Deadly Noel

by Margaret Daley

  “Don’t answer. I can see he’s gotten to you, too.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, in the five years as a prosecuting attorney here and in Tulsa, have you ever apologized for doing your job?”

  “I’ve never convicted a person who wasn’t guilty.”

  “That you know about.”

  Her head throbbed; her body ached. The medication hadn’t put a big enough dent in the pain. She massaged her temples. “I’m tired. I’ll be at my office tomorrow. Craig just wants to keep me overnight for observation. Let me know anything you find concerning my accident or that note.” The words on it flashed into her mind, and she stiffened, her fingernails digging into her palms.

  “Fine.” Bill strode to the door then turned back. “Don’t take unnecessary risks, Kira. You know I don’t have the manpower to put someone on you twenty-four hours a day. These cases are eating my lunch as is. I’ll make sure a patrol car goes by your house every hour. I’ll have the patrol officer check on you at that time. All you have to do is tell him when you’re going to bed, and then he’ll look around to make sure no one has broken in. Keep your gun close.”

  As the police chief left, Dr. Craig Addison came into the room. “I wanted to see how you were doing before I went home. How’s your head?”

  “I know it’s there.”

  “Has the medication helped?”

  “It’s taken the edge off.”

  Craig’s eyebrows rose. “Really? I can give you something stronger. It’ll knock you out and allow you to get a good night’s sleep.”

  There was no way she would take something like that. She’d watched Grams take enough to open her own pharmacy. “I’ll be fine. When will you release me?”

  “You need to take it easy the next few days. You’ve got a nasty bump. If you see double, become dizzy or nauseated, let me know immediately.”

  She’d gone to school with Craig, only two years behind him, and wasn’t surprised when he had attended medical school. He’d been the smart boy, always studying. He’d preferred burying his nose in a book to dating. Most people didn’t even realize he was in a room because he was so quiet and reserved. “You know me. Much like you, work is my life. Don’t worry. I won’t do anything I shouldn’t.”

  “I wish I could believe you, but I do know you.” Craig made a clicking sound with his tongue, his hand twisting his stethoscope.

  “That’s what’s bad about coming home. You can’t get away with anything.”

  “This doctor and friend is telling you to rest and take it easy for at least the next forty-eight hours.”

  When he started to leave, Kira asked, “You’ll be here tomorrow morning first thing to release me?”

  “I don’t know why I even talk to you about what you should do. You won’t listen. You’re going to the office as soon as you leave, aren’t you?”

  “No. I need to go home and change first.”

  Craig shook his head and opened the door. “You’re hopeless. A head wound is serious.”

  For the first time in hours, Kira smiled. Craig and Bill were only concerned for her well-being, but she didn’t need a keeper. She needed someone to help her solve these murders. She couldn’t help feeling responsible, and she wouldn’t rest easy until the right man was locked up.

  The swishing sound of the door opening drew her attention. Her heart tripled its rate. Framed in the entrance was Gabriel. His rakishly long black hair was tousled as if he’d run his hand repeatedly through it. His gray eyes held a dangerous glint, and a nerve in his hard jawline twitched. He had the look of a man on a mission.

  “Did you see Bill?” she asked, her mouth dry.

  “Yes, as I was coming in. He stopped to give me another warning.”

  “He did?” Bill was as stubborn as Gabriel.

  “It seems he fancies himself your protector.” Closing the door and shutting the world out, he came into the room.

  “He isn’t.”

  “Tell him that.”

  “I’ve tried. But he’s the police chief and a friend.”

  “And I’m the guy bent on destroying you.”

  “Are you?”

  “No, even if the chief thinks I am.” Gabriel quickly covered the space between them. Sweat dampened her palms, forehead, and upper lip. Sitting up straight, she clenched her hands at her sides, her mind blank. “I came back to tell you I’ll help you with these murders anyway I can. I figure none of us will have our lives back until we’ve stopped this man. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, and we’ll start.” He stared down at her for an electrifying moment then pivoted and strode to the door.

  When he left, all the energy seemed to be siphoned from the room as though a powerful force had swept into her life then swept back out, leaving her wanting more—of what she wasn’t sure. Uncurling her hands, she sank back on her pillow, releasing a long sigh. At least she had the help she wanted. For the first time in a long while, hope seeded in her heart.

  * * *

  “Miss Davis. Miss Davis.”

  Kira stopped in the hallway near her office at the county courthouse in Pinecrest and glanced at the young man dressed in blue coveralls hurrying toward her. “Hello, Kenny. What can I do for you?”

  His freckled face beamed with a smile. “I need to fix your window. When’s a good time?”

  She checked her watch and realized she didn’t have anything urgent this morning. “How about now?”

  “I’ve gotta get my toolbox. I’ll be back in a sec.”

  The custodian scurried down the hall.

