Silent Night

She’d been tired a lot lately and had even made an appointment with the doctor to see if maybe she had mono. Samson hung back as well, almost too tired to wag his tail when the door opened and Kade called to him. The dog mustered the energy to dash past her and disappear inside the beckoning warmth of their home.

  At the sight of her husband’s stocky frame, Bree went up the steps with a burst of fresh energy. She was starved and ready for Kade’s support.

  He draped his muscular arm around her. “You look beat, babe.”

  She leaned into the warmth of his embrace. “I’m pretty tired.”

  “Mason is on his way.” He shut the door behind them and helped her out of her coat, then hung it in the hall closet. “The coffee’s fresh.”

  The coffee’s aroma perked her up. Her stomach cramped with hunger. Pistachios didn’t go very far. “Did you save me any pizza?”

  He kissed her, his lips warm and tender. “I brought home one just for you. Lots of pepperoni.”

  Elvis sang softly in the background from the surround-sound speakers in the living room. The tenseness in Bree’s muscles relaxed as Kade led her to the sofa, then went to get her some coffee and pizza.

  His dark eyes examined her with care when he returned with a tray. “It wasn’t your fault, Bree.”

  Her fingers curled around the hot cup, and she sipped the coffee before answering, “I know.”

  The coffee was good and strong, laced with cream. She savored the heat on her tongue. The fire crackled and spread warm fingers toward her that she relished.

  A knock came, then the front door opened, and a gust of wind rattled the panes. “I bet that’s Mason.” Kade stepped into the hall.

  Mason Kaleva came into the living room behind Kade. The sheriff was a burly man with dark curly hair. He was in his early forties and was married to Hilary, the town mayor and Bree’s sister-in-law once upon a time. The families had stayed close even after her first husband’s death, and Bree had always been thankful Kade accepted her ties to the Nicholls family.

  Weariness lined Mason’s weathered face. He nodded at Kade’s offer of coffee, then dropped into the armchair by the fireplace. “Nasty business today. Poor guy didn’t have a chance. Died upon impact with a tree.”

  Bree absorbed the news, then nodded. At least Garrick hadn’t suffered in the cold waiting for help that never arrived. If only she could have told Kade about this in private.

  She waited to speak until her husband returned with food and drink for Mason. She patted the sofa beside her, and Kade sat and put his arm around her.

  She put down her coffee. “Lauri was out there. She said she was supposed to pick up Garrick after his jump. According to her, he was planning on landing at Little Piney Lake.”

  Kade stiffened and took his arm away. “So that’s what she’s doing here. I thought her story about why she’d come here sounded off.”

  “Did you hear her come in with the snowmobile?” Bree asked.

  He shook his head. “I must have been in town getting the pizza. I saw she’d been here and gone. Her boots were by the door. I tried to call her cell to see if she wanted pizza, but she never answered.”

  Mason stretched out his legs toward the fire. “If Little Piney Lake was his target, he missed it by miles. He landed near Big Piney.”

  A good fifteen miles to the west. Bree set her plate of pizza on the end table. “She asked about his belongings but didn’t explain why.”

  Mason shrugged out of his heavy coat and tossed it on the floor by the fire. “He didn’t have a pack or anything that we found. Just his jumpsuit and parachute. The jumpsuit was made of some special material that was supposed to keep him warm, but if he’d been stuck out there all night, I doubt it would have helped him much.”

  She leaned forward. “Why would he parachute into the woods? It’s hard to hit a clearing when the wind is as high as it’s been.”

  “He might not have heard the wind was supposed to pick up this afternoon.” Mason took a sip of the hot coffee and stared into the fireplace flames for a moment. “I’ll have some deputies look around tomorrow. By the time we found the poor guy, it was getting dark. We didn’t know there was anything else to find. Or you could see if Samson can find anything. I’ll have one of my deputies get a piece of his clothing from the morgue.”

  Bree nodded. “Maybe Lauri can tell you what he was doing out there in the winter.”

