by Kathi Daley
“Actually, I don’t have plans on Wednesday. I guess I just assumed you and Lilly might be doing something.”
“Lilly and I are just friends.”
“Okay, then if the Valentine thing doesn’t make it weird for you, I’d love to have dinner with you on Wednesday.”
Brady smiled. “Great. I’ll pick you up at your place at seven.”
“Great. I’m looking forward to it.” I glanced toward the door. “I should be on my way.”
“Before you go, how’s Bruiser doing with Hattie?”
“They seem to be getting along really well. Hattie did say he seemed to hate Hap, but I suspect it was the hugging and physical contact between them he didn’t like. When I delivered his mail today, I suggested he give Bruiser some space until he gets to know him better. Hap will be having dinner at Hattie’s for Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, so he plans to bring a pocketful of dog treats with him.”
“Hap seems to be a patient guy; I think things will be fine.”
Chapter 11
I headed home with Tilly from the clinic. I was anxious to hear what Tony had found out about Danko and Maria Milovich and Romero Montenegro. I was sorry our dinner hadn’t worked out, but I’d had several late nights in a row, so the idea of turning in early wasn’t a bad one. At home, I fed Tilly and the kittens, then changed into an old pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeved T-shirt that had once been Mike’s but I’d somehow ended up with. I put a bowl of soup in the microwave, then clicked on my computer and waited for it to boot up. I figured I’d eat first, then call Tony. Our conversation had the potential to be a lengthy one and I didn’t want to be interrupted until we were finished.
When the soup was ready, I poured myself a glass of wine and sat down in front of the computer to eat and check my emails. Most of what I had was junk, but there was an email from an old high school friend, letting me know she’d be in town next month and wanting to arrange to get together, and another from one of the women I’d helped at the adoption clinic, saying how happy she was with the new best friend she’d adopted. I was about to log off when my phone rang. I thought it might be Tony calling because he’d grown tired of waiting for me to get in touch, but instead I was greeted by a deep voice that said, “It will be best for everyone if you leave things alone.” The connection clicked off.
“What the…?” I asked no one in particular. I looked at the caller ID, but all it said was caller unknown. I figured if someone had gone to the trouble to call me, I must be getting close to something someone didn’t want me to know. The question was, which mystery was the caller associated with, and what didn’t he want me to find?
I called Tony to see if he had any idea what was behind the mysterious call. He’d been digging around in several areas on my behalf; maybe someone had found out and wasn’t happy about it. “I just got the strangest call,” I said as soon as he picked up, then explained what had been said.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Tony said. “Maybe you should come over here after all. Plan to spend the night. I’d come to you, but I have a better security system here.”
I hesitated. The call had freaked me out, but staying with Tony would add a good twenty minutes to my commute in the morning, and unless we were able to figure out who’d called me and were able to deal with him, the threat of someone intruding on my space would be fairly open-ended.
“No,” I said. “I appreciate the offer, but I didn’t get the feeling I was in any immediate danger, and spending the night at your place tonight would only be a temporary solution. Tomorrow night I’ll be right back here in the same boat. I think the better move is to get these mysteries wrapped up.”
“Whatever you think is best, but my invitation is open, if you decide you aren’t comfortable alone.”
“I’m not alone. I have Tilly, Tangletoe, and Tinder to protect me if need be.”
Tony chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure they’re quite the bodyguards.”
“As long as I have you on the phone, I want to ask about the searches you’ve been conducting for me.”
“Okay. First off, Romero Montenegro seems legit. His family owns a large vineyard in northern Italy, which is where he grew up. He used to work in a museum but currently teaches history at a university in Rome. I noticed he’s on sabbatical until next fall, which probably accounts for his being in the States. He’s never been married or arrested, though he did have one failed engagement seven years ago. I dug around pretty deep, and I think he’s probably a nice guy who met and developed a friendship with an older woman.”
“Older? How much older?”
“How old is your mother?” Tony asked.
“Fifty-six.”
“Montenegro is forty-two.”
“Why would a forty-two-year-old man be interested in a fifty-six-year-old woman?”
“Your mother is bright, intelligent, and funny. She’s also very beautiful.”
I frowned. “It almost sounds like you have a thing for her.”
“I don’t, but I can appreciate the fact that she has a lot to offer a man. Montenegro seems okay. He’s making your mother happy. If I were you, I wouldn’t do anything to mess that up.”
“Yeah, okay. I guess I feel better about him hanging out with my mother after what you’ve found. Places like museums and universities usually conduct background checks before hiring new personnel, so chances are he doesn’t have any awful skeletons in his closet. What did you find out about Danko Milovich?”
“As we know, he’s a very wealthy businessman. What we didn’t know is that he lives in Serbia. And it appears he’s influential as well as rich. He met and married an American named Maria Worthington while living in Washington, DC, in 1982. From what I can tell, Milovich had plans to go back to Serbia during the summer of 1983, but Maria disappeared in June, just weeks before they were to leave America. Milovich remained in the States for an additional six months while an extensive search for his missing wife was conducted. In January of 1984 he gave up his search and returned to his homeland.”
