The Mystery Before Christmas

“Can you describe the person who drove away from the scene?”

“Male. Tall. Black leather jacket, denim pants. It was dark, so I didn’t see his face.”

“And the car?”

“A blue sedan. A Ford, I think, but I’m not sure. I do know it was one of those midsize sedans. I didn’t notice the license plate, I’m afraid. The whole thing happened so fast that it seems it was over before I knew to pay attention.”

“And you were just driving by?” Mike asked.

I glanced at the ground and nodded. I could see that Mike didn’t believe me, and I knew he wasn’t going to let this go, but Frank pulled up just then, so Mike walked Tilly and me back across the street to my Jeep. He opened the door and Tilly jumped up. I slid in after her.

“I’ll be by when I can. In the meantime, I want you to write down everything you can remember,” Mike instructed through the open driver’s side window as I adjusted my seat belt.

“Okay.”

“And Tess—”

I took a chance and looked him in the eye. “Yeah?”

“When I come by, I’m going to want the rest of the story.”

I swallowed and nodded. He kissed me on the cheek, then stepped away. He closed the door, and I started the ignition and pulled away.

Mike knew that Dad was still alive. I’d finally broken down and told him a year ago. But he didn’t know the rest. The part I’d been keeping from him. I wasn’t exactly sure how he’d react, but I knew him well enough to be sure he wasn’t going to be happy about any of it. I supposed I knew that one day I’d have to confess everything; I just hadn’t realized when I’d left work for the weekend that that day was today.

As I drove toward the cabin where Tony, his dog Titan, and my cats Tang and Tinder were waiting, I felt my stress level increase dramatically. I supposed it might be the result of delayed reaction from the shooting, but I supposed it could also have been heightened by my impending conversation with Mike. I knew it was going to be unpleasant. The truth of the matter was that I’d known our dad was alive a full year before I’d even brought Mike in on the secret. Mike was a good guy and I trusted him implicitly, but he was also pretty intense. He tended to act before thinking when it came to protecting the people he loved, so I rightfully feared he’d only make things worse if he knew our father was still alive and kicking in the world.

Of course, even after I’d shared with Mike the proof Tony and I had found of the existence of the man we both thought had died years before, I hadn’t continued to fill him in on every little detail of our investigation, as I’d promised I would. I hadn’t told him that Dad had shown up at the hospital when Mike was shot and had almost died, and I hadn’t told him about Star or the suspicion I’d had that she was our half sister. Though my suspicion had turned out to be wrong, our dad had been involved with her mother in some way. I was sure he’d been the one to drop her off at the church, so whether he was her father or not, he’d been connected to her from the beginning.