Undercover Christmas Read online

  “I didn’t, but I could have if Hayes hadn’t been there. He seemed very upset with his mother and said something about it not happening again.”

  “I wonder what that was about?” Chase said, eyeing Marni. “Why didn’t you mention that you’d had a close call on the stairs?”

  “I guess it slipped my mind,” she said.

  He could see there was more. “Did anything else happen I don’t know about?”

  “Someone came by my room later that night and tried my door.”

  “You think it was Elise’s lover?” Chase asked.

  She shrugged. “Surely he would have made some attempt to talk to me while I was at the ranch. He had to know he would be exposed eventually. If he thought I was Elise, he’d have tried to reason with me, don’t you think? And if he realized I was an impostor, he would have confronted me. He couldn’t just think this would all blow over.”

  Unless he thought Elise would be dead before anyone found out the truth, Chase thought What was the father of Elise’s baby going to do next? he wondered as they drove into Bozeman.

  “Bet he was confused when I didn’t seem to recognize him and was claiming that you were the father of my child,” Marni said.

  Chase nodded. “Unless he thought you were trying to get even with him for lying to you. But still, it would seem like he would have come forward. After all, you were seemingly carrying Jabe’s first heir and a bundle of money.”

  “Maybe he was protecting himself. He didn’t want his wife to know, afraid she might leave him. Or—”

  Chase looked over at her. “Or because he was afraid of what she’d do to you?”

  “You’re thinking of Lilly,” she said.

  He cut her off before she could defend Lilly. “I wouldn’t want to meet either Lilly or Felicia in a dark alley. Especially if they thought I was trying to take something of theirs.”

  “Elise didn’t even know he was married.”

  “Like that would make a big difference to Lilly or Felicia,” Chase said more sarcastically than he’d meant to. Sometimes Marni was too naive and trusting. He reminded himself that she hadn’t grown up the way he had. Nor did she have the Calloways as family.

  “More than likely, the reason one of my brothers didn’t come forward had nothing to do with his wife,” Chase said. “He was probably more concerned about Jabe’s reaction. Jabe wouldn’t have liked his first grandchild to be born to a son who already had a wife. Worse yet, a pregnant wife, if it turns out to be Dayton.”

  “Do you think Jabe would have been so angry he could have changed back his will before the baby was born?” Marni asked.

  “It’s a possibility, or cut that son out entirely.”

  “The father of El’s baby can’t be the killer,” Marni said firmly as they neared the Bozeman exit and he heard her putting on the maternity form again.

  “I hope you’re right,” Chase said.

  The Christmas lights glittered at the stoplights along Main Street—red, gold, blue, green. For a while, Chase had forgotten about Christmas. And the promise Mary Margaret had asked of him. He told himself he’d find the killer before Christmas Day. Not for Mary Margaret. Not for Elise. But for his own selfish reason. He wanted Marni out of this charade. He wanted her safe. He had three days.

  Marni’s house was what Chase had expected. A cute cottage with a white picket fence, a wide pillared porch with a swing and paned windows with pale green shutters. A dollhouse all decorated for Christmas with lights strung along the eaves and a snowman in the yard complete with carrot nose and an old slouch hat

  “Nice snowman,” he said.

  “The neighborhood kids and I built him,” she said proudly. “I’m surprised it weathered the storm.”

  Chase held the storm door open while Marni dug out her key. The door swung in to reveal shiny hardwood floors, colorful throw rugs and pretty papered walls, trimmed in oak.

  A collection of teddy bears huddled in a large overstuffed chair, bright and cheerful in red and green ribbons and bows. Reindeer drew a sleigh across the mantel over the small fireplace, pulling a cheerful Santa and a bulging bag full of presents.

  Everywhere in the room he felt Marni. The decor reflected her strong roots, her good taste, her secure sense of herself, from the handed-down Christmas decorations, the mementos on the shelves, the photographs on the walls, the hand-crocheted tablecloth on the dining-room table. Even the furniture itself.

