Darlene Gardner - Wish Upon a Christmas Star

“Not even at Christmas,” he said.

* * *

THE POUNDING ON THE locked door of her office sounded heavy enough to break the thick, tempered glass. Maria’s head jerked up from her computer screen to make sure the closed sign was still in place. Beyond it, her older sister peered in at her.

Maria sucked in a breath through her teeth, not ready to deal with anyone in her family and itching to get back to her work. She’d just run her brother’s social security number. Even though she hadn’t been able to find any activity on it since 2001, there was more she could do. Using Google to search for his name and variations of his name, for starters. Followed by a thorough social networking investigation. If Maria pretended not to notice her, maybe Annalise would go away.

The pounding got louder.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming.” She got up from her chair and crossed the office, deciding not to say anything to Annalise about Mike. Not until she had hard evidence that he was alive. She composed her features and unlocked the door.

Her sister pushed it open, barely giving Maria enough time to back away. A blast of chilled air followed Annalise inside, and she rubbed her bare hands together. She was dressed more for fashion than function, in the black leather jacket she’d gotten from her husband for her birthday a few weeks before.

“I was freezing to death out there.” Her teeth were chattering. “For a minute I thought you weren’t going to let me in.”

“I was caught up in something, is all.” Maria maneuvered past her and relocked the door.

“You’re ready to go, though, right?” she asked. “I thought we could hit the electronics store before we go to the mall. That way, you can get your presents for Alex and Billy out of the way.”

How could Maria have forgotten? Annalise had offered to help her pick out Christmas gifts for her teenage nephews. They’d also planned to search for presents for their parents, their brother Jack and his girlfriend, Tara, before ending the evening at Annalise’s favorite restaurant.

Maria glanced back at the computer. Caroline Webb had left only forty-five minutes ago, not nearly enough time to make headway on finding out whether Mike could be alive. “I’m sorry, Annalise. I can’t go, after all.”

“Oh, no, you don’t.” She waved her index finger. “You don’t get to back out after I went to the trouble of getting a babysitter and dressing up. I even put on makeup!”

Maria’s naturally pretty sister always looked nice. She’d gone the extra mile tonight, letting her brown hair down from its usual ponytail and pairing her leather jacket with black dress slacks and heels instead of jeans and sneakers.

“I’m sorry,” Maria said. “Something’s come up and I need to work.”

“This close to Christmas? You said you were taking some time off, like you always do over the holidays.”

Maria glanced at the computer again. It seemed to be beckoning to her. Once she finished her searches, regardless of what she found, she intended to make an airline reservation to Florida.

“Things have changed,” she said. “I have to go out of town for a few days.”

“What? We have tickets tomorrow night to The Nutcracker,” Annalise protested. “And you said you’d help me out the rest of the week at the Christmas tree sale.”

The yearly sale benefited her youngest son’s baseball league. Annalise was one of the organizers.

“You’ll have to find someone else to take my place,” Maria told her. “This is important.”

“Where are you going?” Annalise demanded. It would have been difficult to tell that Maria was the only one in the room with training in interrogation. Then again, the two sisters were close. They never kept secrets from each other.

“Key West,” Maria said.

“Florida? I don’t ever remember you going that far for a case before,” Annalise said. “You’ll be back in time for Christmas, right?”

She hesitated. “I don’t know.”

Her sister narrowed her eyes, propped her hands on her hips and demanded, “What’s going on?”

Maria’s instincts told her to remain mum. However, that wasn’t realistic. If Annalise was reacting this badly to her possible absence at Christmas, other family members would, too. Maria needed somebody to smooth the waters and support her alibi.

“You’d better sit down,” she said.

“I don’t want to sit down.”

“Then promise you won’t freak out.”

“You’re freaking me out by acting like this,” Annalise declared. “Just spit it out.”

Maria forced the words through her lips. “I think Mike might still be alive.”

Her sister shook her head. “No, he’s not. Why would you even say something like that?”

As succinctly as she could, Maria relayed the details of the visit from Caroline Webb. Annalise listened in silence, her expression giving nothing away even though she’d always been the most demonstrative of the four siblings.

“Say something,” Maria said when she’d finished.

“I’m thinking about how to phrase it.” Annalise scratched her head. “On second thought, to hell with tact. I’ll tell you how I really feel. I can’t believe you even let Caroline in the front door. Don’t you remember how she treated Mike?”

“Caroline’s not a high school kid anymore, Annalise,” Maria said. “She’s almost thirty years old.”

“Once a mean girl, always a mean girl,” her sister said heatedly. “Mike never would have dropped out of school if she hadn’t broken up with him in front of all their friends.”

One of the cafeteria workers had later provided their family with the details. Caroline had been cruel, saying she was sick of Mike and adding that he was worthless and stupid. She claimed she already had someone waiting in the wings to take her to the approaching homecoming dance.

Her words had hit the mark. Mike had rushed out of the school building and sped home, sideswiping a parked car on the way. Then he’d had another argument. With Maria.

Afterward, he’d packed a bag and split. Nobody had known where he was until Logan Collier called a few days later from New York City to say Mike was staying at his apartment.

“We don’t know that Mike wouldn’t have dropped out of school, Annalise,” Maria said. “His grades were so bad he barely made it through junior year. Remember how much trouble Mom and Dad had with him?”

“Most of that was because of Caroline,” Annalise said. “If I remember correctly, you thought so, too.”

Maria couldn’t dispute that. Over the years, however, she’d come to realize there were many factors in Mike’s disconnect from the family. That included Maria making it crystal clear she’d disapproved of his girlfriend.

“That’s water under the bridge,” she said. “The important thing now is to find out if Mike’s the one who’s been in contact with Caroline.”

“You said you were doing some online searches when I got here. You ran Mike’s social security number, right? Did anything come up?”

“Well, no,” Maria said. “But nothing would show up if he’s using an alias.”

“An alias?” her sister exclaimed. She shook her head and came forward, laying a hand on Maria’s arm. “Listen to me carefully, Maria. Mike’s dead. You know as well as I do that nobody in the restaurant survived that day.”

The hijacked plane had hit the North Tower a few stories below the Windows on the World complex. The official report was that all the restaurant customers and employees survived the initial attack, only to find the pathways that led below blocked by the impact zone. Everybody died, either of smoke inhalation or in the collapse of the building.

“Mike didn’t call any of us after the plane hit,” Maria said. “What if that was because he wasn’t there?”