  After her restless night in the hospital, Kira wished she had his energy. Every sound in the hallway outside her room had played havoc with her imagination. She sighed and continued her trek to her office—three hours later than she usually arrived at work. Grams had picked her up and dropped her off at the courthouse after telling her the whole way that she needed to take better care of herself.

  Kira entered her office and greeted her secretary. “Kenny will be coming in to fix that stuck window you’ve been complaining about.”

  Penny Carr stopped typing at her computer and looked up. “It’s about time. I thought summer would be here before he got around to fixing it.”

  “You only asked him yesterday morning. Besides, cold weather has never stopped you from opening the window.”

  “Fresh air is good for the soul.”

  “And awful for my allergies. Any messages?”

  “On your desk except Dickerson Dealership. They just called and said your car was towed there this morning after Chief Shaffer gave the go ahead to move it. It’ll be ready for you in a couple of days.”

  “Good. I’ll have transportation soon.” With her hand on the doorknob to her inner office, Kira turned back to the older woman who had been the secretary for all the assistant DAs in the county for the past thirty years. “Please don’t say anything to Kenny for not getting to the window yesterday. He has his hands full with his mother being so ill.”

  “Who? Me? I’m the poster woman for good manners,” Penny said with a chuckle and began typing again.

  Kira shook her head and went into her office. Poster woman for good manners wasn’t exactly what she would have said about Penny. Her secretary was a no nonsense woman who didn’t tolerate anyone slacking on the job. She knew the functions of the county assistant district attorney’s office inside and out. She probably knew the dirty secrets of everyone who worked in this building. Nothing escaped her sharp eye. Kira was lucky to have her as a secretary and would put up with open windows even if the temperature outside was below freezing or above ninety.

  Kira plopped her briefcase in her black leather chair and surveyed the stacks of papers on her desk. No little elves had come to do her work in the middle of the night. She picked up one pile and put it on top of the file cabinet behind her to go through later. Then after removing her briefcase, she sat and flipped through her phone messages, massaging her temple where a dull ache persisted in spite of the medication Cr
aig had given her last evening. She was beginning to think it was more stress related.

  A knock sounded at her door right before Chief Shaffer stuck his head into her office. “I knew it. I had a bet with Larry that you would be working before noon.”

  “You should be ashamed of yourself, gambling with one of your men. It’s against Oklahoma law.”

  Bill slipped into the room and closed the door. “I don’t want Penny knowing everything.”

  “If I know Penny, she knew the minute that bet was made.”

  “Probably even before I decided to make it. Too bad she can’t use that special ability of hers to find out who the murderer is.”

  Suddenly the light mood evaporated, and Kira put her messages down. “What did you find out about my car?”

  “In addition to four holes in your car frame, there are two bullets in one tire and a third in another. I have an officer combing the area at the Michaels’ ranch for any more.”

  “Do they match the ones found in the women?”

  “Yes. The striae on the bullets came from the same weapon used in the murders.”

  She’d known it in her gut, but to have it confirmed left her shaken to the core. She folded her hands in her lap and tried to appear calm. “Did you find anything useful from the note?”

  “Not from it or from your purse, which I’m returning to you.” He placed her leather bag on top of the tallest stack of papers. “I think you’ll be safe here at the courthouse. Call me when you want to go home. I’ll have Larry escort you to and from the courthouse.”

  “The murderer didn’t contact his victims before he killed them.”

  “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “I mean something else to him. If he’d wanted me dead, I would be. He had the perfect opportunity last night.” Cold swept through her as if she’d opened her office window.

  “Maybe. But this scum—guy doesn’t think like you or me. No telling what he’s up to.”

  With those words, the police chief left her office. Kira lifted her trembling hands from her lap and tried to work, but mental images of the women’s mutilated bodies kept stealing her concentration. Covering her face with her palms, she leaned her elbows on the desktop, acknowledging that she could be the killer’s next victim in spite of what she’d said to Bill. But she could say that about any young woman in town. They all needed protecting.

  “He’s here.”

  Kira jerked upright and looked at Penny inside her door. She hadn’t even heard it open. “Who?”

  “Gabriel Michaels. You had some trouble at his ranch last night. Do you think he’s here about that?”

  “You mean you don’t know? This has got to be a first.”

  “I thought it could be about the fight he had with Marcie’s brother this morning. He probably wants to press charges. Josh Morgan just came at Gabriel for no reason.”

  “Gabriel was in a fight this morning?”

  “It’s Gabriel, is it?”

  “We went to school together.”

  “Isn’t he three years older than you?”

  “Yes, but—” Kira caught the mischievous gleam in Penny’s eyes and clamped her mouth shut, determined not to reveal another thing to the woman.

  “I’ll show him in.”

  Kira took a swift glance around her office and wished she wasn’t such a messy person. She knew where everything was, but it would be hard for anyone to believe that when he looked at the disarray scattered everywhere. She ran a hand through her blond hair, felt the tender lump over her eye, and wondered if her lipstick was still on.

  As Gabriel entered, his gaze riveted to hers for a few, long seconds before he scanned her office, one brow lifting. “I pictured you neat and organized with a place for everything.”

