Rush turned on the crowd. “Someone is dead. This person had family and friends, so show a little respect, please, or I’ll have every last one of you dragged from here. Am I clear?”
The onlookers quieted. For now.
Before long a black Escalade pulled up next to Rush’s Bronco. Joshua Livingstone—larger than life in his long, black fancy coat—stepped out. Jet-black hair and intense eyes, the same color, focused on Rush. “Troy called.” His voice was baritone but soft. Rush recognized the sorrow, the need for answers. Hailey, Nora’s younger sister, sat in the passenger side, tears rolling down her cheeks—she looked so much like her sister, only her hair was a darker blond and she had Joshua’s eyes. She’d been through a lot lately with her separation from her husband. She and their son lived at the main house with Joshua. Rush hated to be the bearer of bad news, but now they might be able to find peace.
“All we know is the car is registered to you, and I’m sure you can tell it’s Marilyn’s. The...remains need a DNA test but I’m pretty sure they’ll come back as your wife’s. I’m so sorry for your loss, Joshua.”
Troy returned and shook hands with Joshua.
Joshua stared at the car. “Any idea what happened?”
Rush sighed and glanced at the car that had once been shiny and sleek. “You know what the weather is like up here this time of year. Seems a tragic accident.”
Joshua nodded. “When can we have her for a proper burial?”
“We need to officially confirm it’s her. After that, I see no reason why you can’t have her back.”
They stood silently staring for several long minutes until another set of headlights flashed behind Joshua’s Escalade. Rush squinted, blinded by the lights. The driver didn’t bother to kill them before the door to the car opened and a woman’s figure stepped out, slipped under the crime scene tape and stomped toward him.
“Hey,” he shouted. “You can’t be out here.”
“The cumulus clouds I can’t!” she hollered back.
Rush wouldn’t freeze from the nearly single-digit temps. But his heart froze at the sound of Nora’s voice. Sassy. Southern—though a little less country in it than he remembered, but then she’d moved to Knoxville and taken a prestigious job as Chief Meteorologist. He watched her every night at six online. Didn’t much care about the weather unless it affected his townspeople. He watched to see her sunshiny smile with a chance of twinkle in her blue-green eyes.
Right now, she was all storm clouds and thunder. But even so she was a sight to behold, dressed in a soft but thick coat, gray beanie and knee-high leather boots. He couldn’t seem to find his voice.
Nora marched up to him, as if the weather didn’t bother her in the least. She nearly reached his chin flat-footed. The smell of cherry blossoms and vanilla filled his nose, and the familiar scent brought a wave of memories. He’d been crazy about her since third grade. But he’d gained the courage in eighth grade and asked her to a dance. They’d dated all through high school.
“Don’t just stare at me, Rush. Answer me.”
What had she said? “Repeat the question, please.”
“Is it my mom?” She looked to her father, but he stood stoically.
Rush shook out of the memories. “DNA will confirm it, but I think it’s safe to say it’s your mama.” Did he hug her? He wasn’t sure what to do. “I’m sorry, Nora Beth,” he murmured.
Nora’s chin quivered and for a millisecond Rush thought she was going to fall into him. And that’d be okay. But she turned at the last second and ran into her father’s arms. Looked to him for solace.
Joshua kissed Nora’s cheek. “It’s going to be okay, honey.” She shuddered against her father’s chest, then gained resolve and faced Rush.
“Do you know what happened?” she asked lightly.
“We don’t, but it’s dark and we haven’t had a chance to thoroughly examine everything.”
“You will, won’t you, Rush?” She sniffed and wiped a tear.
Rush closed the gap between them and grasped her gloved hand with his. She never wanted to believe Marilyn had abandoned her family. But, here in the lake leading out of town, it appeared that was exactly what she’d done. Rush didn’t know how to spare her that pain. He’d tried to spare her then by never revealing what he saw that night with Marilyn and the Phantom. But now? The evidence was right in front of her eyes.
Troy gripped her shoulder in a fatherly manner. “The roads were bad that night. Probably hit a patch of black ice. The only thing left is to confirm it is your mama and put her and this to rest, hon.”
