The Cat of Christmas Future

by Kathi Daley

  ******

  Cora Barrington lived in a pretty yellow house with white shutters just a block from the ocean. When she answered the door I was surprised to find she was much younger than I would have thought. She was Buck’s second wife, though, so I supposed she didn’t have to be old enough to be Trace’s grandmother.

  “Hi. I’m Cait Hart. My aunt called to ask if you had a few minutes to speak with me.”

  “Yes. Come on in.”

  The house was lovely inside too. The walls were pale yellow with white crown molding and the floors were all hardwood that looked as if they had been recently waxed. Despite the fact that there was snow on the ground outside, there were bouquets of fresh flowers on several tables, and the white furniture was so clean it looked as if it had never been used.

  “How can I help you?” Cora asked, motioning toward the sofa.

  I sat carefully on the edge, not wanting to get cat hair, which I was sure was on my clothing, on the lovely fabric. “I guess my aunt told you that I’m helping a friend locate the father of her baby. Willow only knew him briefly and the only name she has is Trace. They met in Seattle, and it was only after he’d left that she realized she was pregnant. She plans to put the baby up for adoption but would like to notify the father first. The only thing she has to go on, other than that first name, is that he told her he was heading to Madrona Island to work on a fishing boat and that the reason he wanted to come here was because his grandfather, who was a carpenter, had told him wonderful stories about it. Trace told Willow that his grandfather built furniture and my aunt said Buck had been in the business.”

  “So you think the young man you’re looking for could be Buck’s grandson?”

  “That’s what we’re hoping.”

  “Buck had a son, Chris, but I never met him. When Buck’s first wife died and he began dating me, Chris was upset that his father could replace his mother so quickly, and the two argued. Eventually, they worked out something of a peace, and Buck went to Chicago every year to visit his son and grandson, but they never came here.”

  “Do you have any photos that belonged to Buck?”

  “There are some things in the attic. Buck has been gone for eight years so I wouldn’t have any recent photos, but I suppose even an old photo might tell you if the man you’re looking for was Buck’s grandson. His name is Bryce, however, not Trace.”

  “We suspect Trace may have been a nickname. Would you mind if I looked at any photos Buck left?”

  “Not at all. I’ll show you what I have.”

  The attic was dusty and musty. It didn’t look like anyone had been up there in a long time. Cora led me back to a corner and showed me a stack of boxes. She told me that I was free to look through them, but the dust bothered her sinuses, so she’d wait for me downstairs.

  As I hoped, the boxes contained photos and other mementos of Buck’s life with his first wife. There were quite a few photos of a dark-haired woman I assumed was her, standing with a dark-haired boy at various stages of his life. If I was going to prove Bryce or Trace were the same person I’d have to find something more recent, so I moved on to the next box, hoping it contained them. I was halfway through the second box when Tara called.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Your cat is going bonkers.”

  “Which cat?” I asked.

  “Your witchy cat. Harley. He was sleeping with Willow on the sofa and then Finn came in, looking for you. When I told him you weren’t here he said he’d call you later. Before he left he said he’d found out that someone named Bryce Barrington had recently been in jail in Homer, Alaska. He was arrested last Tuesday for engaging in a bar fight and released yesterday.”

  “Did Finn have a photo of Bryce?”

  “I didn’t ask him, but he might have his mug shot.”

  “Okay. I’ll head over to his office to see if he does. I’ll be at the bookstore after that.”

  I explained to Cora that I had to go but still might want to come by to continue my search. She said she was fine with me taking the boxes I still needed to look through, and if I found Bryce I could pass the photos on to him. If I didn’t, I agreed to bring them back to her. She didn’t seem to be sentimentally attached to the photos, so I loaded up my car and headed to Finn’s office. When I arrived he printed me a copy of the photo taken when Bryce was booked and I took it to the bookstore.

  The moment Willow saw the photo she started to cry. The man had a cut lip and a black eye, but Bryce Barrington was the father of her baby. “I need to go to Homer,” she insisted.

  “You shouldn’t go alone. There’s no way to know if Bryce is still there, and even if he is, there’s no way to predict his state of mind.”

  Harley jumped into Alex’s lap and began pawing his face. It might have been because he was wearing the Santa beard, but I had a feeling it had more to do with him wanting Alex to go with Willow.

  “It looks like Harley wants me to accompany our fair maiden in distress,” Alex joked.

  “Call me a maiden one more time and you’ll be the one in distress,” Willow shot back.

  “Ouch.” Alex set the cat on the floor. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t tease you, but I’m willing to take you north. I know a guy with a private charter service. If his jet is available we can leave today.”

  Willow frowned. “You would do that? You would charter a plane just to help me?”

  Alex shrugged. “Sure. I don’t have anything more pressing to do. The bookstore is closed on Sundays and Mondays, so if we leave after closing I won’t even have to bail on my Santa duty.”

  Willow glanced at me.

  I nodded. “I think it’s a good idea to go with Alex. Tara and I can continue to look for clues here, just in case the trail goes cold. For all we know, Bryce was just passing through when he was arrested. It’s possible he’s heading back in this direction as we speak. It’s best to have our bases covered.”

