Grave Holiday (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 9)

by Lily Harper Hart

  Maddie shrugged and held her hands palms up. “Maybe it’s lost. Maybe I didn’t get you one. Maybe I finally came up with a hiding spot that you can’t get to.”

  “It’s at the police station, isn’t it?”

  Some of Maddie’s earlier bravado fled. “Who told you that?”

  “I figured it out from something Nick said,” Maude muttered, rolling her neck until it cracked. “You’re a sneaky twosome. I don’t like it. At all.”

  “Well, you’ll live,” Maddie said. “We’re having our family gift exchange early in the morning on Christmas day. Nick and I have to head over to his mother’s house after that. You’re welcome to come.”

  “I have plans.”

  “What plans?”

  “Bourbon and cards. It’s the perfect Christmas.”

  Maddie didn’t bother to argue with her grandmother’s assessment. “Don’t forget that I’m cooking dinner for the three of us tomorrow. It’s not going to be much of a Christmas without snow, but I guess we’ll make do.”

  “Have a little faith,” Maude suggested. “It’s going to snow. I can feel it in the air.”

  “You can?”

  “I can,” Maude confirmed. “It’s coming tonight, in fact. It’s going to be a big one.”

  “Not according to the weather forecasters.”

  “The weather forecasters can’t find a pocket of drizzle with both hands and a bag full of humidity,” Maude shot back. “It will snow. Have some faith.”

  “I have faith,” Maddie said. “You’re still expected for dinner tomorrow. I’m hoping Mom will show up, although … .” She broke off, biting her lip.

  “Your mother won’t miss Christmas,” Maude said. “That’s not the way she rolls. She’ll be there. You know that. She’s probably just saving up her energy so she can spend a lot of time with us.”

  “That’s what I think, too,” Maddie said, brightening. “That sounds just like her, right?”

  “That sounds exactly like her,” Maude said. “So, um, where did we land on my gift? Can I have it early?”

  Maddie’s smile slipped. “Absolutely not. You can have it Christmas morning. That’s a tradition we’re not breaking. I don’t care how much you wheedle and cajole. It’s not going to happen.”

  “You’re a real Grinch sometimes. Has anyone ever told you that?”

  “You just did.”

  “Well, it fits,” Maude said, stalking toward the tent flap. “Make sure you don’t spend the entire night in here, Maddie girl. It’s Christmas. You should enjoy it.”

  “I’m just waiting for Nick to get back,” Maddie admitted. “He’s out looking for Marla. We need to find her before it gets dark.”

  “It’s almost dark.”

  “I know that.”

  “And Marla is in the beer tent,” Maude added.

  Maddie snapped her head around, surprised. “She is? Are you sure?”

  “She’s with her grandmother. We’ve been stalking Harriet for hours.”

  “Well, that solves one problem,” Maddie said, turning toward the tent opening. “Thanks, Granny. Even though you were snooping – which you shouldn’t have been doing, mind you – you gave me a great deal of help. I really appreciate it.”

  “I never considered Marla Proctor a reason to get happy, but whatever rings your sleigh bells,” Maude said dryly. “You know, since I helped and all, I think that means … .”

  “You’re not getting your gift early.”

  “You suck.”

  “You’ll learn to live with it.”

  21

  Twenty-One

  Maddie picked her way toward the beer tent, casting a short glance over her shoulder and watching as the sun settled lower in the sky while flashing the occasional smile for passersby. It shouldn’t be dark this early in the day and yet the light was limited. It almost felt as if a storm was brewing, like Granny said. Maddie didn’t want to get her hopes up, though, so she pushed the idea out of her head.

  She found Marla sitting at a table in the corner when she arrived, Cassidy perched across from her. The duo seemed lost in heavy conversation … and then Maddie remembered the instructions Nick left with Cassidy when they saw her last and her temper flared.

