Deadly Christmas Pretense

by Dana Mentink

  She struck out again, trying to swim parallel to the jagged rocks, seeking a more hospitable patch of coast to aim for, but the waves tossed and tumbled her too violently. She seemed to be moving in circles.

  A snout broke the water near her elbow. Her scream died away as she recognized the matted wet fur. “Jingles,” she cried.

  He barked, and Liam swam up behind him.

  “Liam, here!” She gulped a mouthful of foam.

  He didn’t answer as he fought his way over and held her to him, her head tucked under his chin for a moment, his breathing erratic.

  “Gonna try to get us a little north of here. Saw a spot of sand. Hold on to me.”

  She asked him to make sure the backpack was still zipped securely, but he did not appear to hear her. The ocean water had probably ruined his hearing aid. Even without her direction, he reached for the backpack and secured it to his shoulders. “Come on, Jingles.”

  The dog paddled along next to them. Maggie gave it all her effort, but she was so cold, so battered by the surf, she could not make any progress. The ocean was like a claw, pinching her.

  Liam looped an arm around her and towed her next to him. At one point, he was washed off balance. The waves tossed them both over, slamming them into a flat shelf of rock. Liam grunted as he pushed mightily to get them away from the sharp ledge. She kicked and thrashed as well, grabbing Jingles and holding him close, fearful that he was not strong enough to keep from being battered to pieces. Jingles continued to paddle his legs as if she had not interrupted his efforts. Stroke by painful stroke, they pulled closer to the shore until she felt the sliding sand under her shoes.

  Half laughing, half crying, she collapsed on the shore with Jingles next to her, limbs in spasm with cold and effort. She wanted nothing more than to lie there and experience the sheer joy of breathing in and out on solid ground. Liam was lifting her, carrying her farther away from the waves into the shadow of a boulder pile.

  He squeezed her so tight to his chest that she almost couldn’t get a breath. “I couldn’t... I mean... I...” He stopped talking, bent his head to hers and kissed her.

  His mouth was cold, but the connection sent a spark through her that revived her spirit. She wound her arms around his neck. It was so right to have him close, so perfect, that for a moment she forgot the chaos of their situation and surrendered herself to the kiss, thanking God they had not drowned.

  He eased back and looked down at her, his expression impossible to decipher. Relieved? Tender? Hopeful? After a beat more, he jerked back a pace to listen.

  “What is it?” she asked, but of course he didn’t hear. He patted his pockets and pulled out a sodden phone. His expression told her it was beyond hope. She reached out a shivering hand and turned his face to hers. “What?”

  He was shivering, too, water snaking down from his hair along his strong jaw. “Not sure where he is.”

  “Who? Virgil?”

  Liam didn’t answer. He looked at Jingles and she realized he was watching to see if Jingles was picking up the sound of someone approaching. Jingles appeared calm, if trembling with cold. He gave a mighty shake and sprayed them both with water.

  A long, piercing whistle cracked through the night. Jingles barked.

  Liam shot her a questioning look. She mimed a whistle and pointed to the cliff top.

  She saw his shoulders relax. “Chad. He’s here. He’ll look out for us.”

  Liam put two fingers to his mouth and returned a whistle of his own.

  “If he heard me, he’ll come help,” Liam said. “But if my brain’s not too addled, Yoriko’s house is right up there on the bluff. Do you think you can make it?”

  She nodded and he took her hand. She struggled to her feet, leaning on him more than she wanted.

  He frowned. “Hurt?”

  “I banged my knee on a rock.”

  He leaned close and put two fingers to her lips. “Say it again.”

  My knee, she mouthed as his fingertip grazed her lips, reading the message through his touch.

  She held on to his shoulders while he bent and examined her knee. Before she realized what was happening, he scooped her up into his arms.

  “I can walk,” she protested.

  Whether he heard her this time or not, he didn’t acknowledge, and merely started off along the sand, Jingles following.

