Deadly Noel

by Margaret Daley

  “And I don’t need a babysitter as long as Gabriel is here.”

  Officer Wally Byrd tipped his cowboy hat, threw one last glare toward Gabriel, and strode to his patrol car. Gabriel was not the killer, and he didn’t need to be treated as if he was. Kira took a step forward, intending to have a private word with the man.

  Gabriel clasped her arm. “Don’t on my account. Nothing you say will change some people’s mind.”

  She whirled around. “It should. If the police don’t put one hundred percent behind catching the murderer, he’ll go scot free.”

  His strong jawline twitched. “That’s why I’m not depending on the police. I’m going to find the killer. Let’s get started.” Without waiting for her, he entered her house.

  Heart still thumping against her rib cage, she followed. She hated injustice. She stomped through the entrance and slammed the door, hoping the officer heard. She walked into the living room and checked out the front window. The patrol car was still there.

  She jerked the drapes closed and decided she couldn’t let the man get to her. When she turned to Gabriel, he stood in front of the stack of journals. “I’ve started going through the ones in high school. I’d like you to read the newest to the oldest ones. If anything jumps out at you, put it down on a piece of paper. Then we can compare notes. We can do part tonight and the rest tomorrow night if that works for you.”

  “No, it doesn’t.” He slanted a look at her. “We need to go through them in one sitting. Time is against us.”

  “Then why didn’t you come earlier?”

  “I had business to tend to.”

  “But this is important.”

  “So is my family.”

  “I know you haven’t been around Abbey and Jessie much these past months. I could have come to the ranch.” As she said the last sentence, she shuddered, remembering the last time and wanting to snatch the words back.

  “From this time forward, I’ll be totally focused on the case. Abbey and Jessie left this evening for Florida.”

  “I know Pinecrest isn’t the safest place, but by themselves?”

  “No, with Ruth and Josh Morgan.”

  Shock flooded her system, and she couldn’t think of anything to reply.

  “I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t thought it was the safest way to go, but now I have every incentive to find this guy. I want my daughter and sister back as soon as possible before…” His voice trailed off, and he turned his back on her. “Which is the newest journal?”

  The strain in his voice drew her to him. “Why Ruth and Josh?” Aren’t you worried what they’ll say and do? She reached around him and plucked the top diary from the taller stack. “I never thought you would do something like that.”

  He took the journal from her. “When it comes to Abbey and Jessie, I’ll do everything I need to keep them unharmed. I know the risk I’m taking. Ruth could leave and never return with my daughter, but that would mean she’s willing to cut ties with Pinecrest. Kidnapping is still a crime in our country. Her standing in the community is too important to her. She’ll come back and fight me in court over the custody of Abbey. But at least my daughter and sister will be alive.”

  “Ruth doesn’t play fair.”

  “I know, but if nothing else, I’ve got a few influential reporters who want to tell my side of the story. In the long run, she won’t like that kind of negative press.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Marcie’s mother was ruthless above all else.

  “No, but I’m trying to convince myself. That’s why I wasn’t here an hour ago. I’ve been driving around. I even went to the airport and watched their jet take off. The best thing I can do is pray and believe this is God’s will.”

  “But what if it isn’t?” In the past five years, she’d had her faith shaken to its core. How was it that Gabriel hadn’t?

  Inhaling a deep breath, he closed his eyes for a few seconds. The bleak expression in his eyes attested to his dilemma. “I can’t fight Him, too.”

  She covered his hand holding the bright pink book. “I need to remember that. I’m going to put some coffee on. I need caffeine if I’m reading the rest of the journals.” Touching him connected her to Gabriel. They were in this together. The thought comforted her.

  She waited in the kitchen while the pot percolated then filled two large mugs and returned to her living room. After setting his drink on the table next to him, she sat on the other end of the couch. Occasionally, she slid a glance toward him because she remembered the uncharitable comments Marcie had written about Gabriel, but his expression remained stoic as if he were reading about a fictional character. And perhaps he was. The man in those pages, especially the last four years of their marriage hadn’t been family orientated. He’d been selfish and demeaning. But then maybe reading it with the notion he was innocent would put a different light on what was written by Marcie. It certainly had changed her perspective on the earlier years.

