Cardwell Christmas Crime Scene

by B. J Daniels

  “This isn’t a date. DJ is a client, of sorts. This one is...off the record, but it is still work. Nothing more.”

  “DJ, huh?”

  He shook his head. “Why do you take so much interest in my love life?”

  “What love life?” she said, fiddling with some papers on her desk.

  Beau ignored that jab. “Are you hoping to get me married off?”

  “I never said a word.”

  “You don’t have to.” He started for his office, but something was bothering him. Turning back to her, he said, “I have to know. DJ walks in and you instantly like her. You’ve never liked any of the women I’ve dated, and you’ve never done more than share a few words with them on the phone. What is different about this one?” he demanded, trying to keep his voice down.

  Marge smiled. “You’ll remember this one’s name.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  DJ pulled up a chair next to Beau as he turned on the computer and began his search. She felt surprisingly nervous sitting this close to him. It brought back the memory of being in his arms, of his mouth on hers. There was something so masculine about him.

  “You all right?” he asked as she moved her chair back a little. “Can you see okay?”

  She nodded and tried to breathe. “How long has Marge been with you?”

  “Since I started. She’s like a mother hen.” He shook his head. “But I couldn’t run this office without her.” She heard true admiration and caring in his voice. She also sensed a strong loyalty in him. Look how he’d agreed to protect her based on a promise he’d made so many years ago.

  “I like her.”

  He glanced over at her. “And she likes you. Believe me, it’s a first.” Their gazes locked for a moment. She could feel the heat of his look and remembered how he’d almost kissed her up on the mountain.

  At the sound of his assistant on the other side of the door, he turned quickly back to the computer. “Okay, let’s see what we can find out about your grandmother. Marietta Pisani. There can’t be that many, right?”

  DJ thought about how this had started with the doll and the photo. Her father’s letters had led them to Zinnia, who’d told her more about her father—and mother—than she’d ever known. Leave it to her father to tell Beau that the doll and photo might have something to do with her mother’s family. Why couldn’t he have told her that?

  Because he’d been lying to her since birth, she reminded herself. She felt a stab of guilt. He was in the hospital, badly injured. She’d called but hadn’t been able to learn much—just that he was in stable but serious condition. She told herself he was tough. He’d pull through. She hoped it was true.

  “Your father told you that your mother was dead, but that your grandmother Marietta is still alive, right?” Beau was saying. “Marietta Pisani. Is there any chance she’s related to the noble Pisani family of Malta? Descendants of Giovanni Pisani, the patrician of Venice?”

  “I have no idea,” DJ said.

  “Maybe you’ll get a chance to ask her,” he said and motioned to the screen. “I found only one in the right age group. A Marietta Pisani of Palm Desert, California.”

  DJ swallowed the lump in her throat. This was the woman who’d had her daughter’s marriage to Walter Justice annulled. “What do we do now? You can’t think that my grandmother...” Her words faltered. She could see from his expression that he could think exactly that.

  Her father had also thought it. Why else would he have asked Beau to protect her? But surely she didn’t need protecting from her own grandmother?

  “We call her,” Beau said and reached for the phone.

  * * *

  IT TOOK MARIETTA a while to calm down after Bianca and Ester left. At first she was just scared. Scared that she’d lost everything. Then she was furious with Ester for butting into her family business. She’d tried to reach Roger but suspected he was not picking up. The coward.

  At some point, she’d have to find out if there was any money left. But right now, it was her least concern. Her daughter would have thought that funny, she realized. The joke was on her, she realized. Roger had stolen her money. All that worry about the family legacy and now she realized that if she lost Bianca, nothing mattered.

  When a middle-aged woman arrived with a suitcase in hand claiming to be Ester’s younger sister, May, she almost turned her away.

  “I’m not like Ester. I’ll see to you, but don’t think you can browbeat me the way you do her.”

  Marietta was offended. “I don’t browbeat anyone.”

  May huffed and slipped past her. “Just tell me where my room is. Then I’ll see about getting you fed. I cook whatever I can find to cook and you eat it. That’s the deal.”

  With that, the woman had sashayed off in the direction Marietta had pointed.

  This was what her life had come to? She almost wished that she’d died this morning before she’d seen that little red sports car drive up.

  But then she wouldn’t have seen her precious granddaughter. Not that their visit had gone well.

  She tried Roger’s number again. Again it went to voice mail. It was in God’s hands, she told herself. God’s and Bianca’s and Ester’s and whomever Roger had hired.

  She prayed that Dee Anna Justice was still alive. She just didn’t want Bianca hurt. But who knew what this Dee Anna Justice was like? She couldn’t bear the thought of Dee Anna rejecting Bianca. If there was any money left, she knew her granddaughter would gladly share it with her...sister.

  Marietta made the call. She had to take control of her life again, one step at a time, until her old heart gave out.

  * * *

  AS STACY DRESSED for her date, she felt torn between excitement and worry. Did she really believe that she and James could start over again after all these years? Maybe she was hanging on to a first-love fantasy James, one who had never existed.

