by Josie Belle
“Which gown came back?”
“The Anne Barge,” Laura said.
“Blake brought it back?” Maggie asked as she speared a chunk of meat on her fork. Sam was quietly chewing beside her, and she thought she could hear the gears in his head turning as he mulled over the events of the day.
Her chest tightened at the thought of the money they’d have to return on the Barge gown, but a part of her was thrilled to have the designer dress back. It was definitely going right back in the window for the holidays.
“Apparently, his fiancée did not want anything off the rack,” Laura said in a mock snooty tone. “He was very apologetic about it.”
“Some people just do not appreciate the value of resale,” Maggie said with a shrug. “I’m sure whoever scores the dress will be thrilled.”
“I know I would,” Laura said.
Maggie smiled at her daughter. When Laura was growing up, Maggie had never been able to afford ballet lessons, manicures, pedicures and all of the other extras that most girls seemed to need to grow up these days. It had hurt Maggie deeply at the time to say no, but as a single mom with a mortgage to pay, she hadn’t had any choice.
But now as she gazed at her kind, funny, brilliant and beautiful daughter, and saw a young woman who had worked her butt off to earn a scholarship to the university of her choice and who took nothing for granted; maybe all of the noes had been a good thing.
“I love you, baby,” she said.
Laura grinned, and said, “I love you, too, Mom.”
Sam glanced between them and smiled as if he, too, understood the genuine affection and respect that Maggie and Laura shared.
“Good pot roast,” he said.
“I’ll tell Sandy you said so,” Laura offered. “And on that note, I’m going to bed. I’m just . . .”
Her voice trailed off, and Maggie knew exactly what she meant. They were all overwhelmed by what had happened.
“Call me if you need me,” Maggie said. “My tuck-in service never expires.”
Laura laughed. “Thanks, Mom. Good night.”
Sam got up from his chair and began to clean his dishes in the sink, adding them to the dishwasher, which had yet to be run.
“Have I mentioned how much I like that kid?” he asked.
“Yes,” Maggie said. “But a proud mom never tires of hearing it.”
He reached across the counter and took her empty plate.
“Seconds?” he asked.
“No thanks.” Maggie shook her head. It had taken all she had just to finish that serving, which hadn’t been much.
Sam cleaned her plate and put it in the dishwasher, too.
“You really did a great job in raising her,” he said. “She’s a woman of substance.”
“Oh, I like that,” Maggie said.
Sam came around the counter and pulled her to her feet.
“She takes after her mother,” he said.
Maggie felt her face grow warm at the compliment.
“Come on, let’s sit awhile before I have to go back to the station,” Sam said.
He held her hand as they made their way to the sunporch. They sat on a cushy love seat, and Sam put his arm around the back of the small couch and pulled Maggie close.
She rested her head on his shoulder and felt comforted. It had been such a scary day. A part of her just wanted to melt into Sam and let him be her strength but, of course, she couldn’t. Instead, she needed to tell him what she knew.
“Sam,” she said. “I probably should have told you this before, but I hope you’ll understand why I didn’t.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“I think I might know something,” she said. “Something about Michael and Diane.”
Chapter 13
Sam’s hand had been running up and down her arm. It stilled when she spoke, as if he was bracing himself for what she might say.
“What’s that?” he asked. His voice was decidedly neutral.
“I saw them at the ball,” she said. She turned to look at him and was distracted by how near his face was to hers and by what a pure shade of blue his eyes were. She turned away to keep herself focused.
Sam said nothing, seemingly content to let Maggie tell him what she’d seen in her own time.
“After we welcomed Jake back, I was a soggy mess,” she said. “So I went in search of a mirror, but someone was in the bathroom nearest the ballroom. I was working my way down the hall, looking for another, when I accidentally found myself in a large pantry.”
She cleared her throat. She didn’t want this to sound worse than it was, but in hindsight, it looked pretty bad.
“Michael and Diane were in there, and they were having an argument—no, that’s not the right word. It was a discussion. Yes, definitely a discussion.”
“What sort of discussion?” Sam’s hand started moving up and down her arm again.
Maggie cleared her throat in a blatant stall tactic. She wanted to be sure she worded this just right.
“Michael was saying something about how ‘this can’t go on’ and he had to ‘think about Joanne and the baby.’” Maggie blew out a breath and twisted her fingers in her lap.
Sam’s hand tightened on her arm and pulled her close. He kissed the top of her head as if he knew she needed comforting. His voice was cautious when he said, “It sounds like he was breaking off a relationship.”
“Yeah,” Maggie said. “I didn’t want Joanne to know. It was so hard for her to get pregnant, and she’s not that far along. I would hate for her to be hit with more stress than she’s already under. Is there any way to keep it from her?”
Sam sighed. “I’m sorry, Maggie, but I don’t see how.”
“Damn,” Maggie muttered.
“Thank you for telling me,” he said.
“You sound surprised,” she said.
“I am,” he admitted. “You haven’t been exactly forthcoming with me in the past.”
Maggie turned to meet his gaze. “I know, but things are different now. I trust you.”