  Silence ruled until eleven o’clock and her doorbell chimed. Gabriel rose at the same time she did.

  “That’s probably a police officer,” she said while making her way into the foyer. “I can take care of it. Go on and read.”

  “I’d feel better if I’m with you.” As she looked out the peephole, Gabriel peeked out the narrow blinds on the side of the door.

  When Kira faced Officer Byrd a few seconds later, she frowned. “Why are you sitting out front? I told you I was fine.”

  The patrolman swung his narrow-eyed gaze to Gabriel. “Chief Shaffer told me to until he leaves.”

  Gabriel stepped closer to Kira until their arms brushed against each other. “So you can follow me home?”

  She clasped his hand. “If you want to sit in your car out front, fine but don’t ring the doorbell every hour. We’re working.”

  “Yes, ma’am. But if you need me, I’ll be here.” The officer threw a last glance at Gabriel as Kira shut the door.

  “If looks could kill…” He headed for the living room.

  Kira followed him. “Bill and Officer Byrd are tight, and Bill hates to be wrong. He feels your release is a black mark against him. Your walking around is evidence for the whole town that our police chief made a mistake.”

  Gabriel settled in the same spot on the couch and picked up the journal he was reading. His hands gripped its sides.

  “I’m sorry you have to read what she wrote about you.”

  “Things were bad between us the last few years, but I never realized the depth of her feelings against me.” He flipped back several pages and pointed at it. “This is the second discrepancy I’ve found.”

  Kira scooted next to him. “What?”

  “She makes it sound like she was at the ranch. I know she wasn’t that day and night. I knew she didn’t want to live there, but I couldn’t afford to have a house in town, too. So when she periodically went to visit a girlfriend who lives in Oklahoma City overnight, I was relieved. This was one of those times.”

  “Who? I was in town by this time. She never said anything to me.”

  “Hannah Waters. She moved away before you came back to Pinecrest.”

  “Why wouldn’t Marcie just say that?”

  “Because it was a lie. If she was having an affair as she told me, then that must have been when.”

  “Did you ever talk to Hannah?”

  “If I needed Marcie, I called her on her cell phone. I don’t have Hannah’s number, and I saw no point in contacting her after Marcie let me know she had an affair.”

  “I’m going to get in touch with Hannah. We need to know who Marcie had an affair with. She might know, especially if Marcie saw him while in Oklahoma City.”

  As the hours passed, Kira read the later diaries, noting each time Marcie went out of town, often to Oklahoma City. In the latter entries, there were even more subtle changes in her childhood friend, more bitterness and anger. When she finished the last journal, her eyes burned and a deep weariness cloaked her. She checked her wa
tch: 7:00 a.m. Where had the time gone?

  Kira glanced at Gabriel, engrossed in the pages before him. His stack of unread diaries had shrunk to three. She rose and grabbed their mugs. “I’ll refill this.”

  She poured coffee into both of their cups then made a fresh pot. She paused in the entrance and watched him as he read. None of the earlier tension lined his face, but then he wasn’t mentioned in her high school journals, except a couple of times at the end of Marcie senior year.

  While she set his mug on the end table near him, he closed one and took another. Their gazes linked, and the anguish she glimpsed in his eyes stole her breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Kira took the seat next to him on the couch.

  He clutched one of the journals from Marcie’s freshman year. “I wish I’d read these years ago. So much has been explained about her in these pages. Her desperate need to be loved. Her need to be validated. Now I realize I never really knew the woman I married. I thought I had at one time.” Gabriel surged to his feet and prowled the living room. “I have to find this murderer. Ruth has Abbey. I don’t want my daughter around her grandmother for long periods of time. Look at what Ruth did to Marcie. She had anything money could buy, but the one thing she wanted was acceptance and love from her mother. Ruth was incapable of giving Marcie that.”