  “What has he done for a living since high school?” Dana had asked. She didn’t know. “What does he do now?”

  “I think he said real estate.”

  Her sister got that look Stacy knew only too well.

  “You remember him,” Stacy said. “You liked him in high school, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t know him,” Dana said. “But I do remember that he broke your heart.”

  “It wasn’t his fault. He thought his ex-girlfriend was pregnant...” She stopped when she saw Dana’s expression. “He did the right thing by her. He married her.”

  “I suppose so,” her sister said. “Just...be careful. It’s not only you now. You have to think of Ella.”

  She’d thought only of Ella since her daughter’s birth. There hadn’t been any men, not even one date. But now she could admit that she felt ready. She wanted a husband and a father for Ella and said as much to Dana.

  “There is nothing wrong with that,” her sister said, giving her a hug. “Maybe James is that man. Maybe he’s not. Give it time. Don’t let him rush you into anything.”

  She knew what Dana was getting at. James had rushed her into sex in high school. She hadn’t been ready, but she’d feared that she would lose him if she didn’t give in to him.

  As she finished dressing, Stacy told herself she wasn’t that young, naive girl anymore. If James thought she was, then he was in for a surprise.

  * * *

  ROGER SWORE WHEN he saw how many times Marietta had called. He didn’t even bother to check the voice mails. He knew she’d be demanding to know what was going on. He’d called the man who’d hired the hit man and had finally heard back.

  “He rushed the job and missed,” the man told him. “Now he has to fix it. So back off. These things take time. Worse, now she knows someone is trying to kill her. Also, the marshal is involved.”

  Roger felt sick to his stomach
. “You told me that he would make it look like a shooting accident. This isn’t what my boss wanted at all. Call him off.”

  “I’ll do what I can. He isn’t answering his phone.”

  Could this get any worse?

  “He’s going to want the rest of the money. You’d best have it ready for him,” the man warned.

  “Of course.” Roger hung up, sweating. His phone rang again. He saw that this time it was the accountant he’d been working with. Marietta. She was checking the trust funds. He was dead meat, he thought as he let her call go to voice mail.

  He decided he’d better listen to Marietta’s message. What he heard turned his blood to ice.

  “Bianca knows! She and Ester are headed for Cardwell Ranch in Montana. If anything happens to them, I’ll have you killed in prison, and you know I can do it. I might not have as much money as I once did, but I still have power.”

  He disconnected, not doubting it for a moment. He looked around the room. He couldn’t wait any longer. She knew that he’d been embezzling money for years from the family trust funds. He’d hoped that he could win it back, but his gambling debts were eating him alive. If the thugs he owed didn’t kill him, then Marietta would.

  His cell phone rang again almost instantly. He put it on mute, telling himself he would throw it in the ocean the first chance he got and buy a new one. Then he stepped to the suitcase. His passport and the plane tickets were on the table by the door. He picked them up, took one last look at the house he had mortgaged to the hilt and, suitcase in hand, walked out.

  * * *

  MARIETTA LET OUT a scream of pain when she heard an estimate of how much money was missing from the trust funds.

  May rushed into the room. “If you’re not bleeding, this had better be a heart attack or a killer snake in the room.”

  “I want to die.”

  May shook her head. “Let me get a knife.”

  “I’ve made a horrible mess of things.”

  “Haven’t we all? If you don’t want your supper burned, die quietly while I get back to the kitchen.”

  Marietta could hear her heart pounding and welcomed death. What had she done? Her mind wouldn’t stop racing. All she could think about were the mistakes she’d made. She had another granddaughter. Bianca would have loved having a sister. She used to ask for one all the time. It broke Marietta’s heart.

  The irony was that Carlotta’s second husband hadn’t been much of a step up from Walter. Gianni had some shady dealings before his death. But at least he’d come from a good Italian family with money.

  She had wanted so much for her daughter.

  And yet Carlotta still hadn’t married well.

  “Playing God wearing you out?” May asked as she brought in her dinner tray.

  “Do you always say whatever you think without regard to whether or not it is proper?” Marietta demanded.

  May smiled. “Not much different from you, huh?”

  “I’m not hungry,” she said, trying to push the tray away.

  “Too bad. I’m going to sit right here until you eat. Ester said all I had to do was keep you alive. I figure you’re too mean to die, but just in case...” May pushed the tray back at her and sat down, crossing her arms.

  Marietta glared at her for a moment before picking up her fork. If she had to eat to get the woman out of her room, she would.

  “You know nothing about any of this,” she said.

  May chuckled.

  “If I thought Ester was talking behind my back—”

  “What would you have done? Fired her?” May shook her head. “Ester didn’t have to tell me anything about you. I saw it in the sadness in her eyes. She’s been loyal to you, just as our mother was. You don’t realize how lucky you are that she put up with you all these years. Anyone else would have put a pillow over your face years ago.”

  “I feel so much better knowing you’ll be staying with me until Ester comes back,” she said sarcastically.

  “You think Ester is coming back?”

