Cold Case Christmas. Jessica R. Patch

Rush. I love how it’s covered in windows. So much natural light, and what a view from up here.” Nora gaped and took it all in. He felt that way every day.

      He parked out front, grabbed the box and they went inside. Nora studied the cedar beams and walls. The kitchen was open to the living room. Leather furniture. Rugs for warmth on the knotty pine flooring.

      “I love what you’ve done with it.” She frowned. “Where’s your Christmas tree?”

      “I didn’t put one up this year.” One tree decorated for one man? Seemed silly.

      She gasped. “Rush!”

      “Did you put a tree up at your place in Knoxville?”

      She collapsed on the couch. “No, but I haven’t put a tree up since Mom disappeared...died.” Tears leaked from her eyes, and she wiped them away with her sweater sleeves that hung over her fingertips. “You have no reason not to.”

      “Neither do you,” he said delicately. “She wouldn’t have wanted you to stop loving and celebrating your favorite holiday. Besides you’re celebrating Christ’s birth.”

      “Which doesn’t call for a tree.”

      “You put up a nativity?”

      “No. Make me some coffee and let’s go through photos.” She grinned and headed for the box on the kitchen counter.

      “You’re bossy.”

      “You ought to know.” She slid the lid off the box. “Hey, Rush?”

      “Hmm...?” He opened a bin and took a K-Cup for the Keurig.

      “Nothing.” Fear pulsed in her eyes. Whatever she was about to open up and say, she’d bit back.

      “You can talk to me, you know. Like you used to.” Before her world crumbled and she closed herself off.

      “It’s nothing.”

      Frustration knotted his neck and shoulder muscles. He gave her a cup of coffee how she liked it, with cream and sugar, and started combing through photos. He searched for men in Phantom of the Opera masks. “Do you know where there might be other photos? Not every single person is going to turn up in this box.” Hundreds of people attended each Christmas. Several hundred of them local, and nearly three hundred tourists. This was a needle in a haystack job.

      “Tourist center might have some put away. Locals probably have personal scrapbooks. What are we even looking for?” Nora asked, and thumbed through the photos.

      “The mask in the car was a partial of the Phantom of the Opera. Look for men wearing that.” He left out the other reason it was important. How did one tell an ex-girlfriend he’d seen her mom kissing the Phantom? She’d been through so much already. “And someone with silver cuff links.”

      “My dad wore cuff links but not like those.” She held up a photo. “Look, it’s you and Dan in those ridiculous masks with whisker-like things growing out of the sides.” She laughed, but he heard the bittersweet tone.

      “Good times.” Rush couldn’t manage much more. That was the night his dream shattered. He found two photos of two different men in Phantom masks. One seemed like it might be Ward McKay. He owned McKay Construction and was divorced. Could Marilyn be the rift that caused it? “Did you ever hear talk about Ward McKay and your mom?”

      Nora paused perusing. “I steered clear of talk if I could.”

      “His wife moved away with their son. He might have been pretty mad over that even though it would have been his fault. Anger brings irrational behavior and thoughts sometimes.” He couldn’t believe he said that. He had no facts to support that theory. “I’m speculating and really I shouldn’t be.”

      “No,” Nora said. “That makes sense.”

      If Ward was the Phantom kissing Marilyn three months after he had separated from his wife, he might have wanted a more permanent relationship with Marilyn. If she rejected that, after he lost his family for her, that could have sent him over the edge. She might have been escaping him. Or something more sinister.

      But they didn’t have proof that Marilyn’s car in the lake was intentional. And he was only speculating again. “If the car wreck was an accident, then all we’re doing is meddling in people’s lives to give you some comfort.” A lot of damage could be done. “Is that fair?”

      Nora jutted her chin toward him and glared. “What if it was your mother?”

      He didn’t know. Before his dad falsely accused a man of soliciting a prostitute, which ended up causing the man to commit suicide, he’d have said yes. But now? Now he wasn’t so sure he’d go around prying.

      “We have to question Ward, Rush. Evidence or not. What’s he got to lose now?” Nora asked.

      “If your mom’s death wasn’t an accident, then a lot.”

       THREE

      The winter storm had slacked off, leaving a foot of fresh powdered snow and temperatures in the low twenties. But it wasn’t keeping tourists and locals away from Main Street. Carolers dressed in Victorian clothing wassailed along singing inside the shops that were lit with candles and twinkling lights. Nora loved the candle store best with its cranberry, pine and cinnamon scents that wafted through the air. She’d be buying one of the candles when they got there. Small stations were set up for tourists to relax and revel with mulled cider or cocoa. With red noses and wrapped head to toe like mummies in winter garb and bags loading them down, people were having a ball.

      Road crews had done a good job of clearing the roads and sidewalks. Nora and Hailey walked with Dalton, his lips coated in chocolate and whipped cream. Nora had missed so much of his growing up by only visiting once a year. She’d forgotten how much she loved these pre-Christmas festivities. They’d bumped into several people Nora had grown up with, and there had been no narrowed eyes or questions about Mom, but Nora couldn’t help but feel gawked at. Rush had been called away due to shoplifters, and being here in public, Nora didn’t think anyone would try something. She hoped anyway. She had her sister and Dalton with her.

      “Nora, do you think you should push this?” Making a motion with her chin toward Dalton, Hailey let Nora know to talk in code so young ears didn’t hear.

      “Don’t you want answers?”

      “Yes, but not enough to bring on the extra trouble, if you know what I mean. Maybe we should move on. I don’t care to know about every single indiscretion, and quite frankly, I believe there were many.”

      “But why? What was so bad in the marriage that would cause that?”

      Hailey sighed and watched as Dalton jetted ahead, gawking in the taffy store. “People grow apart, Nora. They live in the same house, share the bills and running errands and after-school activities, but the spark dies.”

      “I’m sorry about you and Nate.”

      Hailey squeezed her hand but said nothing.

      Nora had seen marriages that lasted. Burned bright all through the years. Rush’s parents for one. And her grandparents on Dad’s side. Mom had no family. No pictures. They’d burned in a house fire when Mom was young.

      Hair rose on her neck and she scanned the area.

      “So how are things with you and Rush?” Hailey asked.

      Nora shook off the feeling of being watched again. “Fine. Good.” He was helping her look into a case. That’s it. Although sitting in his home, drinking coffee and reminiscing over old photos had shifted the place where she kept her feelings for him confined. “To be honest, I wish he’d be more aggressive on this investigation. He acts like he can’t question anyone until he has proof, but he can’t get proof without asking questions. It’s