“I wonder why Maria fled.”
“I can’t be sure,” Tony answered, “but it sounds as if Milovich is unyielding as well as rich and powerful. He’s known for running his businesses with an iron fist. He probably ran his home in the same manner.”
“Maybe Maria found out she was pregnant and didn’t want to raise her baby in Serbia, where she’d have little recourse if things at home became unbearable.”
“Perhaps. From what I can tell, Milovich continued to look for Maria for years, even after he returned to Serbia.”
“It sounds like she got away from the monster she was married to only to have our investigation on Coby’s behalf add fuel to a fire that had all but died.”
“That seems to be the case,” Tony agreed.
I sat down on the sofa and let Tinder crawl into my lap. “So what do we do? Do we stop looking for her in the hope that her husband will stop looking too, or do we continue the search, so we can warn her that her husband might be looking for her again?”
“I’m not sure. I do think we need to talk to Coby to tell him what we’ve learned. The fact that one of Milovich’s employees followed Coby to White Eagle indicates to me that he knows or at least suspects Coby is his son. Either that or he knows Coby has a photo of Maria and is looking for her. He could be in danger.”
“I agree; we have to tell Coby. I’ll call him to see if he wants to meet me at Sisters’ for breakfast tomorrow. You’re welcome to come as well if you can make it into town by seven-thirty.”
“I’ll be there. In the meantime, I’ll take another look to see if I can pick up Maria’s trail after she left here. Knowing where she’s been could help to narrow down where she is now.”
“I want to help Coby find his mother, but I’m worried all we’re doing is leading her husband, who she clearly doesn’t want to have anything to do with, directly to her. What if he finds her because of our investigation and ends up hurting her or worse?”
“That’s an argument we need to make with Coby when we see him. He seems to care about her. I think once he has all the pieces of the puzzle, he’ll realize on his own that not finding Maria might be the best thing for them both.”
Chapter 12
Tuesday, February 13
Tony arrived at Sisters’ Diner at the same time Tilly and I did, so we went ahead and took the large booth in the back. We were a few minutes early; Coby would probably arrive soon.
“Anymore weird calls?” Tony asked after we got settled.
“No, just the one. The thing is, I’m not even sure what the caller wants me to leave alone. The search for Daisy or the search for my father?”
“I suppose either situation has the potential to turn into something pretty explosive. In both circumstances, an individual chose to disappear. I guess we should assume both Maria and your father had a good reason for doing so.”
“I can understand why Maria would want to run away if she feared for her baby and herself, but I can’t imagine why my father would have chosen to leave us the way he did. Still, if Grant Thomas faked his own death and disappeared, as we suspect, he must have had a reason for going to such extreme measures.”
“The phone call you received is likely the result of our digging around in something someone doesn’t want revealed. Do you think we should stop?” Tony asked.
“As far as my search for my dad goes, no, I don’t plan to stop until I have my answers.” I glanced toward the front door and waved. “When it comes to our search for Maria, we’ll tell Coby what we found out about the woman we’re fairly certain is his mother and see what he wants to do.”
Once Coby arrived, my mom came over and we placed our order. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the glow in her cheeks and the twinkle in her eye. Don’t get me wrong, I want my mother to be happy, I just wasn’t sure how I felt about the young, good-looking Italian who was making her that way.
“Okay, what did you find?” Coby asked as soon as my mother walked away.
Tony explained about the men who had been waiting for him at his house, as well as the information he’d been able to dig up about Danko and Maria Milovich.
“So you think the woman I suspect is my mother was married to this Serbian businessman?” Coby clarified.
“That’s our assumption,” I answered.
Coby frowned. “And if all our assumptions are true, that man is my father?”
“It would seem,” I confirmed.
Coby sat back in the booth without speaking. I watched as varying emotions were displayed on his face as he struggled to work things out in his mind. “So, what it looks like is that she ran away after she found out she was pregnant with me. She was so concerned that my father might find me that she abandoned me in a church and cut all ties between herself and her baby. Thirty-four years later, her grown son is so curious about the woman in the photo that was left with him when he was abandoned that he decides to search for her. That search, as it turns out, could very well lead the man his mother ran from all those years ago back to her.”
“There’s some supposition in the scenario you outlined, but yes, I believe our search could potentially lead Milovich to the woman who’s been hiding from him for over three decades,” I replied.
Coby leaned forward, took a sip of his coffee, and began drumming his fingers on the table in front of him. “What do I do? Do I stop my search to protect my mother, or is it already too late for that? Might our search have provided my father a strong enough lead that he’ll be able to track her down on his own? And if that’s possible, should we continue to look for her so we can warn her?”
Neither Tony nor I spoke right away. It was such a tricky situation, I was pretty sure neither of us wanted to give Coby bad advice.
Eventually, Tony said, “Milovich’s employee knew you were looking for Maria, but I have no idea how Milovich found out I was looking for Maria. My first thought was that he’d set up an alarm to notify him if anyone did a background search or ran a facial recognition program like the one I’ve been using, but I have my own protection set up to deal with that possibility, and I can assure you, my computer system hasn’t been accessed by anyone but me.”
