Finding Christmas Read online

  “What do you sense?” I asked Denali. There were times like this when I wished he could answer me. While Yukon was a highly trained search-and-rescue dog with mad skills, Denali was my guardian and protector.

  Denali growled deep in his throat but continued to walk. I figured while he felt something, we weren’t in immediate danger, so I tightened my grip on my rifle and followed his lead. It did occur to me that whoever had killed Piney might not want me snooping around, but with seven dogs, I didn’t feel particularly threatened, especially by a group of city boys who’d gone on a ski trip, so I went forward, trying to put the thought in the back of my mind.

  I was almost to the point where I planned to turn around when I heard a rustling in the bushes. The dogs didn’t seem alarmed, so I assumed it was a rabbit or some other small animal. I paused to make sure nothing was going to jump out at me, then called to the dogs and slowly turned around to make my way back to the cabin. When we were halfway there, Denali let out a happy yip, then took off at a pace that could only be described as a homestretch run.

  “I wonder what that was all about,” I asked Yukon. He wagged his tail but didn’t seem overly concerned. I glanced down at Honey, who looked as if she was smiling. “Do you know what that was all about?” Honey looked up at me. She put a paw on my thigh as if to ask permission to join her buddy. “Okay. Go on ahead.”

  Jake must have decided to attend the dinner meeting with Landon, Houston, and me. Denali didn’t like many people. At least not enough to take off running, though Jake was one of the few he seemed to enjoy being around.

  When I arrived at the cabin I found Honey along with another wrapped package on my porch. Denali was nowhere to be found so I let out a loud whistle to call him back from wherever he had gone off to. The fact that someone had dropped off the package and Denali had sensed a presence and had taken off to greet the gift giver, confirmed in my mind that the lights I’d received along with whatever was in this box could only be from Jake. If Chloe or Landon had left the gifts, Denali would have been alerted, but he wouldn’t have taken off to say hi.

  “Where’d you go?” I asked Denali when he came running back. “Is Jake hiding somewhere until I go inside?”

  Denali wagged his tail.

  “I don’t know what’s up with all the secrecy. If he knew I needed lights and wanted me to have them, why wouldn’t he just give them to me?”

  Denali barked once. I looked into the distance but didn’t see anyone. I shrugged and went inside. The first thing I did was open the box, which contained a beautiful fir wreath that made me think of Harley, but Denali would more likely have barked and growled at Harley than greeted him happily, so I doubted he was my mystery Santa.

  I found a nail and hung the wreath on my door, then headed out to the barn to see to the needs of Homer and the rabbits. Once they were fed and tucked in for the evening, I fed the dogs and cats, then went into the bedroom to see to the special feeding needs of the kittens. They sure were cute. Two were gray and white, one was black, one was orange, and the fifth was a brown-stripped longhair that reminded me of Moose. Speaking of my cranky therapy cat, where was he? It occurred to me that he hadn’t been in the kitchen with the other animals when I’d fed everyone.

  “Moose,” I called. “Here kitty, kitty.” Moose wasn’t the affectionate sort when he wasn’t on duty and kept to himself a lot of the time, but he usually showed up when I called him. “Moose. Are you hiding? Come on out. It’s time for dinner.”

  I looked high and low, but he didn’t seem to be anywhere. Now I was getting worried. Could he have gotten out? He was independent and liked to live by his own rules and timetable, but he usually stayed close to home, especially when it was cold and the ground was covered with snow. Perhaps he’d followed me out to the barn without my seeing him. Could I have locked him in the barn? I grabbed my jacket and my rifle and went back out again. As I had in the house, I searched high and low; again, I found nothing.

  Returning to the cabin, I opened the front door to find Moose sitting in the entry. “What the heck. Where were you?”

  “Meow.”

