Deadly Noel

by Margaret Daley

  “Whether I like it or not, I am involved. The killer has chosen to involve me. Your false conviction has made me a participant in this investigation. I won’t let the wrong man be accused again.”

  “Such passion. That was part of the reason I was sent to prison. I can still remember your closing remarks at my trial. If any juror had doubt, he didn’t after you sat down.”

  His words hit her like a slap. Beneath the surface, his anger still simmered, ready at a moment’s notice to boil over and scald her. She should be afraid of him, but for some reason, she wasn’t, in spite of her bad judgment of some people in the past. She remembered him comforting her the night before. There was compassion and gentleness in this man Marcie had claimed was a brute who only wanted his own way.

  “I wouldn’t have been appointed by the district DA if I didn’t put one hundred percent of myself into the job.”

  His intense scrutiny captured her full attention. “Do you do everything in life with that kind of approach?”

  Her throat dry, she swallowed hard. “Yes.”

  For a long moment he said nothing. Kira wiped her damp palms on her skirt. Different emotions flitted across his face. He was wrestling with himself, coming to a decision that, for some reason, she sensed would shift their relationship.

  “Have you had lunch yet?”

  “No. And I skipped the wonderful breakfast they served at the hospital.” The tightness in her stomach had nothing to do with hunger and everything to do with the man sitting across from her.

  “Al’s Diner isn’t far. Want to grab something to eat and continue our discussion about Marcie’s lover?”

  She needed to eat, and she wanted people to see Gabriel with the assistant DA. There were still some in town who thought him guilty because that was what the Morgan family wanted. She, at least, owed him her support. She wouldn’t be used by the Morgans ever again. “That’ll be fine. I can’t be long. I have a meeting at one.”

  Gabriel pushed to his feet. “I have an appointment, too, before I pick up Abbey at school.”

  “She doesn’t ride the bus?”

  “Usually she does, but I knew I would be in town today, so I told her to wait at school for me.”

  “I enjoyed seeing her again last night. I wish it had been under better circumstances. Every time I see her, I think about Marcie when we were growing up.”

  “She’s nothing like her mother,” Gabriel clipped out each word, his jaw set, his tension conveyed in his stance.

  “She looks exactly like her mother.”

  “And that’s where the resemblance ends.” A storm brewed in the depths of his eyes.

  “No matter what you feel about Marcie, she’s still Abbey’s mother.” Kira came from behind her desk, all too aware that the friend she was defending hadn’t been the best example for her daughter.

  Gabriel blocked Kira’s path to the door, tall and indomitable, a man protecting what was his. “Don’t tell me how to raise my daughter. The Morgans have already tried that.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” She stood her ground, her own tension making her rigid. “But I do know that Marcie loved Abbey.”

  “Marcie only loved herself. That last month before she disappeared, she didn’t see Abbey half the time she was supposed to. That devastated my daughter.”

  She started to protest, but some of what she’d read in Marcie’s journals supported Gabriel’s accusation. She’d moved into town to live, and although she was nearer to Kira, Marcie kept backing out of plans. Apparently she’d done the same with her daughter. Because of the man she was seeing?

  “She used my daughter to get back at me. I won’t let Abbey be used like that again.”

  Bitterness laced his voice, but also the pain. What had happened to Marcie? How could she have been so blind to what Marcie had been doing? Kira touched his arm. “I’m sorry.”

  He looked down at her fingers. When his gaze returned to her face, he’d cloaked his expression. She started to remove her hand, but he clasped it, the rough texture of his skin a vivid reminder of the very essence of the man.

  She ran her tongue over her dry lips. “What happened? What went wrong?”

  “I wouldn’t do what she wanted, so she was going to make sure I paid. Her family had wanted me to come into their business. I refused and bought the ranch instead. She hated it and let me know how she felt all the time. I suppose the day I bought the ranch was the day my marriage really ended even though we remained married for four more years. I wanted it to work because of our daughter. Marcie didn’t care. She wanted a big house, things I couldn’t give her.”

