Yuletide Stalker Read online

  “I could leave him a note and tell him why I left. For his own safety, he shouldn’t know where I am.”

  “It might work. But we would have to change your appearance. Your blond features would stand out vividly in this area. If you wear a wig and use a different name, you might be safe. What is your full name?”

  “Madison Lee Horton.”

  “Hmm,” Stella said thoughtfully. “Why not use Madison Lee? That way we wouldn’t be telling a falsehood. A friend of mine operates a beauty shop—I think she’ll provide a brunette wig for me.”

  “Then I must hurry back to Linc’s home before he or Roselina come home. Roselina goes shopping tomorrow afternoon. If you don’t hear anything from me, could you have your driver pick me up at two o’clock?”

  Once these arrangements were made, Maddie was on pins and needles during the drive home. But she was fortunate to get back to the house before Roselina did.

  She supposed it was due to a guilty conscience, but all through dinner, she thought Linc eyed her questioningly. When Roselina refused her help with clearing away the supper things, Linc asked, “What would you like to do? You’ve been cooped up all day.”

  Maddie felt her face flushing because she was unaccustomed to deceit, and without meeting his eyes, she said, “Let’s go to the beach. It would be restful to sit and look at the water.”

  Knowing this might be the last time she could be alone with Linc, she wanted to take advantage of the remaining hours.

  “Good idea,” he agreed. “I’d appreciate a little rest, too,” he said as they walked to the beach. He carried two lounge chairs and followed behind her on the stepping stones. Her body swayed gracefully as she walked, reminding him of a waving palm tree.

  Maddie sighed wistfully when she stretched out on the chair he unfolded for her. She seemed distant tonight, unlike her usual affectionate nature. As he sat beside her, Linc concluded that it was small wonder that she seemed distracted. Her life was being threatened. And he understood how that felt. Now that he had been warned, he was uneasy when he was in a place he couldn’t guard his back.

  When the silence seemed too long, he said, “Maddie, we haven’t talked about your future. Do you need any help with your college expenses?”

  More fatherly instincts, she thought wryly. “No. Mother put Daddy’s insurance money in a trust fund for me to use for college expenses. It earned interest for eight years before I started to use it, and it will last until I’ve graduated and have a job.”

  “With all the things that have been going on, I haven’t shown you all the places I’d intended to. I’ve almost finished the end-of-the-year work, and I’ll spend next week taking you where you want to go. I don’t want you to be a prisoner, and we’ll be careful. Do you need any more research on World War II?”

  “As I told you after we visited the USS Arizona, I’m not sure I can write a paper on that subject now. Since I’ve been confined to the house, I’ve been organizing the material I got at the library, and I have enough to prepare the paper. Right now, college is the furthest thing from my mind.”

  “Then you wasted your time making this visit?” he said, and one of his eyebrows lifted teasingly.

  Daringly, with a slow, direct look, she said pointedly, “You know better than that.”

  Since she might not see him again after tomorrow, she couldn’t leave without giving him some hint of how she felt about him.

  His expression grew serious, and he reached out his hand. She placed hers in it. “I know,” he admitted. “You said you can’t think about school now. I understand that, for with all that is happening now, there are some things we can’t talk about.” His gray eyes held hers intently. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  She sighed deeply. She knew he was right, but it would have made her leave-taking more bearable if he would say the words she longed to hear.

  But he didn’t speak, and they sat mostly in silence, holding hands for the rest of the evening. She kept thinking that tomorrow she’d be gone, and that Linc would be disappointed in her. Surely he would understand that she was doing it for him.

  When darkness stole upon them from the Pacific, they stood and Maddie tried to store up the atmosphere of the area, so she’d never forget the time she’d spent here. Still without speaking, Linc gathered her snugly into his arms. She relaxed against him, having no desire to leave his embrace. She would have this moment to remember.

  When they separated in the hallway in front of Linc’s room, without touching her, he leaned forward and kissed her lips softly. Tears blinded Maddie as she hurried to her room. She didn’t turn to look, but she felt that he was watching her, wondering at her mood.

  She worked until past midnight on the note she would leave for him. Somehow she must make him understand why she had left his home.

