1225 Christmas Tree Lane

11

Linc drove down Harbor Street, peering out at both sides of the street. Fortunately, the snow had let up—Ned was probably disappointed by that. He wasn’t sure what he was searching for, other than some clue as to where he might locate his runaway sister. He’d give anything to see that long brown coat, that colorful striped scarf….

“Nice town,” Ned commented, looking around.

Linc hadn’t noticed. His mind was on Mary Jo.

“They seem to go all out with the Christmas decorations,” Mel added.

Ned poked his head between the two of them and braced his arms against the back of the seats. “Lots of lights, too.”

“There’s only one that I can see,” Linc mumbled, concentrating on the road ahead. His brothers were so easily distracted, he thought irritably.

They exchanged knowing glances.

“What?” Linc barked. He recognized that look. In fact, he’d already seen it several times today.

“In case you weren’t aware of it, there are lights on every lamppost all through town,” Ned pointed out slowly, as if he was speaking to a child. “The street is decorated with Christmas lights. And that clock tower, too, with the Christmas tree in front of it.”

“I was talking about traffic signals,” Linc snapped.

“Oh, signals. Yeah, you’re right about that.” As Linc drove through the downtown area, there’d been just that one traffic light. Actually, he was going back to it. He made a sharp U-turn.

“Where are you going?” Mel asked, clutching the handle above the passenger window.

“Back to the light—the traffic light, I mean.”

“Why?” Ned ventured with some hesitation.

Linc’s mood had improved since they’d arrived in Cedar Cove. The traffic was almost nonexistent and his sister was here. Somewhere.

He tried to think like Mary Jo. Where could she be? It had started to get dark, although it was barely four in the afternoon. Twilight had already settled over the snowy landscape.

“Practically everything in town is closed for the day,” Mel said, pressing his face against the passenger window like an anxious child.

“Stands to reason. It’s Christmas Eve.” Ned sounded as if he was stating something neither Linc nor Mel had discovered yet.

Linc waited for the light before making a sharp left-hand turn. The road ended at a small traffic circle that went around a totem pole. The building to the right with the large mural was the library, and there was a large, mostly vacant parking lot situated to his left. Directly in front of him was a marina and a large docked boat.

The sign read Passenger Ferry.

Linc immediately went through the traffic circle and pulled into the parking lot.

“Why are we stopping here?” Mel asked in surprise.

“Not that I’m complaining. I could use a pit stop.”

“Yeah, me too,” Ned chimed in. “Let’s go, okay?”

“Come on,” Mel said. “I wanna hit the men’s room.”

“How did Mary Jo get to Cedar Cove?” he asked them both, ignoring their entreaties. “The ferry, right? Isn’t that what we figured?”

“Yeah, she must’ve taken it to Bremerton,” Mel agreed. “And then she rode the foot ferry across from Bremerton to Cedar Cove.” He pointed to the boat docked at the end of the pier.

Linc playfully ruffled his brother’s hair. “Give the man a cigar.”

Mel jerked his head aside. “Hey, cut it out.” He combed his fingers through his hair to restore it to order.

Linc swung open the truck door and climbed out.

“Where you goin’ now?” Mel asked, opening his own door.

“It’s not for us to question why,” Ned intoned and clambered out, too.

Linc sighed. “I’m going to ask if anyone saw a pregnant girl on the dock this morning.”

“Good idea,” Ned said enthusiastically. “Meanwhile, we’ll visit that men’s room over there.”

“Fine,” Linc grumbled, scanning the street as he waited for them. Unfortunately he hadn’t found anyone to question in the vicinity of the dock. The only nearby place that seemed to be doing business was a pub—imaginatively called the Cedar Cove Tavern.

“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” blasted out the door the instant Linc opened it. A pool table dominated one side of the establishment; one man was leaning over it, pool cue in hand, while another stood by watching. They looked over their shoulders when the three brothers came inside.

Linc walked up to the bar.

The bartender, who had a full head of white hair and was wearing a Santa hat, ambled over to him. “What can I get you boys?”

