The Valentine Mystery

by Kathi Daley

  “Tilly and I are happy to help. It’ll be wonderful to find homes for as many of the shelter residents as possible.”

  “I know you plan to show up early on Saturday.” Lilly tucked a lock of her long hair behind one ear. “Do you think you’d have time to stop by the bakery on Saturday morning to pick up the cookies Brady ordered?”

  “No problem at all. Did he order them from Hattie?”

  Lilly nodded. “Five dozen heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink frosting. Hattie said she’d throw in a cooler of punch.”

  “Okay. I’ll pick up the sweets and be at the high school by eight to help with the setup.”

  “Thanks, Tess. You’re a peach.”

  Lilly rolled up her window and pulled into traffic while Tilly and I continued our route. By the time I’d delivered all the mail I’d been entrusted with for the day, it was almost five o’clock. I knew I’d have to hurry if I was going to make it home to change and drop off Tilly and make it back into town by six o’clock for book club. We’d had snow earlier in the week, so I couldn’t drive too quickly; still, I pressed the speed limit just a bit so as not to be late. My cabin was located outside of town in a rural area off the highway. It’s an old, dilapidated building on a large piece of land surrounded by forest that I wouldn’t trade for anything. There are times during the winter when having such a long commute gets tiresome, but whenever I stand on my deck and listen to the sweet sound of nothing, I know I’m truly living in heaven.

  I was just slowing down to navigate a tight curve when I heard a loud crash. I barely had time to apply my brakes when a deer ran onto the road ahead of me. I swerved to avoid hitting him, which caused me to fishtail before coming to a stop in the middle of the road. After taking a few deep breaths to calm my nerves, I slowly pulled onto the gravel shoulder, where a vehicle sat motionless. Based on the damage to the front end, the crash I’d heard must have been this vehicle hitting something just seconds before I arrived.

  Chapter 2

  “Stay here,” I told Tilly before I climbed out of the Jeep and headed toward the car. “Are you okay?” I called to the man who was sitting in the front seat.

  “I’m fine. My door is stuck. I can’t get it open.”

  I looked at the front end of the vehicle. It was totally smashed, pushing everything else back and buckling the frame. “I’ll try to get the back door open.” It took some effort, but eventually I was able to open the door enough for the man to climb over the seat and squeeze through the rear door. Once he was safely on the road beside me, I glanced down the embankment, where I noticed a second vehicle resting against a tree. I jogged down as fast as I could travel in the deep snow. I could hear the man I’d just rescued on the road behind me.

  “Are you okay?” I called to the second man after knocking on the driver’s side window.

  He didn’t answer. I tried to open the door, but it was stuck. I could see blood on his head, which had run down his face to the front of his shirt. His body was slumped forward but was held in place by the seat belt. He didn’t appear to be conscious.

  “We need to get him out of there,” I said to the man who had followed me down the hill.

  He tried to open the door while I called 911.

  “The door is too badly damaged to open,” he said.

  “Maybe we can break the back window and get him out that way,” I suggested.

  “We’ll need something heavy to break to do that.”

  “Maybe we can find a large rock. My name is Tess, by the way.”

  “Coby. Do you have a tire iron in your Jeep?”

  “Yeah, I do. That’s a good idea. I’ll get it.” I ran back up the embankment. The tire iron was in a compartment in the cargo area of my vehicle. I offered Tilly a few words of comfort because she seemed to be pretty wound up, and then returned to where Coby was waiting.

  “Okay, stand back.” I watched as he used the tire iron to smash out the rear window. He cleared as much glass as possible, then used his jacket to cover any sharp edges that were left before climbing onto the trunk of the car and into the interior. He made his way to the front seat and checked the man’s pulse.

  “He has a pulse, but barely,” Coby informed me. “We really should try to get him out of the car. The front is folded in such a way that his legs are trapped under the dash. If I can get some leverage, I might be able to use the tire iron to bend back the metal and free him.”

