Colton Christmas Protector. Beth Cornelison

she swiped gentle fingers over the stones.

      He took out the rest of the jewelry boxes stacked at the front of the safe and set them on a shelf of the bookcase. The back of the safe was dark, but he could clearly see stacks of something. He reached in and drew out bundled cash. He gave a low whistle. “Pen, look.”

      She blinked. “Money? Good gravy! Those are hundred-dollar bills. That’s got to be in the thousands of dollars!”

      “There’s more.” He reached in and withdrew another bundle of cash, an envelope with municipal bonds, more cash in Euro bills and two bank-record booklets of offshore accounts.

      When he turned to Penelope, she was pale and trembling.

      “I don’t understand. Why...” She paused to swallow. “There’s a fortune here. Why wouldn’t he put this in the bank? What—”

      “A getaway fund?” Reid suggested.

      “But getaway from what? Why?”

      “My guess is he didn’t declare any of this to the IRS. Remember the tax records Andrew had?”

      “Tax evasion? A getaway fund?” She shook her head, clearly in shock and trying to process their find. She flipped through the stack of money, then the bonds, with damp eyes and shaking hands.

      Reid reached back into the safe and pulled out a dusty ledger, a file folder with old tax returns and a flash drive. When Pen saw what he had found, her face crumpled in further distress.

      He longed to pull her into his arms and comfort her. Bad relationship or not, learning your father might be breaking the law and cheating people would be hard for anyone to accept. The nail in Hugh’s coffin was the passport with his picture under the name Samuel Morris Griffin. He held the fake passport up for her to see and Pen blanched. “He’s prepared to flee the country at a moment’s notice. But...why?”

      “Good question.” Reid spread the evidence on the shelf, pulled out his phone to snap a picture, then returned the money, files, bank books, passport and bonds in neat stacks to the safe. He slipped the flash drive into his pocket to delve into later.

      “Do you think...” She seemed to be having a hard time breathing. “Andrew knew about this? Is that why he was keeping the...” she paused again to rub her hand on her sternum “...the secret file on him? That he was going to turn my father in for...whatever made my dad think he needed a getaway plan?”

      Reid shrugged. “I don’t know, Pen. Andrew was a good cop. If he suspected foul play—”

      “What is the meaning of this?”

      Reid and Pen turned quickly toward the office door, where an older gentleman in a suit and dark tie scowled at them from the hall. Beside him, Pen gave a soft, guilty-sounding gasp.

      “Who let you—” The older man paused, his expression growing more startled and confused than hostile. “Oh, Ms. Penelope. I wasn’t told to expect you.”

      “Stanley!” She fixed a stiff grin on her face and moved to block the butler’s view of the bank books and cash still sitting on a lower shelf. “Gracious! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

      “I apologize, ma’am.” The butler’s face remained stern and suspicious. “But I’m equally surprised to see you in your father’s office.” His tone was heavy with judgment and castigation. “Is there something I can do for you?” He raised his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Or would you like me to call your father for his assistance with something?”

      The threat was clear, though delivered in a thinly ingratiating manner.

      Reid tensed, mentally searching for a way to defend their presence when Pen said, “Not necessary, Stanley. I’ve simply come to retrieve my mother’s necklace.”

      She reached behind her without turning and groped for the black velvet jewelry box. Reid surreptitiously nudged it toward her fingers. She grasped it and held it out for Stanley to see.

      With a calmness in her tone that Reid would bet belied butterflies in her gut, she explained, “Daddy has been keeping these here for me, but Mama left it to me. I was thinking I’d wear it next week to a fundraiser for the Fallen Law Enforcement Officers Memorial ball.”

      A muscle in the butler’s jaw twitched, and his suspicious gaze shifted from Penelope to Reid. “And he is with you, because...?”

      Penelope jerked her chin higher and gave a delicate grunt of disgust. “Stanley, really!”

      “I insisted on coming with Penelope for her security. The necklace is clearly quite valuable, and I didn’t want anything to happen to her or the jewels as she took them to her bank lockbox.” Reid ad-libbed, giving a deferential smile. “Can’t be too careful these days. Right?”

      “Stanley, you’ve met Reid Colton, haven’t you? He was Andrew’s partner.” She paused, then added as she tipped her head, “And the son of one of father’s best clients. Don’t be so inhospitable.”

      The man’s face hardened for having been chastened. “My apologies, Ms. Penelope, Mr. Colton. I simply meant to look out for your father’s interests. You are in his private office, after all. I believe he’d consider this an invasion of his privacy.”

      “Understood.” Reid gave a brief nod of agreement and put the other jewel boxes back in the safe. “We have what we came for, so...we’ll be off. Pen?”

      “Right.” Penelope clutched the jewelry box to her chest and moved toward the door.

      Reid restored the safe and bookshelf to order as best he could and took several large strides to catch up with her. As he passed the desk and computer, he pretended to hit his leg on the desk chair. Grunting, he bent to rub his knee and stealthily unplugged the flash drive and hit the power button on the desktop tower on the floor. Palming the flash drive, he winced as if in pain as he hobbled to catch up with Penelope in the hall. He’d have loved to get a peek in that locked desk drawer but clearly that wasn’t going to happen. Today.

      If only he could come back without Pen and get in that drawer. If he were still a cop, he could get a warrant. He had cause based on the documents Andrew had left hidden in his wall. But unless he wanted to be nabbed for breaking and entering or turn the case over to the authorities before he knew what was truly going on with Pen’s father—which he didn’t—he’d have to sit tight. For now.

      In the meantime, he had a flash drive full of files and browsing history to review, and that could prove quite interesting.

      * * *

      As Reid drove away from her father’s mansion, Penelope stroked the velvet-covered jewelry box in her lap and exhaled the stress knotted in her chest. “Well, that didn’t go so well.”

      He rolled his shoulders and cocked his head side to side, stretching his neck. “I don’t know. We found some evidence that backs up what Andrew seems to have been onto, and I copied a lot of his computer files to look into.”

      She leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes. “Maybe. But...isn’t it possible the money and bank accounts are legit? I mean, there’s nothing illegal about keeping money in your safe or having offshore accounts.”

      “Not in theory. But it is illegal to fake a passport. In my experience, if it hides in an office safe like a duck and supports a reasonable suspicion like a duck, it’s not an innocent puppy.”

      She angled her head to stare at him and frowned. “That is...the most tortured and convoluted analogy I’ve heard in...ever.”

      “But you get my point.”

      She sighed. “I do.”

      “And there is no good explanation for the fake passport.”

      “No.” Turning to gaze at the frozen north Texas landscape that flew by, she acknowledged the hollowness, the sinking sensation that gnawed inside her.

      “Please