The Christmas Letter Read online

  “Storm’s coming so I need to get going. I’ll be at book club, but only if you promise to lay off the matchmaking.”

  Bree paused.

  “Promise me.”

  “Okay,” Bree grudgingly agreed. “Have you been to the police station?”

  “No, not yet. Why?”

  “Can you drop this book off for your brother? I told him I’d deliver it, but you’re going to be stopping in anyway, so…”

  “Yeah.” I reached out a hand. “I’ll make sure Mike gets it.”

  I had just left the Book Boutique and Tilly and I were heading to our next stop when a bright green sports car whizzed by, splashing slush on both of us. “Damn it all to hell,” I said before I could suppress the curse. “There’s no way Fantasia didn’t do that on purpose.”

  Tilly shook the slush from her fur and barked in agreement.

  Fantasia Wade was a twenty-eight-year-old gold digger and former classmate of mine who’d recently married seventy-nine-year-old Austin Wade, the oldest son of one of the town founders and one of the richest men in town. In the year the pair had been married, Fantasia had managed to burn through an impressive amount of his money, which left me wondering when Austin would wise up and put his young bride on a budget.

  Given the fact that I had slush running down my cheek, I turned around and headed back to the bookstore, where I knew Bree would let me clean up in her bathroom.

  “What on earth happened to you?” Bree asked when I walked back into her store just a minute after having left.

  “Fantasia.”

  Bree rolled her eyes. “Talk about letting money go to your head. Now that she’s married to Austin Wade she seems to think the rules of common courtesy don’t apply to her.”

  “She always has been full of herself. I’ll just be a minute.”

  I tried not to let my anger boil over as I washed my face and used a paper towel to wipe the dirt from my jacket. There were just some people who were born thinking they were better than everyone else and Fantasia was one of them. Of course, the fact that she was drop-dead gorgeous seemed to fuel her superiority complex. It’s hard to tell someone who was head cheerleader, homecoming queen, and the most popular girl in school that she’s no better than you and make her believe it.

  Tilly and I tried to put our little incident with Queen Wade behind us as we finished our route. By the time I’d made my way back to the starting point, where I’d left my Jeep, the sky had darkened. I figured Tilly and I would just drive over to Pike’s, so I loaded her in the cargo area, made a U-turn, and headed back to the cabin where White Eagle’s oldest resident lived. My route had taken longer than I’d planned, so I wouldn’t have as long to chat with Pike as I’d like, but he only received mail a couple of times a month, so when we had a reason to stop in, we generally took it.

  “Pike,” I called as I rapped on the door.

  When there was no answer, Tilly used a paw to scratch at the door.

  “Pike, it’s Tess and Tilly,” I called again.

  Still no answer.

  I looked down at Tilly. “I guess he’s out.”

  Tilly barked and scratched at the door again. Normally, Tilly wasn’t quite so insistent, so I knocked one more time for good measure before slipping the letter under the door and turning away to head back to the Jeep.

  Tilly remained at the door rather than following. “Come along, Tilly. Pike’s not home.”

  Tilly barked.

  “I know you were looking forward to a visit, but we’ll have to come back another day. Maybe tomorrow.”

  Tilly lay down on the front stoop as if to communicate that she would wait.

  “It’s snowing and it’s almost dark. We can’t just stand here waiting for Pike to come home. We still need to make dinner and get cleaned up before book club. Now come along.”

  Tilly is a sweet and obedient dog who always responds to my requests, so I wasn’t sure why she was being so stubborn now. I walked back over to the stoop to give her a gentle shove in the right direction when I heard a tiny sound coming from the other side of the door. I knocked once more but still got no answer. Tilly barked and continued scratching at the door.

  “Is Pike in trouble? Do you think we should check on him?”

  Once again, Tilly barked.

  I reached for the knob and turned it. It was unlocked, so I pushed the door open.