  “I could stop over there and talk to her. Normally I wouldn’t bother her tonight, but it sounds like you’re suspicious there might be something illegal going on.”

  Smuggling was not uncommon this close to the Big Sea Water, also known as Lake Superior. Boats brought in prescription drugs, illegal drugs, and even illegal aliens. It was more a sixth sense of something wrong than any actual clue Bree could point to. She prayed Lauri wasn’t involved in something bad.

  “I’ll go with you if you’re going.” Bree reached her hand out to Kade, who wore a stricken expression. His fingers closed around hers.

  “We’ve got a few minutes. I’m famished.” Mason tucked into his pizza and coffee with gusto.

  Bree did the same, though her initial appetite had left her. Kade wouldn’t let her leave if she didn’t eat, though, so she managed to get down a piece of pizza and her coffee. The fatigue dragging at her muscles lifted when Mason excused himself to stop at the restroom.

  When Kade grabbed his coat, Bree put her hand on his arm. “I don’t think you should come, honey. You’re too mad. She’s more likely to talk to me.”

  His mouth was tight, and he shook his head. “I’ll make her tell me what’s going on.”

  “Let me try a little sugar first. If that doesn’t work, you can talk to her. Let’s see what she tells me.” She smiled to soften the words, but Kade didn’t smile back.

  “I can’t remember the last time I saw a real smile.” His words were soft. “Maybe not since you lost the baby. But you don’t talk about it. Why not?”

  She winced, knowing he was more than a little right. “I want a baby, Kade. The longing never leaves.”

  “You know I do too. But we have Dave even if God doesn’t bless us with a baby. We’re happy, aren’t we? Aren’t the three of us enough?”

  She wanted to smooth the worry from his brow with a yes, but her heart clenched at the thought that she would never hold Kade’s baby in her arms.

  She turned toward the door. “I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”

  The wind howled along the eaves and whistled past the windows as Kade settled in front of the fireplace with his MacBook. The pain in Bree’s eyes tore at his heart. The doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with either of them.

  He hadn’t yet shown Bree the link he clicked now. Maybe she wasn’t ready. Maybe he wasn’t either, but he fingered his cell phone, tempted to call the number on his screen. The adoption process would be long and hard. Costly too, but he’d been tucking away money for several months now. Mason’s wife would know more than he did about all of this. It would be better to start there. He brought up her number and placed the call.

  “Kade?” Hilary’s voice held curiosity. “Is everything all right? Mason texted me that he was out of the woods.”

  “He is. I have something personal to talk to you about. But I have to ask you not to say anything to Bree yet.”

  There was a long pause on the phone. “Well, that’s rather surprising. I thought you two had the perfect marriage and shared everything.”

  Hilary always knew exactly where to stick the knife. He cleared his throat. “We do, but I want to wait until the right time to talk to her about this, and I need some information first.”

  “All right. But don’t make me keep the secret for long. Bree is my sister-in-law. I wouldn’t want her to hold anything against me.”

  Once upon a time, the two had been on edge with one another, but life had s
oftened Hilary, and she tended to be protective of Bree. Kade couldn’t fault her for that when he felt the same way.

  “She won’t be mad at you. It’s nothing like that.”

  “So how can I help you?”

  There was no way to segue into the topic with any finesse. “I wondered if you had any recommendations about adoption. What agency or attorney? How long does it take and how much does it cost? That kind of thing.”

  Her gasp was sharp on the other end. “Adoption? That was the last thing I expected. You two have Davy.”

  “But we’d like a houseful of kids. You know she’s miscarried.”

  “I know how painful that is.” Her voice was tight.

  She did know too. She and Mason had tried to have a baby for years until they’d adopted Lauri’s baby daughter when she became pregnant at sixteen. For all he knew, they were still trying to have one, though Hilary was nearing forty by now. Not impossible, though.

  He cleared his throat past the pain constricting it. “The doctor says to relax and not worry, but of course we do.”