  The place had a homeyness that tugged at the part of him that had yearned for such a house in his youth. He found himself wishing for Marni’s childhood, just as he had at breakfast the last two mornings.

  He’d so desperately wanted a family, roots, a feeling of belonging somewhere. He and his mother had moved from town to town, living in dark, dingy basement apartments. He’d picked up odd jobs in the neighborhood to help support them, and later had to quit school and work full-time when his mother became so ill.

  It wasn’t until he was fourteen and his mother realized she was dying that she finally told him about his family. And he’d gotten his wish, he thought bitterly. The Calloway clan. Someone should have warned him to be careful what he wished for.

  Well, it was too late to change his childhood, too late to change the man he was. Not even Marni McCumber could do that, he told himself.

  Marni took a couple of steps into the room and stopped. “Someone’s been here.”

  Chase glanced quickly around the room, seeing nothing that looked amiss. “Why do you say that?”

  She pointed to one of the rugs on the floor. The corner of it had been kicked up.

  That was her proof? “You have to be kidding.”

  She went to the rug and straightened it, then looked around, her gaze coming to a halt as she stared at one of the dining-room walls. “The photograph’s missing.”

  “What photograph?” he asked, his heart suddenly in his throat.

  “One of me and Elise.”

  He moved then, covering the rest of the house. The small neat kitchen and dinette with light pouring in from the many windows. The two upstairs bedrooms. The bathroom.

  There were tracks in the backyard coming up the steps but the snow had blown them in, making them just hollows. When he checked the back door, he found the lock had been jimmied open.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Let’s get you packed and out of here as quickly as possible,” Chase said. “Whoever has the photo must have suspected something before he broke in.”

  “He still doesn’t know which of us is carrying a Calloway baby.”

  “Not yet. We’re going to have to find him before he does. Pack what you’ll need for a couple of days,” he ordered, anxious to get out of this house.

  This house, Marni and that stupid maternity form, her big warm family, everything about the woman made him feel vulnerable, he thought as he followed Marni upstairs.

  He stood for a moment in the middle of her bedroom, watching her pull out a suitcase and start putting a few items into it, and realized this room was exactly as he’d thought it would be. What was he doing even thinking about her bedroom? He let out an annoyed growl and headed for the hallway to wait.

  “I’m hurrying,” she said, misinterpreting his growl.

  She packed quickly and efficiently, something he doubted her twin could have done with a dozen people at her beck and call. Although the two sisters looked identical except for their hairstyles, he’d noticed the differences and found himself pleased by them.

  There was a strength to Marni that he liked, he realized, standing in the hallway, unable to keep his eyes off her. He was counting on that strength to get them through the next few days.

  As they were leaving the house, a big gray-striped cat hopped down from the fence to snake around Marni’s legs. She bent to give it a pat and scold it about staying out of the street.

  “Your cat?” he asked, not surprised now that he thought about it. She was the type. Snowman in the yard. A loyal feline waiting at the door
each evening after work.

  But she shook her head. “My neighbor’s. We share. Ivan spends the day with her then comes to wait for me on the porch each night when I get home from the boutique. It’s nice. Do you have a pet?”

  Chase shook his head. “It wouldn’t be fair to an animal since I spend so much time at work.” He was used to coming home to an empty house. He liked it fine that way. And the silly cat wasn’t even hers. So why did she make him feel bad because he didn’t have a pet?

  She wasn’t the one making him feel bad, he reminded himself. Marni and her shared cat makes you remember that puppy you found as a kid. He didn’t want to think about the puppy or what had happened to it He still felt sick, more than twenty-five years later, about the puppy he’d been forced to leave behind.

  As he drove down South Willson Avenue, large historic houses glittered with fresh snow and Christmas lights under old-fashioned streetlights. He thought how different his own Bozeman neighborhood was and wondered what Marni would think of it. He knew it would be a test; he just hadn’t realized how badly he wanted her to pass.