  “She knew who you were when you two married. She was only rebelling against her family. She thought it would be fun to marry beneath her. Her words not mine.”

  He twisted away from Kira and moved toward the door. “My father had worked for hers. She took pleasure in telling me that on a number of occasions.”

  “Wait.”

  He threw her a glance over his shoulders. “I’m hungry and this conversation is over.” He thrust open the door, stepped into the outer office, and tipped his cowboy hat at Penny.

  Kira grabbed her purse and followed, disturbed by the picture Gabriel painted of her old friend. When she had returned to Pinecrest to fill in the vacancy of the county assistant DA, she hadn’t seen Marcie much in the years since high school. She looked the same—beautiful, prideful, but there had been a hard edge to her that Kira had thought had been put there by Gabriel and a failing marriage. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  When Kira emerged from her office, Kenny was working by the large window with his toolbox. He grinned at her and stopped.

  “I’ll have this window fixed in no time, Miss Davis.”

  “I appreciate that. My secretary loves fresh air. Penny, I’ll be at Al’s Diner.”

  “You have a one o’clock with the mayor.”

  “Yes, I know.” Just the mention of the mayor caused the dull ache behind her eyes to throb even more. Every day he demanded a solution to three murders, a solution that neither she nor the police had.

  As Kira walked beside Gabriel across the street to the diner, several people stopped to stare. When they entered the place, a few customers turned to look while they strode to the booth in front of the picture window.

  “There’s a table in the back if you want to be less conspicuous.” Gabriel remained standing.

  She glanced at him and smiled. “No, this is perfect. I have a statement to make for the doubters of this town.”

  Gabriel slid into the booth across from her. “I don’t need you to fight my battles.”

  “I know. I’m doing this for myself.”

  “It doesn’t change the past.”

  “I know that, too.” Her stomach knotted. Nothing could undo what happened.

  Tension had grown between them, starting when they crossed the street. With each look they had received, Gabriel had drawn more into himself, his expression more solemn the closer they got to the restaurant until his stress was a palpable force erecting a barrier between them.

  After she scanned the menu, Kira placed her order with the waitress, wondering if she would be able to eat any of the meal. She needed to get the conversation away from what happened to Gabriel. That would always be between them, but if they were going to work together, she wanted a truce.

  “Can you forget the past year for the time we need to work together?” Being direct was her usual way of dealing with any unpleasant situations. She hated playing games.

  His sharp gaze bored through her. “As though it never happened?”

  “I know it’s something you’ll never really forget, but can you put it aside for the time being? It’s hard to concentrate with all this tension between us.”

  A nerve jerked in his jaw. “Can you forget about something as life changing just like”—he snapped his finger—“that?”

  Flashes of memories of Jonathan’s verbal and in the end physical abuse captured her mind. For a
moment, she was transported back in time to their final confrontation that led to her divorce. The sound of the slap against her cheek that sent her tumbling down the stairs echoed through her thoughts. She couldn’t forget or forgive it even though Grams kept telling her that was the only way she could really move forward.

  She looked right at him. “No.”

  Silence hung between them until the waitress set their coffee mugs on the table.

  “I’m not sure this can work if—”

  “I’ll try, Kira. That’s all I can promise.”

  “Thanks.” Relieved, she lounged back.

  Al put the hamburgers down in front of them. “When I heard you were out here, I wanted to say hi, Kira, and to see how you’re doing. I heard about your run-in with the killer yesterday.”

  She forced a smile. What else were people saying? “News travels fast.”

  Al towered over them, glaring at Gabriel. “Well, not from this guy. I can’t believe you were in here last night and didn’t tell me what happened at your ranch. I had to hear it from Penny today at breakfast.”

  “Abbey was with me.” Gabriel dumped a packet of sugar into his coffee.

