Yuletide Stalker

by Irene Brand

  “I usually wear a suit and tie to work, but it won’t break any rules to go in a sport shirt. Actually, we won’t be together very much. I’m going to leave you at the library, then pick you up in the afternoon, but we can lunch together. There’s a little café near the library.”

  The next morning when they were ready to start, Maddie came from the guesthouse with a notebook and plenty of pens in her tote.

  “Ready?”

  “I think I have everything I’ll need.”

  “I’ve got a laptop in the office. Would you like to use that to take your notes?”

  “That would be super. If you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all. Go ahead and settle in the car. I’ll bring the laptop and you can check it out as we drive into the city.”

  Since Maddie had grown up using computers, it wasn’t difficult for her to figure out how to use his laptop. She would buy a Zip drive and store the information to transfer to her own computer when she got home.

  Linc walked with her into the lobby of the library, which reminded her of the library at WVU. He introduced her to the librarian at the desk, and when she’d been taken to the section containing World War II data, Linc handed her a card with his business phone number.

  “Call if you need anything at all. I’ll pick you up at one o’clock. We’ll have lunch, and I’ll take you on a tour of my business offices.”

  Maddie had an overpowering desire to learn everything she could about Linc, and pleased at his suggestion, she said, “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

  “If you get hungry before then, there are snack and beverage dispensers in the basement.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  The morning hours passed rapidly for Maddie. The library had a comprehensive section on the history of World War II, and she easily singled out the materials she wanted. The library assistants were attentive and showed her anything she couldn’t find.

  When Linc returned, however, she’d had enough. Her eyes were strained, and her muscles cramped because she’d hunched over the computer for several hours. His eyes brightened with eagerness as they always did when he first saw her after they’d been separated.

  “How’d everything go?” he asked as he unplugged the computer and picked it up.

  “Very good. I have all the material I’ll need. It’s only a short paper—not a thesis.”

  “It won’t be a problem if you need to work here again, but probably not until after Christmas. Roselina wants to start shopping and baking next week.”

  “Did you get your work finished?”

  “Pretty much so. At least enough that I can take a day or two off each week. I’m free for the weekend, but I have to work on Monday.”

  After they ate a leisurely lunch, Linc hailed a cab that took them to the office. Carey Enterprises occupied the whole tenth floor of a high-rise building. He spent an hour showing her everything, and introducing her to his employees. Concern hovered in the back of his mind, and he wondered at the wisdom of having Maddie out in public so much, but what kind of a vacation would it be for her if she had to be cooped up?

  Ahonui eyed their matching shirts with a keenly observant eye, but she said nothing about them. The offices were luxurious, and it seemed obvious to Maddie that Linc had a prosperous, substantial business. Ahonui was more cordial to Maddie than usual, and although she watched closely, she couldn’t detect any romance between Ahonui and Linc. When Maddie looked back on the day before she went to sleep, she was satisfied with what she’d accomplished.

  She thought she’d be lonesome on the days Linc worked, but Roselina kept her so busy that the time passed before she knew it. Roselina liked to talk, and she was obviously happy to have Maddie’s company.

  “My kids never come here on Christmas because they have little ones,” Roselina said on Monday morning when they were alone. “Mr. Linc and I usually spend a quiet time. The last two years, Ahonui and Steve have been with us on Christmas Day because they don’t have any other relatives on the islands. They’re coming this year, too. But Mr. Linc told me to go all out this year in honor of your visit.”

  Maddie felt her face coloring when Roselina grinned impudently at her.

  “The three of us will have Christmas Eve alone. We’ll open presents then, too. I’ll let you decide on the foods that appeal to you.”

  Maddie’s optimism dropped a little to know that Ahonui would be with them on Christmas Day. Still, she might as well learn to live with the fact that Linc’s only interest in her was as her surrogate father.