  “I should stop by my boutique, just to be sure everything’s all right,” Marni said.

  Did she really think she could go back to her old life as if nothing had happened? “You can’t very well show up at the shop seven months pregnant in the middle of the day without having to do a lot of explaining.”

  “You’re right, I just keep forgetting who I am.”

  He knew that feeling.

  “Chase?”

  He glanced over at her, surprised sometimes by the effect just looking at her had on him. “Yes?”

  “Do you really think this will be over by Christmas?”

  “Yes.” He hoped. “Otherwise, Santa will have to find ‘you at my place.”

  “You’re sure that won’t be an imposition?” she asked

  An imposition? He wanted to laugh. It would be pure hell to be trapped with her in his small apartment. But he had no choice. He feared for Marni’s life as long as she was wearing that maternity form. And whoever wanted Elise out of the way would eventually come for her.

  “I must warn you, though,” he said. “My place is pretty… basic.”

  HER FIRST CHRISTMAS away from her family. The thought instantly depressed her. She’d never missed a Christmas at the farm with her family. This year especially she wanted to be at home on Christmas morning.

  Chase reached over and took her hand, and she felt a rush of contrition. How could she be thinking about herself at a time like this. Chase had just lost his father. And El’s life was in danger. There would be other Christmases.

  Marni watched the familiar streets blur by, thinking how different Bozeman looked. But Bozeman hadn’t changed; she had. Marni McCumber was a different woman from the one who’d gone to work two days ago with her only care in the world the holiday rush. The last forty-eight hours had changed that. Had changed her. She knew it was more than pretending to be pregnant More than being in danger, or worrying about her sister.

  She glanced at the man beside her. She knew it was Chase and the feelings she had for him. She’d lain in bed last night, looking out at the stars, thinking about Chase. Making her own Christmas wish, one she didn’t dare acknowledge now in the daylight.

  Marni was surprised when Chase pulled up in front of a small grocery store in a northside Bozeman neighborhood that had seen better days. The grocery was one of those old-fashioned kind before convenience stores. A green awning hung over the front. The neon sign read simply Burton’s. Chase opened the pickup door to get out.

  “Do we need groceries?” Marni asked.

  “No, sweetheart, this is home.” He sounded offended as he reached in the back for their suitcases. “I told you it was basic.”

  She said nothing as he led her up open wooden stairs to the second floor over the grocery store. He slipped a key into the lock, opened the door and reached in to turn on a light Then he stood aside to let Marni enter, obviously waiting for her reaction.

  She braced herself, fighting not to let her thoughts show as she stepped in. The spacious apartment ran the entire width and length of the store below. Before her was a sparsely furnished living room with an arched opening into a kitchen and breakfast nook, both of which were large and roomy. Through another open door, Marni saw an older bathroom and past it, what had to be the bedroom, large and empty except for the double bed sitting like an island in the middle of the room. As she glanced toward the other two rooms, she noticed that one seemed to be an office of sorts, the other empty except for a few boxes of what appeared to be used plumbing and electrical supplies.

  What hit Marni was the total lack of anything that told her about the man who lived here. No mementos. No photographs. Nothing personal. It reminded her of the bedroom he’d used at the ranch. Except she suspected he didn’t live out of an open suitcase in the bottom of his closet. But it was possible. And yet, the apartment told her so much about the man who lived there.

  “It’s—” She searched for the right word.

  “Basic?” he asked.

  It fit the picture Jabe had painted of his oldest son. A man who wouldn’t let himself get attached to anything. Especially a woman. “It’s you,” she said, meeting Chase’s gaze.

  He looked as if he was almost positive that wasn’t a compliment. “You can take the bedroom.” He carried her suitcase in and put it on the bed.

  The bedroom was no different from the rest of the apartment. Clean, but without any personal touches. If he thought his apartment would push her away, he was wrong. Marni felt herself wanting so desperately to reach out to this man. To nurture him. To love him.