  Willow hesitated, then glanced once again at Alex. It looked as if she was having a hard time making up her mind whether to go with Alex, but eventually, she agreed. Alex took a break from his Santa duties to call his friend. If he was available they would leave either that night or the next morning.

  Chapter 8

  Later that evening, Cody and I sat at my dining table looking for additional clues in the boxes I’d borrowed from Cora. Alex’s friend hadn’t been available until the following morning, so they planned to get a good night’s sleep, then head out at first light. As it turned out, Harley had a fit when Alex and Willow tried to leave without him, so Alex called his friend back to ask if he was okay with the cat going with them, then called a hotel to make sure they were fine with the cat as well. In the end, it was a party of three planning to head north.

  The really interesting thing wasn’t that Harley had insisted on going along; it was that Alex had suggested it would be easiest if Willow stayed at his place tonight and she’d agreed. I had to admit it surprised me because Willow had been so hesitant to go with him in the first place, though I’d noticed her watching him with Harley while he completed his Santa shift. It occurred to me that somewhere along the line she’d decided if Harley trusted Alex she could too.

  The other piece of good news was that I’d shown Danny the photo of Bryce and he’d verified that Bryce/Trace and Tim, who we suspected may have met with an unpleasant end, weren’t the same person. I felt bad I wasn’t more concerned about what had happened to Tim, but I didn’t know him and I already had my hands full with helping Willow and the holidays to plan for. Finn did say he’d look in to the rumors about Tim to see if he could verify what the local fishermen were saying.

  “I’m a little surprised Buck’s widow let you take these boxes,” Cody said as we sorted and stacked the contents.

  “She said Buck’s son was angry when they started dating. She never even met him. I have a feeling she was just as glad to be rid of the reminder of the part of Buck’s life that didn’t include her. I’m sure it must have hurt e
ach year when Buck went to Chicago to visit with his family and she wasn’t invited.”

  “Yeah, I can see that.” Cody stopped what he was doing and looked at me. “As interesting as sorting through all this is, I’m not sure why we’re still looking for photos. We already know Bryce and Trace are the same person. Buck died before Trace left home, so I don’t think we’ll find any clues relating to that.”

  “It probably is a waste of time to continue to go through the boxes.” I raised my hands over my head and stretched out the kink that was forming in my shoulder. “By the way, were you able to see Olivia today?”

  “I was.”

  “And…?”

  “And she’s willing to consider donating the land for the park, but she wants something in return.”

  Figures. “So what did Olivia, who already has more than most, want in exchange for the land?”

  “She wanted the park to be named after her grandfather, which shouldn’t be a problem, and she wanted us to track down her daughter Rosemary and convince her to come home for Christmas.”

  “Track her down? She doesn’t know where she is?”

  Cody shook his head. “The two had a falling-out when she found out Rosemary was pregnant by a man she barely knew. Olivia wanted her to put the baby up for adoption, but Rosemary insisted on keeping the baby. She said she hasn’t spoken to her daughter for ten years, but now that time has passed and she’s gained some perspective, she realizes how silly the fight was. She wants the opportunity to reconcile with her daughter and meet her granddaughter. I reminded her that Christmas was less than two weeks away and finding her daughter might not be all that easy. She of course reminded me that you tracked down Balthazar Pottage’s son, who had been missing for more than twenty years, in less time than that, and was confident you’d come through once again.”

  I narrowed my brow. “So in order to save Buck’s house we have to find a way to convince the island council to approve Jack Forrester’s project, the best way to get the council on board being to bundle in open area to serve as a public park, but in order to do that we need Olivia to donate some of her land, which she’s willing to do if we can locate the daughter she’s estranged from?”

  “Exactly.”

  “How on earth are we supposed to do all that and help Willow and get ready for what’s turning out to be a huge Christmas Eve party?”

  “I don’t know. But I think we have to try to do what we can. The more I think about it, providing both affordable housing and a nice public park is a good cause even if you consider it in isolation.”

  “It is a good plan. Did you ask Maggie or Siobhan if they thought it would work if you could get Olivia to donate the land?”

  “I asked Siobhan about it and she thought she could help me sell the idea. Of course, we won’t really know how the council will feel about it until we can secure a commitment from Olivia to donate the land, and she didn’t seem to be willing to do that until we found her daughter.”

  “I’d like to help Olivia reconcile with her daughter whether the plan to help Buck get his house back falls into place or not. I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed.”

  “Me too. We need a break. How about we get bundled up and go to the candle ceremony as planned? We can grab some dinner and maybe even do some shopping after.”

  I smiled. “Sounds good. Just let me change into a heavier sweater and my warmer boots.”

  ******

  The candle ceremony had been a holiday tradition on Madrona Island since before I was born. It all began when my dad was just a boy and a huge storm ripped through the islands just before Christmas. When the storm had dissipated it left the entire island without electricity on Christmas Eve. Those of us who make the island home are a tough bunch, so instead of wallowing in self-pity that Christmas was ruined, the entire population gathered together, lit candles, and sang carols by candlelight.

