The Christmas Letter

by Kathi Daley

  “What on earth happened?” I asked as I stood with my mouth open staring at Bree, who had an entire bowl of chow mein noodles dripping from her head, and Shaggy, who had what I imagined was the entire order of sweet and sour pork dripping from his face.

  “Tony’s degenerate friend tried to kiss me,” Bree screeched.

  “I didn’t try to kiss you, Smurfette. You had a bit of sauce from the sweet and sour pork on your cheek and I reached over to wipe it off before you brushed it with your hair.”

  “Like hell. I know when someone is moving in for a kiss.” Bree looked at me. “Can we go now?”

  “Yeah.” I suppressed a giggle. “I think we’d better.”

  Bree managed to wipe away most of the food that had been dumped over her head, but she was still wet and sticky from the sauce, so I offered her the parka I kept in my Jeep, which was a lot heavier and warmer than the dressy jacket she’d been wearing. Once we were headed back toward town I asked her exactly what had happened.

  “I don’t know,” Bree groaned. “Shaggy has a way of pushing my buttons. He seriously has to be the most annoying person on the planet.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” I countered. “I kind of like him.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re not short, so he doesn’t tease you,” Bree snapped.

  “Like I’ve told you a thousand times, he teases me, but I don’t let it get to me, so he backs off.”

  “My sweater is probably ruined.”

  “I’m sure it is, but if I was reading the situation correctly it seems you were the one to start the food fight.”

  “I told you, he tried to kiss me.”

  “Even if that were true, you didn’t have to throw our dinner at him.”

  Bree sighed. She leaned her head against the rest behind her and closed her eyes. “I guess you might have a point. He leaned in and I panicked. The bowl with the sweet and sour pork was sitting right there and I threw it at him before I could even consider the consequences.”

  “Are you sure he really wasn’t just leaning in to wipe sauce off your face?” I asked.

  “I’m sure. I know when someone is going to kiss me, and I can guarantee you, Shaggy had a lip-lock in mind.”

  Bree was probably right. I’d noticed in the past that Shaggy not only teased Bree but watched her like a hawk. Personally, I didn’t understand the whole teasing-as-foreplay concept, but I suspected that was exactly what was going on with Shaggy, and possibly with Bree as well. She was the most pulled-together, sophisticated person I knew, but she tended to let Shaggy—and, to some extent, Donny—pull her into ridiculous situations. Both of them were as immature as they came; apparently, Bree had a type.

  “Did you know you had a letter in the pocket of your jacket?” Bree asked, as I turned onto the main highway.

  “The letter I was trying to deliver to Pike on the night he died. I totally forgot about it.”

  Bree turned it over, then over again, studying the envelope. “There’s no return address. Do you think we should open it?”

  I hesitated. As a postal worker, I knew never to violate the privacy of those to whom I delivered mail, but Pike was dead, and I was curious what was inside. “I guess it would be okay if you opened it,” I answered. “There’s a penlight in the glove box.”

  Bree opened the glove box and found the small light. She opened the envelope and unfolded a single sheet of red paper.

  “What does it say?” I asked.

  “‘Dear Pike:

  ‘It is with deepest sympathy that I am writing to inform you that Patricia has passed away. I know the two of you have not kept in touch, but she made me promise to contact you upon her death to let you know she was releasing you from the promise you made to her all those years ago. The secret Patricia has kept close to her heart has weighed heavily on her mind. She knew her end was near and didn’t want the secret to die with the two of you, so she shared it with me and asked me to inform you upon her death that the information contained within it was yours to do with as you choose.

  ‘Sincerely, Bethany.’”

  Bree looked at me. “Wow. I wonder what secret she’s referring to.”

  Chapter 5

  Friday, December 15

  I contemplated the mystery of Pike’s murder as Tilly, Tang, and I made our rounds the next morning. Someone had shot Pike. I suspected the motive was either the money it was rumored he had hidden in his cabin or the secret he’d kept for a whole lot of years but had recently become burdened by. There were several key items I considered to be clues, including the empty trunk, which I suspected may have contained Pike’s cash, the letter from Bethany regarding a promise Patricia had asked of Pike many years ago, and the files and emails on Pike’s computer combined with the maps and land titles I’d found in his home.

  The envelope from the letter Pike had received hadn’t had a return address, but the postmark told me it had been mailed in Billings. Tony might be able to track down a Bethany in Billings who was in some way related to a Patricia who knew Pike. He was really good at that kind of thing, although Bethany wasn’t all that unusual a name, so there were probably dozens of people who’d come up in a search.

  As for the secret Pike was keeping, Tony was already working on it, and knowing him, he’d most likely have news for me later today.

  “Morning, Frank.” I set my mailbag on the floor and released Tang from the pack so he could run around the police station for a few minutes before we continued on our route. “Looks like the White Eagle PD received some Christmas cards to brighten up this place.” I tossed a pile of mail including several red and green envelopes on the top of his desk.

  “This place could sure use some brightening up. I was just saying to Mike this morning, we should get a little tree for the counter. I think we may be the only building in town that didn’t bother to put out any decorations.”