“Coke for me.” Linc was driving, so he wasn’t interested in anything alcoholic. Besides, he’d need a clear head once he tracked down his obstinate younger sister.

“I’ll have a beer,” Mel said. He propped his elbows on the bar as though settling in for a long winter’s night.

“Coke,” Ned ordered, sliding onto the stool on Linc’s other side.

The bartender served them speedily.

Linc slapped a twenty-dollar bill on the scarred wooden bar. “You seen a pregnant woman around today?” he asked. “Someone from out of town?”

The man frowned. “Can’t say I have.”

“She’s real pregnant.” For emphasis Mel held both hands in front of his stomach.

“Then I definitely didn’t,” Santa informed them.

“She arrived by foot ferry,” Ned told him. “Probably sometime midmorning.”

“Sorry,” Santa murmured. “I didn’t start my shift until three.” He rested his bulk against the counter and called out, “Anyone here see a pregnant gal come off the foot ferry this morning?”

The two men playing pool shook their heads. The other patrons stopped their conversation, glanced at Linc and his brothers, then went back to whatever they were discussing.

“Doesn’t look like anyone else did either,” the bartender said.

The brothers huddled over their drinks. “What we gotta do,” Mel suggested, “is figure out what her agenda would be.”

“She came to find David’s parents,” Ned reminded them. “That’s her agenda.”

“True.” Okay, they both had a point. Turning back to the bartender, Linc caught his attention. “You know any people named Rhodes in the area?”

Santa nodded as he wiped a beer mug. “Several.”

“This is an older couple. They have a son named David.”

The bartender frowned. “Oh, I know David. He stiffed me on a sixty-dollar tab.”

Yeah, they were talking about the same guy, all right. “What about his parents?”

“Ben and Charlotte,” Santa told them. “Really decent people. I don’t have anything good to say about their son, though.”

“Where do they live?”

“I’m not sure.”

Looking around, Linc saw a pay phone near the restrooms. “I’ll check if Ben Rhodes is in the phone book,” he said, leaving his stool.

“Sounds like a plan,” Santa muttered.

Linc removed the phone book from a small shelf. The entire directory was only half an inch thick. The Seattle phone book had a bigger section just of government agencies than the entire Cedar Cove White and Yellow Pages. He quickly found the listing for Ben and Charlotte Rhodes, then copied down the phone number and address.

“Got it,” he announced triumphantly.

“Should we call?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?” Mel asked. He walked back to the bar and downed the last of his beer.

“I don’t want to give Mary Jo a heads-up that we’re in town. I think the best thing to do is take her by surprise.”

Ned nodded, although he seemed a bit uncertain.

Linc thanked the bartender, got some general directions and collected his change. He left a generous tip; it was Christmas Eve, after all. Then he marched toward the door, his brothers scrambling after him.

In the parking lot again, Linc climbed into the truck and started the engine. He’d noticed that Harbor Street angled up the hill. He guessed David’s parents’ street wasn’t far from this main thoroughfare. Trusting his instincts, he returned to the traffic signal, took a left and followed the road until it intersected with Pelican Court.

Within five minutes of leaving the tavern, Linc was parked outside Ben and Charlotte Rhodes’s house.

The porch light was on, which boded well, and there appeared to be a light on inside, too. The house was a solid two-story dwelling, about the same age as the one he shared with his brothers in Seattle. White Christmas lights were strung along the roofline and the bushes were lighted, too. There was a manger scene on the front lawn.

“This is a neat town,” Mel said. “Did you see they have an art gallery? We passed it a couple of minutes ago.”

“When did you get so interested in art?” Linc asked.

“I like art,” Mel muttered.

“Since when?”

“Since now. You want to make something of it?”

“No,” Linc said, puzzled by his brother’s defensiveness.

Linc walked up the steps leading to the front door while his brothers stood out on the lawn. Mel amused himself by rearranging the large plastic figures in the Nativity scene.