  I picked him up and realized his paws were wet, with small balls of snow caked on his underbelly. He’d been outside? Someone must have put him back in. The question was, who? I glanced around the room. Juno and Kodi were already settled in the barn, Honey and Lucky had most likely retired to the bedroom with the kittens, Yukon was sound asleep on the sofa, and Denali was stretched out by the fire. Okay, it was official; I was losing my mind. If anyone had opened the door to let Moose in other than possibly Jake, Denali would’ve had a fit, yet there he was lounging by the fire as if nothing had happened.

  Grabbing a towel from the laundry room, I dried Moose off, gave him a cuddle, and sat him down next to Yukon on the sofa. Houston and Landon would be here any moment and I still needed to wash up, so the case where Moose had been was one mystery that might never be solved.

  ******

  I was starving by the time Landon showed up with the soup and rolls he’d gotten from Sarge and Houston arrived with a huge salad it looked like he’d made himself and a cake he must have bought at the Christmas festival. We decided to eat while we talked.

  “I started with a rudimentary search of all six men,” Landon informed us as we served up plates of food and settled around the dining table. “So far, I’ve found three instances when two or more of them worked together on a project.”

  “What were the projects?” I asked as I dipped a roll into my soup.

  “The oldest was five years ago. The men were fresh out of college and, I assume, raring to make their mark. They teamed up to tackle a very impressive condo project. Reggie, you remember, went into investment banking and was able to line up some investors. Colin, the commercial real estate agent, found the perfect piece of land. Anton, the accountant, worked out the budget and kept track of the expenses as well as the projected income. Drake’s company developed the project, which was built by Lucas’s company, and when the units were ready, Colin sold them.”

  “What about Piney?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. I didn’t find any mention of his name. Perhaps he wasn’t involved. It seems likely he would have still been in law school then. Colin went into real estate right out of high school, skipping college, so he would have already been working in his field for a few years when the opportunity came up. Lucas also skipped college and went to work on a contractor’s license, which he was able to obtain fairly quickly because he worked construction all through high school and had a lot of work experience hours. Reggie was working on his MBA while the project was being developed, but he already had contacts, which he utilized to come up with the money they needed. Anton and Drake had both recently graduated from college and were working for large firms.”

  “And how did the project do?” Houston asked.

  “As far as I can tell from a cursory look, really well. It appeared they all made a bundle. I suspect this success led to their working together on another project two years later. This time they built a strip mall. Again, I found mention of Colin, Reggie, Drake, Lucas, and Anton, but not Piney. I suspect Piney would have had his law degree by then, but he would have been just starting out, so perhaps the timing wasn’t the best for his inclusion. He was involved in the most recent project Drake and Reggie teamed up on, though.”

  I realized that must be the one Anabelle had talked about. “What is it?”

  “Drake is developing low-income housing. I didn’t find reference to Colin, Lucas, or Anton, but Reggie lined up the financing and Piney was overseeing the permit process, which sounds like it was turning out to be quite a minefield.”

  I remembered my own attempts to get funding for the shelter before Harley donated the building. Talk about a convoluted process.

  “Because Piney is the one who’s dead, if their business dealings turned out to be the motive, it’s this most recent project we should focus on,” Houston suggested.

  �
�Perhaps,” Landon said. “I found something else too however. Something I haven’t had a chance to really look in to.”

  “What is that?” Houston asked.

  “It appears as if the law firm Piney worked for is involved in the defense of a real estate developer in a class action lawsuit. I don’t know if that relates to Drake’s company or not, but I’ll follow up to see what else I can find out.”

  After dinner, Houston helped me clean up while Landon continued to work. He put in an hour of digging and then told us the lawsuit Piney’s firm was involved in defending was against Drake’s company. The plaintiffs claimed they’d purchased condominiums in good faith, but they were built using shoddy material. The structures were literally falling down. Landon continued to search and was eventually able to verify that the class action suit had been initiated by the homeowners who’d purchased units in the first development the guys built together.

  “So if Piney’s firm was defending Drake and the others, how does he end up dead?” I asked. “If it was the other way around and he was representing the plaintiffs, I could see a motive.”

  “I don’t know,” Landon said, “but I’m going to keep looking.”