  “A tree would be nice, but you might want to take care of it yourself. Mike isn’t the sort to want to decorate.”

  “I guess you’re right. Mike is all business, all the time, lately.”

  That didn’t surprise me in the least. Mike had left childhood behind when our dad had been killed and he’d had to take over as man of the house. He’d put aside his fun-loving ways and set his sights on taking care of whatever needed doing. It was kind of sad that he’d given up such a large part of his childhood to take care of Mom and me. “Is he around?”

  “He’s over at the courthouse.”

  “I thought Donny’s arraignment wasn’t until this afternoon.”

  “It wasn’t, but Donny decided to take a plea deal. Mike’s seeing to the details.”

  I frowned. “What kind of plea deal?”

  Frank leaned forward slightly as Tang crawled up his leg. He picked up the kitten and set him on the desk before he answered. “It seems when faced with being charged with murder one, he came clean about the burglary.”

  I narrowed my gaze. “Burglary?”

  “It turns out Donny did steal a whole lot of money from a chest in Pike’s cellar. From what I understand, it amounted to more than a hundred grand.”

  I let out an involuntary gasp.

  “As we suspected,” Frank continued, “he used some of the money to pay off his debt to the moneylender.”

  “But he didn’t kill Pike?”

  Frank shook his head. “He swears Pike was already dead when he entered the cabin.”

  “Why didn’t he report it?”

  “He was there to steal money from him,” Frank reminded me. “If he’d reported the murder it would have cast suspicion on him when it was discovered the money was missing.”

  “Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” I bit my lip as I tried to wrap this whole thing around in my mind. “Are you sure he didn’t kill Pike? I hate to think he did, but…”

  “Mike spoke to Donny himself and feels certain he’s telling the truth. The report from the medical examiner supports the fact that Pike had been dead for more than twenty-four hou
rs when you found his body, and Donny was seen near Pike’s Place earlier that same day.”

  “So, if Pike was already dead he couldn’t have told Donny where the money was hidden. How did he find it?”

  “Donny told Mike that Brick Brannigan let it slip that Pike kept a bunch of cash in his cellar. I’m not sure how he knew, but Brick and Pike were pretty close. I suppose it might have come up at some point.”

  “I can see how Pike might have shared the existence of the money with Brick, but why on earth would Brick share that with Donny?”

  “According to what Donny said, Brick had been drinking and Donny asked just the right questions. Mike talked to Brick, who doesn’t remember even having a conversation with Donny about the money, but he admitted to tying one on a few weeks back after receiving some bad news. Donny and a few others were at the bar after closing and he figures that must have been when Donny tricked him into saying what he did. Poor guy feels like hell for his part in the whole thing.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” I still wasn’t totally convinced Donny’s story was on the up-and-up, but Mike was a smart guy and if Donny had been lying he would have figured it out.

  “I assume Donny will still be doing jail time.”

  “Oh, yeah. He’s being transferred to Kalispell today, and he’ll be doing some time in prison. Depending on the deal he works out, he could be looking at quite a few years behind bars.”

  I thought of Bree and cringed. “Does Bree know?”

  Frank shrugged. “Not as far as I know, but someone might have called her.”

  “I should go to her.” I turned to the door. “If Mike comes back have him call me.”

  On one hand, it was a good thing Donny wasn’t going to face charges for Pike’s death. On the other, he was going to do time in prison, and Bree wasn’t going to be happy about that. I took a deep breath before entering the bookstore, preparing myself mentally for the explosion of anger I was sure to meet when I gave her the news that Donny wasn’t coming home anytime soon.

  “Oh good, you’re here,” Bree greeted me with a weak smile. “I hoped you’d be by before the arraignment.”

  “There isn’t going to be an arraignment. Donny worked out a deal.”

  Bree sat down on one of the chairs she provided in the reading area. “A deal?”

  I explained as succinctly as I could the details Frank had relayed to me. I braced myself for an explosion of anger or perhaps an onslaught of tears, but instead my news was met with sad resignation.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  Bree nodded. “I’ve been thinking about things and I realized somewhere along the way that Donny probably had stolen Pike’s money to pay off his gambling debt. I guess I’m relieved to know he didn’t kill an old man in the execution of the theft.” Bree wiped a single tear from her cheek. “I’m sorry Donny’s going to prison, but I realize Donny has been on a fast train to trouble for quite some time.”

  I took her hand in mine. “Yeah, I think he has. I’m sorry.”

  Bree looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I need to let him go,” she whispered.

  “Yeah, I think you do.”

  ******

  When I hadn’t heard from Tony by the time I finished my route, I decided to call him to check in. Tony often lost track of time when he was working, and while he probably intended to call me, as he’d promised, he’d become distracted and forgotten. I was anxious to see what, if anything, he’d found in the file, and I also wanted to ask if he’d be willing to track down Bethany. Of course Tony didn’t answer when I called the first time, which didn’t surprise me in the least, so I left a message and set about feeding Tang and Tilly, then got ready for my dinner with Brady Baker.

