3 Madness in Christmas River (12 page)

“Do you know who this is?” he said.  

I shook my head.

Sully glanced back down at the photo.

“This kid here?” he said, pointing to the teenager. “Went missing from Christmas River more than 30 years ago.”

Chapter 30

I stared out the window, looking at the Escape sitting on the street.

It was almost unrecognizable as a car, buried under a bank of snow and ice thicker than the merengue on top of a pie.

I always prided myself in my solid winter driving skills. But even I admitted defeat in this one. There would be no getting off this street today.

I shivered. Cold radiated from the window as the 18-degree air tried to get inside.

I turned up the heater, and gave Chrissy and Tiana a call to let them know not to come into work today. The shopping tourists that perused the streets of Christmas River this time of year were determined and foolhardy, but I had to believe that even they had a little sense in them. Sense enough to see that all that ice wasn’t going to let them get a foot outside of their hotel rooms.

I went downstairs, brewed a pot of holiday spiced coffee, and poured myself a cup. Warren was usually up by now, but I sensed that he had a poker night hangover. Between all those brownies he’d been shamelessly packing away, and the homebrew that he kept filling his pint glass up with, I was sure he was going to be out for at least another couple hours.

I took another sip of my coffee.

Sometimes, cold winter mornings were the loneliest time of the day.

I took a seat in front of the television and flipped it to the TV news station. It was a humdinger of a storm that had swept through Pohly County, breaking trees in half and causing power lines to go down, and yet another part of the storm was expected to blow through late tonight. Larry’s weather girl was dancing around the screen, tripping over her words and not making much sense. But she didn’t need to. The images said it all.

We were in for a hell of a bad winter. That was for sure.

While the weather girl fumbled even more words, my mind started churning over the story Sully had told the night before.  

He vanished like he never existed.

His story about the missing teen echoed in my head.

The boy in the photos that had been left on my doorstep and on my car windshield was named Anthony Matthews. He grew up in Christmas River. He had a reputation as a trouble-maker. He got caught stealing cigarettes from the local convenience store a half a dozen times and spent time in the county juvenile detention. But despite his run-ins with the law, he wasn’t that bad of a kid, Sully had said. Just troubled.

The name was familiar, I realized. I must have heard of the story somewhere before.

It was back in early 80s, before my time, when he went missing one summer night. Last anyone saw, he was driving out to the lake, a popular hangout for kids in this town. And then nobody ever heard from him again. Sully was sheriff then. He spent years looking for the kid and his truck before realizing the case just led to a dead end.

A lot of people thought Anthony Matthews just blew out of town and never looked back, the way so many high school kids living in a small town dream of doing.

But Sully said he never bought that theory.

Sully said it wasn’t long before the case went cold. And nobody cared much about the disappearance of a troubled teen.

“If it had been a pretty blond homecoming queen, this town would have ran itself ragged searching,” Sully had said. “But as it was, nobody cared about a kid who was probably going to end up in the state penitentiary. Nobody but me.”

It was a sad story, and looking into Sully’s face as he told it, I knew that it still haunted him.

Then, he asked me where I got the photo.

“Somebody left it on the porch one morning,” I told him. “I don’t know why. I’ve never heard about any of this before.”

“Hmm,” Sully said, rubbing his chin. “That’s pretty strange.”

“What do you think happened to him?” I asked.

“I always thought Anthony met a bad end,” Sully said. “Somebody killed him. Somebody got away with murder. And believe me, their time’s coming. It may not come from the law, but I believe things have a way of working themselves out in the end.”

I thought I saw something burn in his eyes when he said that, reminding me of a preacher delivering a hell-fire and brimstone sermon.

I was sure that back in the day, Sully Coe had been a pretty imposing sheriff.

He left our house about an hour after that. Warren sent him home with a 22-ounce bottle of his special reserve beer.

Before leaving, Sully tipped his hat at me.

“I’ll be by the shop to collect on that debt later this week,” he said.

“I look forward to it,” I said, smiling.

Sully left, and I spent the rest of the night thinking about Anthony Matthews.

Now I was spending the morning thinking about him too.

I stared at the morning newscast, wondering just what the cold case of a missing teenage boy had to do with the strange things going on in Christmas River.   

I was awakened from my thoughts by a bump on my leg.

I looked down.

Huckleberry was looking at me, his little nub wagging. There was a brightness in his eyes that I hadn’t seen since before he was hurt.

I put my cup of coffee down on the table, knelt down, and threw my arms around his soft fur. He nuzzled my neck, and I felt my heart lift. For the first time since that man had kicked him, I felt sure that Huckleberry was going to be okay.

Which was a very good thing, because since he’d first showed up on the doorstep of the pie shop nearly two years ago, the two of us had practically become inseparable.

I didn’t know what I would do without my Hucks.  

“C’mon,” I said, gently lifting him. “You’re not supposed to be walking around.”

I placed him back in his doggie bed and filled his food bowl up with more kibble. He lay on his stomach and started eating from it.

I went back to my cup of coffee.

What did any of this mean?

And where in the hell was Marie?

I was tired of asking questions that had no answers. And I was tired of thinking about any of it.

These few weeks leading up to the wedding were supposed to be some of the most exciting in my life, but instead, they had been filled with danger, loneliness, and a sense of pervading dread.

I sighed.

And just when I thought the outlook couldn’t be any grimmer, the power went out.

Chapter 31

“You’re what?”

I sucked in freezing air. My lungs burned as I tried to get enough breath to speak.

“I’m… walking over… to,” I said, struggling to push it out. “Daniel’s house.”

“Cinnamon, have you gone and lost your damn mind?” Kara said from the other side of the phone. “You’ll freeze your ass off out there!”

