Merry Christmas, Cowboy

by Janet Dailey

  You couldn’t miss them, Paula thought. Starry eyes. That dreamy look. Arms encircling waists and shoulders as they walked. They seemed so sure that what they had would last forever. She wished the day would come when she could share that trusting closeness with someone . . . meaning Zach.

  The House was a great place for dreamers. The nostalgic displays were a very attractive alternative to crowded bars and not-so-festive parties. She watched the last visitors drift past the door of the room she’d stayed in, the one with the softly lit trees and gentle music.

  Back to the facts. She was reviewing a printout of their attendance numbers. More people came every week. They might have to go to a timed-ticket system to accommodate them all.

  The weather was a factor. It had been seasonably cold, but a couple of severe storms would keep all but the most determined visitors away. Paula made a few notes in the margin of the printout. They could stick to the present system for a few days longer.

  Edith poked her head around the door. “Are you alone, Paula?”

  “Yes. Come on in. Just going over the numbers.” She looked up. The older woman’s face was drawn with worry. “What’s the matter?”

  “Brandon’s gone.”

  Paula stood up. “I’ll help you look for him. He has to be around here somewhere.”

  “I looked. He’s not. Do you think he overheard us talking before?”

  “No.”

  “Did you try calling him or texting?”

  “Both. He’s not answering.” Edith shook her head. “There’s something big on his mind if he up and left like that.”

  “He could just be sulking, Edith.” Paula was inclined to take the matter less seriously.

  “Where?”

  “Maybe he went over to a friend’s house.”

  “It’s below freezing out. We don’t know anyone in this neighborhood.” Edith stopped for a second. “I don’t, anyway. He might.”

  Paula nodded. “He could have called someone to pick him up.”

  “I suppose I should be grateful that my car is still in the lot,” Edith said. “Did you speak to him tonight? It’s been so busy, I barely had a chance.”

  “Just for a second,” Paula said. “Zach and I found him up here when he was supposed to be watching the door. He acted like we were spying on him. I thought it was a little strange. I just assumed he went back down.”

  “He was there when people were still coming in. But not when they left. I asked Norville and Chuck.”

  “And I guess they didn’t see him go.”

  “No.”

  Paula deliberated for several seconds. “Look, I’ll find Zach. He and I can take separate cars and drive around the neighborhood. I don’t think this requires calling the police.”

  Edith gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you. And, please, call me the second you see him. I’ll stay right here.”

  “Of course.”

  Zach came out just as Paula scrubbed snow off a window to look into the back of Edith’s car. She straightened when she heard his footsteps crunching over the light snow that had fallen on the asphalt. His big frame looked bigger in the down jacket he wore, haloed by the glare of the motion-sensor lights.

  “Hey. I saw an emergency blanket in the backseat. Just checking to see if he was under it.”

  “Not there, I take it.” Zach frowned and peered in.

  “No.” Paula found her car keys and muffled the jingle by curling her gloved fingers around them.

  “Blanket or no blanket, he could still freeze his ass off.”

  “Which is also true if he’s on the streets or standing in a doorway. So let’s go.”

  “Okay. Wish we didn’t have to,” Zach grumbled.

  “I did things that were just as dumb. I’m sure you did too.”

  “Well, yeah.” He headed for his rental SUV, tossing a few last words over his shoulder. “At least he won’t recognize the new wheels and run away.”

  Paula considered the possibility that Brandon might do something like that if he saw her car. She quickly dismissed it. Yes, it could happen. But she didn’t want to think about it.

  “Square-mile search,” she called to him. “You take the odd-numbered streets and I’ll look along the evens to start. We can alternate on the avenues. Stay on the phone when I call you.”

  “I’ll keep it in the cup holder.” His reply reached her from the other side of the SUV.

  She heard his door open and the engine start. Paula got into her car and followed him out of the parking lot.

  A half hour of slow driving turned up no sign of Brandon.

  “Hey. Pick up,” she said into her phone.

  “I can hear you okay,” Zach’s voice echoed. “Just talk. You want to go wider?”

  “Not yet. I think we should go down the same streets, but switch. You could be right about him recognizing my car.”

  “All right.”

  Several minutes went by. She heard a muted whoop from the phone and picked it up. “I see him,” Zach said. “Two buildings down. Standing in a doorway.” He mentioned the street he was on.

  “Is he alone?”

  “Yeah.” There was a pause. “I’m gonna double-park right in front. He won’t see me get out my side.”

  Paula tensed as she pulled up at the end of the street. Zach didn’t have him yet. It was unlikely that Brandon would try to outrun Zach, but he might. Zach still wasn’t a hundred percent recovered from the accident.

  She watched him go around the SUV and caught a glimpse of Brandon shifting his position, unsure. He wore the heavy parka he’d had on the day they’d met downtown, hood up, concealing most of his face.

  Paula saw an oncoming car in her side mirror. As it slowly pulled alongside her, a leering face appeared at the window, licking the glass. She recoiled, even though she knew it was just kids being stupid. The face pressed harder and she saw a straggly blond mustache and lip piercing.

  She recognized him with a start as one of the two older boys in the parking lot who’d been with Brandon. Zach had seen him and someone else on the streets tonight.