  “Perhaps I should have another chat with Drake,” Houston said.

  “I doubt he’ll tell you anything,” Landon said. “He’s being sued. I bet he’s been counseled to keep his mouth shut.”

  “A man died,” I pointed out.

  “And there’s every indication that one of the men involved in the lawsuit killed him,” Landon insisted.

  “Landon’s right,” Houston said. “Drake isn’t going to talk. But maybe one of the others will. Anton was the accountant; if they were cutting corners, chances are he was in on it. Colin sold the units. It was his job to verify the construction reports. Of course, that doesn’t mean he did so. Lucas actually built the units, so he’s in this up to his armpits. Reggie’s the one who persuaded his contacts to invest in the project. I imagine he’s not too happy about the way things turned out. His investors must want to string him alive.”

  I looked at Landon. “Do you know when the lawsuit was brought against Drake’s company?”

  Landon typed in some commands. “Four months ago.”

  “Was that before or after the low-income housing project got underway?”

  “After. They’ve been working on this latest project for a while now. I’d bet this lawsuit isn’t going to help the permit process.”

  I picked up my small mama cat, Lucy, who’d wandered over. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I sense a motive in all this mess.”

  “I agree.” Houston stood up. “I know Drake probably won’t talk to me again, but I’m going to take a stab at Reggie. He’s most likely in the same pot of boiling water as everyone else, but he may be the only one who didn’t know what was going on all along.”

  Landon worked a while longer after Houston left but then announced he’d continue his search from home. As he packed up, he noticed the lights on my counter. “I see you decided to get lights after all.”

  “Actually, they were a gift.”

  “Really? From whom?”

  “I don’t know. It occurred to me that you were my secret Santa because we talked about my decorations going up with the barn.”

  “I wish I had been your secret Santa, but I’m not. Maybe Jake?”

  “That’s my best guess. He’s been going decoration crazy and might have realized mine were destroyed in the fire, but I don’t get keeping it a secret. Jake is usually the sort to notice when I need something, and then he just gives it to me. Like when I needed new tires, he took my Jeep, and the next thing I knew, I had new tires. If my roof leaks, he comes by to fix it. If Jake was behind the lights, I’d more likely come home from work and find them hung on the front of the cabin.”

  “Maybe it isn’t Jake. Wyatt?”

  I raised a brow.

  “You’re right. Being a secret Santa would never occur to him. Chloe?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Landon picked up one of the strings I’d stacked four high. “Do you want help hanging them?”

  “It’s dark.”

  “True. But we have two vehicles with headlights. We can do the front of the cabin. Maybe hang lights along the roofline and around the window and door.”

  I smiled. “If you really want to help, I’d love to get them up. You grab the ladder and I’ll get some cocoa.”

  Chapter 7

  Monday, December 17

  I woke to huge snowflakes drifting softly on the still air. During the winter, the bar was closed on Sundays and Mondays, which meant I had the entire day off to do as I pleased. Houston and I had set up a routine of spending at least a couple of hours working with Kojak on search-and-rescue training on Monday afternoons. I probably should have confirmed his intention to meet for a session today when he was here last night.

  In the meantime, I had my own dogs to walk, and the foster Harley was temporarily housing to work with on basic commands and appropriate behavior. I glanced out the window at the gently falling snow and fought the urge to pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep. I’d enjoy a lazy morning in bed, but the dogs would gang up on me in revolt if I didn’t take them out soon. In addition to walking the dogs, I had animals to feed and cat boxes and barn stalls to clean. Even a day off was a busy day for me.

  “I see you moved your temporary family to the bed,” I said to Honey, who was curled up on top of the covers next to me with the five kittens. They sure looked content snuggled in between her legs. I hated to disturb them, but duty called.

  Honey lifted her head and thumped her tail when she noticed me watching. She really was the sweetest dog. There were those who felt she was lucky to have found me, but I knew without a doubt it was the other way around.