Linc felt smug. If Mary Jo thought she’d outsmarted him, she had a lesson to learn. He didn’t want to be self-righteous, but he was going to teach his little sister that she wasn’t nearly as clever as she seemed to think. He also wanted Mary Jo to understand that he had her best interests at heart—now and always.

Leaning hard against the doorbell, he waited several minutes and when nothing happened, he pressed the bell a second time.

“Want me to check out the backyard?” Ned called from the lawn.

“Sure.”

His youngest brother took off and disappeared around the side of the house.

Mel trailed after Ned, while Linc stood guard on the porch. Since no one was bothering to answer—although there seemed to be people home—Linc stepped over to the picture window and glanced inside through the half-closed blinds.

A cat hissed at him from the windowsill on the other side. Or at least he assumed it was hissing, since its teeth were bared and its ears laid back. Startled, he took a deep breath and stepped away. Although there was a window between them, the cat glared at him maliciously, its intentions clear.

“Nice kitty, nice kitty,” Linc remarked, although he knew the animal couldn’t hear his attempt to be friendly. This cat was anything but. Linc didn’t doubt for a moment that if he were to get inside the house, “nice kitty” would dig all his claws into him within seconds.

Linc hurried to the other side of the porch and leaned over the side, but that didn’t provide him with any further information.

A minute or two later, his brothers were back. “The house is locked up. Door wouldn’t budge.”

This wasn’t going the way Linc had planned. “Okay, so maybe they aren’t home.”

“Then where are they?” Mel demanded.

“How am I supposed to know?” Linc asked, growing irritated.

“You’re the one with all the answers, remember?”

“Hey, hey,” Ned said, coming to stand between his brothers. “Let’s skip the sarcasm. We’re looking for Mary Jo, remember?”

“Where is she?” Mel asked.

“I haven’t got a clue,” Ned returned calmly. “But someone must.”

“Maybe we should ask a neighbor,” Mel said.

“Be my guest.” Linc motioned widely with his arm.

“Okay, I will. I’ll try…that one.” Mel marched down the steps, strode across the street and walked up to the front door. He pounded on it. Even from this distance Linc could hear his knock.

An older woman with pink rollers in her hair pulled aside the drape and peeked out.

“I just saw someone,” Ned yelled. “There’s someone inside.”

Linc had seen her, too.

“Why isn’t she answering the door?” Mel asked loudly, as if the two of them had some secret insight into this stranger.

“Would you answer if King Kong was trying to get in your front door?” Linc asked. Apparently Mel hadn’t figured out that most people responded better to more sensitive treatment.

“Okay, fine,” Mel shouted after several long minutes.

“Be that way, lady.”

“She just doesn’t want to answer the door,” Ned shouted back.

Mel ignored that and proceeded to the next house.

“Knock more quietly this time,” Linc instructed.

Mel ignored that, too. Walking to the door, he pushed the buzzer, then turned and glanced over his shoulder. This house seemed friendlier, Linc thought. A large evergreen wreath hung on the door and lights sparkled from the porch columns.

Again no one answered.

Losing patience, Mel looked in the front window, framing his face with both hands. After peering inside for several seconds, he straightened and called out, “No one’s home here.”

“You want me to try?” Ned asked Linc. Mel wasn’t exactly making friends in the neighborhood.

“Do you think it’ll do any good?”

“Not really,” Ned admitted.

A piercing blare of sirens sounded in the distance, disrupting the tranquility of the night.

Mel hurried back across the street. “Everyone in the neighborhood seems to be gone. Except for the lady with those pink things in her hair.”

Despite their efforts, they obviously weren’t getting anywhere. “Now what?” Ned muttered.

“You got any ideas?” Linc asked his two brothers, yelling to be heard over the sirens.

“Nope,” Mel said with a shrug.

“Me, neither.” Linc said, not hiding his discouragement.

They sauntered back to the truck and climbed inside. Linc started the engine and was about to drive away from the curb when two sheriff’s vehicles shot into the street and boxed him in.

The officers leaped out of their cars and pulled their weapons. “Get out of the truck with your hands up!”