Fatal, But Festive by Maggie Shayne

Author:Maggie Shayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oliver-Heber Books

CHAPTER NINE

Kiley sat on the floor, the file open in front of her, a glass of wine in her left hand. Jack had a roaring fire going. The tree was lit and the entire place smelled like Christmas. Maya sat on the sofa beside Johnny, reading over his shoulder from a book with old cloth binding in faded red. Chris was in one of the soft chairs, tapping non-stop on his iPad.“So the family lore is that the twins’ father—”

“Gabriel York,” Kiley said, holding up a five by seven headshot. “This is him without his face paint.”

“Johnny?” Jack prompted. And Kiley knew why. She’d seen the look that had crossed Johnny’s face.

“What?”

“You looked like you recognized the guy,” Jack said.

A little frown knit Johnny’s brow. “Yeah, for a second, I thought I did. But no. Please, continue. Family lore…”

“Family lore is that Gabriel York wanted to marry Rosalie, but that her father didn’t approve. So they were going to elope on Christmas Eve. She waited for him, but he never came. And no one ever heard from him again.”

“Rosalie’s father,” Maya said slowly. “We haven’t talked about him much, have we?”

“Because he’s been dead for a while,” Kiley said.

“Yeah, but how long a while?” Chris tapped the screen as he spoke the name. “Edward O’Reilly Cantrell.”.

Kiley flipped pages in the police file. “It’s right here, I just saw it. Yes, right here. A statement from Grandma Nisha herself. “Edward and I had a falling out we just couldn’t get past. He took his car and left us on December twenty-first. I remember because it was the winter solstice. The darkest night. My darkest, for sure.’” Kiley sighed heavily. “So first her husband vanishes without a trace…”

“And then her daughter’s fiancé does the same a few days later?” Jack said, completing her thought.

Maya rose from the sofa and moved to stare into the fire. “I wonder where they were going to go? Gabriel and Rosalie? They must’ve planned to go somewhere.”

“Well, there’s really only one place to go,” Johnny said. But he said it in an odd accent. He walked around the sofa to put a hand on Maya’s shoulder. “I’ll make it nice. And we’ll be safe. No one knows but Uncle Sammy and me.”

Maya stared at his face and her eyes went really wide.

“G-Gabriel?”

He lifted his brows. “You’re not Rosalie!” The words exploded from him with some sort of percussive force that sent Maya reeling backward. Kiley surged to her feet and broke her progress, taking a full body hit, then grabbing hold to steady her. Johnny collapsed in on himself like a deflated balloon.

Jack dove, shoving a sofa pillow under his head before it hit the corner of the hearthstone. Chris was on his feet, gaze jumping from one of them to the next. “What the hell, what the hell?”

“That wasn’t Johnny,” Maya said. She got her footing, eased out of Kiley’s grasp, and moved toward where he lay on the floor. “His eyes changed. They were darker. And his voice…”

Kiley returned to the file, its pages scattered.

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