  “Of course.” Her tone turned brisk. “There’s a very good attorney in Houghton. We used him to finalize Zoe’s adoption, and he handles private adoptions. Have you thought about foster care? Sometimes a child is placed in your home who becomes adoptable, and you would be the first in line.”

  He winced. “I don’t think she could stand to lose another baby. Not after Olivia.”

  About a year ago, he and Bree had cared for a baby who’d been discovered when a stolen baby ring had settled in town, and Bree had taken care of the infant for a while. When her parentage was traced and she was given back to her mother, Bree had cried for weeks.

  “Of course. Well, then try my attorney, Philip Masters. Hang on and I’ll get his number.”

  Kade grabbed a pen and paper, then wrote it down when she came back on the line and rattled it off. “How long does it take?”

  “It depends on what you want. The wait is much shorter if you’re willing to take a baby of a different race or one with some health problems. Are you?”

  “I—I don’t know. This will all be very new to both of us. We’ll need to talk it over.” He would be fine with a mixed-race child and suspected Bree would be too. And he had good insurance, so if a child had some health problems, they’d deal with that as well. “What about a Caucasian child?”

  “Could be years.”

  Years. He thought about the long wait for a call that might never come. “I see. And the costs?”

  “Expensive. You’ll need to pay for the baby’s delivery and hospital costs. It’s also usual to pay the mother’s living expenses for a while. Count on twenty thousand at least, but it could run as high as forty thousand.”

  His gut clenched. Hilary might as well have told him it would be a million dollars. Even though he’d been promoted in the park service, he didn’t have that kind of money laying around. His gaze swept the comfortable living room. They might be able to get a second mortgage on their lighthouse home. They’d worked hard to pay off the mortgage and had paid cash for improvements.

  He exhaled. “I guess this is pretty preliminary. I have no idea if Bree would be willing to talk about it. She’s pretty set on having a baby herself.”

  “Sometimes that doesn’t work out.” Hilary’s voice held pain. “Have you heard from Lauri lately?”

  “Funny you should mention Lauri. She showed up today. Just up and left two weeks before the semester ended.”

  Hilary didn’t answer for a few long moments. “I’ve been thinking it might be time to tell Zoe the truth. I want it to be so natural that she never blames me and Mason for withholding information from her. We’ve talked about the fact that she’s adopted, though of course she doesn’t really understand it.”

  Once upon a time, Hilary would have tried to go to her grave keeping that secret. The woman had changed so much.

  He walked to the window and looked out onto the moonlit snow. “I think that’s wise. I can talk to Lauri about it.”

  Who knew how his volatile kid sister would react? She seemed to have been able to completely let go of little Zoe without a qualm. She was older now, though. At some point he expected regrets to begin to form.

  The last thing he wanted was to see a division develop in the family because of this.

  Three

  Bree stomped her feet on the mat, then shook the snow from her jacket before handing it to Martha Heinonen. Mason had already shucked his boots and coat and stood in his stocking feet on the gleaming oak floors of the entry to the elegant bed-and-breakfast.

  Though it was nearly eight, Naomi’s mother still wore a blue dress and heels. Martha played up her resemblance to Queen Elizabeth when she was in her sixties, even to the way she wore her hair. The dress matched her cornflower-blue eyes too. She’d never remarried after her husband died when Naomi was five.

  “Bree, you look half frozen,” Martha scolded. “Come in by the fire and tell me why you’re out here when you should be resting after today’s ordeal. Mason, you should know better than to get her out in this.”

  No one could stand up to Martha, least of all the mild-mannered sheriff. He exchanged a glance with Bree, then followed Martha to the living room, where a fire blazed in the marble hearth. A cinnamon-scented candle flickered on the mantel. Bree had always loved this room. She felt as much a part of the Heinonen family as her best friend Naomi herself.

  When she settled on the overstuffed sofa, Martha tucked a garnet chenille throw around her. “Cuddle up in that and get warm. Tea?”