  “Oh, yeah. I guess that wouldn’t be a good topic with your daughter around. Are you okay, Kira? I heard you were in the hospital overnight.”

  “I’m better.”

  “Good. I need to get back to the kitchen.” Al gave her a smile then left. The owner of the café was all arms and legs, and when he moved, it was with an awkward gait as though he couldn’t get his limbs to work together.

  “I’m surprised he came out to say anything.” Kira squirted mustard on her bun. “He doesn’t talk much even here in the diner. I remember him being painfully shy in school. Wasn’t he the one who threw up in English class when the teacher made him get up in front of the class to read his report?”

  “Yes. That flew around the school faster than lightning. He’s still shy, but because he owns this place, he’s really trying to overcome that. I heard he took speech at night school, but it was a disaster.”

  “It was sweet of him to ask about last night.”

  “Odd, though. His behavior last night was odd, too. When I came to pick up Abbey and Jessie, he was sitting at the table talking to them, even laughing. That’s not like him. I didn’t think too much about it at the time. I had more important things on my mind.”

  “Like what?”

  “Whether I was going to help you or not.”

  “I’m glad you did. For the first time I have hope something will break for us. This clue about a lover has potential.”

  “If we can figure out who it is.” Gabriel lavished ketchup on his French fries.

  “I’ll get the journals later today. After we read them, we might have a better feel for who the guy is. I haven’t looked at them since your trial.”

  “Knowing Marcie and what she told me she wanted, he had to be rich, successful, and willing to indulge her every whim.”

  Pain filled his words, and she wasn’t even sure that Gabriel was aware of it. He tried to act as if Marcie’s affair hadn’t bothered him, but it had. She saw it in his eyes. Was he still in love with her? Love and hate were such strong emotions, easily mixed up. Jonathan had said he loved her repeatedly, but his actions showed her the opposite.

  “How’s the ranch doing?” Kira took a bite of her hamburger, relishing the juicy meat with Al’s special sauce cooked in.

  “Hank and Jessie did what they could to keep it going while I was in prison. She tried to hire some extra help, but no one would work for them or if they did, they didn’t stay more than a couple of days.”

  “Why didn’t you sell the ranch?”

  Gabriel tunneled his fingers through his dark hair. “I wasn’t ready to acknowledge defeat. I was innocent. I kept hoping someone would figure it out. And finally the Lord answered my prayers.”

  She used to go regularly to church, but once Jonathan’s verbal abuse intensified, she only went to work. Anywhere else required she pretend everything was all right when it wasn’t. During those years, she’d prayed to God to help her. Her situation only worsened until she decided she was on her own.

  “Your sister is quite devoted to you. After the trial and again yesterday, she let me know in no uncertain terms exactly how she felt about your conviction.”

  “Yeah, she can be a fierce tigress. She was the one who kept Hank going. I think he would have given up last spring when we had that unexpected heavy snowfall that took weeks to melt.”

  “Are you going to try to hire more help now that you’ve been vindicated?”

  “Right now, he’s the only one I can afford. But that’s gonna change. My ranch is my daughter’s legacy. I intend to make it a success despite what the Morgan family wants.”

  The strain, which had eased, sprang up between them again. Kira finished chewing her last bite of her hamburger. “I heard you had a run in with Josh this morning.”

  “News does travel fast in this town. Penny?”

  “Yeah, who else? What did you two fight about?”

  “Abbey.” Gabriel ate several fries, his gaze trained on a spot in front of the diner. “He doesn’t think I have the best interests of my daughter at heart.”

  “Why? It’s obvious to anyone who sees you two together that you do.” She could easily envy Abbey. The girl knew her father and that he loved her. Kira couldn’t say the same thing about her own dad and that hurt.

  He didn’t look at her but said, “He doesn’t think Abbey’s safe at the ranch. He thinks that his family is better equipped to protect her and keep her safe, especially with what happened yesterday.”

