Undercover Christmas

by BJ Daniels

  She smiled as she thought of her father. He’d applauded her when she worked her way through college to get her business degree, then took out a small business loan to open her boutique. He’d lived long enough to see her make a success of the shop and she’d reveled in his pride in her.

  Her boutique. Marni called her manager and gave her the number where she could be reached, explaining that something had come up and she wouldn’t be in the shop for a few days.

  “You had a call earlier. From—just a minute, it’s right here—a woman who said her name was Lilly. That’s all she left. No number.”

  “I have her number, thanks,” Marni said. “Did she say what she wanted?”

  “She sounded a little…strange.”

  Very diplomatic. “Like she might have finished off a bottle of wine before she called?” Marni asked.

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Long after Marni hung up, she couldn’t get Lilly off her mind. Finally she picked up the phone and dialed the ranch. Hilda answered on the second ring. “I’m calling for Lilly.”

  “She can’t be disturbed.”

  Passed out probably. “Is Vanessa around?”

  “Just a moment,” Hilda said.

  Vanessa came on the line and Marni hoped she hadn’t made a mistake by asking for her.

  “Yes?” She sounded irritable.

  “It’s Elise McCumber,” she said quickly.

  “Yes?” Vanessa’s voice got chillier.

  “I’m calling about Lilly.”

  Silence.

  “I’m worried about her.”

  “Lilly is not your concern, Miss McCumber.” She hung up, but not before Marni heard another sound on the line. A faint cry. One single word. “Elise.”

  Marni quickly dialed the ranch again.

  “I’m sorry, Lilly isn’t taking phone calls,” Hilda said.

  “Can’t I at least leave my number so she can call me?” Marni pleaded.

  “I’m sorry. Mrs. Calloway gave specific instructions.”

  Marni bet she did.

  Hilda hung up.

  CHASE WALKED IN in time to hear Marni swear and then chastise herself for doing so.

  “Something wrong?” he asked.

  She spun around, obviously embarrassed at having been caught. But was it for swearing or something to do with the phone call? She hesitated a little too long answering and he decided it was the phone call.

  “Just the usual problems at the boutique,” she said vaguely.

  He nodded, admiring her obvious inability to lie well. Nor did she seem to like doing it, he thought. Just like swearing. “Is it something you have to see to?”

  “No, they seem to have everything under control now. I just worry too much.”

  Yeah, she did. About other people. Not about her boutique. Who was it this time? Her twin? Or someone else?

  “I thought I’d make us something to eat, unless you’d like to go out,” he said, heading for the kitchen with a bag of groceries under his arm.

  “I could help you,” she said.

  He groaned. Exactly what he needed, the two of them in the kitchen. As large as it was, it wouldn’t be large enough. “Sure,” he said, telling himself he could be warm and charming and distant at the same time. Hell, who was he kidding? He didn’t know how to be warm and charming. It wasn’t his nature. And if he couldn’t keep his thoughts off her—as well as his hands—he’d have to depend on his nature to keep them apart

  But as he started taking the groceries out of the bag and felt her beside him, he wasn’t even sure he could be distant. Or nasty enough. It had worked on other women, but not Marni McCumber. He didn’t like the feeling that he was in over his head. And worse yet, Marni knew it.

  CHASE SUGGESTED they eat on TV trays in the living room instead of in the breakfast nook. ‘’There’s a Jazz basketball game I’d like to see. If you don’t mind.”

  She didn’t mind. Not that she didn’t realize why they weren’t eating in the breakfast nook. And why he wanted the TV on while they ate. Look how he’d been in the kitchen. A man who seemed to have nerves of steel suddenly dropping the can opener, rattling pans, spilling the soup.

  Marni had watched as Chase heated a can of tomato soup. She’d offered to help but he’d assured her he was an old hand at soup-heating. She didn’t doubt that.

