Mitch looked up at Johanna. “Hey,” he said with a crooked smile. “You left me in the lurch the other day!”
“Did I?”
He nodded. “Yes, you did. I had no way of contacting you. You didn’t leave me your number or your address. I tried calling your agent, but she wasn’t giving out either.”
“You called my agent?”
“I had to! I had no way of contacting you. I still don’t.”
Johanna grinned and took a seat on the bench next to Mitch. “You were busy,” she pointed out.
“Yes, but you’ve been at an advantage. You had my work number. You could have called and given me your number. How are we supposed to solve this case together if we can’t get ahold of one another?”
Her eyes swung down towards the path as she nodded. “True, true. I was going to call when I got new information.”
He leaned forward, forcing her to look at him. “Oh, really? You’re expecting new information? See, I didn’t even know that.”
“I went and saw the house Felicia showed that day,” she admitted.
“Without me?” His jaw hung open.
“You had to work!”
“I would have gone with you after work.”
“It would have been dark by then,” she said softly. “I’m glad I went when I did.”
“Oh, really? Why is that?”
“Because I got an idea!”
He stood up and gestured towards the path. “You want to walk together? You can tell me all about it on the way.” He extended his hand to her.
A slow smile spread across her face. Why the tiny action made her slightly giddy inside, she wasn’t sure. She took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. “Sure. Come on, Rocky,” she said, giving the leash a little tug.
“Woof!” he barked at the squirrel he’d been patiently watching.
“He really likes his squirrels, doesn’t he?”
“Rocky has a very big heart. He likes everything that moves. We’ve been cat sitting the past week or so and he really likes the cat. She doesn’t exactly get along with him, though.”
“She’s not into dogs, huh?”
“She’s not into slobber,” said Johanna with a chuckle. As she laughed, she suddenly realized how easy it felt talking to Mitch. It was like she was talking to an old friend now.
“So. What’s the new idea you came up with today?” asked Mitch, looking over at her. “It’s fascinating to see the mind of a mystery writer in action.”
She giggled. “Well, I don’t know about that. It’s really not that big of a deal because it might not even pan out.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“I noticed that there were video cameras installed at the front door, and it got me thinking that maybe there was surveillance footage of that day.”
Mitch stopped walking and looked at her with a slack-jawed grin. “That’s a wonderful idea! You’re brilliant!”
To hide her blush, Johanna lifted the hand between them and tucked a thick tuft of hair behind her ear. “You’re funny. I don’t think that idea qualifies me for being called brilliant.”
“You’re not very good at taking compliments, are you?”
“Not really,” she agreed.
“So what award do you think it qualifies you for?”
She lifted her brows and looked at him. “I don’t know. An observant award?”
“Ha-ha. Okay, you win the observant award, then. So, now that we know there are video cameras on the building, we contact the building owner to see if they would give us access to the records?”
Johanna made a face. “Well, not exactly. Because the people who live there now didn’t live there then. Remember, Felicia was showing the property, so likely someone bought it since then. Which means we’d have to go back to the previous owners, but then it occurred to me that a house worth that much money surely goes through a big company for their surveillance, right?”
“Absolutely!”
“Yeah, my brother-in-law, Kevin, works for an IT company in Jersey. He was just telling me the other day that his company is getting slammed right now by people wanting tighter cybersecurity. Exploiting a computer system’s vulnerabilities and then showing companies how to repair those weaknesses is kind of his jam right now.”
“Your brother-in-law is going to break into the building’s security system?”
“I didn’t ask him to break into it, exactly, but I mean, if that’s what he’s gotta do…”
“Jo!” exclaimed Mitch.
“Jo? Since when are you calling me Jo?”
It was Mitch’s turn to break eye contact then. “Oh, sorry. Is Jo not okay?”
Johanna lifted a shoulder.
“It’s just that Johanna is a mouthful if I’m trying to tell you something fast. Like if I were to say, Hey, Johanna, watch out for that car! you’d already be smashed.”