  In the few seconds she had to take it all in, she noticed that the interior of the car was clouded with smoke. Faintly, she heard laughter from the inside. She knew the kids inside were hotboxing—sharing the high from a super-potent blunt. One cheap cigar, hollowed out and filled with pot dusted with something that wasn’t sugar if the kids had enough money, was enough to get everyone bombed.

  They stuck to streets that cops never or rarely patrolled. Just too damn bad she was off duty. One flash of roof rack lights and they would ditch the car and run for it.

  She could call in the license plate if the car went around again. But the reality was that no one wanted to chase a bunch of stoned teenagers over ice and snow. It was next to impossible to catch them, and nothing much came of it, unless they were repeat offenders or had outstanding warrants.

  Paula watched Brandon’s gaze track the car. He stiffened as it drove past the SUV, then turned at the stop sign ahead. Let it go, she told herself, rolling down the passenger window to hear the conversation. If there was one. Brandon could just clam up.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked Zach. The boy’s voice cracked in the cold. But it carried on the still night air.

  “Looking for you.” There was a gruff undertone to Zach’s reply that made it clear he meant business.

  “You found me. Now go away.”

  “No. Not unless you can give me a good reason why you’re hanging around here.”

  “I don’t have to.”

  Standing on the sidewalk, blocking Brandon’s way if he decided to dodge out, Zach peered up at the building. It looked like thousands of others in the older sections of Denver with a brick façade and overhanging cornice.

  “Who lives here?”

  “No one you know,” Brandon said rudely.

  Zach shrugged. “Just asking. I don’t really care. Come on. Let’s go back.”

  “The Christmas
House is closed.”

  “Your grandmother’s still there,” Zach pointed out. “She’s worried about you.”

  “She always is. Just tell her you saw me. I’m not running away or anything.”

  “Want me to tell her that too?” Zach’s question hung in the sudden silence between them.

  “Dude, I don’t get in before ten or eleven these days.”

  “Why not?”

  Brandon tried to make a joke. “Things to do, people to see.”

  Zach wasn’t buying it. “You still need to get home.”

  “I will,” Brandon said with exasperation. “Stop hassling me. Gram never does.”

  “Maybe she should. She really is worried. Apparently you’re not in the habit of vanishing. Is this part of your new magic act?”

  “Shut up.” Brandon’s voice was rough and raw. It was the first time Paula had ever heard him sound so ugly.

  “You can do the talking.” Zach stood his ground.

  “I don’t have to tell you why I’m here and you can’t make me go back with you.”

  “Not by force,” Zach acknowledged. “But maybe you can explain something to me. I saw those two punks from the parking lot earlier tonight. They wouldn’t have anything to do with you being here, would they?”

  Brandon was suddenly on alert, tipping his head back inside the parka’s hood to see Zach better. “You saw them?” he blurted out.

  “Yeah. Near the Christmas House.”

  Brandon tried to cover. “Okay. So what? I don’t have anything to do with them.”

  “Do they live around here?”

  “Why don’t you ask Paula?” Brandon jeered. “All she has to do is look people up on her cop computer to find out everything about them.”

  “I don’t think she knows their names.” Brandon’s mouth turned down in a bored frown. “That’s not my problem.”

  “Thought I’d ask, that’s all.”

  Brandon looked past Zach now and then, keeping an eye on the streets as if he were watching for the hotboxed car to drive by again.

  Drumming her fingers on the steering wheel, Paula watched what she could see of the standoff.

  There was the sudden wail of a police siren in the distance. Uneasily, Brandon looked in the direction of the sound, then back at Zach.

  “Let’s go,” Zach said quietly.

  She wasn’t that surprised when Brandon finally complied. Zach stuck close to the boy as he ventured out of the doorway to the SUV, grabbing the handle and scrambling inside fast, like he was afraid of someone seeing him.

  Brandon pushed back the hood of the parka when he came inside the Christmas House. Paula had beat them there and gone in to wait for him and Zach. She glanced at Brandon, who wouldn’t meet her eyes, and said nothing as Edith came forward.

  The older woman was uncharacteristically subdued. She didn’t fling her arms around him or launch into a lecture.

  “There you are,” she said in a low voice. “Don’t take that parka off. We’re going straight home. Wait a minute. I left my purse upstairs. Paula, didn’t you say you wanted to borrow my camera again? Remind me when I come down just in case I forget.”

  Paula had almost forgotten. “Oh . . . yes. If you don’t mind. I’ll give it back tomorrow.”

  “Keep it for a few days,” Edith said. “Unless someone else needs to borrow it. I hardly use it myself.”

  Brandon rolled his eyes, as if female conversation was just too annoying. He stayed in the entryway, leaning against the wall with his hands jammed in the parka’s pockets.

  Zach came in after him, whistling under his breath. He went past Paula.

  “Good work,” she said in a whisper.

  He nodded and turned left to go down the hall, bent on some errand of his own.

  Paula walked past the admissions table, setting a few things to rights. She could hear Norville somewhere close by, dealing with the nightly count before the money got bundled and bagged.

