Ornaments of Death by Jane K. Cleland Read Free Book Online Page A

passing by midafternoon.
    As I walked back to my car, I dug my phone out from my tote bag and called Ty. He was at the airport, waiting for his flight to D.C. He told me to hold on while he moved to a quieter area. I got settled in the driver’s seat and turned up the heat.
    â€œIs your flight on time?” I asked when he was back on the line.
    â€œSo they say. Why?”
    â€œBecause up here the snow is picking up.”
    â€œIt’s all clear here.”
    â€œI don’t know. I’m worried.”
    â€œSomething besides the snow is bothering you.”
    â€œIt’s Ian. I’m fretting.” I explained my concerns, adding, “I don’t know what to do.”
    â€œHe’ll turn up,” Ty said without hesitation.
    â€œWhy would you think so? You told me once that lots of guys just up and disappear.”
    â€œDisenfranchised guys, not men with a daughter to visit and plenty of money.”
    â€œThen where is he?”
    â€œMaybe he found some female companionship.”
    â€œNo,” I said.
    â€œWhy are you so certain?”
    â€œBecause he’s not a horny twenty-year-old. Because he had a hot date with a gorgeous woman. Because he was glad to have connected with me and he wouldn’t have simply blown off our lunch.”
    â€œYour logic is sound, but people defy logic all the time. Sure, Lia’s good-looking but … well … let me put it this way … if I were a betting man, I’d place all my chips on an eighteen-year-old hottie he ran into at the mall over an almost forty-year-old glamour-puss with a ton of baggage and a PhD in sarcasm.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œI know men. It’s easier to apologize after the fact than explain yourself before you do whatever it is you’re going to do.”
    â€œYou’re not like that.”
    â€œTrue, but lots of guys are.”
    I knew men, too, and I simply couldn’t believe that Ian wouldn’t have called, texted, or e-mailed if he’d changed his mind about seeing us.
    â€œYou’re just trying to reassure me.”
    â€œWell, yes. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”
    I sighed. “I appreciate it, Ty, I really do, but I just can’t imagine Ian picking up a teenager. Maybe Lia did something that turned him off and he left town in a funk.” I shook my head. “Except he didn’t check out of his hotel. They would have told me.”
    â€œHe’s rich. If he left, either with the teenager or in that funk, he wouldn’t have worried about checking out. He’ll be back in a day or two, get his stuff, and settle his bill.”
    When I didn’t reply, he added, “I really think he’ll resurface in a few hours or a few days, Josie, depending on how hot she is, but why don’t you call the hospital, just in case?”
    I closed my eyes for a moment. “You’re very smart, you know that?”
    â€œI’m a cop,” he said.
    â€œNot anymore. Now you’re a Homeland Security bigwig.”
    â€œYou think I’m a bigwig?”
    â€œYes. Do you really think Ian is okay?”
    He didn’t answer right away. “I did such a good job with my hottie scenario, I almost convinced myself.”
    â€œI love you.”
    â€œI love you, too.”
    After I hung up, I clutched the phone to my chest for a moment, keeping Ty close, then called the Rocky Point Hospital. I punched through their interactive menu until I reached Patient Information. They had no record of a patient named Ian Bennington. No unidentified male patients had been admitted to the hospital.
    I’d tried everything I could think of to find Ian, without success, so I did what I always do when I reach a dead end—I called Wes.
    â€œWhatcha got?” he asked, skipping hello, as always.
    â€œA request. I’m worried about my cousin. This isn’t news, Wes. It’s personal. I’m asking a