“Well, that’s gruesome,” she said with a giggle.
“I know, but it’s true. Now, if I were to be like, Watch out, Jo! you’d get out of the way, right?”
She nodded somberly. “Oh, most definitely. You’d have saved my life!”
“See? Exactly what I’m saying. But you said your family calls you JoJo, and your friends call you Hanna.”
“Friend. My friend calls me Hanna. She’s the only one who calls me that.”
“Right, well, I thought Jo wouldn’t be stepping on anyone’s toes.”
She didn’t know if she should tell him or not, but since she figured she was trying to stick to a lie-free diet, she opened her mouth. “James used to call me Jo sometimes. We grew up next to each other when we were kids, so he’s always been like family, so he usually called me JoJo, but sometimes he shortened it to just Jo.”
“Ahh,” said Mitch, nodding. “Felicia used to call me Mitchell. I don’t think she ever called me Mitch. Isn’t that funny? Everyone else called me Mitch, but the woman I was going to marry liked to stretch my name out and make it longer.”
Johanna giggled. “Mitchell’s definitely more of a mouthful. Hey, Mitchell, don’t fall into that open manhole!” she shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. “It does not roll off the tongue.”
His eyes widened as he turned to her and held a hand up by his waist. “I’d be up to here in Manhattan sludge if you said that to me!”
“Yeah, you would.”
He gave her a little shoulder bump as they walked. “So can I call you Jo? Or is it too reminiscent of James calling you Jo?”
She grinned shyly. “You can call me Jo.”
“So, you said your family calls you JoJo. Tell me about your family.”
“Umm, well. My dad lives in Union City in the house that I grew up in.”
“Ohh, so you’re a Jersey girl, I should have known, I can hear it.”
Johanna turned to look at him with reproach. “Hey! I’ve worked for many years to lose the accent. You should hear my sister! She’s the stereotypical Jersey girl. Her name is Melissa, but we all call her Mook.”
“Mook! Now there’s a nickname.”
“I invented it when I was one.”
“Ahh,” he said with a smile.
“Yeah. So there’s Mook and her husband Kevin, the IT guy. They have two kids. Lexi and Henry. Umm, my mother passed away.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said, reaching out and giving Johanna’s hand a squeeze.
She thought she could feel electric sparks through her mittens but tried to carry on normally. “It’s okay, it was a while ago. Before James.” She swallowed hard. “I went home last weekend. My dad wanted to have our family Christmas because next weekend is the actual Christmas at my uncle Jack’s.”
“You mean this weekend? Christmas is in like two days or something. You know that, right?”
Johanna grinned. Of course she knew that. Kevin had reminded her that very morning. “Duh. You’d have to be a real idiot not to know Christmas was this weekend.”
He laughed.
“Anyway, I went home la
st weekend and we had our little family Christmas. Dad dropped a bit of a bombshell on me.”
“What kind of bombshell?”
“He’s got a girlfriend,” sighed Johanna. She’d been trying not to think about it. Luckily, between her new book and the case she’d been working on, she hadn’t had to.
“How long has your mom been gone?” asked Mitch.
Johanna looked down at her hands. He was missing the point. “When I was in college,” she admitted quietly.
“I don’t know how long ago college was for you, so I have no point of reference.”
“Mom died almost thirteen years ago.”
“We really do have a lot in common. My folks died when I was in college,” said Mitch.
Johanna stopped walking and turned to face him. “Both of them?”
He nodded and pulled his lips back tightly against his teeth. “Yup.”
“At the same time?”
“In an accident. They were on a vacation, in a rented car. They were having car problems and had just pulled over to the shoulder when a semi swerved off the road and hit them.”
“Oh my God, Mitch! I’m so sorry.” She reached out and squeezed his arm.
“Thanks,” he said, giving her a smile. “That was almost seventeen years ago for me.”