  She heard a faint hiss and looked up. Brandon was beckoning her over.

  “I know you were watching,” he said softly.

  “Brandon—”

  “You made Zach go after me.”

  “That’s not true.” Not strictly true. Zach had agreed to search. Somewhat reluctantly.

  “Just get off my case. You have no right to follow me around.”

  Stung, she didn’t reply at once. Paula knew all too well how fast a nice kid could morph into a nasty one. It was happening to Brandon right now, for reasons she could guess at. She wasn’t going to argue with him, not here. There were too many people around.

  “You and my grandma are just the same,” he said sullenly. “Leave me alone.”

  “I will. But cooperate. You have to go home.”

  “Like I have a choice. It’s someplace to sleep, that’s all. For as long as it lasts.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Edith clattered down the stairs. Paula turned that way, then back to Brandon. He’d flipped up the hood and moved away from her, pushing through the outer door.

  Brat. If he ran for it, she would tackle him.

  Paula stepped outside and went down a few steps.

  Brandon pretended she wasn’t there until his grandmother came out. “You and Zach can lock up after Norville’s done. Here’s the camera and the USB cord and the instruction manual. I put it all in a pouch.”

  “Thanks, Edith.” She took it from the older woman’s outstretched hand and waited on the snow-dusted stairs until the Claybornes were safely on the sidewalk. “Good night.”

  Paula went back inside. The embracing warmth took the chill away but not quickly enough. She went looking for Zach.

  Chapter 14

  Edith seemed like her old self by the next night. She didn’t say anything more about Brandon then or during the days that followed, besides telling Paula that she’d checked with his school. He hadn’t cut any classes or missed assignments.

  He was less sullen than he’d been that night, but he wasn’t all that communicative. And he wasn’t at the Christmas House as much. For a few shifts, he didn’t show at all and they put a volunteer at the door. Not in the top hat and overcoat, since his grandmother had rented both for him with her own money. Even if she hadn’t, Paula would be inclined to think of the outfit as exclusively belonging to Brandon.

  Paula didn’t want to badger Edith about what had happened, and Zach stayed off the subject completely. They all had work to do that was more important than obsessing about a teenager’s moods and bad behavior.

  Nothing had happened. Yet.

  However, there was an unspoken agreement among the three of them. If Brandon stayed out of trouble, that would have to be good enough. It would be great if he stayed out of lonely doorways, too, and cars full of creepy teenagers, but you couldn’t ask for everything, Paula thought.

  Norville’s voice reached her. He wasn’t calling her name; he was cursing a blue streak.

  “Good thing we’re not open yet,” she said loudly. “Pipe down anyway.”

  “Sorry,” came the grumpy reply. “But this getup don’t fit.”

  “Let me see.”

  “In a minute. I ain’t respectable.”

  Paula turned her attention back to the laptop on the table in front of her. A volunteer with a tech background had set up a wireless connection between it and all the refurbs she’d bought inexpensively. Type the password and you were in. A few key clicks and every room in the house popped up on its own small screen, visible through built-in webcams.

  She looked up as she heard Norville enter. “Can we rent a smaller size?”

  Paula suppressed a smile out of concern for his dignity. “There’s no time. But I see what you mean about it not fitting.”

  On Norville’s lean and much shorter frame, the Santa suit seemed wholly different. The pillows bulged in giant lumps over the patent-leather belt, but his upper chest looked sunken in. The white fur cuffs hung down to the tips of his fingers.
/>   As a final touch, he wasn’t wearing the pants. His legs were covered by gray long johns.

  “I look like an old Rhode Island Red headed for the stewpot. Skinny legs and all,” he groused.

  Paula laughed out loud. “You nailed it. Sorry. I shouldn’t make fun of you.”

  “Just think about what them kids will say.” He sighed. “What if they ask for Zach?”

  “Tell them he’s on vacation. But we don’t usually get repeat customers in the Santa line. It’s getting too long.”

  Norville peered over her shoulder into the laptop. “What’s that?”

  “Our new security system. You can look into any room from any other room. Staff only, of course. This is the password.” She found a scrap of paper and wrote it down for him.

  “Hmm.” He looked at the setup. “That’s ingenious. You got video recording capability too?”

  “Everything goes into a hard drive.”

  Norville looked down at the Santa suit he wore. “Is there a way to erase me from it?”

  “Just wear the beard. No one will ever know it’s you.”

  The older man managed a rusty chuckle. “Hope so. I’m gonna go put on the pants and boots. Then I’m ready.”

  “Okay.”

  Paula clicked out of the security screens and pulled up a photo app. She might as well download the photos she’d taken of Santa’s first little visitors before she forgot.

  She attached the USB cord to the camera and to the laptop, starting in on some paperwork while the app got going. When she looked up again, there were about fifty photos on her screen and more were popping up.

  Paula knew she hadn’t taken more than six or seven of the Santa line. Edith must not have downloaded her photos or deleted them from the camera’s memory chip for a while. The shots all seemed to be of the Christmas House, mostly interiors.

  She looked at the clock. There was time for a slideshow. No one needed her and the paperwork could wait. Paula clicked on a pull-down menu and chose View Full Screen.