“Because Eleven is making a bid for top ratings and the others are scrambling to keep up.”
“That’s right, and Eleven’s doing it unethically.”
“So with your unique efforts to stop it from happening,” she said, turning away to pet Scorpio’s ears, which were perked forward, “you probably solidified your position at the top.”
There was silence. Tess nearly cringed at her own words. She knew Sean better than this. She’d known him a long time, long enough to know he had no hidden agenda.
And yet, she still felt so betrayed. She turned back to find him watching her, the dark aqua of his eyes nearly black.
“I’d have preferred a macing,” he said quietly.
She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. That was out of line.”
“As I told you, the story was already out, and I had to lead it back in the right direction so it would be the truth instead of a smear campaign against you and the mission, and in order to do that, I had to introduce fresh information, not recycled bits and pieces. I had to convince the listeners that I knew what I was talking about. I could only do that with fresh material no one else could have had. It needed to be surprising.”
“Oh, it was.”
“A lot of people depend on that mission, and if we lost support because the local news stations and papers convinced the public not to donate items for resale, not to shop in our store, not to give to feed and house the hungry—”
“I know, Sean, okay?” she snapped. “You don’t have to preach to me.”
“Really? Because it sounds to me as if you think I’m the bad guy in all this.”
“What’s your morning news going to be?” she asked.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
She still stung from his news report, and she couldn’t help it. His anger at her reaction just made it sting worse. “Why don’t you tell them I’ve left Corpus Christi?”
“Because you’re not leaving.”
She turned and glared at him. “You don’t have the right to tell me what I can and cannot do, where I can and cannot go. You may spread my secrets all over town, but you can’t tell anyone what I’m doing next, because believe me, you don’t know.”
She left him standing in the barn and returned to the house, Romper and Roxie walking beside her. Tears finally spread across her face as if there’d been a cloudburst.
Sean forced himself not to slam the door of his truck. He’d learned long ago how to handle his anger the proper way, and making loud noises and breaking things was not proper. Besides, he didn’t want Tess to be any more convinced that he was actually angry with her. He wasn’t. He had, in fact, betrayed her. There’d been no way around it, and he’d do the same thing again if he had it to do over, but her private life had been offered up as a sacrifice on the altar of public gossip. He hadn’t drawn first blood, but he had to continue the fight.
Tess must feel as if the knife had been buried to the hilt in her back. He’d hoped she would be more understanding, but then, what if the situation had been reversed? What if she’d gone to the airwaves with his dirty secret? How would he feel if he heard her announcing to all of Corpus Christi that he’d gotten a woman pregnant, that that woman had aborted his baby?
Would he trust her after that? Probably not.
He thought about what she’d told him, that he should announce she had left Corpus Christi. Even in the midst of a meltdown, she’d shown finesse. That was exactly what he needed to do. There was an upside to that and a downside. Upside was, whoever had poisoned their people would probably leave them alone. Downside was, whoever had poisoned their people would probably disappear, making it more difficult for the police—or Gerard and Sean—to catch their culprit. That meant Tess would continue to be stalked.
He glanced at the house, where light leaked past the closed blinds. Why couldn’t he have been more sympathetic? More apologetic? Why had he fought with her when what she’d needed was a shoulder to cry on?
And he wanted it to be his shoulder. But Gerard had to be beat, and there was more work to do at the mission. Megan’s shoulder would have to do.
Tess tumbled onto her back on the living room carpet and pillowed her head with her arms. “How could this happen?”
Megan sank into Gerard’s recliner. “So, you and Sean aren’t speaking now?”
“Oh, we’re speaking all right.”
“So, you’re officially having your first fight, then.”
Tess rolled to her side. “My life is a wreck, and you’re making jokes.”
“Oh, honey, I’m just pointing out the obvious. Sure, your first fight is painful right now, but it can solidify and deepen a relationship.”
“Or kill it before it begins.” The floor was getting hard, even with cushy carpet, so Tess transferred to the sofa before the dogs could find her lying there and get comfortable on top of her. “All the patients were better tonight?”
“Every one of them. They’re still weak, but the worst of the poisoning has passed.”
“From hot sauce.”
“Angel and Sandra probably saved you and Sean—and probably many others—from a miserable day by bringing Sandra’s own sauce from home.”
“Megan, am I overreacting?”
“Nope.”
“But you think Sean was right to do what he did?”
“Yep.”
“You just don’t intend to take sides on this thing, do you?”
“I’m on both sides. So is Gerard, just so you know. You and Sean are both strong people who care about others, and you’re caught in a clash between good and evil. Literally. Sean’s fighting it the only way he knows how, and I’m just glad he is who he is. If not for him, we might not have a good chance of winning this fight.”
“He didn’t warn me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well, okay, he didn’t warn me about exactly what he was going to say.”
“Sometimes it’s easier to apologize than ask permission, but brace yourself, Tess, because if he knows more secrets about this whole thing that he hasn’t shared—and I know there’s at least one more secret—then he may feel pressured to tell those, too.”