  “It’s fine,” I said to Honey as she bent over and nosed her honorary babies. “I don’t mind sharing, but it’s time to get up and feed everyone.” I slipped out of bed, pulled a heavy sweatshirt over the long johns I’d worn to bed, then slipped my feet into knee-high slippers. The other dogs in the room began to stir, so I began putting kittens on the floor, then led everyone out to the main living area, where I found Denali curled up next to the front door. Always the protector.

  I tossed several logs on the fire, which had burned down to embers overnight, fed the cats and kittens, and then headed back into the bedroom to get dressed. After pulling on a pair of jeans, a flannel shirt, heavy boots, and a warm jacket, I pulled a stocking cap onto my head and grabbed my rifle. I called the dogs to the back door. Before setting off into the dark morning, I stopped off at the barn to pick up Kodi and Juno.

  As I trudged through the forest with my flashlight to show me the way, I noticed the new layer of snow covering most of the tracks the dogs and I had left in previous walks along the familiar path. The fresh snow and lack of old tracks was most likely the only reason I happened to notice the fresh ones, which I was certain must have been left after our last walk the night before.

  I glanced at Denali, who was wagging his tail and trotting along as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Odd. Everything I knew about the dog told me that he should be barking, growling, and having a fit because someone had dared venture so close to the cabin. The fact that he wasn’t upset in the least both intrigued and frightened me. Who could have made the tracks in the middle of the night without alerting the dogs?

  I paused and bent down for a closer look. I took the glove off my right hand and used one finger to lightly brush the new snow from the evenly spaced footsteps. The prints were obviously made by male-sized snow boots, at least an eleven, and from the amount of snow covering them, I had to assume they’d been made between one and two hours ago. The dogs in the house had been fast asleep an hour ago, so it was possible the visitor could have snuck past the cabin without alerting Honey, Lucky, Shia, and even Yukon. But Denali? Denali heard and sensed everyone and everything. Even the predators the others misse
d completely. It was highly unlikely someone had come this close to the cabin without him sensing them.

  I tried to figure out the path from the prints. It looked as if whoever had made them had come from the forest and circled around to the front of the cabin on the far side of the property, away from the barn. That made sense, especially if the visitor knew there were dogs sleeping in the barn. I debated whether to follow the tracks into the forest to find the origin of the footprints or go back to the cabin to confirm my suspicion that the person who’d made them was my secret Santa. Given that it was still pitch black out and snow was continuing to fall, I decided to go back home, but if the prints were still visible after the sun rose, I fully intended to take a closer look.

  As I suspected there would be, there was a package wrapped in green paper on my porch. I took it inside and opened it right away to find several strings of brightly colored tree lights. I smiled as I let the romance of the experience soften the rough edges around my heart. Part of me was touched and extremely grateful to my secret Santa, while another was frustrated with the anonymity of the gift giver. I hadn’t planned to cut a tree this year, but now that I had lights to make it pretty…

  I clicked on some Christmas music and glided around the room after I fed the dogs, trying to puzzle out who could be leaving the gifts. The fact that Denali hadn’t tried to rip them to shreds really did just leave Jake, though there was no way he’d be tromping through the woods to deliver a package before the sun even began its ascent. Jake was giving and kindhearted, and I was certain if he’d realized I wanted and needed decorations, he’d buy them for me in a heartbeat. But he wouldn’t deliver the packages this way. My mind told me it had to be Jake, but my instinct said it wasn’t.

  But if not Jake, who? I poured myself a cup of coffee, then sat down in front of the fire to drink it. Chloe was my best friend and, like Jake, would happily buy lights for me if I expressed a desire for them. Of course, things were just as tight financially for her during the winter as they were for me, and there was even less of a chance she’d tromp around in the forest in the middle of the night to deliver them. Landon was a sweet guy who always seemed to have money, but he’d said he hadn’t left the packages, and I believed him. Harley, like the others, was kind and giving and would totally be the sort to think of something so sweet and thoughtful, but he had a pup-size chewing machine to worry about, so I couldn’t imagine him taking an early morning stroll through the snowy forest.