  * * *

  Chad met them halfway. Liam placed Maggie between them and they helped her to Yoriko’s house. His insides were still a twisted mess at how close he’d come to losing Maggie, but one boot in front of the other was all that was required of him at the moment.

  Yoriko bustled around, lighting the fireplace and spiriting Maggie away into the bedroom.

  Chad produced a sweatshirt from the truck so at least Liam’s torso was dry. He also procured an extra hearing aid Liam kept in the glove box, and a towel that Liam used to dry Jingles.

  Liam sat on the stone fireplace hearth with Jingles curled around his shins and let the blessed warmth seep in. His body still trembled, partly from the cold. He worked hard to keep out the feelings about what he’d just experienced. The kiss they’d shared was his way of saying what he dared not. Adrift in that monstrous ocean with no way to hear her cries...

  “Danny’s working a traffic accident, but he’ll call ASAP and dispatch an officer,” Chad said, interrupting his thoughts. “Yoriko told me where you’d gone, and I went looking for you. I saw someone fall into the water. Wasn’t close enough to know it was Maggie.”

  “Did you see anyone else?”

  “I saw you dive into the water and someone running away toward the road.”

  “Why didn’t you stop him?”

  Chad frowned. “Seemed to me a better choice to call for help and try to get close enough to help you and Maggie.”

  Liam blew out a breath. “Yeah. It was. Sorry.”

  Chad lifted a shoulder and Liam caught the mischievous smile. “You had things handled, I guess. Besides, you looked real sharp in your pink backpack.”

  Liam fired him a look and could not resist a grin that turned into a chuckle. “Takes a real manly cowboy to pull off a pink backpack.” He was dying to open the backpack to see the jewels that had almost resulted in them both being drowned. But it was one of his guiding principles in life, taught to him by his sister, that a man should never, ever, pry inside a woman’s purse. He figured the rule probably applied to backpacks, too, especially pink ones.

  Maggie limped out from the bedroom and he sprang to his feet to help her settle next to him on the hearth. She was wearing a borrowed sweat suit that was a couple inches too short in every direction. Her left pant leg was bunched up, revealing a neat bandage on her knee. Jingles licked her exposed calf as she sat. Her lips were still a bluish color, but she was not shivering quite as much. Still he made sure she was directly in line to receive maximum warmth from the fire.

  “I cleaned out the wound and disinfected it,” Yoriko said. “It’s not deep, but there’s going to be quite a nasty bruise.”

  “We’ll go to the hospital as soon as—” he started.

  “No, we won’t,” Maggie said, “unless you need to be seen.”

  “No, ma’am,” he said. “Me and the dog are fine.”

  Her eyes went to the backpack. “I can’t believe we finally got it.”

  A phone ringing made her jump. Chad answered and clicked on the speaker. “Trying to get an officer there,” Danny said, “but we’ve got a real mess of an accident here so I’m still on the scene. Do you need an ambulance?”

  “No,” Liam said. “We’re okay, just cold.”

  “Hiking at night on the beach is not advisable,” Danny joked after a beat or two.

  “Yeah,” Liam retorted. “We figured that out.”

  Danny listened while Liam and Maggie each gave their statements.

>   “You were followed from the glass shop, clearly,” Danny said. “Someone is doing a pretty efficient job menacing you two, not to mention almost causing a wreck and flattening your tires.”

  “Not someone. It was Virgil. He’s the one with everything to lose,” Liam growled.

  In the background they heard Danny speak to someone on his radio before he returned to the phone. “Seems you’re right about his level of desperation. He’s in debt up to his eyeballs. He needs that insurance claim to go through so he can help himself to more of Uncle Bill’s money. The jewelry policy was worth $100,000, so that’s a hefty motive.”

  Maggie hugged herself. “Did you contact his granddaughter?”

  “Yes, and she has nothing good to say about Virgil. She’s making arrangements to come back to the States, but she has three kids, so that may take a while. In the meantime, I visited personally with Bill. He has periods of clarity and some uncertain spells. All in all, he seems capable of making his own decisions and unwilling to believe his nephew is milking him.”