  “Here’s a book of native recipes,” Roselina said. “You pick out what you’d like to have. We’ll have a buffet meal on Christmas Day, so you can choose more than one meat or whatever you want.”

  While Roselina prepared to bake two loaves of brown bread and three loaves of pineapple bread, Maddie sat at the kitchen table and, her mouth watering, she leafed through the cookbook.

  “This is maddening,” she said. “Everything looks good.”

  Finally, she took a notebook and listed:

  For Christmas Eve:

  Chicken long rice, sweet and sour green beans, baked bananas, molded tomato salad and Surinam cherry chiffon.

  For Christmas Day:

  Cabbage soup, Hawaiian shrimp, baked pork, yam bake, cauliflower, water chestnuts and mushrooms cooked together, pasta salad and Harvest Cake.

  When Roselina put the last loaves of bread in the oven, she sat at the table. Maddie timidly handed her the list. “Maybe that’s too many things and, for all I know, the foods might not complement each other. Don’t hesitate to change anything that you want to.”

  As she read the list, Roselina nodded approvingly. “A good selection.”

  “I’ll help as much as I can.”

  “The two days before Christmas we’ll spend in the kitchen. We’ll go shopping for food in a few days, but this afternoon, we’ll buy a Christmas tree. We’ve always used an artificial tree, but Mr. Linc told me this morning to buy a real tree for you.”

  “I’d rather you wouldn’t go to so much trouble for me. I’m not used to a lot of celebrating.”

  “I do what Mr. Linc wants me to do, but I enjoy having you around. I’ve never bought a tree, so you’ll have to help.”

  “Are there tree farms on the islands?”

  “Norfolk Island pines grow in Hawaii and many people use those. We’ll buy a tree flown in from California.”

  When Roselina took the bread from the oven twenty minutes later, she turned it out on cooling racks.

  “We can go shopping now,” Roselina said.

  Roselina drove a late-model compact car. Because of her diminutive height, she had to stretch to see over the steering wheel, but she was a competent driver. The tree lot was several miles from the house on the outskirts of Honolulu.

  It had been a long time since Maddie had helped to buy a Christmas tree. Despite her nostalgic thoughts about the first time her father had taken her to buy a tree, she enjoyed wandering through the rows of evergreens. Roselina didn’t like to walk, so she told Maddie to choose what she wanted. After debating for almost an hour, Maddie decided on a ponderosa pine about five feet tall. The manager of the lot tied it on the top of Roselina’s car after she paid for the tree.

  When they turned to get in the car, a man with a microphone in his hand stepped in front of Maddie. She was suddenly aware that a TV camera was focused on her, and the man thrust the microphone in front of her face.

  “Madison Horton?” he said.

  “Yes,” Maddie mumbled.

  “Welcome to Hawaii. Are you enjoying your visit?”

  Roselina became aware of what was going on, and she bustled forward just as the reporter said, “Did you come to Hawaii at this time because of the investigation into your father’s death?”

  “No comment,” Roselina said belligerently. “Get in the car, honey.”

  Roselina stood guard like a Rottweiler until Maddie scooted into the car and locked the door. Roselin
a hustled into the driver’s seat as fast as she could, revved the engine and sped out of the tree lot. The photographer ran beside the car, his camera rolling until Roselina outdistanced him.

  “Mr. Linc will have my head for this,” Roselina moaned. “He told me to watch out for you.”

  “How could they know where I’d be?” Maddie asked, realizing a shiver of panic. She was confused and more than a little nervous. She thought again of Miss Caroline’s anxiety about this trip to Hawaii.

  “Probably been watching our driveway.”

  “Will this be on the newscast?”

  “Likely, it will be. The navy isn’t handing out any information on the investigation. You know reporters—they’ve got to know everything that’s going on.”

  As soon as they got home, Roselina called Linc, for she didn’t want him to hear about the episode from someone else. When she hung up, Roselina said, “At least he isn’t mad at me. He says there’s nothing we can do about it. If he calls the TV station and tries to get them to forget about the incident, they’ll think you know something and will keep pestering you.”