“Do you have any siblings?”
Mitch started walking again. “A brother. He’s married. They live in Atlanta. No kids.”
“Wow. We’ve both been through a lot of loss,” she said quietly.
“How’d your mom die?”
“Cancer,” said Johanna matter-of-factly. “By the time she found out, there wasn’t a lot of time left, so it happened pretty fast.”
“Oh man. I’m not sure which is worse. Having time to say goodbye but watching them suffer or just having it over like that”—he snapped his fingers—“but not being able to say goodbye.”
“Even though the end wasn’t real great for her, I think Mom was thankful she got to say her goodbyes.” They walked quietly for a few moments. Then Johanna looked over at him. “Do you go to your brother’s in Atlanta for Christmas?”
He chuckled. “No, they really aren’t the ‘celebrate Christmas’ type. He works for the airline out there and she’s in HR for some big law firm. Christmas is his busy season.”
“Yeah, I can imagine. So what do you do on Christmas?”
“Oh, it varies from year to year. I have an aunt and uncle who live in Staten Island. They usually invite me over. Some years I go, some years I don’t. It just depends on what’s going on at the office. I always treat it as just another day.” He glanced over at her. “How about you? You said you’re going to your uncle’s?”
She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I’m thinking about skipping it,” she admitted. Despite her new honesty policy, she had absolutely zero intention of telling Mitch about the whopper of a lie she’d told her family the last time she’d been home.
“Why?”
“My family is kind of funny.”
“Aren’t all families?” he asked, giving her a sly grin.
“Well, yeah, but mine are worse than most. They don’t take no for an answer. They’re pushy and embarrassing, and to be honest, they give me anxiety.”
“So, you were telling me that your dad has a new girlfriend. Is that part of the problem?” asked Mitch.
“Oh. Some of it, I suppose. I know I sound like a spoiled little girl to be upset about my dad dating again, but this is his first relationship since my mom passed away.”
“His first relationship in thirteen years?! I’d think you’d be happy for him by now. So he’s not alone.”
Johanna hung her head and gnawed on her bottom lip. Rocky glanced up at her, giving her a comforting look.
Mitch bumped her shoulder again. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad or anything.”
“I know,” she agreed. “Dad was ready to start dating again before James passed, and then when he died, Dad and I both kind of went into mourning again. Together. So it was almost like neither of us could date. You know?”
“Maybe,” said Mitch with a little shrug.
“I guess it’s hard to explain.”
“Does your dad not want you to date?”
“Oh, no! Quite the opposite,” Johanna admitted with a flourish. “They are all pushing me to date. They don’t think it’s healthy that I’ve been alone for so long.”
“Yeah, my coworkers treat me like that too,” he said with a knowing chuckle. “They don’t understand that I’ve been perfectly content with my life the way it is. I haven’t had any desire to learn how to date online or to start going to bars after work. It’s just not my thing.”
“Mine either!” Johanna agreed. “And my family got it in their heads that I should bring a date to Uncle Jack’s for Christmas.” She sighed. But she’d decided; there was no way she wanted to spend her Christmas listening to her entire family ask her why she was still single. She’d rather spend it cuddled up with Rocky and a big tub of popcorn. They could binge-watch Dexter on Netflix or something.
“I suppose you’re vehemently opposed to taking a date to your Uncle Jack’s for Christmas, huh?” said Mitch quietly.
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “Well, we both just agreed we aren’t much into online dating or going to bars. There just aren’t a lot of dating options for introverts like us.”
He shrugged. “Maybe you could find someone else who doesn’t have any plans for Christmas, and they could go with you. You know just to take the pressure off. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be a date, exactly. But just two single lonely people hanging out for Christmas… while meeting your entire family.” His head nodded and a slow smile crept over his face as he said the words aloud. “Boy, that does kind of sound datey, doesn’t it?”
Her eyes squinched as she smiled. “Yeah, it kinda does.”