Sam leaned close and rested his forehead against hers, and whispered, “Thank you.”
Maggie felt something change between them. It was subtle, like the breeze shifting in a new direction.
“In the interest of full disclosure, I have some information, too,” he said. “We searched Michael’s office to find Diane’s personnel file so we could inform her next of kin. There wasn’t one.”
“I don’t understand,” Maggie said.
“There was no record of her in any of Michael’s files,” he said. “Or on his computer.”
“That’s impossible,” Maggie said. “He’d have to have tax forms, payroll sheets, that sort of stuff.”
Sam shook his head. “It’s as if she didn’t even exist.”
“Do you think he was paying her under the table?” Maggie asked.
“He’d have had to,” Sam said. “But why?”
Neither of them spoke. Maggie didn’t like where her thoughts were going, and she suspected Sam was thinking the same thing.
“The obvious reason is that Michael was having an affair with Diane and didn’t want to leave any sort of paper trail.” There. She’d said it, and she felt awful about it.
“I thought that, too,” he said. “But then, I wonder.”
“What?”
“Well, wouldn’t Joanne be more suspicious if she found no file on her husband’s new hire than if it was above board and perfectly normal?”
“I see what you mean,” Maggie said. “The fact that there is no paper trail is way more suspicious than if he’d treated her like a normal employee, so why would he do that? Michael is not that stupid.”
“Exactly,” Sam said.
“You know, they have an office in their house,” Maggie said. “Maybe he keeps the personnel files there.”
“The rest of the staff files are at the deli,” Sam said. “Why wouldn’t hers be?”
“Well, she’s new, so maybe he was kee
ping it at home while she was on probation?” Maggie asked. “Or maybe Joanne took it home to look it over?”
“Why would she do that?”
Maggie sighed. “Joanne was just the teensiest bit concerned about Michael’s new hire.”
Sam turned and faced her. “Define concerned.”
Maggie hated this. She hated that her new relationship with Sam required her to share the angst of a friend.
“She was jealous, which is perfectly normal in a pregnant woman,” she rushed to assure him. “I mean, you’re hormonal and overtired, you feel huge and you’re not in control of your body anymore. Of course you feel threatened if your husband suddenly hires some cute young thing.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” Sam asked.
“A bit,” Maggie said.
His gaze was warm. “I bet you were adorable when you were pregnant.”
“I was fat,” Maggie said. “I looked like I’d swallowed a watermelon. There was nothing cute about it.”
Sam smiled at her, clearly not appreciating how unattractive and emotionally difficult she had been with a bun in her oven.
“You said you called Joanne when you found the deli locked,” Sam said.
“I did,” Maggie said. “She was at the hardware store, looking at paint.”
Sam nodded.
“Wait. You don’t think Joanne—” she began, but he shook his head.
“No, I know she was shopping at the time of the murder. Even Jerry Paulson, who owns the hardware store, placed her there.”
The fact that he had corroborated Joanne’s story caused Maggie to feel a flash of irritation.
“So, you checked her out?” she asked.
“Only to verify what she told me in the ICU waiting room today—to rule her out,” he said. “I think she felt guilty that she wasn’t in the deli, but I know Michael would have wanted her and the baby safely away from whatever happened.”
“Agreed,” Maggie said. “What happens next?”
“We keep trying to find Diane’s next of kin, we wait for Michael to wake up and we keep searching for clues as to what actually happened at the deli,” he said.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked.
“I’d ask you to stay away from it, but I’m guessing that’s not going to happen.”
“Yeah, probably not,” she said. “They’re my friends.”
“I know.” He pulled her close into a half hug. “Your loyalty is one of the things I—like most about you.”
Maggie noticed the tiny hesitation, and she was grateful for it. She didn’t think either of them were ready to go further than like no matter what they were feeling on the inside.
“I like the same thing about you,” she said. And then she kissed him.
It was a long while later before Sam took his leave. Maggie waved from the front door as he backed his car up and drove away. She was torn between feeling miserable for her friend and happy for herself. She hoped Joanne was doing all right. And she really hoped Michael woke up soon so that they would have some answers.
She shut off the lights in the living room as she made her way to her bedroom. She paused beside a picture of Charlie holding Laura when she had just been learning how to walk.
She traced his smile with her finger. She still missed him. Having Sam back in her life didn’t change that, but somehow she felt like Charlie would approve of Sam. He was a lawman like Charlie had been, and he was a good person. She knew that more than anything would have satisfied Charlie. She kissed the tip of her finger and tapped Charlie’s nose.
“Good night,” she said. She switched out the light and headed off to bed.
• • •
Maggie woke up by rolling onto a toy train that whistled when she crushed it with her hip. The piercing sound made her snap awake and sit straight up as she tried to figure out what was making that awful racket.
The tiny towhead who’d climbed into bed beside her sometime in the night slept on, blissfully unaware of the shrill noise his train was making. Maggie fumbled in the sheets until she found the train and switched it off.
She flopped back against her pillows. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was early, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep.
She slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Josh, and headed to the kitchen to make coffee and a nice coffee cake. She had a feeling the grown-ups were all going to need a little something extra to get going today. Besides, she knew apple streusel was Laura’s favorite and, having lost her new friend in such a grisly way yesterday, the poor girl needed something to comfort her.
Maggie was showered and dressed, reading the paper and sipping her coffee while the coffee cake baked, when Laura and Sandy stumbled into the kitchen.
“Morning, Mom,” Laura said while she poured herself a steaming mug. Then she sniffed the air. “Is that an apple streusel coffee cake?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Aw, thanks, Mom.” Laura circled the counter and hugged her. “So, I never heard Sam leave last night.”
“Hmm, I didn’t either,” Sandy chimed in.
To Maggie’s chagrin, she felt her face grow warm with embarrassment. “He left sometime around eleven, I believe.”
“Oh, well, that’s disappointing,” Laura said.
Sandy laughed, and Maggie huffed, “We’ve only just started dating. Don’t rush us.”
“Yes, but you dated in high school,” Laura said. “That should move things along quicker, shouldn’t it?”
“No,” Maggie said. “If anything, we’re more cautious. We don’t want to mess it up this time.”
“You won’t,” Sandy said. “When Sam looks at you, it’s like—”
“How Jake looks at you,” Laura interrupted. “As if you’re the only woman on Earth. I hope I find that someday.”
“You will,” Maggie and Sandy said together, and then they laughed.
As Maggie sliced and served coffee cake, the conversation turned back to Michael and Joanne. Maggie didn’t tell them what she and Sam had discussed.
It felt like it would be a betrayal of Joanne’s friendship to discuss the possibility that Michael was involved with Diane. Especially since Maggie didn’t believe it. She didn’t care what she’d overheard or how bad it had looked, Michael and Joanne were the real deal. She just couldn’t imagine one without the other, and she just couldn’t believe that Michael had stepped out on Joanne, especially when she was expecting their first child.
She wondered if it was too early to call Sam to find out if they’d made any progress in locating Diane’s family. She glanced at the clock. It was just after eight. She had a feeling that Joanne was already at the hospital.
Maggie fished her cell phone out of her purse. She scanned through her messages. Sure enough, there was a text message from Claire from an hour earlier that she and Joanne were headed back to the hospital. It had been sent to both Maggie and Ginger. She texted back that she was on her way and put her phone back in her purse.
“I’m going to go to the hospital to check on Michael before I go to the shop,” Maggie said.
“I’ll come with you,” Laura said.
“Are you sure?” Maggie asked.
“Yes, that way if Joanne needs you, I can go open the shop for you,” she said. “I was thinking I’d put the Barge gown back in—”
“The front window,” Maggie said with her. “I was thinking the same thing.”
They smiled at each other in perfect understanding.
“I’ll just go and get dressed,” Laura said.
She passed Jake on her way as he joined Sandy and Maggie in the kitchen. Jake was still in his flannel pajama bottoms and T-shirt. He planted a kiss on Sandy’s head as he passed her to get to the coffeepot.
“Good morning, ladies,” he said.
“Mornin’,” they answered.
“How did you sleep, Jake?” Maggie asked.
He and Sandy exchanged a quick glance, and Maggie saw Sand
y turn a pretty shade of pink before she turned away to cut Jake a piece of the coffee cake.
“Really well,” Jake said with a grin. He took a sip of his coffee, and said, “Maggie, I can’t thank you enough for letting Sandy and Josh live with you for the past few years. It would have been hard for Sandy to leave school to go live with her mother in Florida and, well, it gave me real peace of mind to know that she and Josh were being looked after by you.”
“We’re family,” Maggie said. “That’s what family does. Besides, it’s been a pleasure watching Josh grow. He is very dear to me.”
Sandy and Jake exchanged another look, but this time it was one of concern. Maggie knew what was coming. She had known since Jake had returned. She suspected that they were worried about how she would take it, and that made them both even more precious to her.
“So when are you three moving out?” she asked.
Jake looked at her in surprise.
“What?” she asked. “Did you really think I thought you’d all live here with me indefinitely?”
“Well, no, but we didn’t want to make you sad around the holidays,” Sandy said.
“Now, do not worry about me,” Maggie said. “You two have had to put your life together on hold while Jake was deployed, but he’s home now, and I know you’re eager to be a family. I am the default babysitter for Josh, however. That is not negotiable.”
Sandy grinned and circled the counter to give Maggie a fierce hug. “Thanks, Aunt Maggie.”
Maggie felt her throat get tight. She loved her niece like a daughter. And as brave a face as she put on, it still hurt to let her go.
“I’ve got my eye on a small fixer-upper just around the corner,” Jake said. He was watching her as if he knew she was acting stronger than she was actually feeling. She appreciated that he was trying to make it easier for her.
“Really?” Maggie asked. “Which one?”
“It’s over on Elm Street. It’s the pale blue house with white trim, but it looks like the front porch is rotted out,” he said.
“Oh, that’s the old Kerrigan house,” Maggie said. “They were such a nice family.”
“We’re going to the bank today to see if we can get preapproved to make an offer,” Sandy said.