Nora gaped and freed her hand from Rush’s. “Unacceptable.”
“Nora,” Joshua said calmly.
She shrugged him off. “Doesn’t anyone want to know why she was out here? On Christmas Eve night?”
“Of course we do, but that’s not relevant or even possible to know now,” Troy offered.
Nora pointed with her black glove toward the car. “I know what you’re thinking. The whole town has thought it for years.” Her voice rose with each word. The crowd attentively listened, reporters salivated. “She wasn’t leaving us. She was out here that night for a reason, and I’m going to find out if I have to turn over every rock, crawl into every hole and re-create every weather pattern for a week leading up to the event. My mother didn’t leave me!” Her watery eyes met Rush’s. “She didn’t.”
Rush itched to comfort her, but she’d push him away. The last time she left his arms, she’d called him a cheater, a liar and a jerk. He’d own up to two out of three. He didn’t embrace her but he did pull her aside. “What if you don’t like where that night takes you, Nora?” he asked softly. “Let it go. Be content with the fact that she loved you.”
If Nora dug, it could turn up a lot of dirt.
“I will not be content until I know what she was doing out here. And just because you assume it’s an accident doesn’t mean it was.” Nora shivered. “What if someone hurt her?”
He couldn’t rule out foul play yet, but it was unlikely—even with the evidence retrieved from Marilyn’s car. Nora wanted any answer other than the one that claimed her mother was leaving town without so much as a goodbye. And they’d never know the reason. It had been nearly two decades. “I told you I’d look into it, Nora.”
“You promise?”
“Nora, I’ve never broken a promise to you. I won’t break one now.” He hadn’t broken the promise to be together forever. She had. He’d tried everything to coax her back into the land of the living—back to him. In the end, she’d left him picking up the shattered pieces of his heart.
Her lips soured. “No, I suppose you haven’t broken a promise to me. But you have broken them.”
She hit him square in the frozen heart, thawing it to a burning muscle that pulsed with regret. He hadn’t broken a promise, but he had broken a commitment to the girl he was dating when Nora came home after graduating college for a job opportunity with a radio station. He hadn’t expected that, or for her to call him and see if they could grab dinner, catch up, since she’d pulled away from him after her mom went missing.
It was as if nothing had ever come between them, and she’d been planning on moving back if things went well with her interview.
Things escalated, snowballed. He honestly meant to tell Nora about Ainsley, and that he’d already intended to break things off with her anyway—it was the truth. But before he had the chance, Ainsley caught him and Nora in a heated kiss on Lookout Tower.
Angry words had been hurled. Words like You’re just like your mother. A home-wrecker. Statements like Wait until the town hears that perfect Nora Livingstone is her mother made over. Nora wouldn’t let Rush explain, and really what could he say? He had cheated on Ainsley with Nora. He was wrong. He admitted it. He’d made amends with Ainsley since, and she was now married to Dan, Troy’s son and Rush’s good friend.
Water under the bridge, but Nora had tucked tail and run to Knoxville, never looked back. Never answered a call from Rush.
He glanced at Troy and ignored his disdain over Rush’s declaration to look into things. It might be a waste of time and manpower, but he’d oblige Nora this one thing.
He owed her.
* * *
Nora’s heart might explode. There were so many emotions going on right now. She’d come home twelve days before Christmas—not by choice—only to arrive at the lodge and be told that Dad and Hailey were out at Shepherd Rock Lake with the police. That alone sent knives to her gut. But now here she was face-to-face with Rush. Time had filled out the young man’s body into a grown man’s, muscled by hard outdoor work more than gym visits; she’d heard he’d built a log cabin up farther on the mountain.
His hat covered his toasted blond hair, but eyes the color of Hershey bars drilled into hers. Rush wasn’t a promise breaker. He used to be the most noble and honest person she’d ever known. And he could make her laugh on a dime. But then he had hurt her and at the moment she wasn’t sure he’d give the investigation all he had. Troy Parsons wanted to end it right now.