  “Hey, girlfriends!” Maddie used her most obnoxious voice as she approached the two women, her annoyance obvious. Cassidy shot her a dirty look as Marla averted her gaze. If Maddie didn’t know any better, she would swear that her childhood enemy had been crying. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re in the middle of something private,” Cassidy said, her tone clipped. “Do you mind?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” Maddie shot back. “Nick told you to tell him if you found Marla. Did you forget that?”

  “How do you know I didn’t?”

  “I … oh.” Maddie stilled. “He didn’t call and tell me that he knew where Marla was. Why didn’t he do that if you called and told him where to find her?”

  “You’ll have to ask him,” Cassidy replied, irked. She hadn’t bothered to call Nick but there was no way she would admit that to Maddie. “It’s not my job to answer to you. I only agreed to help in the first place as a favor to Nick.”

  Maddie wasn’t thrilled with Cassidy’s attitude, but she decided to ignore it and focus on Marla. “We need to get you someplace else, Marla,” she announced. “It’s important that we get you out of the public and away from people.”

  “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Marla’s voice was wobbly, her eyes red-rimmed and glassy. “You just want to pretend I’m not here, pretend I’m not a factor. You want to make a big deal about the fact that you’ve got Nick and no one else can have him. You say I was never a consideration, but I was a consideration!”

  Maddie ran her tongue over her teeth as she decided how to respond. Marla was clearly buzzed … and in the mood to be unreasonable.

  “You shouldn’t let her get to you, Marla,” Cassidy prompted. “You’re a strong woman. You need to remember that.”

  Maddie offered the women an exaggerated eye roll as she fought to contain her temper. “Did Marla tell you that she was waiting for Nick to dump you so she could move in on him? That’s why she became friends with you in the first place, by the way. She admitted that to Nick and me earlier today. I know you probably have an inkling from before, but she totally confirmed it.”

  Cassidy’s mouth dropped open, her eyes wide. “Is that true?”

  “It’s not exactly true,” Marla clarified, swiping at her cheek. “She’s making some of it up.”

  “I am not.”

  “What is she making up?” Cassidy asked, intrigued. “What part is she making up?”

  “The part where I admitted to all of it,” Marla shot back. “I only admitted to part of it.”

  “So, it’s true,” Cassidy mused, shifting in her chair. “Did you really think you were going to move in on Nick when he was done with me? I mean … how do you know we wouldn’t have made it forever under different circumstances? Maybe he never would’ve been done with me.”

  Marla made an exaggerated face as she swung her eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, puh-leez,” she intoned. “Are you kidding me? Nick had a six-month cycle. Everyone knew it. You were already on your way out before Maddie returned. Get a grip.”

  “But what makes you think he would’ve even looked in your direction?” Cassidy challenged. “He never liked you. He always refused to go out on double dates. He thought you were a devil in women’s clothing.”

  “You’re making that up,” Marla challenged. “He liked me. He was just afraid to show it because he was shy.”

  “I am not making it up! He hated you.”

  Maddie crossed her arms over her chest and cleared her throat to break up the potential hair-pulling contest. On any other night she would’ve enjoyed watching Marla and Cassidy going after one another – they’d both gone after her on multiple occasions, after all – but she was on a limited timetable. “We don’t have time for this,” she
said. “I need to talk to you in private, Marla. Something may be up.”

  “Oh, something’s definitely up,” Marla said, staggering to her feet. She seemed a bit unsteady, which made Maddie realize that she’d probably been drinking for hours. “You’re not my friend, Cassidy. You’re just as bad as this one.” She pointed a shaking finger in Maddie’s direction. “Everyone keeps trying to push me down and hold me back, but I’m not taking this from any of you. Not again. I’m a winner … so I’m going to go and win.”

  “Where are you going?” Maddie asked, shuffling after Marla as she trudged toward the exit. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I needed to talk to you. We have a very serious situation.”