“So how did he find out you’re helping Coby look for Maria?” I asked.
“I suppose Milovich might have someone in White Eagle who might know we’re working together. Now that I think about it, it makes sense he would send someone else after Kowalski died.”
“I think we should continue looking for my mother so we can find her and warn her,” Coby said decisively.
I nodded. “Okay. We’ll keep looking.”
When I left the restaurant, Tony and Coby were still discussing possible ways of addressing the current situation, and I hoped by the time they went their separate ways they’d come up with a plan. I was almost ten minutes late picking up my mailbags, but Queenie didn’t say anything about my tardiness, so neither did I. I made good time during the first two hours of my route until I got to the Book Boutique, where Bree was waiting for me.
“I got another gift from my mystery man,” she said with a huge smile on her face.
“What’d he send today?”
“A dozen heart-shaped sugar cookies. They’re really good. Try one.”
I frowned as I looked in to the box. The cookies were decorated with red frosting and white sprinkles. Mike was Bree’s mystery man?
“Is something wrong?” Bree asked.
“No. I’m fine.”
“You have a scowl on your face.”
I offered Bree a smile. “Sorry. I was just debating whether to take you up on your offer of a cookie. Normally, I would, but I had breakfast with Tony and Coby, so I think I’ll pass.”
“Coby really is the nicest guy. I know he’s only in town for another week or so, but I’ve very much enjoyed his company. Most guys who want to spend time with me are only after one thing, but Coby is happy for us to hang out as friends. We’re even going to go out tomorrow night for a Valenfriend Day dinner.”
“It looks like we’re both in the friend zone this year. I have a date with Brady tomorrow night, although he’s taking me out to thank me for helping at the clinic and has nothing to do with romance.”
“We should double,” Bree suggested. “I’m sure the guys won’t mind if neither has romance on his mind.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll mention it to Brady and let you know. I need to get going. I’ll call you later.”
I headed directly to the sheriff’s office. “Is Mike in his office?” I asked Frank.
“He is.”
“I need to talk to him, but I’m going to leave Tilly with you.”
I told Tilly to stay, then went down the hall. Mike was working on his computer when I arrived. I stepped into his office and closed the door behind me. “You’re Bree’s secret Valentine,” I accused.
Mike frowned. “How did you find out?”
I sat down in the chair across from him. “I have my ways. What I really want to ask is why? Are you interested in Bree? Romantically, I mean.”
“No. You and Bree have been friends since you were in preschool. I care about her, but not in that way.”
“So why the gifts?”
“Guilt.”
I raised a brow. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“Bree came to see me after I arrested Donny. I had reason to suspect him of Pike’s death, but she was so angry with me. For the first time in my life I felt hatred coming at me from a person I considered almost family.”
“You were just doing your job,” I pointed out.
“I know. And I’d do it again. But when Donny went to prison, Bree was so depressed. It was like the light I’d always associated with her was extinguished. I was at the bookstore last week and we got to talking while she rang up my books. She seemed so sad, and when I asked her what was wrong, she told me how upset she was with her complete lack of a love life with Valentine’s Day just around the corner
. On impulse, I sent her flowers. I wanted to cheer her up, but I didn’t want things to be weird between us, so I sent them anonymously.”
“That was very nice, and the flowers really did cheer her up, but why did you continue with the other gifts?”
Mike shrugged. “I’m not sure. I never intended to have the secret Valentine thing become a big deal, but when I ran into her the day after I sent the flowers, she was so happy. I’d been feeling bad about the role I played in everything that had happened to cause her depression in the first place that her smile made me feel as though a weight had been lifted from me. I saw the chocolates and sent them, and I guess you know the rest.”
“Are you going to tell her that you’re the one who’s been sending the gifts?”
Mike shook his head. “No. And you aren’t going to either. Bree is happy with the mystery and romance of it all. Her smile has returned, which was my goal all along. She’ll receive a card with movie tickets in it tomorrow and that will be it. The Valentine mystery will naturally come to an end, and she never needs to know who was behind it.”
I had to agree it would probably be better for Bree not to know it had been Mike who’d sent her the gifts. She was imagining Prince Charming. It seemed best to leave her with that image in her mind, so I promised Mike I’d keep his secret.
Chapter 13
Between the late start and the side trip to see Mike, I was going to really need to hustle to finish my route on time. Fortunately, the shops in town were busy, so most of the folks I normally stopped to chat with were dealing with customers when I stopped by. I was just tossing my empty mailbag into the Jeep when my phone pinged, letting me know I had a text. It was from Tony, to say he had news. I texted back that I needed to stop off at the post office and then I was heading home. He responded to say he’d meet me at my cabin.
When I got home, Tony’s truck was already in my drive. I pulled up and parked before opening the tailgate for Tilly, who jumped down and greeted Tony and Titan. Both dogs trotted to the front door.