  The first thing I noticed was that a pile of fishing supplies that must have at one time been on the table were now on the floor. The next thing was a tiny orange-striped kitten was tangled up in a piece of fishing line, which had gotten caught on a nearby table leg. “I suppose you’re responsible for Pike’s fishing supplies being on the floor.”

  “Meow.”

  “Hang on. I have a knife in my Jeep. I’ll get it and cut you free.”

  Tilly stayed with the kitten while I ran back to get the knife. The poor baby was tangled up pretty good. I was going to need to work carefully to get him free without injuring him. It took a good fifteen minutes to finally work him loose, but eventually, I was able to gather him up in my hands. I noticed the poor thing had a nasty-looking cut on one leg.

  “Looks like we’ll need to stop by to visit Doc Baker,” I said to Tilly.

  As soon as the kitten was free, Tilly had trotted over to the bedroom door and begun scratching at it.

  I crossed the room, knocked on the door, and called Pike’s name. There was still no answer, but Tilly seemed frantic, so I slowly opened the door. “Pike?” I said as I set the kitten down and hurried inside the room. I bent down next to Pike’s body to check for a pulse, but when I noticed the blood on the back of his shirt I knew he was dead.

  I picked up the kitten, called to Tilly, and headed back to my Jeep. I called my brother, Mike, who told me to wait for him. The sky was almost completely dark by this point, so I turned on my headlights so I wouldn’t feel quite so alone and isolated.

  I knew I should call Bree to tell her I wasn’t going to make it to book club despite my promise to do so, but she’d want a full explanation and ask a lot of questions, and I didn’t think I was quite ready to talk about what I’d seen. Still, I didn’t want her worrying about me, so I sent a quick text to let her know something had come up and I’d speak to her the following day.

  When Mike arrived, he told me to stay put while he went inside. The kitten seemed to be in a playful mood despite his injured leg and Tilly appeared to adore him, so I let the antics of the animals distract me from what was going on inside. After twenty minutes or so, Mike came out of the cabin and approached the Jeep. He slid into the passenger seat and turned me toward him.

  “Tell me exactly what occurred leading up to your finding Pike dead on his bedroom floor,” Mike said.

  “Tilly and I came by to drop off his mail. We were going to stop to chat for a bit. When Pike didn’t answer the door, I figured he’d gone out, although I should have realized right away that he never went out when it was snowing.”

  “And after you arrived?” Mike encouraged.

  “I knocked a couple more times and was going to leave, but Tilly wouldn’t budge from the front porch. I wanted to check to make sure Pike was okay. I guess he wasn’t.”

  “Did you see anyone else in the area?”

  I shook my head. “It was already starting to get dark when we arrived, but I didn’t see anyone. Pike’s Place opened at two. You can ask whoever’s tending bar tonight if they saw or heard anything.”

  “I’ll do that. It’s been snowing all day. Did you notice footprints or tire tracks?”

  “No. It was snowing hard when I got here. I’m sure any prints that might have been there have been covered by now. Who do you think did this?”

  Mike frowned. “I wish I knew. Pike was shot in the back with a small-caliber weapon. I doubt he saw it coming.” Mike glanced at the cabin, then back to me. “I noticed fishing supplies scattered across the floor.”

  “Pike was entering the old-timers’ ice fishing
competition with Hap this year. I guess he must have been going through his things before whoever killed him arrived. I think the kitten may be responsible for everything being on the floor.”

  “Okay. I’m going to be here for a while, so you may as well head home. I’ll call you if I have any additional questions.”

  “Okay.” I wiped away a tear that had slipped down my cheek. Pike was an old man I spoke to every couple of weeks and whose company I enjoyed, but I didn’t know him well. Still, I knew his death would leave a hole in my life. “You need to catch whoever did this.”

  “Don’t worry.” Mike squeezed my hand. “I will.”

