by Lynn Cahoon
She glanced into one empty classroom, the desks still in little rows, waiting for the ghosts of past students to sit down for English class or, worse, chemistry. She’d check every room on the floor except the last one, where she assumed the secret passage started. Or ended. She’d have to have Brent seal the tunnel before she rented out this floor. No need asking for trouble.
But when she entered the last room it was too late. Mia kicked herself for being so stupid.
John Louis stood at the teacher’s desk, holding a struggling Mr. Darcy. The cat clawed at his hand and the man dropped him. He kicked at the animal, who ran toward Mia and out the door, meowing.
“Stupid cat. But I guess I can thank him for bringing you down here.”
Mia shook her head. “Get out of my house, John.”
Instead of moving, he laughed. “Soon this ‘house’ will be a rubble of stone and brick. Then a nice, new, shiny supermarket will be built, and your buddy Trent will be begging to sell his corner lot for pennies on the dollar.”
“I’m not selling to you.” Mia glanced at the hallway. Could Trent and Levi hear her if she cried out for help?
“No need to yell, the apartment is soundproof. The last principal didn’t like the sound of kids disturbing his afternoon naps.” John pulled a gun out of his jacket. “You were thinking about screaming, weren’t you?”
“You can’t just kill me. There are people upstairs who know you’ve been stalking me.” Mia shook her head. “You’ll never get away with it.”
“Honestly, I don’t want you dead. I want you to sign this deed.” He nodded to a pile of papers on the student desk closest to her. “Then I want you to pack up and move out of town.”
“You think I’ll just sign the school over to you and leave? What crazy world do you live in?” Mia laughed.
“The crazy world where I shoot your grandmother if you don’t.” The smile that accompanied the threat made Mia’s blood run cold. “Look, let me tell you how it’s going to go down if you don’t sign here and now. I’ll go home. My wife will testify that we were together making love this morning and Baldwin will believe my alibi over your crazy story. Then one day, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, there will be an unfortunate home invasion at your grandmother’s house and she’ll be shot trying to defend her little dog. Hell, I’ll probably shoot the dog too.”
Mia’s blood ran cold. “I’ll tell Baldwin this too. Don’t you think he’ll be suspicious when it happens just like I said?”
“Maybe, but I’ll have an alibi again. And your grandmother will be just as dead.” He waved the gun toward the chair. “Have a seat while you read over the deed. A good real estate broker never lets his clients sign something they haven’t read.”
Mia called out to Grans through her link to Gloria. An answering wave of warmth flooded her body and she sank into the chair in relief. She’d been heard. Now all she had to do was stall until they could rescue her.
As she read the document, she kept an eye on John. He kept watching the secret passage instead of the classroom door. “Expecting someone?”
John laughed. “I watched a man go through the tunnel earlier this evening, then he wound up being thrown out of your front door by the Major brothers. Who was that? Your little friend sneaking in a lover?”
“Actually, he was my ex.” Mia forced her eyes not to drift toward the classroom door. She felt Trent’s presence, along with Levi’s. “Why don’t you put the gun away? You’ve already won. I’m signing the deed.”
John chuckled. “You’re right, probably overkill.”
Mia heard the gun clunk on the wooden desk, then she spun toward the back of the room and sprinted to the secret passage opening.
“You little—” John roared. But instead of getting off a shot to stop her, he grunted, and Mia heard a loud bang—and not from a gun.
“We have him, it’s okay,” Trent called to her, and she turned back to see John on the floor under Trent’s knee. Levi held the gun on the man.
Then Baldwin rushed into the room, Christina following behind.
“Levi, drop the weapon.”
Levi smiled and put the gun on the desk next to the papers Mia had been pretending to read. “Calm down, Baldwin. We’re the good guys here.”
Trent called him over. “You want to cuff this piece of crap before I punch him? Because I really feel like punching someone tonight.”