  Things were back to normal by the following year, but the tradition of gathering together to light candles and sing carols continued. Initially, the ceremony was held on Christmas Eve, but most families had their own traditions on this most special of nights, so the ceremony was moved around a bit before finding a home in the middle of the month. It made sense that the candles would be lit midmonth; the annual tree lighting was at the beginning of the month and there were a lot of events held right before the holiday, so most folks could find time to attend in the middle.

  This year Cody and I were going alone. It was the first time I’d gone without at least a few members of my family, but I found I was looking forward to an intimate evening. Because the other Hart siblings had plans and Maggie was going with Father Kilian, Mom had decided to stay home with Aiden and watch Christmas movies.

  It really didn’t work to plunge the entire island into darkness as they’d been that first time, so the ceremony was held in the park at the center of Harthaven and only the lights in the immediate area were turned off for the thirty-minute event. When the lights came back on a lot of us got together for dinner or went into town to look through the shop windows, so Cody and I were expecting to have to deal with crowded conditions. Not that we cared. It was fun to walk around the crowded streets hand in hand, pausing to look at the holiday displays. It was even fun to have to wait for a table once we reached Antonio’s. The people who’d gathered outside to wait for their number to be called brought a positive energy to what could have been a tense and frustrating situation.

  “Cait, Cody, how are you both?” Jennifer Conroy, owner of the Harthaven Inn, asked as we wandered toward the group she was a part of.

  “We’re good. Were you at the candle ceremony?” I asked conversationally.

  “Yes. It was moving as always. I’m glad we don’t have to deal with a storm at Christmas, but I can imagine it must have been magical when residents from all around the island gathered on that first Christmas Eve.”

  “It must have been something special.”

  “Are the two of you here alone?” Jennifer asked.

  “Everyone else had plans tonight, so it’s just Cody and me. It was just as well because we plan to do some shopping later, and the people who usually accompany me are the ones I still need to buy gifts for.”

  “I hear you. It’s been such a busy season so far. I feel like my to-do list is so impossibly long I’ll never get to everything, but I guess it’s that way most years.”

  “True. I wanted to buy something special for Finn and Siobhan’s baby and hoped to make it into Seattle, but it looks like that isn’t going to happen.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The baby isn’t even born yet. You have time to be the fun and thoughtful aunt. By the way, now that I’ve run into you, I wanted to suggest the inn for the out-of-town guests who may fly in for your wedding. If you’re able to come up with a date early enough, I can reserve a block of rooms that I’ll, of course, provide to your guests at a deep discount.”

  “The inn is lovely and I’m sure our guests would love to stay there, but we don’t have a date yet. When we do I’ll check back with you. How much lead time do you think you’ll need?”

  “It depends. If you’re thinking of getting married in July or August I’d need to know in the next few weeks; we fill up fast for the summer. If you decide on the off-season a few months’ notice should be fine. Except for the two weeks around Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and to a certain extent Thanksgiving weekend, I usually always have vacancies between October and May. In fact, I mostly only have weekend visitors except for a few people, like the man Finn was looking for, who rent a room for an entire month.”

  I raised a brow. “Trace Barrington is staying at the inn?”

  “He said his name was Bryce, but Barrington is correct. Finn showed me a photo and I confirmed he’s staying with me, although I haven’t seen him in a week.”

  “How long has he been with you?” I asked.

  “Since the beginning of December. He’s planning to head out after the first of the year,
but he had some business in town, so he’s booked through the month. He’d just come off a fishing gig and had a pocketful of money. He seemed like a nice kid, so I agreed to the monthly rate despite the Christmas holiday. I hope he’s not in any sort of trouble.”

  “No. A friend of ours needed to find him to sign some documents.”

  “That’s good. After Finn left I began to get worried.”

  “Did Finn say anything else?”

  “No, although he seemed to really want to speak to him, so I said I’d keep an eye out for him. I promised to call when he shows up.”

  “That’s great and thank you. The papers he needs to sign are important.”

  Jennifer’s number was called, and I pulled Cody to the side, where we wouldn’t be overheard. “What do you think? Will he be coming back, or was he on his way somewhere else completely when he was arrested in Homer?”

  “Hard to say. If he took all his stuff with him I’d lean toward him not planning to return. If he only took a few things north with him maybe he did plan to come back. At this point I don’t suppose it matters. He’ll either show up or he won’t. If he doesn’t, and Alex and Willow aren’t successful in tracking him down, I guess we’ll have to see if we can pick up another clue to where he’s heading.”

  “Yeah. Maybe if he was in town for several weeks before he headed north he told someone what he was up to. We might want to ask around just in case.”

  “It couldn’t hurt. I think we might be called next. Let’s work our way to the front of the pack. I’d hate to miss our call and lose the table. I’m starving.”

  “Yeah, me too. Did we ever eat lunch?”

  “Actually, we never did.”

  We were lucky enough to score an intimate table near the fireplace. Cody ordered lasagna and I went with the scallops and linguini. We both had a salad first and decided to share a bottle of wine. The restaurant was packed, but somehow, I felt like we were in our own little corner of the world.