  Maddie was at the cottage when Linc came home, and he asked Roselina, “Did the television reporters distress her?”

  “Not much. I was more upset than she was. Will it be on the evening news?”

  “I hope not, but we’ll watch and see.”

  Maddie was on her way to help Roselina when she met Linc coming from his dip in the ocean. He had a large beach towel wrapped around his shoulders, and his dampened hair clung to his shapely head.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her, his eyes betraying his concern.

  “Sure. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to get scared. Roselina moved in on the guy, warned him off and rushed me into the car. Are you going to say, ‘I told you so’?”

  “Of course not. We made the decision that you’d stay, so we’ll deal with what comes along.”

  “I prayed about our decision, and I feel at peace with it. Everything will work out all right.”

  “I’ve been doing some praying myself,” he said as they walked side by side into the house. “I haven’t prayed for so long it’s almost like a new experience. I hadn’t had anyone to share my problems for years, and it’s a great feeling to know that God is on my side.”

  “Yes, and when He is, we don’t have to fear anything, but I want to watch the newscast tonight in case they air the incident. I must have made a spectacle of myself. I was so startled, I couldn’t even talk. About all I could do was mumble.”

  Laughing, Linc said, “Perhaps that’s just as well. You weren’t required to answer his questions.”

  They ate dinner in the kitchen so they could watch the news on Roselina’s television. The photographer hadn’t missed any of the interview nor Roselina’s rapid departure. When Maddie laughed at the startled-deer expression on her face, Roselina and Linc laughed, too.

  “After seeing that distorted picture,” Linc said, “no one would ever suspect it was you.”

  But still when bedtime came, and he walked with her to the guesthouse as he always did, he said, “Maddie, I’ll feel more at ease if you move into the main house. This cottage isn’t burglarproof. You think about it and we’ll decide tomorrow.” He went inside and checked the locks on the windows and doors.

  “We’re pretty safe here except from the ocean, and I’m sure you’ll be all right tonight.”

  When he returned to the house, Roselina had already gone to her room, but he tapped on her door.

  “Come in, Mr. Linc. I’m not in bed.”

  Roselina relaxed in a lounge chair in a voluminous robe, and she eyed her employer with a question in her deep-set, dark eyes. He shuffled from one foot to the other.

  “I’m worried about Maddie being alone in the cottage. What do you think about shifting the bed from the spare room and preparing quarters for her in the enclosed gallery. Maddie will have a view of the ocean, and with the couch and chairs in that room, she’ll have more privacy than if she only has the bedroom for her use.”

  He looked straight at Roselina, wondering what she thought, and he soon learned.

  “And it will be more proper for her to be sleeping at the far end of the hall, close to my room, rather than in the bedroom right across the hall from you. That’s the only solution—she shouldn’t stay in that cottage alone. I’ll help you move the bed.”

  They worked for an hour moving furniture and rearranging the big spacious room. Surveying their work, Roselina said, “This is a better arrangement. She can even see Honolulu on a clear day. I’ll move my things out of the bathroom I’ve been using, so she can have a private bath.”

  “Oh, I don’t expect you to do that,” he protested.

  “That’s the best way. You and I can share a bathroom. Or I can use the one downstairs.”

  Linc put his arms around Roselina and hugged her tightly. “You’re a prize, my friend. Don’t ever leave me.”

  She patted his face. “I don’t intend to until you find another lady to take over your household.”

  Giving him a pert glance, she left him alone in the room they’d prepared for Maddie.

  Linc came to the guesthouse before breakfast to discuss the change in arrangements he and Roselina had made with Maddie. She liked the cottage, but she did feel isolated in it, so Maddie didn’t argue about moving to the main house.

  “Do you want me to move today?” she asked Linc. “It won’t take long.”

  “Yes. Roselina will show you where to go. I think it’s better this way.”