  Danny again spoke to someone and then returned to their conversation. “Virgil’s showed him the video and convinced him that Tammy is at fault for the theft. Further, Bill’s been persuaded that she’s the one who’s been stealing from him, which necessitated him taking out the policy on the jewelry in the first place.”

  “He’s being brainwashed,” Maggie snapped. “That’s elder abuse.”

  “I’ve asked one of my officers to dig deeper into that, but for now there’s no hard evidence that Virgil’s committed a crime.”

  “Tammy heard him arranging to have the necklace stolen,” Maggie reminded him. “That’s a crime.”

  Danny sighed. “Hearing and proving...” His voice was drowned out for a moment by engine noise. “And I suppose when I ask questions, Virgil is going to have an airtight alibi for his whereabouts during your ocean escapade just now.”

  A slow burn began in Liam’s gut. “No doubt.”

  “Fine,” Maggie said, snatching up the backpack. “At least he’s not going to get his hands on the insurance money.” She unzipped the backpack and pulled out the long velvet box. It was secured with a sturdy rubber band.

  She laid it on her lap and removed the band. Liam thought he saw tears gathering in her eyes. “And Bill will have his wife’s jewelry back. That’s something, right?”

  He nodded. It would not provide much comfort if Tammy was jailed for the theft, but he knew Maggie was hanging on by a thread, looking for some silver lining that would mean Virgil wouldn’t emerge unscathed after almost killing them.

  She opened the box. The lid fell to the floor. In the perfect stillness of the moment, tears rolled down her face and her shocked gasp rang clear as anything in his ears.

  NINETEEN

  Maggie upended the box and took out the lining. It was empty. She unzipped all the backpack pockets and turned the whole thing upside down, shaking it with no result. The jewelry was nowhere to be found.

  “Did someone take it?” she managed to ask. “Some beach visitor?”

  Danny was still listening in. “Unlikely they would have found it, and more unlikely they would have taken the jewelry, refastened the rubber band and hidden the backpack again.”

  “Virgil?” she rasped.

  Liam shook his head. “But then why bother to steal it now? It couldn’t have been him.”

  Maggie exhaled. “Tammy must have left the box as a ruse. She was afraid Virgil was following her. She hid the backpack as a diversion in case he followed her.”

  “Any chance she’s remembered where she took it after that?” Danny asked.

  Maggie groaned, trying to keep from wailing outright. “As of this morning, she didn’t even remember coming to Yoriko’s in the first place. I’ll ask her, but I’m sure she would have told me if she recalled anything.”

  Liam ended the call with Danny, wiped a hand across his damp forehead. “You can call her from the ranch, since our phones are ruined.”

  “She’s going to be devastated,” Maggie said, hardly able to force the words out. Her body was battered and her spirit, too. She’d been so hopeful that they could put an end to Virgil’s threats with a visit to Yoriko. The sense of defeat left her dull and slow, so she let Liam lead her to the truck and help her inside. Jingles was exhausted, too, and quickly took his spot in the back seat.

  They rode in silence, thoughts bumping untidily through her brain. What was the next move? Was there even going to be another opportunity to find the jewels before the deadline? She had not one single idea of where else to look. Liam was unusually still, his mouth pinched with some thoughts he did not share. The miles seemed endless as they made their way back to the ranch.

  Wearily she allowed him to lead her into the saddlery. He took off his hat and stared at her for a moment.

  “What?”

  He looked away. “Nothing.”

  Impatience bubbled up through the stress. “Not nothing. Something. You tried to tell me on the beach. What?”

  He quickly covered the uncertain look with a grin. “No, really. Just glad you’re okay. That was some swimming pool we climbed out of.”

  “Liam,” she said, plopping the backpack on the floor, “why don’t you quit hiding behind that jolly cowboy demeanor and tell me what you think?”

