a moment, he heard the chain pull back and she opened the door. “Oh yes. Of course.”

  Maggie introduced Liam. “May we have a few minutes of your time?”

  She opened the door and ushered them into a room minimally furnished with expensive pieces, not one of which, to Liam, looked nearly as comfortable as the ragged old couch at the bunkhouse. On the wall above a gas fireplace hung a lovely watercolor of the ocean, which he admired before sending a quick text to Chad to tell him they’d found Yoriko at home.

  She gestured them into a leather-covered love seat and took the richly upholstered chair opposite them.

  “I’m afraid my sister got into some trouble,” Maggie said. “And I think the person she angered may have been the one who broke into your van. We think he rammed us and slashed our tires to prevent us from getting here to talk to you.”

  Yoriko listened intently as Maggie described the situation. She told Yoriko everything, including her sister’s impromptu theft.

  Liam was relieved when Yoriko smiled. “Yes, that sounds like Tammy. She is not one to deliberate before she acts, but she does have a heart of gold. She helped in my shop many times and wouldn’t take any payment. She said it was reward enough to be near the beach.”

  “You indicated she left something here?” Maggie said.

  Yoriko opened a drawer and handed Maggie a pink knit cap.

  Maggie stared. “This is it? This is what you meant?”

  Yoriko slowly nodded her head and he saw Maggie’s shoulders droop along with his own. He wanted to reach out to her.

  “But I thought...” Maggie started.

  Yoriko looked confused. “She was upset when she arrived here by cab Wednesday afternoon, exhausted. I thought at first she might be sick. She was near tears but she did not want to discuss the reason. I made her lie down and prepared some tea. It didn’t help her agitation, so I wasn’t surprised when she said she wanted to walk on the beach to clear her mind.”

  “Okay,” Maggie said. “And after that? Did she say where she’d been or might be headed?”

  “To Driftwood, I think.”

  “Probably to meet with Danny Patron,” Maggie said to Liam.

  “She looked sick. I couldn’t convince her to stay. She wanted to call her boyfriend, but she didn’t have her phone and she couldn’t remember the number, and that upset her deeply.”

  “So she stayed with you for a few hours, walked on the beach, then left for Driftwood in another cab?” Liam asked.

  Yoriko nodded.

  He went on with his theorizing. “While she was in town, she couldn’t get hold of Danny Patron.” He looked at Maggie. “And then she showed up at the Lodge later that night.”

  “Where Helen took her in,” Maggie said. “So we know where she was, mostly, but not where she left the jewelry. There’s a gap in the timeline.” She sighed, and Liam noticed smudges of fatigue shadowing her eyes. The whole situation had taken a terrible toll on both sisters.

  “I thought...” she started. “I mean, I hoped she’d left the jewelry with you. I don’t know where else to look.”

  Liam took her hand. “We’ll figure something out.”

  Maggie grimaced. “Christmas Eve is Friday. The insurance company will make their d
ecision. He’ll get away with it.”

  “No,” he said with more conviction than the facts warranted. “He won’t.”

  Yoriko interrupted. “Wait a minute. I just remembered something...the backpack.”

  Maggie jerked. “What backpack?”

  Yoriko was thoughtful for a moment. “When she arrived, she had a backpack, a pink one. She held on to it as if it was a baby.”

  “Did she take it with her when she left your house?”

  “That’s the funny thing. I didn’t think of it until just now, but she had the backpack when she went for her beach walk.” Yoriko leaned forward. “And when she came back, she didn’t.”

  Maggie gripped Liam’s hand and he squeezed back, sharing in her rush of hope.

  “Maggie,” he said, “do you think it’s possible Tammy hid the jewelry on the beach somewhere?”

  “I absolutely do,” she said, still clutching his fingers tight.

  He tried to be practical. “It’s almost dark. We should come back tomorrow, or at least wait for Chad to get here.”

