Christmas Delivery

by Patricia Rosemoor

  “So we’re going to check out Drake Enterprises tonight?” she asked.

  “That’s the plan.”

  A thrill shot through Lexie as she realized they might find their answer tonight. Then what?

  “If we find the files, will that be enough proof for the authorities?”

  “I don’t know. It’ll be enough for me.”

  Lexie wanted to ask what he meant by that, but she was afraid she might not want to hear the answer.

  They finished eating in silence, after which Simon said, “I’ll clear.”

  “I’ll get the key.”

  Even as she left the kitchen, Lexie had some doubts about what they were doing. This kind of a search should be left to the authorities. Then again, she doubted that Chief Hammer believed in ghosts or in psychic abilities like the one that allowed Bray to see the names on the files.

  Even if they found the files, how were they going to explain everything?

  Maybe she never should have kept the key. But a lost key wasn’t exactly something the police would want to be bothered with. Scary how everything had escalated so quickly.

  Lifting the finial off the newel, Lexie looked inside and gasped.

  The key was gone.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Whoever got in and took the key is really good,” Simon said. “I didn’t see any sign of a break-in.”

  Suddenly it hit Lexie. “Katie! Mom brought her by the house to pick up some clothes earlier. She must have found it.”Lexie hurried to the phone and called her parents’ number. Her mother answered.

  “Mom, I need to speak to Katie.”

  “She’s up in her room. She said she was tired and wanted to go to bed early.”

  Was she getting sick? Katie never wanted to go to bed early. “Can you get her, please?”

  Lexie covered the mouthpiece and met Simon’s gaze. “Why would she have taken the key?”

  “Maybe she looked to see if you left a note…and thought the key was for her.”

  “That makes sense,” Lexie agreed. “We’ll have to stop at the house to get it from her.”

  Her mother came back on the phone. “Honey, I don’t know how to tell you this but…Katie’s not there. I—I think she left the house.”

  “What?” Panic gripped Lexie—had someone kidnapped her daughter? She looked to Simon. “Where would she go—and at night?”

  Simon immediately flipped open his cell and walked to the other end of the room, undoubtedly to check with the man who was supposed to be guarding their daughter.

  Then her mother said, “That party you wouldn’t let her go to…it’s tonight. Maybe she went despite your telling her she couldn’t go.”

  That had to be it, Lexie thought. Better that than where her mind had started to take her. “What was the name of that boy?”

  “Josh Pearson. He lives a couple blocks east of me. I’ll go there right now.”

  “No, I’m her mother.” Lexie grabbed a pad of paper and pen. “Where does he live?” She made note of the address and hung up at the same time Simon closed his cell and cursed under his breath.

  “He didn’t see a thing.”

  “I don’t understand how she slipped by him, unless he was asleep,” said Lexie, annoyance, anger and fear suffusing her voice.

  “She must have gone out the back door. He simply couldn’t be in two places at once.”

  Lexie nodded and headed for the door. “We’re going to a party.”

  They threw on their jackets and left the house. Lexie went directly to the SUV and Simon climbed into the passenger seat. Lexie’s stomach clenched at the thought that Simon and Katie would meet face-to-face.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded.

  “Making sure my kid is okay. You can introduce me as your date.”

  “She’ll know that’s a lie.” The moment the words were out of her mouth, Lexie flushed. Simon didn’t have to know she didn’t date, but it was too late to take it back.

  “You can tell her there’s a first time for everything,” he said as she started the engine.

  Truth be told, despite her doubts about putting father and daughter together before they’d worked anything out, before she’d had time to prepare Katie, Lexie was glad Simon was with her. She could use his strength, and his sense of calm was catching.

  Ten minutes later, she double-parked outside a house that was obviously the scene of a party. All the lights were on and music and shouts drifted out to the street.

  Turning on her flashers, Lexie said, “Wait for me here,” and jumped out of the vehicle.

  As she ran up the steps, she looked through the front bay windows, but didn’t see Katie. A knot formed in her stomach. Katie had to be there. She had to be.

  A sign on the door said to COME ON IN—IT’S OPEN, so she did. Heart pounding, she looked around at kids who were eating and talking in one room, dancing in the other. She recognized only a few of them. She didn’t know many of the high school kids. When she didn’t spot Katie right away, her pulse began to race.

  What if they were wrong and Katie wasn’t here, after all?

  What if someone had gotten into the house and had taken her?

  Just then she spotted a girl named Megan, an older friend of her daughter’s.

  “Megan, hi,” she said, forcing a smile. “Have you seen Katie?”

  “I think she’s in the kitchen.” Megan pointed her in the right direction.

  Relieved, Lexie said, “Thanks,” and moved through the crowd to the kitchen.

  She spotted Katie immediately. Rather than being with the high school kids she’d wanted to be part of, Katie was with adults. Two women were getting food together and Katie was helping them by placing sandwiches they made on a tray. She had a big grin on her face and nodded at something one of the women said.

  Lexie waited until her system righted and called, “Katie!”

  Katie’s head whipped around and her eyes went wide. “Mom?”

  “Let’s go.”