  “And I seriously need to pee,” Marla shot back, glaring at Maddie. “Despite what you think, I’m a real person and I have real feelings and needs. One of those needs involves peeing. So … bite me.” Marla strode out the door, leaving Maddie to chew on her lip and tilt her head to the side as she considered what to do. She didn’t have a lot of options so she followed Marla outside … and into the first flakes of winter, which just so happened to be accompanying a whole lot of danger. Neither woman could see it, though. They were too focused on each other.

  “WHERE’S Maddie?”

  Nick found Christy in the hot chocolate tent shortly before the sun fell. Even though there was a hint of light remaining, visibility was beginning to slip quickly thanks to the snow. Upon returning to the festival, the first place Nick headed was Maddie’s tent. It was empty so he began a search. Unfortunately for him, he found Christy before his blonde.

  “I have no idea,” Christy replied, licking the whipped cream off her upper lip. “I’ve been avoiding her.”

  Nick’s eyebrows flew up his forehead. “Why?”

  “Because I can’t look her in the face without worrying that I’m going to let your big Christmas surprise slip and now I feel really guilty and very self-conscious.” Christy wasn’t big on lying so she opted to tell the whole truth. “I’m also a little bit jealous because you guys are so pretty you belong in a catalog and now you’re going to have absolutely everything.”

  Nick heaved out a big sigh as he rested his hand on Christy’s head and forced a smile. “There’s no reason to be jealous. There’s also no reason to be hiding. I told John to tell you to watch Maddie. I don’t want her running around alone.”

  “I have been watching her,” Christy countered, gesturing toward Maddie’s tent. “I’ve had my eye on the door the entire time … except for that five minutes I went to the bathroom, of course. She’s perfectly safe.”

  “She’s not in there,” Nick barked, holding his hands up when Christy jolted. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you. Maddie is gone, though. She’s not in that tent.”

  “No, that can’t be right.” Christy’s face drained of color. “I swear I’ve been watching.”

  “Obviously not hard enough,” Nick said, tugging on his limited patience to refrain from shaking the vibrant redhead. “We need to find Maddie and Marla, and we need to do it right now. The sun is setting and a storm is coming in. I think things are about to get bad.”

  “MARLA, you can’t just storm off into the night,” Maddie snapped, gripping her coat around her as she followed Marla away from the beer tent. “You’re being a complete and total idiot.”

  “Oh, you love this, don’t you?” Marla glared daggers at Maddie as the wind picked up and whipped her scarf. Maddie used her hands to smooth her flaxen hair, refusing to back down even though she could sense that Marla was shifting into full-blown bully mode. “You love me getting crapped on by everyone in this town. You’re used to being the loser and now you want to turn it around on me.”

  Maddie kept pace with Marla, never giving the other woman’s destination a stray thought, and locked gazes with her nemesis. “Believe it or not, I don’t live my life on your terms,” she shot back. “I don’t care what you want, or how you feel, or these stupid beliefs you have that make you think Nick would ever want to be with you.

  “Grow up!” Maddie was at the limit of her patience and she couldn’t take much more of Marla’s whining. “You can’t go back in time and change things because you believe I stole something from you. I didn’t, by the way. I didn’t steal anything from you. Nick was always mine. I was simply too frightened to claim him.”

  Marla’s eyes flashed in the waning light. “He could’ve been mine.”

  “No, he couldn’t have ever been yours,” Maddie said, adjusting her tone. “He always loved me. I was too stupid to see it when we were younger, but I see it now. I feel it now. I’m never giving him up.

  “He makes me happy,” she continued. “We’re happy. We’re freaking ecstatic. That’s not going to change. It’s not going to change because you go after John. It’s not going to change because you act as if you’re twelve and want to be a middle school mean girl. It is what it is and you need to live with it. You need to move on.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” Marla hissed.

  “Don’t make me tell you what to do,” Maddie shot back. “You’re supposed to be an adult, Marla. Try acting like it.”

  Marla straightened her shoulders and glared at Maddie, bitterness getting the better of her as she narrowed her eyes. “I don’t have to listen to you.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Maddie countered, tilting her head. “Nick needs to talk to you about official business and I’m ordering you to come with me so we can call him. I’m in charge here. I’m the boss. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Marla could see nothing but red. “Oh, I understand.”