  “How can I help?” I asked.

  “Do you have a blanket in your Jeep?”

  “In the cargo area. My dog, Tilly, lies on it so it will have dog hair on it, but it’s thick and heavy.”

  “Go and get it while I try to free his legs.”

  I ran up to the Jeep and once again offered words of encouragement to Tilly as I removed her blanket from the bed of the Jeep. Then I hurried back to the car, where Coby was working on the unconscious man.

  “I got his legs free, but I lost his pulse. We need to get him out of here and administer CPR. I’m going to try to lift him up out of the seat. I need you to climb in and help me lower him into the backseat. Be careful of the glass.”

  I hopped up onto the trunk and entered the vehicle the way Coby had. Once he’d lifted the man over the seat and out the back window, we settled him onto the blanket. Coby felt for a pulse. When he couldn’t find one, he began CPR. After several tense moments, Coby informed me that the man was breathing.

  “I hope we didn’t hurt him worse than he already was by moving him,” I said.

  “It’s usually best not to move a trauma victim, but without CPR he would have died for sure. I don’t think we can get him up the embankment without help.”

  “That should be here soon. In the meantime, I have a first aid kit in my glove box. We should try to stop the bleeding from the wound on his head.” I returned to my Jeep for the third time and grabbed the small bag of medical supplies I carried with me. By the time I returned to where Coby was waiting with the trauma victim, my brother Mike had shown up with his partner, Frank. An ambulance arrived right behind them, relieving Coby and me of the responsibility of keeping the injured man alive. Once the paramedics had control of the situation, Mike told us to wait in my Jeep while they carried the man up to the road. Shortly after the ambulance sped away, a tow truck arrived. Coby assured Mike that he was fine and didn’t need to go to the hospital. Mike took our statements and then I offered to drive Coby, whose last name I found out was Walters, into town.

  “Do you have anything in the car you’d like to take with you? Luggage maybe?” I asked.

  “Actually, I do.” Coby headed to his car, popped the trunk, and removed two medium-sized bags.

  “This is Tilly,” I introduced him to my dog after he settled into the passenger seat of my Jeep. “Are you staying at the Inn?”

  “Yes. The Inn at White Eagle.”

  “I know the owner. I’ll call her to let her know you’re on your way.”

  “I’ll need a rental car. Is there somewhere in town to get one?” Coby asked.

  “Brad Mulligan owns the only gas station and repair shop in town. He has a few cars he rents out to his customers. I’ll take you over to his place.”

  “I’m glad you and Tilly happened along when you did,” Coby said after we were underway. Tilly had stuck her head in through the opening between the two front seats and offered our guest a warm doggy kiss in greeting. “Talk about an unanticipated turn of events.”

  “Everything seems to have happened rather quickly,” I agreed. “The tall officer with the dark hair is my brother. I’m sure he’ll want to speak to both of us again. Probably tomorrow. Had you planned to be in town long?”

  “I’m doing some research in the area, so my stay is somewhat open-ended. Ms. Rosenberg from the Inn assured me this is a slow time of year for her, so I can stay as long as I need.”

  “Things won’t pick up until June, so I think you’re safe.”

  Our conversation paused as I pulled into the gas station.
I got out and introduced Coby to Brad. Once it was clear he’d be able to supply Coby with a car, I gave him my phone number and headed home. By the time I got there, it was after seven-thirty. I texted Bree to apologize for missing yet another book club, then started the fire and fed all three animals. Once they were settled, I headed into my bedroom to change into warm, dry clothes.

  I’d just returned downstairs when my phone rang. It was Coby.

  “Did you get settled in at the Inn?” I asked.

  “I did. I just wanted to thank you again. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t happened to be following me.”

  “It’s not a problem at all. I’m glad you weren’t injured.”

  “The accident did some damage to my car, but I was wearing my seat belt, so I’m fine. If you hadn’t been there, though, I’m not sure how long I would have been stuck in the damaged vehicle. I really am grateful, and I’d love to take you to lunch tomorrow as a thank-you for helping me out.”