But Mom was here for a reason and Nora couldn’t let it rest. However, arguing about it when she was standing in the middle of a monster Christmas storm coming through wasn’t wise. She’d predicted back in September low pressures off the Gulf Coast and arctic outbreaks across the Southeast. Snowflakes had begun in early October. This was likely to be the worst snow and ice storm in twenty-five years, but she couldn’t afford to fly south for the winter. She was upside down in debt and she’d been pushed out of her Chief Meteorologist job at channel six in Knoxville.
To say she was touchy was an understatement.
Dad approached her. “I’m taking Hailey home, honey. Don’t stay here any longer than you feel you have to. I’ll have the guest chalet stocked for you.” He kissed her forehead.
She nodded at Dad and watched him climb in his vehicle. Hailey hadn’t once stepped out. Not even to acknowledge Nora was home. She didn’t handle hard situations well. Neither did Nora, but someone had to be Mom’s voice. Someone had to find out the truth.
Nora walked closer to Mom’s car. All these years, she’d been submerged. Christmas Eve used to be Nora’s favorite night. The resort and lodge was always booked with families and couples from all over the world, anticipating the renowned Christmas Eve Masquerade Ball. A glorious night decorated in red, green and gold. A nativity ice sculpture. Fountains of gold sparkling cider. Christmas music. Friends. Family. Fun.
Nora’s heart ached. Her father still put on the event as if her mother hadn’t gone missing that night. He had barely said a word about it. Didn’t push or force the investigation. Maybe he had believed the vicious murmurs about Mom.
Well, not Nora.
“Nora.” Rush’s voice came softer than moss. “Don’t go any closer. Some things can’t be unseen.”
And some things couldn’t be undone. “Do you remember it raining and being slick that night?”
“I don’t know,” he said sadly. She glanced at him, his nose red and eyes deep with compassion and pity. If only he knew how pitiful Nora was. Not two pennies to rub together. But he’d never know. No one would. It was all too humiliating.
“I don’t.” Nora had always been fascinated with weather, which was why she remembered there had been snow earlier but the temps had been mild for December. “I need to trace her steps that night and find out what time she left the party and ended up here. Someone saw or heard something. They had to have.” If she could piece together the weather from that fateful Christmas Eve, she might be able to determine if the car going into the lake was related to weather conditions or not. Her part-time work as a forensic meteorologist had her doing this often, helping insurance companies with claims.
Rush licked his lips and pawed his scruffy face. “Let me do it. Spend your time with family. Isn’t that why you’re home so early?” He cocked his head, and plumes of air trailed from his mouth.
She was here because she had nowhere else to go. When the news played and she wasn’t on-screen they’d know. “I left channel six.”
Rush’s eyebrows rose. “Really? Why?”
The cold seeped into her bones and her teeth chattered. “I’m ready for warmer weather. Going to take a job in Florida.” She hoped anyway. She ought to know in the next week or two. And right now she did want warmer weather. She was a human Popsicle.
Rush frowned. “You love mountain air. Skiing. Snowball fights.”
“I do know how to pack a snowball,” she quipped. “But people change. I’m ready for palm trees and waterskiing.” She adjusted her knit cap and rubbed her hands, her gloves not keeping her as warm as she’d like, and stared at Mom’s car. “Anything inside besides...her?”
He scratched the back of his neck. “We found a cuff link in the car, partial male masquerade mask. Haven’t checked the trunk yet, but we’ll gather the evidence, see what we see.”
A cuff link. A mask. “A man was in the car that night?”
“Seems like.” His eyes were shifty.
“What are you keeping from me?”
“Nothing pertinent to the case.”
“Promise?”
“Nora, trust me.”
She laughed humorlessly. “Last time I trusted you, Rush, you broke two women’s hearts and made me look cheap. I’m sure the whole town thinks it.” Ainsley surely spread it all over the world.
“No one thinks that, Nora, and you’d have known that if you hadn’t gotten out of Dodge at world-record speed. But that’s what you do.” He shoved a hand on his hip and heaved a breath.
Nora’s temperature rose a few degrees. “And cheating on women. That’s what you do?”
Rush’s jaw ticked. “We were kids. And I was going to tell you.”