  “Is she safe?” The question slipped out while she thought about what she’d gone through so close to his home.

  He stiffened, his jaw set in a firm line that spoke of a man grappling with a problem. “Is anyone safe in Pinecrest? I don’t know. But I do know that I’ll protect her with my life. I can’t say that about Josh. Marcie’s family cares for themselves before anyone else. I learned that painful lesson the hard way.”

  “So what did you tell him?”

  He winced. “I don’t care to repeat it, but I’m sure he got my point.”

  “Is that when he punched you?”

  “That’s when he tried to.”

  Kira chuckled. “I’d have liked to have seen that.”

  “You mean you aren’t one of the hordes of women lining up to go out with him?”

  “I know too much about the man.”

  “That sounds intriguing. Too bad I have a meeting at the bank in twenty minutes.”

  * * *

  Along with dozens of other parents waiting in their cars, Gabriel sat impatiently staring at the school’s front doors, willing his daughter to come out. From the crowd, he realized he wasn’t the only one afraid for his child to come home alone.

  While the first group of children raced from the building, he thumped his forefinger against the steering wheel. A mental vision of Kira formed as the minutes slowly ticked down. Surprisingly, when he thought about her, none of his earlier anger materialized. Maybe he would be able to move past this last year, at least where Kira was concerned. She was a beautiful woman who…

  What was he thinking? He could never be interested in Kira Davis. He could never trust her, especially after Marcie.

  Gabriel forced any thought of Kira from his mind and concentrated on finding Abbey in the horde of children leaving the building. Finally, when the trickle of kids stopped coming out of the front doors, he gripped the steering wheel, fighting the wave of alarm rushing through him.

  Where are you?

  He thrust open his door and hurried toward the entrance. His heart pounded as quickly as his booted feet against the concrete. The buses were leaving, the parents in their cars almost all gone, and his daughter was nowhere to be found. At the front door, he paused and panned the lawn, praying he was panicking for no reason, that he would find his daughter by his truck, waving and sm
iling at him. But all he saw was one boy pedaling away from the school.

  Gabriel pivoted around and yanked open the doors. His pace down the long empty corridor quickened as he neared his destination. Please let Abbey be in in the principal’s office, safe.

  When he entered the main office, he found only one older woman behind the counter. He approached her. “Where’s Abbey Michaels?”

  The woman screwed her face into a thoughtful expression and tilted her head to the side. “She isn’t here.”

  “What do you mean Abbey isn’t here?” Gabriel tried to remain calm by inhaling a deep, composing breath to still the rapid thumping of his heartbeat, but he felt his control slipping.

  Principal Evan Jones came out of his office and crossed to the counter. “Mr. Michaels, Mrs. Morgan picked up her granddaughter about thirty minutes ago.”

  Relieved, Gabriel relaxed the tense set of his body for a brief second until he realized who had his daughter. “I didn’t give my permission for Mrs. Morgan to take Abbey today.”

  The principal shifted from one foot to the other, his features pulled into a worried expression. “I just assumed since she was Abbey’s grandmother that it was okay. She’s picked her up in the past.”

  Gabriel glared at the muscular man who looked as though he had stepped off the cover of Gentleman’s Quarterly. “Well, you assumed wrong, Mr. Jones. Jessie Michaels or I are the only ones allowed to pick up Abbey. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, you’ve made yourself perfectly clear.”

  Gabriel wanted to punch the man in the mouth to wipe that sudden smug look from his face, to mess that perfect hair that probably was never out of place even in a windstorm. Instead, Gabriel swung away from the counter and walked from the office, his long strides eating up the distance to his truck. He jerked the door open and climbed inside.

  He slammed his palm against the steering wheel. Pain raced up his arm. The less he saw his ex-mother-in-law the better off he was. She wanted Abbey and would stop at nothing to get her—even kidnapping—and somehow she would get away with it.