  Dear Linc:

  Please forgive me for going away, but I’m doing it for you. Since your life has been threatened, I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you. After you’ve been so good to me, it isn’t fair to cause you any danger. I’m canceling my flight back home. I have to stay in Hawaii until I know the outcome of this investigation. Maybe when this is over, we can be together again. Please don’t try to find me. I will be safe. Read the first seven verses of Psalm thirty-seven. I’ve claimed that promise.

  Maddie.

  To Roselina, she wrote,

  I’m going away to a safe place, so please don’t worry about me. Pray for me. I’ll miss both of you.

  She got into bed, but sleep wouldn’t come. A question kept rolling over and over in her mind.

  When morning came, would she have the courage to leave Linc?

  ELEVEN

  Roselina’s habits were as regular as the tides, and she left for shopping promptly at one o’clock. Maddie had an hour before the van came. On trembling legs, she walked into Linc’s bedroom, where she hadn’t been before, and propped the note on his dresser.

  The faint scent of the musk cologne he preferred permeated the room. Feeling almost like a Peeping Tom, Maddie glanced around his bedroom. It was neat and well-ordered, just like Linc’s life. Her heart almost stopped when she saw her portrait on the nightstand beside his bed. If she’d needed any proof that he had more than a daughterlike interest in her, wouldn’t this be a good sign?

  Wanting some tangible evidence of his presence to take with her, she opened the jewelry box on his dresser. She had the photo taken on Waikiki beach, but she needed something she could have with her all the time. She looked at the rings in his box, and feeling like a thief, with trembling hands, she took one that had a small diamond in a silver setting. He’d seldom worn it, so it must not be one of his favorites.

  She picked up the note she’d written to him, intending to add a sentence that she’d taken the ring. She paused, fingering the opal ring she wore. She removed it from her hand, kissed the ring, and inserted it in the slot where the silver-diamond ring had been. Linc knew the opal ring was her most-prized possession. Perhaps her mother’s ring would convince him how much she loved him.

  She took Roselina’s note to the kitchen and left it lying on the table, where she would see it as soon as she entered the kitchen. As she went to various markets, Roselina’s weekly shopping took several hours. Maddie should be safely away before she found the note.

  She went to her room, carried her luggage downstairs and waited by the front door for the van from Open Arms Shelter. Tears blurred her eyes as they drove away from the place that had meant so much to her.

  Linc was negotiating with a salesman about furnishings for the new Everyday Luau when Roselina called.

  “Mr. Linc,” she shouted, and the panic in her voice raised the hair on the back of his neck. “Mr. Linc, come home. Miss Maddie is gone.”

  “You mean she’s been kidnapped?”

  “I don’t think so. She left a goodbye note.”

  He slammed down the phone and grabbed his coat off the back of his chair.

  �
��I’m sorry to leave,” he said to the salesman, “but there’s an emergency at home. Call in a few days for another appointment.”

  He buzzed Ahonui’s office. “I’m leaving. I’ll check in tomorrow.” He severed the connection before she could question him.

  Again, he broke every traffic law on record as he raced for home in his car. His thoughts were so erratic it was an effort to focus on handling an automobile. If she had gone away on her own, why had she done it? He should have been more watchful.

  Roselina stood on the veranda, wringing her hands, tears running down her face. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have left her alone, but I didn’t think anything would happen.”

  Linc took time to hug her. “You have to buy groceries—you couldn’t watch her twenty-four hours a day. Have you learned anything else?”

  “Her clothes are all gone, and there’s a note on your dresser.”

  Linc took the steps two at a time. He’d hardly drawn a deep breath since he’d had Roselina’s call, and he felt light-headed when he rushed into his room. He used his car key to open the envelope and sank heavily on the bed as he read her message.

  “Oh, Maddie, why did you do this?” he whispered, and his mind whirled as he considered all the things that could be happening to her. She knew no one in Honolulu except Steve and Ahonui, and she didn’t seem to like either of them much. Where could she have gone?

  Roselina crept to the door. “Did she tell you where she was going?” He handed her the note. His throat was too tight to talk.

  She gasped when she read his note. “How did she know that someone had threatened your life? I didn’t know it. When did this happen?”

  “That man who called a few days ago intimated that they’d kill me if they had to, to get to Maddie. I didn’t tell anyone about it. I suppose either the switchboard operator or Ahonui could have listened to the message.”