“We were twenty-one. And you didn’t. You gave the town a new tale to spin.” But fighting about it was pointless, and Nora was cold and exhausted. “Can you find prints on the cuff link?”
Rush inhaled and rubbed his chin, then exhaled. His shoulders relaxed. “Doubtful. But I’ll try. I’ll try everything.” He held her gaze and she fidgeted. Angry at him or not, she wasn’t blind. The man was attractive. Always had been.
“How did you find the car?” It had been seventeen years. Why now?
“You remember Brandon Deerborn?”
Few years ahead of them. “Yeah.”
“His son was doing a project using Google maps and our town. Found the lake and noticed something in it. Like a shimmer, he said. He went out there, climbed a pine to check it out—fell out of the tree by the way and broke his arm...also he’s grounded for leaving without asking—and Brandon called me. Put the divers in and we hauled it out. Water was too murky to notice it at ground level.”
“Google maps. Invasive yet...” She shrugged. “He might be grounded but he’ll be a town hero.” Or maybe not. If what people said about Mom was true, there’d be a few who wouldn’t be too thrilled the Deerborn kid had found her.
Rush didn’t say anything and kept his eyes on the sky. “Storm’s coming in. But I guess you know this already.” He smirked.
She grinned, then sobered. “I’m serious about investigating. I want answers before I leave here, and I won’t bring up our past again. Better if we leave things on the personal side alone. Focus on the case.”
“We don’t have a case. Yet.” The freezing rain slacked up.
“Never hurts to ask questions.”
“Yes, it does. Sometimes.” Rush shoved his gloved hands in his pockets. “Go home. Be with your family. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
He was right. Nothing she could do tonight. She walked back to her car, opened the door when Rush called out. “Nora Beth, be careful. The roads are slick. Watch for deer.”
Her middle name was Jane
, but Rush had never once used it. A little nod to Little House on the Prairie. In high school, she’d forced him to watch reruns, but there hadn’t been much Rush wouldn’t have done for her. Manly called Laura Beth. Only him. Rush had started that at fifteen. It warmed the chill seeping into Nora’s bones. “Will do.”
She climbed inside and blasted the heat. She’d regretted pushing Rush away after Mom vanished. She’d been hurt. Wanted a fresh start, to pretend she lived in a town where gossip about Mom hadn’t abounded. Where she didn’t feel shame. But coming home after college—she’d missed Rush so much it ached—she thought he might be willing to give it another chance, and if so she’d stay. And he’d done the one thing she’d worked hard to avoid—made her the subject of ugly rumors.
She drove carefully through the winding roads and spotted Mom’s favorite café. Charlee, the owner, might know a thing or two. Inside, Charlee met her with a wave. “Well, look who the cat dragged in.” Her face paled. “Sorry. Bad use of words. I heard about your mama. I’m so sorry.” She poured a steaming cup of coffee and slid it to Nora as she sat on the bar stool.
“Thanks. Did you know anything about that night? Why my mom might be heading out of town or be near the lake?”
“I wish I did, hon. I loved Marilyn, but she only let one get so close before she distanced herself.”
Nora sipped the brew and talked with Charlee until the weather picked up. “I better get on back. If anything comes to mind, call me.”
Charlee nodded. “Be safe, Nora.”
Nora inched along the roads until, almost thirty minutes later, her father’s vast lodge peeped out from the evergreens. A wintry, dark sky overhead seemed to close in on the structure that housed two hundred and fifty-two guests. Nestled in the mountains behind were fifty chalets. Every room, every wooden cottage would be occupied, except the guest chalet where she liked to stay.
White lights clinked in the trees as gusts of wind barreled through the pines. The smell of evergreen, wood smoke and cinnamon wafted into her car—the smell of home. She stepped out of the car, pinched the bridge of her nose, inhaled deeply and trudged up the walk; someone had plowed the drive for her. Fresh snow hadn’t quite blanketed it again. Something stole her nose’s attention. She sniffed. Was that paint? She followed the scent to the side of the chalet and gasped.
Bodyguard for Christmas Page 20