  Maggie shook her head. “We have to look.” She got up, a question in her expression, those autumn eyes pleading as she searched his face. “I know it’s not optimal, but please, will you go with me now?”

  Caught in that gaze, powerless against her determination to save her sister at all costs, he knew he would go here, there, anywhere in the world she asked him. That thought set him back a pace as he revisited the fear he’d experienced that coiled him up inside and remained lying in wait. He didn’t deserve her, couldn’t be enough for her, but she drew him like a horse heading for the barn and he couldn’t help himself. He cleared his throat. “Sure, yes. We’d better get a move on. Sundown in less than an hour. I have flashlights in my truck.”

  “And a canine lookout,” Maggie added.

  He grimaced. “Oh, man. Do we have to take Jingles?”

  “Yes,” she said firmly.

  Liam nodded.

  They thanked Yoriko as she escorted them outside.

  “If you walk to the steps, there’s a trail that cuts along the cliff face and down to the shore. It’s slippery and the tide’s coming in soon, so you’ll have to move quickly.”

  Liam tipped his hat. “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

  “Me, too,” he said, releasing the exuberant dog from the back seat of his truck and grabbing the flashlights. He sent another text to Chad and hurried after Maggie, matching her stride for determined stride.

  * * *

  The wind barreling off the ocean bit at Maggie, but she hardly noticed it. She well knew Tammy’s penchant for the dramatic. They’d spent a whole summer staying at their grandparents’ lakeside cabin when they were children, burying treasure boxes and digging them up. If there was a pirate adventure they’d not acted out, she didn’t know what it would be. Tammy would not hesitate to hide the jewelry in some isolated place—the more theatrical, the better. If she thought Virgil was closing in, the beach might be the perfect spot.

  “Yoriko says this is a private beach access, so if Tammy did hide something, we can hope it hasn’t been found by a wandering beachcomber,” she called over her shoulder. The cliff trail became steeper as they descended, merely a groove cut into the rugged black rock.

  His boots slipped now and again, but Maggie moved easily as the trail plunged downward. Jingles was his usual oblivious self, stopping to lick or sniff periodically as they made their way along. At least he’d left his candy cane in the truck.

  The pounding waves made Liam’s good ear vibrate and his unease grew. It was entirely possible that Virgil had taken up position and was tracking them at that very moment. Chad was on his way, probably only another fifteen minutes from their location. He’d told Yoriko about Chad so as not to startle her with yet another stranger arriving on her property. They had easily another fifty minutes before the sun would sink below the horizon and they were nearing surf level. Plenty of time.

  They emerged onto a flat crescent of pebbled sand. Haphazard piles of boulders lay here and there, creating a sandy labyrinth. Jingles set off to sniff each pockmarked rock, while he and Maggie searched.

  “It would have to be up higher,” he mused, “or the water would get it. There’s...”

  “I see it,” Maggie called.

  She pointed to the gaping mouth of a cave some fifteen feet above them, a dark maw gouged into the side of the cliff. They had not seen it in their descent but Tammy would have. Maybe she’d even explored it previously.

  “How do we get up there?” he mused.

  Maggie found it before he did, the little trail of handholds that led seemingly straight up. “Great,” he said, noting that his boot tops were now submerged by the intruding tide.

  She started up first, using her hands to pull herself along. He did the same. Jingles watched from below, barking in encouragement or dismay, Liam could not tell which.

  He was good and winded by the time they reached the cave. Scrambling inside, he could not stand comfortably in the six-foot-high space. There was not much room to turn around, either, because of the rock projections that poked from every direction.

  Maggie made it farther in, peering into the dark corners with the aid of his flashlight. “It has to be here,” she said.

  “Possible someone found it?” Someone, like Virgil? Had he beaten them to the treasure?

  “No,” she snapped. “Not possible.”

  So he held his tongue and crept around as best he could, banging his forehead and knee in the process. The place was suited for wiry wilderness guides, not cowboys. After a solid ten minutes, he checked below. “We’ve got to scoot. Tide’s coming in.”