Baldwin tossed the cuffs to Trent. “You can have the honors. I’ll keep the gun aimed at him until he’s secured.”
Christina ran to Mia. “Are you okay? Mr. Darcy ran into the living room and started crying. Then Grans said you were in trouble, so we called the police.”
Mia pulled her close. “Fine. I’m really, really done with all this drama, though. Let’s go upstairs.”
“I’ll need your statement,” Baldwin called after her.
Mia didn’t even slow down, “Tomorrow. Come by tomorrow after breakfast.”
Now, an hour later and with John secured in one of Magic Spring’s jail cells, Mia sat at the kitchen table with Trent and Grans. They’d been working on something on the computer, but she’d been thinking about shrimp and grits and a trip to New Orleans she’d always wanted to take.
Trent’s voice cut through the food daydream. “What do you think?”
Mia realized the question had been aimed at her. She didn’t even pretend she knew what she’d been asked. “About?”
“I told you she wasn’t listening.” Grans pointed to the picture. “If this is William Danforth, Adele’s nephew, that guy who’s in town isn’t.”
“So we turn these pictures over to Baldwin,” Trent offered.
Mia shook her head. “And the imposter will explain it away. Before we go to the police, we need more proof. Like what happened to the real William Danforth.”
Trent nodded. “That makes sense. Besides, Baldwin has his hands full trying to track down Barney and now dealing with John. He doesn’t need to be distracted with this.”
Mia added good wishes for Barney to the white cloud of protection she’d created for her houseguests. No way the guy would survive another night out in the cold, Baldwin had to find him, and soon. “Then let’s search the internet to see if we can find out anything else.”
Grans glanced at the clock. “I’m calling Elizabeth at the library.”
“It’s not even six in the morning,” Mia protested.
“I’m not calling her at work. I’m calling her at home.” Grans pulled a small black notebook out of her purse. She thumbed through the pages, then keyed a number into her cell.
“You know you can save your numbers in the phone, right?” Trent leaned forward.
“Don’t even start. It took me three years to get her to even carry it with her after I bought the cell. She still has a landline at the house.” Mia focused on the list of William Danforths that her search engine had pulled up.
“I like my house phones. I have a Mickey Mouse phone in one room and Minnie in the other. I even have a phone in the bathroom, just like Elvis had.”
“In 1970.”
“You say that like it’s a long time ago.” Grans turned her head to the phone and Mia could hear the woman on the other end. She pointed her finger at Mia and put the phone on the table with the speaker on. “Be quiet, people. Elizabeth? Is that you?”
“Did you call me?” Elizabeth asked back.
“I did.”
“Then that’s who you got. This isn’t some party line that gets the numbers mixed up, Mary Alice. A cell number is only answered by one person.” Elizabeth sighed. “I’m writing. What do you want?”
“Oh, sorry. I wanted to know if Adele did any recent genealogy searches at the library. I mean before she died.”
The line was quiet. Then Elizabeth came back on. “She had just finished her family tree, at least for the Simpson side. She traced those roots back to the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock. She even copied off a DAR application.”
“Daugh
ters of the American Revolution.” Grans pointed to the notebook in front of Trent. “Write this down. Sorry, Elizabeth, go on.”
“Well, I thought she was done, at least until next year. You know she likes to focus on her garden starting in April. Then, last week, she was in the library from the time it opened until I closed up. I had to kick her out a few times.”
Mia traded glances with Trent. “Ask her if she knew what she was researching.”
“Did you hear that?” Grans asked.
“Yes, I heard her. I don’t know, but she was focused on newspapers from years ago. I must have pulled ten years of microfilm for her over the week.”
“Do you remember what papers?” Mia called into the phone.
“I’m not senile, this only happened a couple of weeks ago.”
When Elizabeth didn’t respond Mia prompted, “What papers were they?”
“Three different ones. The Phoenix Gazette, the Idaho Statesman from Boise, and Sun Valley’s Daily.”