  A mulish expression settled on her daughter’s face and she didn’t budge. The two women looked distressed but didn’t interfere.

  “Katie, now.”

  Suddenly Katie rushed across the kitchen, eyes bright, and sailed right past her. Lexie nodded to the women, who gave her sympathetic looks, then followed her daughter, who grabbed her jacket from a coat tree and stormed straight out of the house and down the front steps.

  “Get in the backseat.”

  “What? Why?” Katie demanded.

  “Because the front seats are occupied.”

  Katie did as she was told and slammed the door.

  Lexie slid behind the wheel and gripped it for a moment. “I’m disappointed in you, Katie Thornton. You scared Nana to death. You scared me. You deliberately disobeyed me. What were you thinking?”

  “That I didn’t want to be an old stick-in-the-mud like you. I wanted to have some fun in my life. But it looks like you were doing that, too, behind my back.”

  “Don’t speak to your mother that way,” Simon said, his tone flat but firm. “You owe her your respect. She was very worried about you and with good reason.”

  Lexie thought Katie might argue with Simon, but the girl didn’t say a word as they pulled away from the curb.

  “I’m taking you back to your grandparents’ house, Katie. I don’t want to disappoint them because they were looking forward to spending time with you. But if I do, I want to know that you won’t act without permission again.”

  Katie’s voice was sulky as she asked, “You’re not grounding me?”

  “I didn’t say that, but that can wait until you’re back home. In the meantime, I want you to promise me you won’t try to sneak off again.”

  “All right. I promise!”

  “One other thing…do you have the key that I left in the newel post?”

  “I thought you left it for me.” Katie’s voice rose defensively. “Like it was some kind of puzzle I was supposed to figure out.”r />
  “No, Katie. I just put it there for temporary safekeeping.”

  “Safekeeping? Why?”

  “I just didn’t want to lose it,” Lexie hedged, holding out an open hand by her shoulder. “May I have it, please?” She felt the metal press into her palm and let her fingers curl around it. “Thank you.”

  “You’re not mad about the key, too, are you?”

  “No, honey, I’m not angry about the key.”

  When they arrived at her parents’ house, Lexie walked Katie inside and assured her parents that everything was all right and that their granddaughter had promised not to scare them again. Katie couldn’t look at her, wouldn’t speak to her, not even when Lexie gave her a one-armed hug and kissed the top of her head. Silently apologizing for any scares she’d given her own parents, she kissed them, too, before leaving.

  When she got back into the SUV, she just sat there for a moment, trying to regain her equilibrium.

  “Everything okay?” Simon asked.

  “Fine. Is Katie’s bodyguard out here?”

  “In the dark car across the street.”

  “Good. Then we can go.”

  As she started off for Drake Enterprises, Lexie couldn’t help but worry. Katie had been asserting herself more lately, had even openly defied her, but she’d never gone behind Lexie’s back before. Or attacked her personally.

  Remembering how Simon had stepped in, how Katie had responded to him, she said, “You surprised me before. You sounded like a father.”

  “Maybe because I am a father and I want to be part of our daughter’s life.”

  Lexie had nothing to say to that.

  SIMON HADN’T MISSED the way Lexie avoided the father reference. Because she didn’t believe him? Or because she didn’t want him to be a father to Katie?

  He also hadn’t missed that she hadn’t introduced him to their daughter. Then, again, what could she have said about him under the circumstances?The whole situation had simply been awkward.

  What he got from the incident, though, was to see firsthand a mother’s love. Lexie was tough and focused, a lioness with her cub, even in the face of their daughter’s temper. Katie had been a little snot to her, as kids could be when they didn’t get their own way. Though he’d interrupted, he hadn’t said what he’d longed to say—that Katie should appreciate what she had because she could lose it any time.

  Just as he had.

  Simon forced his mind away from the personal and concentrated on the task ahead.

  “Have you ever been at Drake Enterprises at night?”

  “Several times. We do their Christmas decorations. And then I went with Marie once. She was meeting Brandon there after a board meeting.”

  “What about security?”

  “No one mans the security desk after hours,” Lexie said, “but there is a guard that makes rounds every so often. Maybe once an hour.”

  “We should be able to avoid him.” At least Simon hoped they could. He didn’t want to have an altercation with some poor guy just doing his low-end job. “So you know the layout of the building.”

  “Somewhat.”

  “The executive offices?”

  “They’re on the second floor. I’ve only taken an elevator up, but there are at least two sets of stairs, as well.”

  “We’ll take the stairs then.” The elevator would create noise and bring the security guard running.

  Just outside of town, Lexie pulled onto Yacht Basin Road, and when it split she took the right branch. Drake Enterprises was straight ahead, overlooking the water. She pulled the car over to the side of the drive under a stand of trees just before they reached the two-story brick building.

  She said, “I figure the security guard won’t be looking for anything back here.”

  “Good thinking.”

  And good that trees lined the road and provided them with cover all the way to the building.

  Simon led the way, fine-tuning his senses to any noise or movement. The only thing he heard was the water washing against the shoreline. Nothing in sight moved.