  “I think you did for a while.”

  He halted his pacing and faced her. “But her mother was always there in the background chipping away at Marcie. Our marriage never had a chance.”

  Kira searched her mind for something to say that would make a difference. She couldn’t.

  The ringing of the doorbell sliced the air as though a guillotine swooshed down.

  She jumped to her feet and headed toward the foyer, her pulse thudding through her body. “Obviously Wally doesn’t understand what don’t ring my bell means.” She started to swing the door open.

  Gabriel clamped her arm and stopped her. “Check who it is. Don’t ever assume anything.”

  When he released his grasp, Kira stood on tiptoes, saw who was out on the porch and sighed. After turning the lock, she pulled on the knob, backing away a couple of steps.

  Chief Shaffer barged inside and peered into the living room. “Where is he?”

  “Who?”

  “Michaels. There’s been another murder.”

  Chapter Six

  When Gabriel first heard the police chief’s voice, he grabbed his mug and headed through the dining room into the kitchen to refill his cup with the freshly brewed coffee. After being emotionally racked over the coals by Marcie in the journals, he didn’t want to deal with Bill Shaffer. He wouldn’t be able to escape the man for long, but he needed a moment of private time with the Lord.

  Holding the mug cupped in his hands, he leaned against the counter and bowed his head. Give me the strength to be civil to the man, Lord. I may need his help in finding the murderer. I know I need Yours to show me who murdered those women and to keep Abbey, Jessie—and Kira—safe from the killer.

  When he opened his eyes and looked toward the entrance, Kira stood there. The pain and grief in her gaze chilled him deep into the marrow of his bones. “What happened?”

  “Mary Lou Peters is missing. She left work at the grocery store at ten last night and never came home. With all that has been going on, her mother called the police this morning when she went into her room to wake her up and discovered she didn’t even come home.”

  No! He’d just talked to her a few days ago. Mary Lou and Jessie were friends. Gabriel set his mug on the counter and covered the distance to Kira. “No chance she had a date and stayed out all night?”

  “Not so far. The police are checking with all her friends.”

  “So why is the chief here?” Can’t he give me peace?

  Kira averted her gaze, looking over his shoulder.

  “For me. He still thinks I’m the killer,” Gabriel finally muttered.

  “Not now. I told him you were here from ten until now reading Marcie’s journals, and we have an officer who sat in his patrol car last night to back up our alibi.”

  “Our alibi?”

  She clasped his upper arms. “We are in this together. I won’t rest until this guy is caught. Bill is slow to change, but he will.”

  Her touch conveyed her support, and the idea he wasn’t in this alone shored up his determination to find the killer. Gabriel wasn’t sure Bill would. What had he done to create such hatred in the police chief that kept him hanging onto a wrong perception? The courts cleared him. Why wasn’t that enough for Bill?

  He moved past Kira and strode into the living room, his jaw locked so tightly it ached. “You think I know where Mary Lou is?”

  At the window staring outside, Chief Shaffer pivoted and glared at Gabriel. “Do you know?”

  “No, but let me call my buddy, the sociopath killer, and ask him.”

  Daggers shot out of the police chief’s eyes. “Please do.” His hand rested on the butt of his gun in its holster.

  “Just as soon as I can figure out who he is, I will. No one wants this man in jail more than me.”

  The police chief studied Gabriel for a long moment. The hostility emanating from Bill lessened. “You didn’t deserve Marcie. You two were so different.”

  Gabriel remembered how Bill had tried to date Marcie, and she’d turned him down. She made fun of the police chief being her mom’s pawn, but pointing that out wouldn’t do any good now. “In hindsight, I agree, but I tried to make the best of a rocky situation.”

  The police chief’s gaze shifted to Kira standing next to Gabriel. “Have the journals helped you any?”