  I stood in front of my closet in indecision. This wasn’t exactly a date, so I didn’t want to go overboard and make things awkward, but he’d texted me the name of a nice restaurant, so I didn’t want to show up underdressed either. After several minutes I chose a long wool skirt, knee-high dress boots with a low heel, and an angora sweater Aunt Ruthie had given me last Christmas. I rarely wore makeup but decided a light dusting of powder and a dash of mascara couldn’t hurt. I was debating whether to add a touch of lip gloss when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID: Tony.

  “Sorry I missed your call. I was in the computer room.”

  “No problem,” I said. “I was just checking in to see if you had any news.”

  Tony paused. “Actually, I had a few things to talk to you about. Can you come over?”

  “I have a dinner date I should finish getting ready for. Is there something important you wanted to share?”

  “I mainly wanted to talk to you about the maps you dropped off.”

  “Okay. What did you find?”

  “I did some research and it seems the circumstances surrounding the discrepancy between the claim boundaries are suspicious at best.”

  I glanced at the clock. I needed to get going if I was to be at the restaurant on time, but I had to know the rest. “Suspicious how?”

  “It appears that prior to taking over the portion of the Bloomfield mine, which was where Weston pulled out the gold that made him rich, he wasn’t doing all that well. In fact, it looked like his mine was all but dried up. At first, I thought maybe Weston had inside information about the gold just on the other side of his own shaft and worked out a deal with Bloomfield, but it turned out that shortly before Weston took control of the rich vein, Bloomfield met with an accident and died.”

  “What kind of accident?”

  “There was a partial cave-in while he was working one of the tunnels farthest away from Weston’s claim. He was trapped and died. Shortly after, Weston began mining the tunnel closest to his own claim, where he eventually made a fortune.”

  “So you think Weston killed Bloomfield and stole his gold?” I realized.

  “I would say there’s a very good chance that was what occurred.”

  I paused to let that sink in. “Say that’s true. Say Hank Weston somehow knew there was a rich vein of gold just on the other side of the dry tunnel he was working, so he arranged for Bloomfield to die in a mining accident, redrew the claim lines, then mined the area Bloomfield owned but hadn’t yet worked. No one suspected anything, so he got away with it and made the seed money for his lumber operation, which made him a very rich man. Hank has been dead for a long time; how does that relate to Pike’s death?”

  “Pike told Barton he had a secret he’d been keeping for a very long time. We know Pike was a miner at the time Weston worked the mines; maybe he found out what happened, or at least suspected it. He seemed to have been compiling data that could serve as proof of the plot.”

  “That makes sense, but again, Weston is dead. He couldn’t have killed Pike.”

  “Yes, but Hank Weston had three sons and eight grandsons, all of whom are very rich men.”

  “You think one or all of them knew their father’s secret and when they heard Pike was going to expose his crime one of them killed him?”

  “It fits.”

  I bit my lip. “Yeah, it does. I want to explore this idea with you further, but I need to go now.”

  “It can wait. Are we still going tree cutting this weekend?”

  “We are. Will tomorrow afternoon, say around three, work? I promised to volunteer at the animal shelter until two.”

  “Three works fine. I’ll make dinner if you can stay to help me decorate.”

  “It’s a date. Oh, and before I forget, I found a letter someone named Bethany in Billings sent to Pike regarding the death of someone named Patricia. I don’t have last names or addresses. I don’t suppose there’s any way you can track them down?”

  “That’s not a lot to go on, but I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thanks, Tony. You’re the best.”

  ******

  Being twenty minutes late to your first unofficial date with the new hunk in town probably wasn’t the best way to make a good impression. “I’m very sorry,�
�� I said as I slid into the booth.

  “It isn’t a problem. I went ahead and ordered a bottle of wine. I hope that was okay.”

  “That was fine. And again, I’m sorry to be late. It’s just been one of those days.”

  “I ran into Bree today and she told me about your friend. Are you doing okay?”

  It took me a minute to puzzle out the fact that by my friend, he was referring to Donny. Part of me wanted to assure him that Donny was far from being my friend, but I didn’t want to seem petty, so I decided to comment briefly, then change the subject. “Donny and I weren’t close, but he was dating Bree and she’s my best friend, so I feel bad for her. We spoke briefly and I think she’s going to be fine, but thank you for asking. On another note, I managed to distribute all the flyers for tomorrow, and I even rounded up three additional volunteers to help out in the morning.”

  Brady smiled. “That’s great. You have a reputation for being a real go-getter and I can see that reputation is justified.”

  “Thank you. I try to do what I can. The clinic hasn’t had a lot of publicity, but I think we’ll do okay. I’d like to go over the specifics because you won’t be around.”

  He took a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket. “I brought a list of all the animals currently being housed at the shelter. It’s separated into columns. The first one is the animals currently available for adoption; the second is the ones who are in quarantine. I looked over the applications my uncle used and they seem fine to me, so I saw no reason to change them. If you’ve worked clinics in the past I assume you have a good handle on the types of adoptive homes I’m looking for.”

  “I do,” I confirmed.

  “I’ve arranged for coffee and pastries to be delivered for both the volunteers and the members of the community who come out for the clinic. Unfortunately, I won’t be available until after two, so I’m hoping you won’t have any problems or questions.”