  I hesitated before I answered. “As a mail carrier, I don’t always have time for lunch, but I could either meet you before my shift for an early breakfast or after it for an early dinner.”

  “Breakfast would be great. Can you recommend somewhere?”

  “My mom owns a diner in town, Sisters’. Would seven-thirty work for you?”

  “Seven-thirty would be great. I’ll see you then.”

  I hung up, then went into the kitchen to scrounge around for something to eat. I’d settled on a bowl of Cheerios with half a banana when my phone rang for the second time since I’d been home. It was Bree, wanting all the details. By the time I’d finished talking to her, I decided to skip dinner and go straight to dessert, so I grabbed a pint of ice cream from the freezer and settled in front of my computer. I had a bunch of emails, mostly junk, but there was one from my friend Tony Marconi marked “important.” Tony was a genius who lived on a private lake about twenty miles from White Eagle. He was the sort who rarely called but often texted. The fact that he’d sent an email intrigued me. I opened it to find a photo of the interior of a convenience store. Behind the counter was a tall, skinny man with long, dark hair, a woman with a child of around five or six paying for a carton of milk and a box of doughnuts, and an older gentleman standing off to the side. The latter was out of the line of sight of the camera but clearly visible in the security mirror.

  “Oh my God,” I gasped as I studied the man reflected in the mirror. I picked up my phone and called Tony.

  “Did you get it?” he asked.

  “I just got home and saw the email. Where did you get the photo?”

  “I found it by running the photo I showed you at Christmastime through my facial recognition software. It’s only two years old.”

  I placed a hand on my chest as my heart began pounding. It felt like I was having a heart attack. My father had been a long-haul trucker who’d died in a fiery crash when I was fourteen. I always suspected there was something odd about his death, so I’d asked Tony to look in to it for me. It had taken him a decade to catch his first real break, a photo of my dad taken three years after he’d supposedly died, which had confirmed to me that things hadn’t been as cut-and-dried as everyone seemed to want it to be. I’d asked Tony to keep looking, never suspecting he’d find something new less than two months after that first clue.

  “Where was it taken?” I asked.

  “A minimart just outside Gallup, New Mexico. I already checked with the store. No one there knew your dad, so I doubt he lives in the area. The store is attached to a truck stop. A lot of folks stop in on their way down the highway.”

  “Okay, better question: Who took the photo and why?”

  “That is a better question,” Tony agreed. “At this point I don’t know. The photo was selected by my software, but when I tried to trace the origin of the file it came back as unknown. I’ll keep working on it.”

  “Two years. Wow. This whole thing is so surreal. I can’t believe my father has been alive all this time but has allowed Mom, Mike, and me, to think he’s dead.”

  “I warned you when we started this that you might not like what we found.”

  I took a deep breath. “I know. I realize that at some point I’ll probably end up wishing we’d just left things alone, but I have to know.”

  “Okay, I’ll keep digging.”

  “Thanks.” An image of my mother’s expression of delight when I’d given her the gift from her Italian friend flashed into my mind. “If my father is alive, as it seems he very well might be, does that mean he’s still married to my mother?”

  Tony didn’t answer right away. “I supposed he could be. Your mother thought your father was dead, so it’s not like she took any steps to dissolve the marriage. Although she’s in possession of a death certificate, so it could be possible the marriage was nullified when he was declared dead. If we want to know for sure, we’ll need to talk to an attorney.”

  “Yeah, I guess that would be the best way to know how the law works in a situation like this.”

  “Is there a reason you want to know whether your parents are still married?”

  “My mom has a new friend. A male friend,” I specified. “He lives in Italy, so I doubt anything will ever come from their flirtation. I just wondered.”

  “If we prove your father is alive, we’ll need to consider having a conversation with Mike and your mother. In the meantime, I think it’s best to keep this just between us. Just because we have a photo of a man who looks so much like your father that the facial recognition software identified him as being Grant Thomas doesn’t mean that’s definitely who he is. We’d need DNA evidence or fingerprints to know for certain.”