  I headed to Doc Baker’s. I could probably fix up the kitten’s leg with items I had in my cabin, but I wanted to make sure it didn’t get infected. I pulled up in front of the veterinary clinic, parked in an empty space, picked up the kitten, and got out of my Jeep. The snow had gotten harder and the lights in the clinic were off, so I went to the front door of the house. Everyone knew if you had an animal emergency and it was after regular hours you could go to the front door and Doc Baker would take care of whatever you needed.

  I knocked, and Tilly sat down next to me and waited. I could see lights coming on as someone made their way through the house. I cuddled the kitten to my chest while I waited for Doc Baker to come to the front of the huge house.

  I was preparing myself with a smile and a greeting but froze the minute the door opened to reveal not a sixty-eight-year-old veterinarian in a white dress shirt but the most perfect man I’d ever seen wearing a towel around his neck and no shirt at all.

  “You don’t look like the pizza delivery guy.” The man seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

  “And you don’t look like Doc Baker.” I couldn’t help but stare at the absolutely gorgeous man wearing nothing but faded blue jeans.

  He turned around, took a few steps inside, then returned to the door while pulling a T-shirt over his head of thick brown hair. “Sorry about that. I’d just gotten out of the shower when the pizza deliver guy called to let me know he was on his way.” He looked at a point over my head. “In fact, there he is now.”

  “Is Doc Baker here?” I asked, uncertain how else to respond to this absurd situation.

  “Doc Baker is my uncle and he’s retired. I bought his practice. My name is Brady Baker. Why don’t you come on in? I’ll pay the pizza guy and then we can look at your kitten.”

  I hesitated, but I really wanted to have the kitten’s leg looked at, and the Baker Veterinary Clinic was the only one in town. “Can Tilly come in as well?” I nodded toward the dog sitting next to me.

  “Absolutely. If you head straight back, you’ll see the door to the clinic on your left.”

  “I know where it is.”

  “Great. It’s unlocked. Go ahead and wait for me there.”

  I fought the urge to flee as I slowly walked down the well-lit hallway. To be honest, I couldn’t explain where the urge to abandon my mission and take the side exit out to my Jeep came from; maybe I’d simply been thrown for a loop when a gorgeous man close to my own age answered the door instead of the old friend I’d been expecting.

  I entered the clinic and set the kitten on the exam table, then motioned for Tilly to sit down nearby. The kitten was favoring the injured leg but didn’t appear to be in much pain, so I hoped the injury was minor and wouldn’t require stitches or any other equally expensive procedure. I made decent money as a postal worker, but my Jeep was ancient and my cabin old and often in need of repair, and it seemed I was always having a hard time keeping up with the extra expenses. I leaned a hip against the table where I’d placed the kitten and gently played with him while we waited. After a few minutes, Dr. Hunk joined me, fully dressed in jeans, the T-shirt he’d slipped into at the door, and tennis shoes. His hands were free of pizza, so I assumed he’d dropped his dinner off in the kitchen before heading to the clinic. I felt bad he’d have to eat cold food but not bad enough to leave until I had the kitten’s leg looked at.

  “What do we have here, little fellow?” the man I couldn’t seem to think of as Doc Baker asked.

  “Meow.”

  Blue eyes met my brown eyes. “What’s his name?”

  “Name?” I asked.

  “The kitten. What’s his name?”

  “Oh. I don’t know. I just found him a little while ago. He was tangled up in fishing line. You can see he cut his leg. It doesn’t look all that deep, but I wanted to be sure.”

  “It’s always a good idea to err on the side of caution. I don’t think he needs stitches.”

  “That’s wonderful,” I mumbled as I said a silent prayer of thanks.

  “I’ll clean him up and bandage the wound. It won’t take long.”

  “Can I stay in here with him?” I asked.

  “I don’t see why not.” He turned to collect the things he’d need. “I take it the dog is yours?”

  “Tilly.”

  Tilly barked once when she heard her name. The new doc smiled, which caused a fluttering in my stomach I hadn’t felt for a very long time.

  “So, if this is Tilly, you must be Tess.”

  I frowned. “I am. How did you know?”

  “I’ve heard all about you.”