  But she’d leaned against the counter and watched him, something that for some reason had made him very nervous. Was it possible she had more effect on him than he wanted to admit?

  As she ate her soup and pretended to watch the basketball game on television, she found her thoughts returning to Lilly. Why wouldn’t Vanessa let her talk to her? It only deepened Marni’s concerns. At least she would get to see Lilly at the funeral tomorrow and make a point of talking to her. Feeling better, Marni turned her attention to her soup, Chase and the game.

  Chase seemed relieved when the game ended, the Jazz winning, and the meal officially over.

  Marni washed the dishes while Chase put clean sheets on the bed. When she came out of the kitchen, he was making up a bed on the couch.

  “I can sleep there,” Marni offered.

  He shook his head. “It’s only temporary.”

  Subtle, she thought as she thanked him for the bedroom.

  “I called the hospital. I guess the whole family is there. I thought we’d go see Hayes during visiting hours. It would be a good time to let the family know you’re staying with me.” He was also concerned about his half brother, Marni knew. He cared more about that family than he wanted to admit.

  He studied her a moment. “You realize what this means. You’re making yourself a sitting duck as long as you wear that maternity form. It’s not too late to change your mind.”

  She shook her head. Better she and Sam be the bait than Elise and the baby. “It will just take me a moment to get ready.”

  BOZEMAN DEACONESS HOSPITAL sat up on a hill overlooking the city. When Chase parked, Marni spotted a new car parked in the lot with the license plate CALOWAY, misspelled obviously to make it fit.

  “Vanessa?” Marni asked.

  Chase nodded.

  “I expected she’d drive something a little more…”

  “Pretentious?” he suggested. “She only drives her Mercedes in the summer.” He pointed to one of the Calloway Ranch pickups and a small red four-wheel drive with FELICIA plates. “Looks like the whole family’s here.”

  Marni hoped that meant Lilly, as well. She couldn’t throw off the bad feeling she had. Nor forget the way Lilly had cried that one single word. “Elise.”

  They found everyone, Felicia, Dayton, Lilly, Vanessa, Hilda and Cook in Hayes’s room. Hayes lay in bed, his head bandaged, his face ashen. Lilly sat in a chair next to him. Marni tried to get her attention but realized it was futile. Lilly appeared to be either highly inebriated or sedated.

  Vanessa motioned for Dayton to take them out into the hall. Felicia came along.

  “How’s Hayes?” Chase asked.

  “He seems to be okay. They gave him something to help him sleep,” Dayton said. He shot Marni an angry look as if he blamed her for Hayes’s accident

  “No memory loss?” Marni asked, thinking of Chase’s accident. Would Hayes remember what had happened? Would he remember that Marni wasn’t pregnant? But more important, would he remember Elise, if he was her lover?

  “The does say he responded to all their questions just fine,” Dayton said, eyeing Marni suspiciously. “Why?”

  “One Calloway who can’t remember is enough,” Chase said in answer. “Elise is staying at my place.”

  Dayton stared at his brother. “You’re buying that this is your kid?”

  “Yeah, do you have a problem with that?” Chase asked.

  Marni felt Dayton’s gaze, hot with hate. Was there a chance he thought she was Elise? Thought she was only pretending Chase was the father of her baby to get back at him? Or was it just because he thought she carried Jabe Calloway’s grandchild, a chi
ld who could take the money from his own?

  “I can’t believe how much this baby has grown,” Felicia said, her hand going to her stomach almost on cue.

  She did look as though she’d grown overnight, Marni noted. Or maybe it was only the new maternity top that made her look that way.

  Felicia linked a hand through Dayton’s arm with a possessiveness that surprised Marni. “The doctor is a little worried I might deliver early, all the excitement,” Felicia said.

  “I suppose Jabe’s will hasn’t turned up,” Chase said pointedly to Dayton.

  “I heard you’re determined to prove that Father was murdered,” Dayton said with no little disgust.