“Well, you saw me in that wedding dress. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” I said, stopping and leaning forward to catch my breath.

I had waited out the snow, getting a later start than I had wanted to. Several inches of fresh powder had fallen. It was beautiful, but it sure made it hard to walk. With each step, I’d take an enormous plunge.

But, it was most certainly safer than driving these roads.

I had considered strapping on my snowshoes before leaving the house, but felt silly about it. Now, I was regretting it.

“I’m pretty sure Daniel would be plum-mad if he knew his bride-to-be was walking to his house in the worst weather Christmas River has seen in five years.”  

“Aw, it’s not so bad out here,” I said.  

“You’re nuts, Cin,” she said.

“I know,” I said. “But I’m glad to hear that you and John are all right with this blackout.”

The power was still out in Christmas River on account of some downed power lines. I was headed to Daniel’s house just to check in and make sure everything was okay over there.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I’m all right,” Kara said. “
You know who
is here, and she won’t stop complaining about how the cold makes her hips ache. I swear Cinnamon, if she doesn’t shut-up soon, she’s going to have a lot more aches to complain about.”

I started laughing.

“Anyway, I just hope this blackout doesn’t last too long. This is one of my best sales weeks of the year.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

I heard the sound of car wheels a ways off down the street. I started walking again. I was beat, but had too much of an ego to show it to whoever was driving the car.

“What in the hell is so urgent over at Daniel’s house anyway?” she asked.

“I…” I said, struggling for air again as I lifted my right leg out a hole the size of Crater Lake. “I wanted to check in… you know, with the power being out and everything.”

“Have the two of you decided where you’re going to live yet?”

I felt my stomach tighten.

“Well, uh…” I said, pausing and breathing in deep.

Just then, I noticed that the car that had been down the street was slowing, coming up right alongside of me.

“Okay, okay,” Kara said. “Let’s talk when you can actually breathe. Call me when you get there to let me know you’re all right?”

“Yeah, will do,” I squeezed out.

I glanced over at the car. I squinted, trying to make out who was sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Be careful, Cin.”

“Okay I wi—”

I stopped mid-sentence as I recognized the driver.

Damnit
.

I looked around, hoping that someone else was out.

But I realized that we were all alone.    

Chapter 32

“Now where are you going in such a hurry?” he shouted through the open window.

I picked up the pace, my lungs feeling like they were on fire.  

“Look, I can give you a ride to wherever you want to go,” he said. “There’s no need for you to be prancing around in the snow and ice like this.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m getting in that car with you,” I said.

He didn’t respond.

The snow tires of his truck rolled along the compacted snow, sounding like squeaking Styrofoam.

I was only a few blocks from downtown. Most everything would be closed with the power outage, but there would still be people around down there. I just had to keep going, and I’d be okay.

“Can’t you just stop for a damn—” he started saying, but stopped. He cleared his throat.

“What I mean is that I want to talk to you.”

I heard the tires come to an abrupt stop and the engine died. A car door opened and closed. I didn’t have to look to know that he was getting out and trying to catch up to me.

Warren had been bitten once by a Rottweiler when he was a kid, and growing up, he’d always taught me never to turn your back on a dog, no matter how friendly you might think they are.

The same went for ex-husbands.

I stopped and turned toward him.

Evan looked about the same as he did at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. A little scruffy and wily-looking. He was in dire need of a haircut.

I clutched my phone tightly, ready to call Kara or Warren if I needed to.

He walked over, sinking deep into the snow with each step.

“You didn’t need to get out of your truck,” I said. “We don’t have anything to talk about.”

“What’s the countdown?”

“What?”

He dug his hands in his pockets and leaned back on his heels.

“Till the big day,” he said.

“I’m not discussing that with you,” I said.

He looked down at the ground like a beaten dog.

“You know, I’m not the same man I used to be,” he said.

I shook my head.

“I very much doubt that.”

“I know you’re the last person on earth who should believe me, but it’s the truth. I’ve changed,” he said. “You know what I’ve been doing since I was laid off at the resort?”

He stepped closer.

“I don’t think I much care what you’ve been doing,” I said.

“I’ve been working with an organization that builds homes for poor families,” he said. “I spend every day now helping people. It’s taught me a lot of things. About myself. About others.”  

I shook my head.

Did he expect me to forgive him because he’d built a few houses?

“Look, I know that I was a shitty husband,” he said. “I should have treated you better, and I didn’t. And I just want you to know that I see now how badly I messed up.”

He puckered his lips.

“And, uh, I understand now just how much I lost.”

He cleared his throat.

“I was a jackass, Cin,” he said.

He wasn’t going to get any argument from me there.

“You see, I’m going to be leaving the country here in a little bit. I’ll be building houses in Mexico for a while. But I just wanted to say this to you before I left. And, uh, I know I’m asking too much, but it would mean a hell of a lot if you would forgive me.”

“Forgive you?” I said, crossing my arms.

Evan never ceased to amaze me.

“I know, it’s a tall order,” he said. “But just think about it, would you?”

He cleared his throat again.

“And, there’s something else I want you to know, Cin,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I’m always going to love you. No matter if you marry the sheriff or not. You were mine first, you know. That counts for something in my book.”

I shook my head.

All these years, he was still clinging to something that no longer existed.

Something that he’d killed himself.  

It almost made me feel sorry for him.

Almost.

I started telling him that, but just then, I heard the sound of car wheels approaching us.

I turned around to see a patrol car idling on the curb.   

I let out a sigh of relief.

I didn’t say anything more to Evan. Because there was nothing to say. Everything had already been said the day we both signed the divorce papers.