“So that’s not something you’d be interested in?”
Johanna glanced at him again. Was he talking about himself? Surely he didn’t want to spend his Christmas at her uncle Jack’s house. But it did sound like he didn’t have plans. Should she ask him? She swallowed hard.
What did she have to lose?
Her insides bubbled with anxiety.
Johanna cleared her throat.
“Mitch?”
“Yes…,” he drawled with a toothy grin.
23
Johanna’s palms were clammy inside her mittens. She couldn’t believe she was going to actually say it. Mook would be so proud of me right now. “Would you like to be my non-date for my uncle Jack’s Christmas party this weekend?”
“Your non-date?”
“Well, you know, you said it didn’t have to be a date…,” she mumbled uncomfortably. Should she just have called it a date? Because he’d said…
“No, we can call it a non-date if you want.” He grinned.
“Does that mean…?” Her voice trailed off as she looked up at him. “That you actually would want to go?”
“And get to spend my Christmas with the famous Hanna Hughes?” he asked. “Are you kidding? I’d be honored.”
How did this man have the uncanny ability to make her blush constantly? “You’re kidding!”
“Not kidding. Unless you really don’t want me to go, in which case—”
“No! No! I want you to go,” Johanna cut in before he could finish. “I want you to go. I swear. Just be prepared. It might be a little uncomfortable. My family literally has no boundaries. No topic is off-limits in their minds. It’s excruciatingly painful sometimes.” She covered her face with her hands. What was she doing? He’d never want to hang out with her again after her family got done with him.
He grinned. “I’m a big boy, Jo. I think I can handle it.” He reached out and took hold of her hand. “As long as you’re there by my side?”
Johanna’s body stiffened and her eyes froze in her head in the forward position. She didn’t dare turn her head or look at him for
fear that he’d let go of her hand. “Of course I’ll be by your side,” she promised. A nervous giggle bubbled out of her mouth. Why in the world was she giggling like a teen holding hands for the first time?
“Good,” he said, seemingly oblivious to the sudden panic attack that was quickly growing from infancy to full-grown adult status inside her stomach.
And then, Johanna’s phone rang. She pretended like she didn’t hear it for a moment as it vibrated in her back pocket. Even though she felt awkward, she didn’t want him to let go of her hand. She’d ignore it.
But Mitch heard it. He stopped walking and looked around.
And Rocky heard it. He stopped walking and barked.
Ugh.
“What’s that noise?” asked Mitch.
“Oh!” sang Johanna, reaching into her back pocket and silently cursing technology. “I didn’t even notice. I guess it’s my phone. I’ll just let it go to…” She looked down at the caller ID. Kevin. Suddenly the anxiety in the pit of her stomach dissipated. “It’s Kevin, my brother-in-law.”
“Answer it,” said Mitch, pulling her towards the side of the path.
Johanna nodded and put it on speakerphone. “Hey, Kev.”
“Hey, JoJo. You owe me one.”
“I do?”
“Yeah, I spent most of my day working on your little case. I better get coauthor credit out of this or something.”
“How about I just plug you and your IT company in the front of the book?”
“We can negotiate terms at Uncle Jack’s.”
“So what did you find out?”
“Well, the first thing I had to do was figure out what surveillance service was used six years ago.”
“Oh, I never thought about that. Since it was likely sold during that time period, the surveillance company could have changed,” said Johanna.
“Right,” he agreed. “Okay, well, now the property is owned by Dutch Erickson. You’ve heard of him, I assume? He’s a big music producer.”
Johanna’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened as she looked up at Mitch. His eyes were just as wide as hers. “Dutch Erickson owns the house on Bank Street?”
“Yeah, says here he bought it in 2011.”
Johanna palmed her forehead. “I can’t believe I didn’t even think to look who bought it.”
Snow Cold Case_A Mystic Snow Globe Romantic Mystery Page 18