“He’ll spill about my intention to break the engagement the night Tanner died?”
“I don’t see that it’s necessary, but if he needs it for ammo, he might.”
“Only you and Sean even know about that. I didn’t tell anyone else.”
“Why, honey, I’m honored,” Megan said softly. “I’ve not had a lot of time to keep in touch with close friends except some of the girls back in Missouri, and I enjoy our girl time. Hey, is it true that Gerard caught your lip color on Sean’s mouth when you two returned from the beach today?”
“Apparently. Leave it to Gerard.”
Megan raised the lever to lower the footrest of the recliner, then she strolled across the carpet to the sofa to sit beside Tess and curled her legs beneath her. “I think this might be a night for marshmallow roasting over the fire.”
“After we put our pajamas on?”
“We’ve got to get comfortable so that when our sugar high tanks, we’ll be ready for bed.”
“You’d do that for me?”
Megan giggled. “Just for you.”
“Since you’re my bodyguard right now, why don’t we take a road trip tomorrow? Maybe turn our cell phones off, hit some waves, play with the bullet fish and dolphins?”
“Try out some new seafood restaurant?”
“Maybe you can take some extra days off for the next two weeks, find some kind docs to volunteer at the clinic. I want to take a break before Christmas.”
“From everything?”
“Everything.”
“Even Sean?”
“Especially Sean.”
“You trying to break his heart?”
“No, I’m giving us both some distance. He needs room to do whatever he needs to do, and I need to tune out.”
“I’ll check with Gerard about some
time off.”
Tess was surprised by the rush of relief Megan’s words gave her. She’d never had a sister, but she suspected this must be what it felt like. Warm. Safe. Comfortable.
NINE
At nine a.m. on Christmas Eve, Sean entered through the back door of the mission after another successful news report over the air. There’d been no more deaths or illnesses for two weeks, and he was getting a little jittery. It had been two weeks between Carlotta’s death and Stud’s poisoning. Tomorrow was Christmas. If the killer was going to make another move, the time may be ripe for it.
But Sean hoped his maneuver had worked. The day after his argument with Tess, he had, indeed, announced that Tess had withdrawn from Corpus Christi, and why. She was answering no phones, she wasn’t coming into the mission, and Gerard had moved Colleen from the store to take on admin duties. Both Tess’s cell and Gerard’s landline phones had been on hiatus.
Someone was, of course, still doing the work that only Tess had been able to do—promotion, publicity, keeping the mission in the public eye. Sean was definitely doing his part. Every few days he had something new to announce over the air about the incident in Austin and the health of the poisoning victims at the mission.
Business at the store had increased for both incoming items and sales, and donations were up over last Christmas by a wide margin. The smear campaign had failed.
Gerard met Sean at the downstairs door to the admin stairwell. He held his finger to his lips and nodded toward the back door. “Let’s take another walk.”
“Same course?”
“Let’s go the other direction. Keep our spooks guessing.”
They fell into step together across the customer parking lot, same pace as before. “I miss Tess,” Sean said.
“She’s moping around the house like a lost kitten.”
“Good.”
“What a loving thing to say.”
“I’m just saying she’s not exactly in the witness protection program.”
“But for everyone’s safety, she’s pretending she is.”
“I want to drive to the ranch and see her.”
“Not yet.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“That’s what you’ve said the past five times I’ve asked. You know she and I have never cleared up this misunderstanding between us.”
“More time just means the making up will be sweeter.”
“How do you know?”
“Have you forgotten I was engaged?”
“Oh. Yeah.” Sean felt it wise not to remind his friend that the engagement had been broken.
Gerard glanced over his shoulder when they were a block from the mission. “I called for a bug scan two weeks ago, but the company has been busy. Jim came in last night, swept everything quietly. Found one bug. It was attached to the bottom of Tess’s office door.”
“Any fingerprints on it?”
“A couple of partials. It’s being run through a database now, but Sugar McCrae has no priors, so now she’ll have to be picked up and fingerprinted.”
They walked another full block while Sean processed the information. “No guarantees, but it’s possible that’s what the intruder was doing upstairs two weeks ago, the night before the poisoning.”
“And the intruder would be the poisoner. Evidence of that is with the lab in the form of the arsenic footprint. I’ve been rechecking some of the backgrounds we did on Tess’s former employees, someone who might have held a grudge, especially Emil Mason, the embezzler.”
“Isn’t he still in prison?”
“He is, but I put in a call to do a complete background check on Sugar—aka Sherleen—McCrae. Got my answer back this morning. She’s Emil’s illegitimate half sister.”
“Whoa. How did you find that out?”
“The father was listed on the birth certificate.”
“You think Emil and Sugar knew each other?”
“Seems probable, considering.”
“Okay then, I might believe she’s holding a grudge against Tess because Tess saw to it that her brother was prosecuted,” Sean said, “but to commit murder?”