Trent wrote down the three names. “Time frames?”
“What dates . . .” Grans started to ask.
Elizabeth interrupted her. “I’m not deaf either. She started at ten years ago, then went back twenty years. Then stopped.”
“Thanks for your help. Maybe we’ll stop by to look at the microfilm later this week,” Mia called out to Elizabeth.
“I can do you better. We did a Jumpdrive of everything she asked for print copies of. That way I could run the printer during slow times at the library. I still have the drive if you’d like it.”
“I’ll be there when you open.” Trent leaned close to the phone.
Grans signed off the phone call and the trio looked at each other. “If Adele found out that William wasn’t who he said he was, she would have been furious. She didn’t like being made a fool of, even when she acted like one.”
“And if she’d accused William of trying to cheat her—” Mia added, fear running up her spine. They’d been with the guy all afternoon. Alone in the cabin.
“He’d have plenty of motive to kill Adele before she ruined his inheritance scheme,” Trent finished her thought.
CHAPTER 19
The sun broke through the snow clouds as Mia beat eggs in a bowl. She opened the oven and poured the egg-and-cheese mixture over the potatoes and sausage. Breakfast would be done in thirty minutes; then she and Trent would snowshoe to the library to pick up the Jumpdrive, leaving Levi with Grans and Christina. The weather reports given hourly on the local radio station said that temperatures would be skyrocketing into the low thirties today, and then dropping back into the teens at night.
She rinsed out the bowl and looked at the kitchen witch. “Please let Barney be found today, alive.”
Mia heard a footfall behind her. She turned to find Trent leaning against the table watching her.
“Praying to your Goddess?”
Mia cocked her head. “Asking for favors, I guess. Barney needs all the good luck he can get right about now. It got pretty cold last night.”
Trent walked closer and ran his finger down her cheekbone. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
Her breath caught and she wanted to reach up and run her fingers through that tousled hair. Her heartbeat quickened. Not here, not now. She held back from leaning into him, the musky smell of wood chips and peppermint toothpaste trying to draw her closer.
The beep of the second oven, where a batch of cinnamon rolls were baking, jerked her out of the spell he had over her. She ducked her head, then moved around him. “I didn’t time breakfast right. The rolls will be cold before the egg dish is done.”
Trent moved over to the coffeepot and poured another cup. He sat at the table and watched her pull out the pan. The smell of cinnamon and sugar filled the kitchen. “I guess we’ll have to eat the rolls first.”
Men. She hid a small smile as she pulled small plates from the cabinet and cut one of the rolls for Trent. “You first?”
He grinned, but accepted the plate. “Sorry, but it’s been a while since we’ve eaten. You have to be hungry, right?”
“Why do you think I made cinnamon rolls? I’m addicted.” Mia set her plate on the table and nodded to the door. “I’m sure the rest of the group will be showing up any time.”
As if her words brought them rather than the smell of baked goods, Christina, Levi, and Grans piled into the room. Their chatter broke her uncomfortable draw toward Trent, but when she glanced at him, she saw the surprise on his face. So he’d felt the power too. She dropped her eyes and muttered a new mantra: I don’t need a new man in my life. She heard a giggle from the Goddess.
As the baked goods disappeared and another pot of coffee was started, the timer on the oven announced that the casserole was done. Christina stood and retrieved a bowl of chopped fruit from the fridge. Trent grabbed larger plates for the main course, Grans poured fresh coffee, and Levi cleaned off the used plates to make room. The five of them moved as if meals together were a normal, everyday occurrence. Like a family.
As they passed the food around the table, Mia watched Christina bubble over. The way she had that summer, when her only worry was buying clothes for the new school year. A weight had been lifted from the girl. If calling Roxanne and ratting out Isaac would do any good, Mia would be on the phone in an instant. Instead, she knew Christina would be seen as the problem, not the golden boy. At least she had this makeshift family for now, until she made her own.
