Кэти Дэйли - The Mystery Before Christmas [calibre]

That was confirmed in my mind when Star told me that the owner of the apartment building her biological mother had been staying in when she was shot had identified the man traveling with her was the same man who had dropped off the baby at the church. Star had a copy of the driver’s license of that man, and the photo on it was that of a young Grant Thomas, my father, though the name on it was Grant Tucker, a name Tony and I already suspected he’d used as an alias at one point in his life.

“So Grant Tucker, aka Grant Thomas, was traveling with Star’s biological mother but was not her biological father? Why?” I asked Tilly.

She licked my cheek in reply.

I looked down when my phone dinged, indicating I had a text. It was from Tony, wondering what time I’d be home for dinner. I texted back, letting him know I’d had a stop to make but would be home shortly. Once that was accomplished, I turned my attention back to Tilly.

“I suppose it is possible that Star’s mother was in some sort of trouble and was on the run from whoever eventually shot her.” I let that idea roll around in my mind a bit. “I also suppose that Dad could have been with her to help her escape. Maybe he was a friend of Star’s biological mother, or maybe he was some sort of bodyguard.” I’d suspected for a while that my dad might work, or at least have worked in the past, for some sort of government agency, such as the CIA.

I hated to think that my father had killed Denton, but he had gone to a lot of trouble to disappear fifteen years ago and the PI had done a heck of a good job tracking him down. Denton had even managed to provide recent photos of my dad for the man who’d hired him. I knew my dad would not have taken kindly to that.

When Tony and I had tried to track Dad down, we’d met with a ton of resistance, culminating in his rare appearance to tell me to back off. As I thought back on that encounter, I had to admit that he’d seemed more scared than angry. He’d told me that not only had my search put him in danger, but it also put Mom, my brother Mike, and me in danger as well. I still had no idea why Dad needed to appear to be dead, but I’d been researching him for long enough to know that the people around him tended to die, so maybe he’d been justified in his concern.

Tilly put a paw on my lap and I looked into her big brown eyes. It was late and the snow was getting harder. I knew we should head home before Tony began to worry about us. I put my hand on the ignition as a dark blue sedan pulled into Star’s driveway. A tall man, dressed casually in a black leather jacket and denim pants, got out and headed to the front door. I realized that Star might have a date. I didn’t recognize the guy, but I also couldn’t really see his face; the sun set early at this time of the year, so even though it was only around six o’clock, it was already pitch dark. I decided to wait to start my vehicle because I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. I figured the man would either go inside or Star would come out and they’d both leave together. I watched as the front porch light went on. Star opened the door, said something, and then fell to the ground. Immediately afterward, the man returned to his car and drove off.

“Did that man just shoot Star?” I asked Tilly. I opened my car door just as the vehicle that had been parked in Star’s drive pulled away. I ran across the street toward the still-open front door. Star lay lifeless across the threshold. “Oh God.” I pulled out my cell and called Mike, who was a cop. “There’s been a shooting,” I informed him. “It’s Star Moonwalker.” I provided the address and told him to hurry.

Mike instructed me to stay put, so I did. I could see that Star was dead, but I felt for a pulse just to be sure, then I called Tilly and walked away from the body. I didn’t want to leave Star alone, but I knew better than to do anything to contaminate the crime scene, so I walked toward the far end of the porch and sat down.

In that moment, I wasn’t sure what to do. What to feel. On one hand, until minutes before she’d been shot, I’d believed Star to be my half sister, which had created a false sense of connection between us. On the other hand, I’d only met her about six weeks earlier and didn’t know her all that well. I supposed once the shock wore off I’d be able to sort out my mixed emotions. Right now, profound grief was all tied up with fear, disbelief, and most of all anger. Someone had killed an innocent woman whose seemingly only crime had been curiosity about her birth parents. Star had been a nice woman with a natural presence, a calm manner, and a casual style, reminiscent of the flower children of the 1960s. There certainly didn’t seem as if anything could be gained by killing her, and yet someone had.

Despite the fact that I’d been too far away to get a good look at the man who’d pulled up, rung the doorbell, and killed Star, I was pretty sure it had not been my father. This man was tall, as was my father, but my dad had broad shoulders and this man had appeared to be so thin as to be described as wiry. Of course, the fact that my father had most likely not been the gunman himself didn’t mean this man hadn’t been hired to do it by the man I’d once called dad.

I let my mind drift to the man I now think of as a ghost. Grant Thomas was officially deceased, so while that meant he no longer lived, he wasn’t really dead either. Prior to Tony uncovering a photo of my father taken three years after his supposed death, I honestly believed that he’d been killed in a truck accident when I was fourteen. I’m not sure why my mind hadn’t accepted the fact that my father was dead, but there had always been a part of me that fantasized that the man who was burned so badly as to be unidentifiable was not actually the same man I knew as my father. Tony, being the genius he was even back then, agreed to dig around. It had taken him twelve years to find the photo, but once he had proof of life after the accident, I’d grabbed onto the mystery and hadn’t let go of it ever since. Of course, the more I dug, the more I learned and the more disturbed I became.

I watched as Mike pulled up along the street in front of the house. He headed up the front steps, knelt down in front of the body to check for a pulse, and then looked in my direction. “Are you okay?”

I nodded.

“What happened?”

I hesitated. I couldn’t very well tell my brother that I’d been watching this woman from across the street without going into a lot more explanation than I was willing to at this point, so I told him that I’d been driving by, heard a gunshot, saw a blue sedan pull away from the house, and had gone to check it out, which is when I saw the woman stretched out dead across the threshold.

“Did you know this woman?” Mike asked.

“Sort of. As I said, her name is Star Moonwalker. She owns an antique store in town. I deliver mail to her sometimes, and when I have time I stop in and look around while I am there. We chat while I look, so in a way you could say we knew each other.”

Mike took out his handheld radio and spoke to Frank Hudson, his second in command. He confirmed that the coroner was on the way, and then he returned his attention to me. “I need to process the scene and see to the removal of the body. I am going to want to ask you some additional questions then. If you’d like, I can come by your cabin to talk to you when I’m done here.”

I nodded. “Okay. That sounds good. It is getting pretty cold.”

“Can you describe the person who drove away from the scene?”

“Male. Tall. Black leather jacket, denim pants. It was dark, so I didn’t see his face.”

“And the car?”

“A blue sedan. A Ford, I think, but I’m not sure. I do know it was one of those midsize sedans. I didn’t notice the license plate, I’m afraid. The whole thing happened so fast that it seems it was over before I knew to pay attention.”