“We’ve seen that kind before. Psychotic. She’s obviously unstable enough to risk her reputation by giving bad info.”
“Yes, but—”
“I know. It’s a far cry from murder. I’m still putting some pieces together. For instance, I’m curious why Channel Eleven didn’t say anything about the notes Tess received.”
“The culprit wouldn’t share the information about the notes because she wouldn’t want to clear her victim. Have you found any evidence that McCrae’s still in Corpus Christi?”
“As of yesterday, she was trying to pawn more of her faulty tips off on Channel Six. They weren’t interested.”
“If she’s still here, and if she’s serious enough to commit murder, don’t you think it’s possible she’s still watching for Tess to return to the mission?”
“But Tess isn’t going to return.”
“And if we never catch her stalker? Is she going to hide out at your house for the rest of her life?”
“We’ll find her stalker.”
“I hope so, because I can’t see Tess giving up the rest of her life because she’s afraid of losing it.”
“I already told Captain Clark our suspicions about Sugar McCrae. When they find her they’ll have plenty of evidence to hold her for questioning.”
“Now, all we have to do is wait.”
Tess sat in her home office and tried to tally a final page of numbers. They didn’t match. She searched through a stack of receipts but couldn’t find those that supported the heftiest numbers on the expense report. And she knew where the receipts were—somewhere in her office at the mission. And she needed them right now. She had to have this report wrapped up and delivered to their accountant today for year-end audits.
She groaned and buried her face in her hands. Roxie looked up from her perch beside the desk and whined.
“It’s okay, girl. I just have to go undercover for a trip to town.” Against all of her better judgment. Against Gerard’s strict commands. The IRS could not be kept waiting.
Twenty minutes later, wearing Gerard’s brown hooded sweatshirt, some old sunglasses and her baggiest pair of jeans, she drove the farm truck into the customer parking lot and entered the mission through the front of the store.
No one called out to her. No one recognized her. She began to relax.
Gerard would kill her for this. But Gerard wouldn’t be happy if they were audited by the IRS, either. Her office door was locked when she reached it. She knocked, and there was no answer, so she used her key, slipped inside and found the receipts she needed in the one filing drawer Gerard hadn’t emptied and taken to the ranch.
Why had she waited until today to gather everything together? Wasn’t she stressed enough without having this to worry about?
She placed everything into an accordion file and closed the drawer, turned to leave the office and ran headlong into Sean’s hard chest. She stumbled backward.
“Tess?” He reached out to steady her. “What are you—”
“Oh, no! Don’t tell Gerard you saw me, or he’ll make me eat liver and parsnips for a week.”
“He’s not here, but this time I’m not making any promises. You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I’m maintaining telephone silence, and I need these papers today. Deadline. No choice.”
“You’re maintaining telephone silence, yet you’re walking in here yourself? At what level does that make sense?”
“At the level of phone tapping.”
“As opposed to the possibility of someone actually seeing you walk in here?”
“Nobody but you recognized me.” She tugged at the hood she’d pulled from her head and the glasses she’d removed after entering the office. “I drove the farm truck, and Gerard has never driven it to town. No one here knows what it looks like.”
Sean glanced at the
windows and stepped over to close the blinds. “Gerard told you about the bug that was found on the bottom of your door last night?”
“He told me. Apparently Sugar McCrae is a multitalented villain. She uses a car as a weapon, she uses words as weapons, she uses arsenic as a weapon.”
Sean closed the door. “Now that you’re here—”
“Sean, I have to get back to the ranch. I really do have to get these papers into the packet for our accountant.”
“How long will that take? Five minutes? You have time to talk to me.”
Tess glanced at the clock on the wall. “Okay. You’re right. We’re only looking at a possible audit by the IRS. No big deal.”
“We carry insurance with the accounting firm for just such an incident. I can even drive out to the ranch and help you complete the report if you want.”
“Wow, you really want to talk, don’t you?” She placed the accordion file on the desk and sat next to it. Colleen kept a tidier desk than she did. “Where’s Gerard?”
“Police station. Our suspect has been apprehended and is being held for twenty-four hours. He’s not doing any questioning, of course, but he wants to follow their movements until he can be sure Sugar McCrae is guilty of murder.”
“Okay, sorry I asked. It seems all I’ve thought about these past few days is what that woman has done.” She looked at Sean, who sat on top of the two-drawer filing cabinet. Their knees almost touched.
“Then we won’t talk about her,” Sean said. “I’ve missed you, Tess. Gerard seems to think a good lovers’ quarrel helps clear the air every so often, but I didn’t remind him his engagement didn’t work out.”
“Wise move. Sean, we’re not lovers.”
“We’re friends who love each other. That makes us lovers.”
Tess thought about that.
“And I’m sorry I betrayed you,” Sean said. “I was sorry when I was doing it. I hated it, but I would do it again under the same circumstances.”
Season of Danger: Silent Night, Deadly NightMistletoe Mayhem Page 9