  “Yes,” Chase said. “I am. Let me know if there’s any change with Hayes.” He put his arm around Marni’s shoulders, his touch warm and reassuring. She reminded herself he was just doing this for show.

  They left Felicia and Dayton standing outside Hayes’s hospital room door. When Marni looked back, she saw that they appeared to be arguing over something. She wondered what.

  “She’s hoping she has that baby before yours,” Chase said, following her gaze.

  Did that explain the way Felicia was acting? Marni felt a chill. Did Felicia suspect Elise might be carrying her husband’s child?

  Chase seemed lost in his own thoughts. And from the scowl on his face, they were dark.

  “I’ve been thinking,” Marni said as they walked to his pickup.

  Chase opened her door for her and gave her a look that said he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what she’d been thinking.

  “If Dayton’s telling the truth, and he came into the library immediately after the gunshot and there was no one else in the room except Jabe, then the killer was either still in the room or found another way out”

  Chase didn’t comment as she climbed into the pickup. He closed the passenger door and went around to the other side.

  “Everyone was accounted for moments after the shot, so the killer wasn’t still in the room,” Chase said as he slid in next to her and started the pickup. “And there isn’t another way out. Which means Dayton was lying.”

  “Maybe not. I think I know how the killer got away so quickly,” Marni said.

  Chase started to drive away from the hospital but stopped to turn and look at her.

  “I think that house is a maze of secret stairways and passages,” she said, launching into her theory enthusiastically. “Jabe told me it was originally built by a horse thief turned politician. A man like that would need ways to get around the house—and out of the house—without being seen.” She took a quick breath, afraid he would think her theory foolish. “I have a feeling there’s a passageway into the library.”

  He studied her but said nothing.

  “And that’s how the murderer got away, possibly with the will.” She waited, but still he said nothing, as if he anticipated what was coming next. “There’s one way to find out.”

  “Go back to the ranch and search for secret passages,” Chase said.

  “Everyone’s at the hospital. It would be the perfect time.”

  He looked as though he might argue, desperately wanted to argue. “How did I know that’s what you were thinking?”

  “You do have a key to the house, don’t you? It wouldn’t be like breaking and entering.”

  He groaned. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

  She certainly hoped not.

  THEY DROVE to the ranch, the sky a dark velvet dusted with starlight. Just as Marni had said, no one was home. Chase used his key and let them in and Marni went right to the spot behind the stairs. She inspected the paneling closely, thinking about the way it opened and trying to remember exactly where Lilly had been standing when she’d unlocked it.

  After a few futile attempts, Marni pressed a spot and the door slid open. She turned to find Chase watching, his eyes wide with amazement as he glanced into the passageway.

  “How many more of these are there, do you think?” he asked.

  Marni shook her head. “I would imagine there’s at least one on every level, but I suspect there’s more. The house could be a honeycomb of secret passageways. Anyone who knew them could get around without being seen.”

  “The question is, how many people know about this,” he said, glancing up the stairwell.

  “Lilly and the person who pushed over the armoire that day in the attic. Maybe more.”

  “Or maybe just one person,” Chase said as he stepped into the stairwell. “How do you close the door?”

  “I don’t know.” Marni started up the stairs behind him, immediately aware of being in the confines of the passageway with Chase.

  The door slid closed behind them and Chase stopped with a start.

  “There must be a device in one of the stairs,” Marni said.

  “I hope you’re right and there’s one that reopens it,” Chase said. He pulled a flashlight from his jacket and lit the way as they climbed the stairs, stopping at the first landing to search for other doors.

  They found one that opened onto a long narrow tunnel and followed it. At the end of the tunnel was a short flight of stairs that dropped to the first floor and what appeared to be a dead end. But as they neared the wall at the bottom of the stairs, a panel door slid open.

  “It’s the library,” Chase said, shining his flashlight into the room. “Just like you thought.”

  “That’s how the killer got away so fast with the will before Dayton came in.”