  “I know it’s here, it has to be.” She said something else. He didn’t get the words but he deciphered the tone. He circled her wrist with his fingers.

  “We can come back tomorrow, but it’s getting unsafe here now. I think Jingles is practicing his doggy paddling.”

  She tensed against his touch, determination warring with her good sense. Finally she sighed and allowed him to lead her to the opening. She turned once more, as if to say goodbye to the rocky nest. He felt her stiffen.

  “There.” She pointed.

  “Where?”

  He didn’t hear Maggie’s answer, or maybe she didn’t give one. Instead she scrambled up onto a pinnacle of damp rock and snatched something from behind it. “I saw a tiny bit of pink,” she said, triumphantly, holding the backpack up for him to see.

  He couldn’t restrain himself from wrapping her and the pink backpack in a bear hug and lifting her off the ground, inviting himself to join in her excitement and joy. In that little corner of the frigid cave, he felt suddenly warm.

  When he put her down, she unzipped the pack, her excitement palpable. “There’s a long black box in here. Dark, like velvet.”

  Jingles’s anxious yip from below carried over the waves. “Let’s take it back and look. Gonna lose the light soon.”

  She followed him out, sliding the pink pack straps over her shoulders.

  The journey down took longer than it had going up and the seawater was knee level when he reached the shore, where Jingles was standing on a flat rock to avoid the rising water.

  They started immediately back up the cliff trail. Liam tried to keep his mind from wandering as they climbed higher and higher. They’d actually done it, found the jewelry Tammy had hidden. It bordered on the incredible that their investigation had paid off. Things were finally starting to look up. Danny Patron would help them find a legal way out for Tammy, he was certain. Best of all, they’d thwarted Virgil’s plans to rip off his uncle.

  Ahead, the cliff trail pinched off and forced them out onto an exposed area of rock that projected over the deep water. The frigid cold blasted them without mercy. Jingles’s nails di
d not provide enough purchase and he slipped and skidded until Liam scooped him up, earning himself a sloppy tongue bath.

  “Don’t get excited, dog,” he grumbled. “I—” The words were snatched away as Maggie rounded the turn ahead of him. Something, he could not tell if it was a bat or a branch, swept out of the darkness and knocked her over.

  Hands scrambled and tore at her backpack.

  Liam released Jingles and grabbed for Maggie at the same time, trying to pull her to him. Someone else was reaching for her, face lost in the gloom, fumbling for the backpack. He shot out a fist and drove the guy back, but not before the attacker grabbed a backpack strap and straight-armed Maggie. Liam saw her eyes go round with shock, her fear caught by the moonlight as she plummeted backward into the ocean below. Liam did not hesitate as he dived into the water after her.

  EIGHTEEN

  Maggie flailed in a futile attempt to save herself as she fell. She hit the water hard, the impact driving the air from her lungs. Reflexively she gulped to refill them, sucking in icy salt water. Cold swamped her senses. When she broke the surface again, a wave crashed over her head, spinning her around to confront the black rocks that appeared and disappeared behind fountaining water.

  Her brain struggled to process what had happened. She’d been grabbed at by someone waiting on the trail and his shove had sent her into the ocean. Did she still have the backpack on? She couldn’t feel anything but the biting cold and fear as the waves forced her closer to the jagged rocks.

  “Liam,” she tried to shout. Was he still on the trail? Could he hear her screams? A wall of water lifted her up and slammed her back down again. A submerged rock cut into her knee and the ocean swallowed her cry of pain.

  A movement to her right sent her churning backward, praying it was not a shark attracted by her thrashing. “Liam,” she tried to scream again, only to be deluged by another mountain of water. Something brushed her leg. Terror galvanized her into frantic swimming, which did nothing against the power of the ocean. It was harder to keep her chin above the water now as cold began to leach the strength from her muscles, numbing her an inch at a time.