  She heard him in the living room rewinding his answering machine and couldn’t help overhearing the messages from the calls he’d had. Most sounded like business, she thought as she changed clothes. Then the sheriffs voice came on, saying he had the autopsy results, followed by Vanessa with a short, to-the-point message to let Chase know that the funeral would be at 10:00 a.m. the next morning at Sunset Memorial.

  The machine stopped. None of the messages had sounded personal or from a woman. Marni felt more relief than she should have. Then realized a woman was exactly what Chase needed in his life. He just didn’t know it yet.

  CHASE HURRIEDLY DIALED the sheriff at his home number.

  “I’ve got the autopsy results.” Silence.

  Chase held his breath.

  “You did know Jabe was dying?”

  The sheriff could have told him Martians had landed in the Gallatin Valley and he’d have been less surprised. “Dying?”

  “The coroner found a large amount of prescription drugs in Jabe’s system. Painkillers. He was dying of cancer.”

  Chase felt his head swim. Flashes of memory. Glimpses of weakness he thought he’d seen in Jabe. The feeling that his father was in trouble long before the first accident

  “That’s why he wanted a grandchild so badly,” Chase said, more to himself than the sheriff. It also explained Jabe’s one last attempt to get Chase into the family business. Dying of cancer. Just like Chase’s mother. The irony of it made him sick.

  “Given that,” Sheriff Danner continued, “and the other evidence, the powder burns on his right hand, his prints on the .38, no sign of a struggle, his death has been ruled a suicide.”

  Chase raked his hand through his hair. “You said he had a lot of painkillers in his system. Enough that he couldn’t have put up much of a struggle?” he asked, still trying to deal with the fact that his father had been dying.

  “Yes, but there’s no evidence to support homicide. Maybe the pain of dying was just too much for him. I’m sorry.”

  Jabe Calloway would have hung on until his very last breath, Chase thought as he replaced the receiver and looked up to find Marni standing in the bedroom doorway—sans the maternity form. Looking…great.

  “Do you think you should be without—” He waved his hand through the air but he obviously didn’t have the Mc
Cumber women’s knack for nonverbal communication.

  “Without what?” she asked.

  “The baby,” he said without thinking.

  She looked confused.

  “The maternity form.”

  “I know what you’re referring to,” she said patiently. “You didn’t really expect me to wear it all the time, did you?”

  He hadn’t thought about it, but now that he did, yes, he expected her to wear it. Not that he needed that stupid maternity form between them to keep him away from her. “What if someone stops by?”

  She was giving him a strange look that said she thought he was overreacting. “I could put it on before you open the door.”

  He could tell she thought he was making too big a deal out of this. “Fine.” He told her what the sheriff had said.

  She stumbled to a chair and sat down, looking shocked. “Chase, I saw your father take some pills.”

  “When?”

  She frowned. “That first day. And again the next, the day he died.”

  Was it his imagination or was her hair getting blonder each time she washed it? He’d thought it was redder the first time he’d seen her standing in the foyer at Calloway Ranch. The color had struck him somehow as wrong for her. He shook his head, realizing his mind had wandered in a direction he hadn’t wanted to go.

  Fighting to keep his distance, he headed for the door. “I have to go down to the store. I’ll be right downstairs, so don’t worry. You’ll be safe and I won’t be long.” He turned and left without looking at her, wondering how he could spend time in that apartment with that woman without—Without what? Going crazy, he assured himself. Nothing more than that.

  MARNI WALKED to the front window and looked out into the neighborhood. The houses she could see from the window looked old and in need of repair. She thought of the man who’d rented this apartment and realized how little she knew about Chase. Just like Elise, she reminded herself. They both had fallen in love with mystery men.

  What did Chase do for a living? She had no clue. Whatever it was, it had him living in an apartment over a grocery store on a rundown side of town. If he thought that would put her off, he was sadly mistaken. Her own father had been a farmer until his death. He’d taught her that work shaped a person and made them strong and independent as well as gave them a purpose in life.