  He blinked, mouth pinched. “I’m not hiding.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  She saw him jerk and she knew she was being harsh, but the evening, the kiss, the disappointment and the relief all jumbled inside and stripped away her self-control. This man, this cowboy, had invaded her every thought and dream and it was time to clear the air between them. “You don’t want to talk about things like feelings and worries and fears, so you spit out a joke or a witticism because you’re scared, like you were scared when you lost your hearing after the car fire.”

  He stepped back, palms up. “You’ve had a bad night, we both have. It’s not the right time...”

  “Yes, it is,” she cried. “It’s the perfect time, Liam. Tell me what’s going on in here.” She poked a finger at his chest. The contact seemed to spark his anger.

  “All right,” he snapped. “You want to know? I was scared out of my mind tonight. You wanna know why exactly? You want me to share that?”

  She nodded.

  Tension sizzled in the stark lines bracketing his mouth. “Because I couldn’t hear you calling for help in that ocean, Maggie. I could not make out where you were and all I could think of was that you were gonna drown.” Desperation crackled through the words.

  “Liam...” she whispered, anger slipping away.

  “Know how I found you?” His jaw was tight, lips pinched. “You want to know how the big, tough cowboy found you? Jingles. He heard you screaming and made a beeline for you and I followed. So that’s it, Maggie. Is that what you wanted to hear me say? You would have been dead if it weren’t for my dog?”

  “Listen to me,” she said, harder than she meant. “I don’t think any less of you because of your hearing loss. You’re still the same man.”

  “Oh yeah?” He pulled the hearing aid from his ear. His face was stark with emotion. “How about now? How about if you’re screaming for help or maybe I’m on the tractor and little Charlie’s right behind and I don’t hear him? Huh? You won’t think any less of me then?”

  “No,” she said, chin up so he could hear. “No.”

  He jammed the aid back in his ear and spun around to go. “Well, I would.”

  She grabbed his shirtsleeve, stopping him. “And that’s the problem, Liam. You’ve been showing the world you’re in charge since you were a boy. You’ve tended your sister, a household, all the adult decisions by yourself, but you don’t have to anymore. That’s not what God wants.” She gripped his shirt tighter, trying to draw him closer past the anger and pain that separated them. “He mad
e us to do things together...” She paused and gulped. “You and me.”

  Liam’s eyes blazed with myriad emotions she could not sort out as he looked down at her, his broad shoulders gradually slumping. “Maggie...when you’re near me, I almost believe that.”

  Her heart swelled. She could not deny that she cared about Liam in a way that made her want more. She tipped her face to his, certain that he must see it, too, the emotion that filled her. Liam, let me in.

  “You deserve someone to take care of you,” he murmured, tracing a finger down her cheek. “And someone to hear every word you ever say.” He clutched her to him then and buried his face in her hair, and she held her breath.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she murmured, “as long as I have you.”

  His breath hitched, she heard it, and then he sighed, soft and low. “Don’t care for me, Maggie,” he whispered. “You deserve better.”

  “Liam...” she started, but he broke from their embrace and left, the door banging sharply behind him.

  For a moment she stood paralyzed, as if she was still lost in the ocean. What had just passed between them had the tone of finality to it. Pain surged hot and sharp. She wandered in helpless circles, uncertain about what to do. Finally she called her sister, but her phone went unanswered.

  How could Tammy help anyway? And she’d have to share the outcome of their beach adventure. The anguish could wait until tomorrow morning. Maggie had a heart full enough for one night.

  She lay on the small bed and tried to sleep, tossing and turning with memories of the awful night, the horrible grip of the waves, the devastating disappointment of not saving her sister and the anguish of her conversation with Liam.

  It was no wonder the hands of the clock ticked away the time until forty-five minutes later a rap sounded on the door.

  Liam, she thought, her breath quickening. She flung open the door, breath caught in surprise.

  “Joe? What’s wrong? Is it Tammy?”