  I picked up Tinder, who had wandered over to where I was sitting. “I agree it’s best to keep this between us for now. We still have no idea why my dad would fake his death. However this turns out, I appreciate all the work you’ve put into it.”

  “I don’t mind at all. It gives us a reason to get together, and you know how much I enjoy spending time with you and Tilly.”

  “I do. How’s Titan doing? I’ve been meaning to bring Tilly by for a visit.” Titan was a rescue dog I’d adopted for Tony last Christmas, after I’d found out the shepherd mix was alone in the world since his owner died. Tony was a bit of a loner who chose to live by himself in a mansion up on the mountain, but he seemed to adore Titan, who likewise adored his new dad.

  “Titan and I are fine, but I know he misses Tilly. Do you want to come over tomorrow after work? I’ll make you dinner and we can try out the video game I’m testing.”

  “Sounds wonderful. I might need to go talk with Mike about an accident I witnessed, but if not, I can be there by six.”

  “You witnessed an accident?”

  “On my way home. I never did find out the name of the man who was taken to the hospital, but the other man is named Coby Walters. He said he’s in town to do some research. I didn’t ask him what he was researching, but I’m having breakfast with him tomorrow, so I’ll see if I can find out then.”

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to have breakfast with a total stranger?”

  “Relax, Mom,” I teased. “We’re going to Sisters’, so I’ll have a lot of chaperones. I was going to make an excuse not to go when he first asked me, but now that I think about it, I’m sort of interested in what he’s here to look in to. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow at dinner.”

  After I hung up, I studied the photo Tony had sent me. My dad had been away from home most of the time when I was growing up, leaving me feeling unloved and deserted. To make myself feel better, I’d begun to imagine he hadn’t abandoned me to deliver canned goods from one coast to the other, but rather was some superimportant spy or superhero, ensuring the safety of all humankind. Pretending gave me comfort, so when I’d found a letter I was sure was a secret message, I’d taken it to Tony to decipher. Tony had assured me it was just a letter, not a code, but I was still obsessed with finding out who my father was and w
hether he was really dead. The remains that had been delivered to my mother had consisted of little more than ash, so as far as I was concerned, unless I could prove otherwise, Dad was both alive and dead. Tony had been drawn by my story and agreed to help me. He’d basically gotten nowhere until he’d found the ten-year-old photo of my dad standing in front of a building in Los Angeles. Tony had warned me that my dad might not be the good guy I imagined, and that digging into his disappearance when he seemed to have wanted to exit my life might not provide me with an explanation I could live with, but still, I had to know.

  I logged off the computer, grabbed Tang and Tinder, called to Tilly, and headed to bed. It had been a long day, and tomorrow looked to be an even longer one. I needed to try to sleep despite the scenarios playing again and again in my mind. I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with learning the truth, why I’d never accepted my father’s death when both my mom and Mike seemed to have. It was almost like I knew something I couldn’t quite bring into my consciousness but couldn’t quite let it go.

  Chapter 3

  Thursday, February 8

  Coby arrived at Sisters’ just as I pulled into a parking spot. I got out, greeted him, and introduced him to Mom and Aunt Ruthie as soon as we entered the warm, homey restaurant. I had Tilly with me, so I grabbed a large booth toward the back of the dining room, where Tilly would be out of the way.

  “Thank you for meeting me so early,” I started. “Sometimes it works to take a lunch, but this week has been busy with the holiday.”

  Coby smiled. “I totally understand. I’ve already told you how grateful I am that you were there to help me last night and wanted to take you out for a meal as a thank-you.”

  “How are you liking White Eagle so far?” I asked as I stirred cream into my coffee.

  “I haven’t had a lot of time to look around, but I like what I’ve seen. I love the feel of small towns. Everyone I’ve met so far has been friendly and helpful.”