Grans patted her hand as if she knew the path Mia’s thoughts were taking. Swallowing her tears, Mia focused on eating. She’d been starving, but with all the excitement, food just hadn’t been a priority. Now they needed to refuel before they went to get the damaging evidence against the man known as William.
“After we get back we’ll figure out what Adele had and then make a next step,” Trent was outlining the morning for the others.
“What about the store?” Levi’s words were garbled because his mouth was full of the last cinnamon roll.
“I’ve already called Sally. She’s opening today.” Trent smiled. “What about you? EMT duties?”
“I’m off this week.” Levi snuck a glance at Christina. “I was planning on teaching someone to snowboard.”
“I don’t want you two disappearing up on that mountain before the police find Barney and we figure out if Danforth had anything to do with his disappearance. We don’t need to be missing anyone else.” Grans raised her eyebrows and waited.
“She’s right. We need to stick together.” Trent focused on his brother. “Agreed?”
Levi shrugged, then glanced at Christina. “Sorry, babe, we’ve been grounded.”
“It’s kind of nice to have someone worry about where you are,” Christina added quietly.
And with that, everyone focused on their breakfast, with Christina’s words floating around the room.
Trent and Mia bundled up in coats, gloves, hats, and scarves. Mia had to scrounge to find an appropriate scarf to wrap around Trent’s neck.
He held it up. “Purple is not my color.”
“You can wear pink instead,” Mia offered. Everyone else was upstairs, focusing on chores. Levi and Christina had kitchen cleanup duty while Grans tried to piece together more of Adele’s family tree puzzle.
“Purple will be fine.”
They walked outside into a wonderland of snow. No snowplows had started clearing the streets. The sidewalks were still covered in several inches of snow. The town still appeared deserted. Mia glanced up at Trent, who walked next to her. “You think Elizabeth will even make it to the library?”
“She’s never missed a day to open, even after the earthquake. She only lives a block away, so unless she’s dead, yes, I think the library will be open.” Trent reached over and took Mia’s gloved hand.
Even through the material, Mia could feel the heat Trent’s body put out. Unless it was just her imagination, the man should be melting the snow around them as they walked. This overflowing of emotion was getting way out
of hand. She really needed to get a handle on her feelings before she did something really stupid, like kissing him. Again.
As if he’d read her thoughts, his face turned to meet her gaze. Smoldering hot. Oh, man, she needed to focus on something else. Like poor Barney. Poor, missing Barney.
Neither one of them spoke again until they reached the library. The snow had been swept away from the steps. When Trent pulled on the heavy oak door it opened easily. He grinned at her. “Told you.”
Mia stomped the snow off her boots just a little too hard. As she walked into the marble foyer, her footing slipped and she started to fall. Strong arms caught her below her arms and pulled her into his body.
“Whoa there. You get all the way here and slip once we’re in the building? Priceless.” Trent’s tone sparkled with humor.
“Bite me,” she answered back.
Trent moved his lips closer to her ear and didn’t let go, even though she had recovered her footing. “Where?” he whispered.
“Not the time,” she responded, pulling away from him.
Trent chuckled and followed her into the library. “That’s what you always say.”
Elizabeth was at the checkout counter, watching them enter. When they approached she tapped the flash drive on the counter. “About time you got here. I’m a busy woman. I can’t be waiting around on you two all day.”
Mia picked up the black drive. “So everything she was printing is on this?”
“You think I’m a liar?” The woman’s retort was quick.
Mia choked. “No, I mean I was just wondering if Adele had access to email or another printer while she was here working.”
Elizabeth seemed to consider that. “I guess she could have emailed herself a list of the references. She wrote all the days and pages in a notebook. There’s no internet access on the microfilm scanners. She would have had to go to another computer. Really, what would be the point? She liked her paper.”
Trent plucked the flash drive from Mia’s hand. “Thanks a lot, Elizabeth. I’ll bring you back a pack of new flash drives from the store later this week. My treat.”