  “We’ll get in through the loading dock door,” he told Lexie. And prayed there would be nothing extraordinary about the locks that protected it.

  A moment later they were on the dock, under the shelter of a canopy. Noting the alarm system, Simon removed some tools from his pocket and disabled it. Then he started working on the door locks.

  “Is all this something you learned to do in your former life?” Lexie asked, her uneven voice revealing her nerves.

  “I had to learn to do a lot of things that I never thought I would do,” Simon returned. Breaking and entering were among the least offensive of the skills he had been forced to learn. “When we get inside, we’ll have no idea where the security guard is, so we’ll need to be silent. Use sign language.”

  The lock clicked and he put a finger to his lips, then cracked the door and listened intently for several seconds before opening it fully and showing her inside. It was dark, but Lexie indicated that they needed to go down the long corridor to a set of double doors inset with small windows that glowed softly against the black corridor.

  When they got to the windows, Simon looked through one to the lobby where a few fixtures were dimmed, allowing him enough light to view the whole space. A young man in a gray uniform trimmed with black stood by the front windows, looking out. Simon held a hand up to tell Lexie to wait. A moment later, the guard moved off, crossed the room and went through a door on the other side of the security desk.

  Simon opened the door slowly, concentrating on making no sound. He urged Lexie through and, with only the equivalent of an emergency light to guide them, she went straight for the stairs. Simon followed, then once in the stairwell moved past her.

  At the top of the staircase, he stopped and listened, then cracked open the door to darkness. No light here. He looked to Lexie, who indicated that they should go to the left.

  Simon nodded, took Lexie’s hand and let her take the lead until a door slammed open down the hall. His pulse kicked up. The last thing he wanted was a confrontation. The young security guard was no Hans Zanko. Simon certainly didn’t want to hurt him, which would surely happen if he didn’t avoid the man, who must have come up that second set of stairs.

  The dark down the corridor was suddenly broken by a strong beam of light that moved from side to side. Simon squeezed Lexie’s hand to warn her, and immediately felt for the nearest doorway. He opened the door carefully so as not to make any noise, then pushed Lexie inside. He followed even as the corridor lights went on.

  Simon felt another door just inside the first, opened that one and stepped inside, pulling Lexie with him. There was hardly room for both of them in what was a closet, hardly room to breathe. Coats and other clothing crushed against them, cocooning them together. Though the situation was tense, with Lexie’s derriere pressed against him, Simon couldn’t help but respond physically. When Lexie audibly caught her breath, he knew she noticed, and he suspected that she was equally turned on.

  Fighting the distraction, he closed his eyes and listened intently as the sound of doors opening and closing echoed along the corridor. The security guard was doing more than a cursory job. He was taking careful inventory. Simon prayed he wasn’t looking into every closet, too.

  When he heard the office door open, Simon tensed, tightened his arm around Lexie. The guard was moving around…stopping…standing still for what felt like an interminable amount of time. Then he moved again and the office door closed behind him.

  Simon didn’t move. He listened to the security guard’s progress as he made his way slowly down the corridor.

  “What do we do?” Lexie whispered.

  “Wait.”

  It was several minutes before the security guard strode back down the hall, stopping halfway. The mechanical groan and whir of the nearby elevator relieved Simon, who’d thought the man might have suspected they were there, hiding from him. He listened harder, made sure the doors swish
ed open and closed and the elevator descended, before relaxing.

  “Let’s wait a minute longer to be sure,” he whispered into Lexie’s ear.

  She nodded, her hair moving against his skin, and at that instant, Simon knew he’d never wanted her more. Not that he could have her, not here. Each minute he waited was torture, but each minute was necessary to keep from being found out.

  Finally deciding that the guard was truly gone, that it was safe to leave the closet, he opened the door. They practically fell out together.

  “That was close,” Lexie whispered.

  “Too close. Let’s do this.”

  Leaving the office, Simon let Lexie lead him all the way to the end of the corridor. She stopped, felt around. Simon heard the sound of the doorknob being tested. Then the door swung inward and Lexie led him inside.

  “This is the executive suite,” she whispered in his ear.

  Simon thought to tell her they could talk in low tones now, but the sensual vibes he was getting from her breath and sheer closeness stopped him from spoiling the moment.

  “The receptionist sits out here. Cliff’s office is to the right. Heller’s office is to the left. Both overlook the water, of course.”

  “What about in between?” he whispered in return.

  “The boardroom. Cliff’s administrative assistant and Heller’s secretary have offices outside the suite.”

  “Let’s try Heller’s office first.” Holding her hand, he pulled her inside, closed the door and turned on a small desk lamp. “I think it’s safe to talk now.”

  Lexie was examining the three file cabinets in Heller’s office. “These are similar, but not identical.” She tried to insert the key. “Nope. Doesn’t even fit. I don’t understand. We were so sure it was Heller.”

  Simon clenched his jaw. He’d been hoping to hit pay dirt, but apparently it was too much to expect on the first try.

  “Cliff’s office,” Simon said, noting Lexie’s dismayed expression before turning off the light.

  But Cliff’s cabinets were identical to those in Heller’s office.