  “I know where everything is. There’s organization in this chaos.”

  He closed the door and eased into the chair in front of her desk. She’d always felt her office was an adequate size until this moment. Suddenly the room shrank, and she was very aware of being alone with him.

  “The police were at my ranch at the crack of dawn. What did they find out about the car?”

  “The gun used was the same caliber as the one used to kill the women, but there wasn’t anything on the note.”

  “I would have been surprised if there had been.” He leaned forward. “What can I do to help?”

  “I need to know everything you can think of concerning Marcie. She was our first victim.”

  “That you know of.”

  “You think there are other bodies out there at a different burial site?”

  He shrugged. “It’s possible. You might look into women from this county or the surrounding ones who’ve been reported missing in the past few years.”

  “I’ll see if Bill has. I don’t know what I’m looking for, but the man killing these women is from around here. He isn’t some transient passing through. Maybe somehow Marcie sparked this killing spree. Did she have any enemies?”

  “Besides me?”

  “Were you two enemies?”

  He glanced out the window for a long moment. “Our divorce negotiations weren’t without animosity, but believe it or not, I didn’t hate Marcie at all. I felt sorry for her.”

  “Why?”

  “Nothing made her happy for long.”

  “Her family tried to come up with a list, and all they could think of was you. They felt everyone loved Marcie. Apparently not. Can you think of others?”

  “You were her best friend all the way through school. When you came back to town, y’all picked right back up. Did she have any enemies?”

  “There was Shirley in high school. She hated Marcie for always getting the guys. Besides her, I don’t know of anyone else, but then I was gone for nine years. So, do you think these murders are random or connected?”

  His gaze slid away from hers then back. “I’ve been thinking about last year. Marcie was seeing someone while we were legally separated, maybe before that.”

  Chapter Four

  Kira straightened. “Who did Marcie have the affair with? You never mentioned she was seeing someone else while you two were still married.”

  “I tried, but the police wouldn’t listen, so I kept my mouth shut. Having an unfaithful wife can be considered a good motive for murder. I didn’t want to strengthen your case anymore than it was.”

  “I want to know now and would have if I’d known you’d said that. Who?” This could be a lead, especially since it wasn’t common knowledge Marcie was having an affair.

  He shook his head, his eyebrows slashing downward. “She wouldn’t say. But she did enjoy taunting me about the fact.”

  “You never followed her or anything to discover the man’s identity?”

  “By that time, I didn’t care. But if I’d known I needed someone else as a prospective killer, I would have.” His look narrowed on her. “Marcie wasn’t good about keeping secrets. Are you sure she didn’t say anything about being interested in another man?”

  “No, and I thought we shared everything.”

  “Obviously not.”

  Marcie had kept her own secrets as Kira had from her. The realization she hadn’t known about Marcie’s secret liaison shook her faith even more in being able to read people. She’d always felt she could, but this whole situation from Gabriel’s arrest to now made her acknowledge she could be wrong about a lot of things. She certainly had been about her ex-husband. She was discovering everything wasn’t black and white.

  “Marcie had a way of excluding people who cared about her from her life.”

  Kira tapped her pen against the blotter. “If you could make an educated guess, who do you think it was?”

  “A man who had something to hide. Otherwise I think she would have flaunted her affair. She didn’t care what others thought.”

  “A married man?”

  “Maybe. Didn’t her journal ever talk about the man?”

  “No. There were some entries that referred
to a he, but that was all. I was surprised when the police found her journals. I thought she’d stopped after high school.” Had Gabriel read any of Marcie’s entries?

  “She used to stay up late putting her thoughts down on paper.”

  “And you were never tempted to read it?”

  His mouth firmed in a harsh line. “No. I always respected her privacy.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything.” Kira shifted several folders from one pile to another. “We need to find out who Marcie was seeing?’

  “You’re thinking he could be the killer?”

  “Maybe. Or he might know something but not want to come forward.”

  “I would like to read her journals. There might be something in them that will give us a lead.”

  Kira remembered the passages that referred to Gabriel and frowned. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  “Give me a break. You don’t think she let me know exactly what she thought of me those last months we were together? I doubt anything she wrote would be worse than what she said to my face.”

  Kira chewed on her bottom lip, her pen tapping at a faster pace. She recalled some of the passages and again realized she hadn’t really known the woman who wrote them. The depths of Marcie’s hatred had poured off those pages. “If you’re sure.”

  “Yes. I want this person caught.”

  “I’ll have to get them from the police chief. We can meet at my place tonight.”

  He nodded. “Are you going to tell him why?”

  “No. He doesn’t need to know you’ll be reading them, too. I already know how he feels about you. I want to reread the journals in light of the knowledge that Marcie was seeing someone without anyone knowing—which is hard to accomplish in a small town.”

  “Won’t the chief think it’s strange you want them? Usually the prosecutors don’t get involved in a case until it goes to trial.”