  Great. “From who?” I had a feeling I already knew.

  “From several people, actually, but most of my knowledge came from the pretty blonde who owns the bookstore.”

  “The pretty blonde is my soon-to-be ex-best friend, Bree. Please ignore everything she told you. For some reason she feels it’s her mission in life to fix me up with every even remotely eligible man who comes into town.”

  He chuckled. “I see. I guess that explains the rather long interview she conducted while she rang up my books.” He handed me the kitten. “Here we go. He should be fine, but why don’t you bring him back tomorrow for a quick look? He’s a little on the young side to be away from his mama, so I’ll give you some formula and bottles to supplement his food as well. You should be able to wean him off the formula in a couple of weeks.”

  “Okay. And thank you. I’m sorry I interrupted your dinner.”

  “It’s not a problem.”

  “How much do I owe you?”

  He paused. He lifted a dark, bushy brow that perfectly framed his bright blue eyes. “How about dinner?”

  “You want me to buy you dinner?”

  “No. I want you to share what’s sure to be a cold pizza with me.”

  “Why?” I blurted out before I could consider my answer.

  “Because I hate to eat alone and would enjoy the company.”

  I hesitated.

  “It’s just pizza. I promise.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “I guess I have time for a quick slice of cold pizza.”

  We returned to the house, and he led us to the kitchen, where a beautiful German shepherd was waiting.

  “Tess, Tilly, meet Tracker.”

  Tilly walked over to the dog, who seemed to be waiting for some sort of a cue from the vet.

  “At ease,” he said, at which point Tracker began wagging his tail.

  “At ease? Is the dog in the military?”

  “No. But I used to be, so when I trained him, I used commands familiar to me. At ease means it’s fine to chill because there isn’t a job to do. Tracker was trained in search and rescue. I have a meeting next week with the local S and R team to see if they have a space for us.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to have you.”

  Tilly sniffed Tracker until she was satisfied he wasn’t a threat, then was content to lay down on the rug in front of the brick fireplace, while Tracker settled onto a dog bed nearby. I set the kitten down beside Tilly because they seemed to have bonded and I didn’t want him to be afraid of the new surroundings. Of course, the kitten decided it was time to play and not rest and immediately started running around the room, attacking every dust ball he could find.

  “Sorry, I guess he’s a bit wound up,” I apolog
ized.

  “I’m glad to see the leg isn’t slowing him down.”

  “He really is a whirlwind of energy,” I agreed. “Which is probably how he got tangled in the fishing line in the first place.” I chuckled as he jumped into the air and then did a complete three sixty before landing.

  “I think you’re going to have your hands full with this one. Wine?” he offered.

  “I should stick to water. I still need to drive home and it’s snowing pretty hard. I’ll need to be alert.”

  He set a bottle of water in front of each of us, along with the pan of pizza he’d warmed momentarily in the oven.

  “How long have you lived here?” I asked. “I wasn’t even aware Doc Baker had retired.”

  “Just a couple of weeks. My uncle’s been talking about retiring for quite some time, but he didn’t want to leave until he was sure there was someone to take over the practice. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted it, but after some soul-searching following a broken engagement, I decided maybe moving to White Eagle was a good idea after all.”

  “I’m sorry to hear about your breakup, but I’m happy to have someone take over the practice. Your uncle was the only vet in town.”

  “That was why he waited so long to retire.”

  I glanced at the kitten, who was now pouncing on Tilly’s head. Being the patient dog she was, she just lay there and took whatever abuse the kitten dished out until he knocked a roll of gauze off the table and became hopelessly entangled once again.

  “Looks like we have another tangle emergency.” I laughed.

  “Maybe that’s what you should name him: Tangle,” he suggested.

  “I was thinking of something with a Christmas feel to it, like Mistletoe.”

  “Mistletoe is a good name now, but you may not feel the same when it’s no longer Christmas. How about combining Tangle with Mistletoe?”

  “Combining?”

  “Tangletoe.”