  “Great,” Maddie said, rubbing her glove-covered hands together. “We need to get back to the festival. We’ve wandered a lot farther away than I realized. I … wait! What are you doing, Marla? If you jump on top of me we’re going to have words. Oh, crap!”

  “CASSIDY, have you seen Maddie and Marla?”

  Nick found the strawberry-blonde nursing a drink in the beer tent, a morose look on her face. He rubbed his hands over his hair to knock out the accumulating flakes and forced a patient look as he stared her down.

  “Maddie and Marla, huh?” Cassidy took a long swig of her beer. “It’s kind of funny that you’re here looking for them because it’s come to my attention that everyone – but mainly both of them – seemed to know you and I would never make it. I’m the only one who didn’t know. What do you think of that?”

  “I think you’re drunk and I don’t care.”

  Cassidy reared back, the words hurting more than fists ever could. “How can you say that to me?”

  “Because I’m tired, Cassidy,” Nick spat. “It’s been six months since all of this happened. Six freaking long months. I’ve moved on and I’m so sick of you and Marla holding on to the past.

  “I get it, you know,” he continued. “I get that you’re both stuck in places that I’ve left behind. Neither one of those places is real, though. I was never going to love Marla so whatever she imagined happening is nothing more than pure fantasy.”

  “That’s what I told her,” Cassidy said. “At least what you and I had was real.”

  Nick favored her with a pitying look. “No, it wasn’t,” he said. “I was bored and you were new in town. We didn’t have anything real. Perhaps that makes me a bad person to admit it, but there it is.”

  “No, we had something real,” Cassidy said, her lower lip trembling. “I felt it. I … had faith that we would have a future.”

  “Then that’s on you because I never promised you a future. Heck, I didn’t even hint around at a future. I did my very best to make sure you understood that our relationship – if you can even call it that – had a limited shelf life.

  “I’m done talking about it, though,” he continued. “You have a new boyfriend. Focus on him. I have my Maddie. I’m definitely going to focus on her. She’s going to be my freaking wife, for crying out loud. Can’t you understand that?”

  Cassidy’s fa
ce slackened as the color drained from it. “You can’t be serious. It’s too soon.”

  “That’s rich coming from you,” Nick pointed out. “You spent the morning searching through your boyfriend’s things because you were looking for an engagement ring. Personally, I think you wanted him to propose so you could beat Maddie to something that only exists in your mind, but I really don’t care.

  “Now, where are Maddie and Marla?” he continued, his voice hopping. “I am not joking around. I need to find them right now!”

  “They left.”

  “When?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t care where they went. I don’t care why you want them.”

  “I need to know what direction they headed in.”

  Cassidy’s expression was murderous as she leveled it on him. “Find them yourself.”

  “You’d better hope nothing happens to them,” Nick warned, striding toward the door. “You can’t see it right now because all you care about is yourself, but the guilt will eat you alive if Maddie and Marla get hurt. I know you well enough to know that.”

  Cassidy opened her mouth to say something, although she had no idea what. She never got the chance because Nick disappeared through the tent flap and into the night, leaving her with nothing but regret and doubt.

  “GET OFF me!” Maddie used her foot to dislodge Marla, but the woman was crazed as she reached for Maddie’s hair and she refused to give more than a few inches. Since she was athletic, Maddie managed to roll and forced Marla to the side.

  Marla hit the ground hard, a loud “bang” echoing throughout the approaching night. Maddie knit her eyebrows together when she heard the noise, confused. A body hitting the ground didn’t make anywhere close to that much noise.

  “What was that?” Marla asked, straightening.

  “You heard it, too?”

  “I’m not deaf.”

  Maddie made a face as she glanced over her shoulder, her smile slipping when she saw the figure walking toward them. She recognized the person right away even though it was the gun clenched in the individual’s hand that gave her pause.

  “What’s going on?” Marla asked, confused.