  Marietta stopped, the fork halfway to her mouth. She didn’t want to acknowledge her fear that Ester was gone for good. “She won’t leave me alone. Not after all these years.”

  “Because of your sweet disposition? Or because you pay her so much?”

  She felt her face heat but said nothing as she concentrated on her food again. This was what her life had come to, she told herself. She was an old woman alone with an ingrate who had nothing but contempt for her. She half hoped the woman had poisoned her food.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The phone rang. Marietta snatched it up, hoping it was Bianca calling. Maybe she’d changed her mind about going to Montana, about meeting her half sister, about...everything.

  “Hello?”

  “Is this Marietta Pisani?”

  “Yes.” Her heart pounded.

  “My name is Beau Tanner. I’m a private investigator in Montana. I’m calling about your granddaughter.”

  “Bianca?” Montana? Was it possible Bianca and Ester had gotten a flight out so soon and were now in Montana?

  “No, Dee Anna Justice.”

  She gripped the phone so hard that it made her hand ache. She held her breath. Hadn’t he said he was a private investigator? Shouldn’t it be the police calling if Dee Anna Justice was dead?

  “What about her?” she asked, her voice breaking.

  “You recognize the name?”

  “Yes. She’s my granddaughter. What is this about?”

  “I was hoping you would tell her,” the private eye said. “I’m putting her on the phone.”

  “Hello?”

  Marietta heard the voice of her first granddaughter and felt the rest of her world drop away.

  “Hello?” the voice said again.

  Marietta began to cry uncontrollably.

  May came in, saw what was happening and took the phone. “I’m sorry. She can’t talk right now.” She hung up the phone. Turning, she demanded, “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Marietta had shoved away the food tray, gotten to her feet and gone to her closet. Pulling out her empty suitcase, she laid it on the bed and began to throw random clothing into it. “I’m flying to Montana.”

  May took in the suitcase the older woman had tossed on the bed. “Do you really think that’s a good idea given your...condition? Let alone the fact that you might be arrested when you land.”

  So Ester had shared information with her sister. Marietta knew she shouldn’t have been surprised. “You’ve been in on all this?”

  May smiled. “It was my son who left the doll and a photo of her mother, grandmother and Carlotta’s second husband for DJ.” She sounded proud of what she’d done. “Ester was afraid of how far you would go. She said DJ couldn’t be brought off. She wouldn’t have wanted a cent of your money. So all of this was a huge waste on your part.”

  Marietta finished throwing a few items in, slammed her suitcase and zipped it closed. She’d been surrounded by traitors. “You couldn’t possibly understand why I’ve done what I have.”

  “Why you used money to keep your daughter away from a child that she loved?” May demanded. “Did Carlotta tell you how she cried herself to sleep over that baby you forced her to give up?”

  “Forced her? It was her choice. Just like it was her choice to marry the man. So easy to blame me, isn’t it?”

  May put one hand on her bony hip. “What would your daughter think now if she knew that you were trying to kill that child?”

  Marietta swallowed. She wanted to argue that it was all Roger’s doing. But she’d trusted him to handle it. Her mistake. All she’d thought about was erasing the existence of Dee Anna Justice to save the family.

  “Help me with my suitcase.”

&nb
sp; May didn’t move.

  “I’m going to save the woman. Does that make you happy?” she barked.

  “The woman? She’s your grandchild. She’s your blood. She’s Bianca’s sister.”

  “I don’t have time to argue with you.” She shook her head. “None of you know this Dee Anna Justice. What if she wants nothing to do with our family? What if she rejects Bianca? What then?”

  “Bianca is a strong woman. She will survive. I think you might underestimate the connection they have,” May said. “Ester kept in touch over the years with Dee Anna’s father. She saw the girl grow up.”

  “My suitcase.”

  May stepped forward, slid the suitcase from the bed and began to wheel it toward the front door. “You best hope that you’re not too late.”

  It was already too late in so many ways.

  * * *

  “SOME WOMAN TOOK the phone and said she couldn’t talk. Before that it sounded like she was...crying,” DJ said as she saw Beau’s anxious expression.

  He took the office phone and replaced it in its cradle. “At least now we know that she’s the right one.”

  “I guess. She was definitely upset. But upset to hear from me or to hear that I’m still alive?” She could see he was even more convinced that her grandmother was behind what had happened earlier today on the mountain.

  “What now?” As if she had to ask. “The would-be assassin will try again, won’t he?” She didn’t give him time to answer. “I can’t stay at Cardwell Ranch,” she said as she pushed to her feet. “I can’t endanger my cousin and her family—”

  “That’s why I want you to move in with me.”

  She blinked. “No, I couldn’t.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, I have a...friend staying with me. Leah.”

  “I see.” A friend, huh? Was that what he called it? She realized how little she knew about this man.

  “I can protect you better on my home ground.”

  “I think everyone would be better off if I just left Montana.”

  “You’re wrong. But if you leave, I’m going with you. Sorry, but you’re stuck with me until this is over.”