  Maddie did feel safer in her new bedroom. She was far enough away that she didn’t hear Linc going and coming, but the soft stirring of Roselina as she moved in the room next door was comforting to her. Maddie had never lived alone, and she preferred living in the main house.

  The next morning when Maddie went for her early-morning swim, she returned by way of the cottage. Her heart stopped when she saw a big hole in one of the glass doors. She peered inside and saw a lava rock in the middle of the floor. She started to open the door, but decided that wasn’t a wise move.

  She ran to the house and collided with Linc as she darted in the kitchen door. He caught her in his arms, disturbed by the expression on her face.

  “What is it?”

  She gasped for breath, and he held her away from him.

  “The guesthouse,” she stammered. “The glass door is shattered.”

  Roselina turned quickly from the sink where she was peeling oranges for their breakfast.

  “God, help us,” she whispered.

  “You stay here,” Linc said to Maddie. She shook her head and followed him out of the house. He held her hand as they hurried toward the cottage.

  “Don’t be upset,” he tried to soothe her. “Sometimes a large seabird flies into windows and breaks them.”

  “It would have been a mighty big bird to have carried that rock,” she said with a slight smile. By that time they’d reached the cottage, and Linc said, “You stay outside while I check everything out.”

  When she opened her mouth to protest, he squeezed her hand. “I mean it.”

  Trembling, she waited, watching him through the open door. After he checked the whole building, he knelt beside the large rock on the floor. He motioned for Maddie to come in.

  “Don’t touch anything,” he said.

  She crept close to him. The large chunk of lava had a newspaper tied around it. Using the tips of his fingers, Linc unwrapped a sheet of newspaper that was turned to the article about the Sanale brothers’ escape from prison.

  Maddie covered her face with her trembling hands and leaned against the kitchen bar.

  “Let’s go back to the house. I must notify the police, and I don’t want to use this phone. We’ll leave the cottage as we found it.”

  “Whoever did this apparently didn’t know that I’d moved.”

  “I suppose so,” he said grimly.

  “Why would anybody be intimidating me because my fa
ther was killed here ten years ago?”

  “People with sick minds will do anything.” He lifted her hand and rubbed it along his face before he released it. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.” As they walked to the house, he continued to hold her hand.

  “It isn’t right for me to involve you in my problems,” she said slowly. “I should have gone home as you wanted me to.”

  “It’s only two weeks before you’re scheduled to leave, so we’ll keep you safe until then.”

  “I can’t bear to think of going home until I know what really happened to my father.”

  He couldn’t think of her going home at all, but he said, “I’ll call you often and keep you aware of what’s happening. This investigation could continue for years.”

  The police spent most of the day checking out the grounds. Since Linc had gates to his property that automatically locked at midnight, the police were inclined to think that the attackers had come by sea.

  After the other officers left, Claudia Warren and Linc went into his office.

  “It would be an easy matter for them to come ashore, run up to the guesthouse and heave the rock inside,” she indicated.

  “At least Miss Horton isn’t staying in the cottage now,” Linc said.

  “I have no doubt that the Sanale family is responsible for this. Kamu has gone underground, and I imagine that’s where he’ll stay. They have plenty of cousins to do their dirty work for them, but I doubt they’ll do Miss Horton any harm. We’ll have our water patrol keep watch on your cove for a while. We’ll notify the naval base of what’s happening.”

  Linc reluctantly returned to work the next day. He could hardly bear to have Maddie out of his sight, but he made both Roselina and Maddie promise that they wouldn’t leave the property without telling him where they were going. When he left, he closed the gates.

  In spite of this new threat to her peace of mind, as Christmas approached Maddie realized that she was happier than she’d been during any Christmas season since her mother had gotten sick. The years with Miss Caroline hadn’t been too lonely because most of the others at VOH didn’t have family members present, either. But the holiday had been a quiet affair, except for the Christmas Eve church service.