Mistletoe and Murder by Jenna Ryan

Author:Jenna Ryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2007-01-06T05:00:00+00:00

FITZ’S ATTIC APARTMENT was compact, colorful and bursting with character—just like her.

Romana ducked under a trio of red hanging balls and peered into the tiny bathroom.

“Her hair dryer’s not on the counter,” she called back to Jacob. “Neither’s her favorite coffee mug. She wasn’t here this morning.”

“Wouldn’t her father have noticed that?”

“I don’t imagine he noticed anyone or anything until at least noon.” Romana recalled her uncle’s red whiskey eyes and the breath he’d attempted to disguise with cinnamon mouthwash. “Anyway, Fitz leaves for work two hours before he does on Thursdays.”

She returned to the living area, pivoted on her heel and wished just once that a clue would jump out at her.

“No tree yet,” she noted while Jacob poked through the kitchenette. “She wants a live one, but there’s not much room up here.”

“Did you check her messages?”

Romana tossed her coat on the sofa. “Her supervisor called twice. I’m numbers three, four and five, and my brother Noah wants to know if she thinks I’d like a gift card or a Hermes handbag for Christmas.”

Jacob smiled as he opened a cupboard. “I’d go with the handbag.”

“Cigar’s yours, Detective.” On her third scan of the room, Romana spied a jar of silver polish and a blackened cloth. “What’s that?”

He opened another cupboard. “Let me guess. You don’t polish your Christmas silverware?”

“I don’t have Christmas silverware. Neither does Fitz.” But her cousin did have a black metal box with a combination lock sitting on the shelf above the desk. Interesting.

She glanced at Jacob. “You any good at cracking safes, Detective?”

“I’ve done a B and E or two in my time.”

He was a man of mystery on both sides of the law.

“Job’s yours.” Because she wanted to rock him as he’d rocked her earlier, Romana strode into the kitchen and gave him a hard, smacking kiss. “You open Pandora’s box. I’ll try James and Patrick again.”

She’d called James Barret’s home twice already, but Fitz swore third times were lucky. Not in this case, however. According to a slightly winded and decidedly out of sorts Shera, her husband wouldn’t be returning from Cleveland until Friday. Which told Romana nothing. Except that her cocker spaniel hubby likely wasn’t as faithful as Shera wanted to believe.

An unpleasant thought wound its way through her head. Fitz had always liked James, lusted after him in fact. If Barret had flown to Cleveland, he hadn’t done so under his own name. And Fitz, who adored him, was missing.

“Okay, that’s just plain unworthy,” she decided and punched Patrick’s number with more vigor than necessary.

He answered with a yawning, “I was asleep, Romana. I hope this is important.”

Call display still threw her sometimes. Romana pushed the hair from her cheek, held it back. “Patrick, I can’t find Fitz. Did you see her at all today?”

“What? Uh—no, I didn’t. I worked the graveyard shift last night. Left at six this morning. Went Christmas shopping.”

Romana would have smiled at his gloomy tone if her thoughts hadn’t been bouncing around like a pinball. “Her supervisor said she didn’t clock in.

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