  “We’re not quite finished reading them all. I’ve seen a few references to a ‘he’ that I thought was Gabriel when I originally went through them, but now I realize it wasn’t him. Reading them from a different perspective has opened my eyes to what preconceived notions can do when looking at a piece of evidence.”

  Bill stiffened. “Are you saying that’s what I did?”

  “Only you can answer that, but I did. I believed the evidence against Gabriel, and as a result, I didn’t look at the journals as a way to prove he was innocent. Marcie told Gabriel she had a lover. What if that man was the murderer?”

  “Then why is he killing all the other women?”

  “Good question, Bill. You can ask him when we find him.” Kira moved to the couch, her arm sweeping over the stack of diaries. “We’ll be finished this morning, and then I’ll give you an overview of what we’ve come up with. You should go through them with an open mind. You might be surprised how your outlook changes. I loved Marcie, but she had problems.”

  The weariness deep inside Gabriel abated as he listened to Kira stand up to the police chief. She really believed he was innocent. That was a solace he didn’t realize he needed until now. “Speaking about Marcie and the journals, I didn’t see one after the twentieth of December. That’s three weeks before her disappearance. There should be one. Where is it?”

  Kira peered at Bill. “I don’t remember there being one. I just assumed it was a time gap between journals. There was another missing period not long after y’all separated.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that. A month. I can’t answer about that gap, but when I went through her bedroom to her connected bathroom to retrieve Abbey’s antibiotic she was taking, I know I saw a journal on her nightstand with a scene of lightning in a dark storm on its cover.”

  Again Kira and Bill exchanged looks.

  The police chief scowled. “These are all we had in evidence. That we found at her house. Are you sure it isn’t here?”

  “I would have remembered that. She chose her next journal based on her mood at the time she started it. I even asked her what was going on. For Abbey’s sake, I was concerned, but Marcie told me to stay out of her business, that I didn’t have a right anymore to know what she was doing. I sent Abbey to my truck and tried once again to find out what was wrong. Marcie laughed.” He still remembered how it had
sounded—an eerie, hysterical ring to it. “That’s when she told me she had a lover who was better than I ever was. I didn’t stay around. Abbey was waiting and, frankly, I was tired of dealing with Marcie’s drama.”

  “That means someone took it.” Kira sat on the couch and went through the stacks.

  Bill pinned him with a narrow-eyed gaze. “Did you look at it when you saw it?”

  Tension clamped about Gabriel’s chest. “No. I never read her journals.”

  Bill snorted. “Sure. You want us to believe you never took one little peek during those years you were married to her?”

  “You can believe what you want. I know I didn’t. Would you make a habit of reading your wife’s?”

  Bill closed the space between them, his hands balled at his sides. His glare cut through him. “You’re treading on shaky ground. My wife has nothing to do with this investigation, but yours does.”

  Technically he had still been Marcie’s husband. They were separated but not divorced when she died. “If you’d listened to me when I tried to tell you I didn’t murder my wife, you might not have two other dead women, and possibly Mary Lou, killed, too. I could have helped you. You never gave me a chance.”

  “And I’m not now!” Bill’s voice rose, nearly a shout.

  Kira placed herself between Bill and Gabriel but faced the police chief. “Are you going to let your pride stand in the way of finding the murderer? We now know that one, possibly two, journals are missing. That’s a lead.”

  “How’s that a lead? It doesn’t tell us who the killer is unless we find the journals, which according to you two are gone. Probably destroyed by now.”

  “He might not have damaged them. But even if he did, it tells us that Marcie did most likely have a lover like she told Gabriel. And if not, why were they taken? She wrote something that he didn’t want anyone to know.”

  Bill jabbed his finger in Gabriel’s direction. “That describes Gabriel. They were separated. What we read wasn’t flattering, so I can just imagine what Marcie said that we didn’t read. He could have taken them.”

  Kira shook her head. “Get out. I’m not going down this route again. There’s no point talking to you until you let go of your anger. It colors your judgment.”