  “I just had coffee.” Bree patted the seat beside her. “We wanted to ask you some questions.”

  Martha sat beside Bree, then picked up her crochet project from a needlework bag on the floor. “Me?” She plunged a blue afghan needle into the yarn and began to loop it.

  The natural-colored afghan was nearly done, and it matched dozens of others Bree had seen Martha make. At their wedding she and Kade were the recipients of one that had been embroidered with their names.

  Bree straightened the throw on her lap. “How did Lauri act when she got here? Did she say anything about why she was here and where she was going when she left?”

  Martha’s blue eyes narrowed. “You know Lauri. She never tells you anything.”

  Bree sighed. “Naomi and I saw her out in the woods. She said she was there to pick up the parachuter who died today. So she didn’t say where she was going when she left here? She stopped at our place, then said she was going out. Kade didn’t question her. You know how guys are.”

  Martha smiled and moved the crochet hook through the yarn without looking at Bree. “She said she was here photographing someone learning to skydive. She’s working on a thesis project for school. Or so she told me.”

  Bree frowned. “Weird. That doesn’t sound like any kind of accounting class. Maybe it’s for an elective.”

  Mason still stood warming his hands by the fire. His expression held the same skepticism Bree was sure resided on her face. Her gut feeling was rarely wrong, and it appeared her sixth sense hadn’t led her astray this time either.

  “Did she appear upset when she came in tonight?” he asked.

  Martha frowned. “She was fairly quiet and arrived a bit late for supper. I warmed some stew up for her, though. She ate, then went to her room.”

  “Would you mind telling her I’d like to speak with her?” Mason asked.

  “Of course.” Martha put her yarn and needle aside, then hustled toward the door.

  “What do you make of that story?” Bree asked as Martha’s steps faded up the stairway.

  “There could be some reasonable explanation. Maybe she was seeing this guy on the sly and didn’t want anyone to know, especially Kade. Or he could have asked her to pick him up when he found out she was in the area.”

  “Or
it really was for some kind of class project. There’s a skydiving club in Houghton.” She’d seen the group out on occasion. It had ceased for a while when they lost their plane, but a few years later was up and flying again.

  Two sets of footsteps came down the stairs. Bree’s smile was firmly in place when Lauri followed Martha into the living room. Lauri’s brown hair, now out of the ponytail, hung halfway down her back, and she looked even younger and more vulnerable in the soft glow of the lights. A little color had returned to her cheeks.

  Her eyes widened when she saw Bree. “I thought the sheriff wanted to see me.”

  “I do,” Mason said from his position by the fireplace.

  Lauri’s hands curled into fists at her side, but her smile stayed in place. “Is this about Garrick?” Her blue eyes flickered warily from him to Bree then back.

  Mason fixed her with a stare. “I shouldn’t have had to track you down here. We had no idea someone was supposed to pick him up in the woods. Bree informs me that you indicated he planned to land on Little Piney.”

  Lauri took a step back. “I don’t really remember what I said. I was babbling from the cold, I think. He was actually supposed to land on Big Piney, and I got confused and then lost.” She didn’t look at Bree.

  Bree managed to hide her indignation. “That’s not what you told me, Lauri. You said you’d been waiting out there for hours, and he never showed up. And that reminds me. You were with me when I got the call to search for him. If you were supposed to pick him up, why weren’t you in the woods then?”

  “He told me to get him at three. So that’s what I planned to do. I didn’t know who you were searching for. You grabbed your ready pack and left with no details.” She pressed her lips together. “I really don’t know anything about this. Garrick was just a friend who asked me to do him a favor.”

  Bree knew there was more. “As in boyfriend?”

  Lauri shrugged. “As in a boy who is a friend.”

  Bree’s hands curled into fists under the throw. If he was a friend, or even something more, she would have expected Lauri to be upset, instead she seemed more angry. Why was she lying?