  “Unless Dayton is the killer,” Chase said. He looked down at her, his body so close she could feel his heat radiating toward her. For just a moment she thought he might kiss her. She touched her tongue to her upper lip, her heart pounding. He let out a curse. “Come on,” he said gruffly. “We don’t know how much time we have.”

  They followed the stairway up, discovering an intricate system of corridors that appeared to run throughout the house and to all the bedrooms.

  “Well, we know how the killer could have gotten away,” Chase said. “But we haven’t narrowed our list of suspects much.”

  Marni nodded in agreement. “Anyone who knows about the secret passages could have killed Jabe.”

  “Lilly is still at the top of that list,” Chase reminded her as they reached the bottom stairs and the door automatically opened. “As far as we know, she might be the only person in the house who knows about the passageways.”

  They drove out of the ranch and were past Maudlow, almost to Poison Hollow, when they spotted headlights coming up the road. “We got out just in time,” Chase said, sounding relieved.

  As they passed the Calloway Ranch truck and Dayton, Marni looked back to see him hit the brakes.

  “I think he recognized your truck,” she said. “He’ll know we were at the house.”

  Chase nodded. “That might work to our advantage, now that I think about it. If he’s our killer, it will make him more nervous. He’ll do something stupid.”

  “And if he’s not?” Marni asked, trying not to think about what stupid thing the killer might do.

  “Then he’ll surely mention it to Vanessa and everyone in the house will know. It’s impossible to keep a secret in that house.”

  Marni wasn’t so sure about that. Jabe’s killer was still at large. So was the person who wanted her dead.

  Chase drove through a fast-food burger joint, and bought them both meals. They ate in the semidarkness of a shopping center, listening to golden oldies on the radio.

  Back at the apartment, Chase made a big production out of how tired he was. Marni took the hint and headed for the bedroom. She climbed into bed, wondering about him, wondering about herself. How could she have fallen in love so quickly and with a man who wanted nothing to do with her? More important, what was she going to do about it?

  CHASE BALLED UP the pillow and dropped his head onto it, determined Marni McCumber wasn’t going to keep him from getting a good night’s sleep.

  But the ghosts of his past weren’t abou
t to let him sleep. He kept thinking about his father dying of cancer and keeping it a secret Someone knew though. The same person who had filled Jabe full of painkillers and then blown a hole in his head.

  No matter what the sheriff said, Jabe Calloway had been murdered. More than two attempts had been made on Marni’s life. And one on Jabe’s before that. The question was, Who was behind them?

  One of his brothers was the father of Elise’s baby. With the will as it was, that baby stood to inherit a huge portion of the Calloway fortune. Not that there wasn’t plenty left for the rest of the family. But they were a greedy lot and he had to assume the money was the murderer’s motive.

  The family knew now that Marni was staying with him. And eventually, one of them would make his or her move. Chase hoped he could figure out which one before that happened. But he was ready nonetheless. Under the couch was his .357, loaded and ready. Meanwhile, he had to find out which brother was Elise’s lover.

  While down in the grocery store earlier, Chase had called a friend of his, a photographer at the Bozeman Chronicle, and asked him if he could dig up shots of Dayton and Hayes Calloway from the file. Both of his brothers had been in the news for one business profile or another.

  His friend Doug hadn’t asked why, just said he’d have them tomorrow and would be happy to make Chase copies.

  Getting the photos was at least a place to start, Chase thought. Not that he thought either of his brothers had tried to kill Marni and his own baby, especially a baby worth a small fortune. Certainly not to keep their wives. Lilly didn’t even pretend to care for Hayes. Chase knew Felicia had to be aware of Dayton’s many indiscretions. It wasn’t as if he tried to keep them secret. No, Chase couldn’t see either brother attempting murder to save his marriage.

  But he could see either brother killing Jabe. The Calloway boys, himself included, hated their father for a variety of good reasons, Chase thought.