  He went to his Caller ID and flipped through the messages of the past few days, hoping he could learn if anyone had called Maddie. He paused when he found a call from Carey Enterprises three days previously at twelve-thirty. He couldn’t remember that he’d called home then.

  “Sit down, Roselina,” he said, for she was still hovering at the door, looking as if she would faint any minute. “Do you remember if I called home Wednesday afternoon?”

  “I don’t remember, Mr. Linc. Sometimes I asked Maddie to answer the phone.”

  “I haven’t talked to her on the phone since she came here. Have you talked to Ahonui this week? Or anyone else from my office?”

  She shook her head.

  “Then I’d better have a talk with my office staff.”

  Feeling nauseated, Linc dialed the office and asked for Ahonui.

  “I’m checking on calls to the house,” he said, when she answered in the sugary tones she always used to customers. “Did you call here Wednesday?”

  “What time?”

  “Any time.”

  “Goodness, how do you expect me to remember? I handle hundreds of calls in a week’s time.”

  “Let me be more specific. Did you talk to Maddie on the phone this week? And what did you say to her?”

  She didn’t answer, and he said angrily, “Maybe I’d better get at this another way, and you be careful, very careful, how you answer. Did you overhear a telephone call I received on Monday about quitting time?”

  “Yes.”

  “Now answer the other question. Did you call Maddie about it?”

  “Yes, I did,” Ahonui said, anger also in her voice. “You’re stupid to jeopardize your life to protect her. I thought she needed to know that her presence was dangerous for you. I thought she’d have sense enough to go home, but I suppose she’s tattled to you.”

  “She didn’t tell me about it. Maddie left, and I don’t think she’s gone back to the mainland. And you’d better hope I find her real soon or you can clean out your desk and leave.”

  Her angry shriek nearly deafened him. “You can’t mean that—after all I’ve done for you. You haven’t been the same since she came here.”

  Knowing he was wasting time talking to Ahonui, Linc hung up. Roselina was crying softly.

  “Why would she tell Maddie?”

  “I can’t imagine, but somehow I sense that it isn’t because she was worried about me.”

  “Maybe she didn’t want to lose her job if you were killed.”

  “She’s an efficient worker—she would have no trouble finding another job. But I’ll deal with her after I find Maddie.”

  “What can you do?”

  “I’m going to pray before I do anything. And you pray, too. Maddie doesn’t want to be found, and if she’s in a safe place, that’s okay. But for my own peace of mind, I have to know where she is.”

  Since his spiritual awakening at Hõnaunau, Linc had been praying nightly and reading his Bible, but his mind was numb now. He didn’t know if he could pray.

  “I’m going for a swim at the beach.”

  Roselina left the room. He took off his clothes and changed into his trunks and wrapped a short terry cloth robe around his body. When he opened his jewelry box to put away his ring and watch, Maddie’s opal ring struck his vision like a spotlight. He snatched the ring out of its velvet setting, and realized that his silver and diamond ring was gone. What did this mean? Maddie had told him that she’d worn her mother’s ring every day since her mother’s death. Why had she left it behind? He read her note again to see if she’d mentioned the ring exchange, but he found nothing.

  He reached for his Bible and read the verses Maddie had mentioned. Several times he read aloud, “‘You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.’”

  The words comforted him somewhat, but as he walked toward the beach, the view that usually brought peace of mind was only a sad place today. He could see Maddie as he’d often watched her from the house as she played in the water or rested on the sand. He sat on a large rock and stared out across the water.

  God, I know she has You to protect her, but for my own peace of mind I have to know where she is. Please help me make the right decision in looking for her, for I don’t want her enemies to find her.

  He swam for several minutes, then spread out on the sand to think. His decision made, he went back to the house and telephoned a private detective agency he’d used a few times. He asked for Ed Blake, a taciturn individual who hailed from Utah.

  After he identified himself, Linc said, “I have a job I’d like for you to get on right away.” He explained the situation.

  “I’ll come out to your house and look around if you don’t mind,” the detective said. “I’ll be there in an hour.”

  Ed Blake was a nondescript man that most people would never notice—an asset that contributed to his success as a detective. When Linc showed him Maddie’s picture, he whistled and his usually sober eyes gleamed.

  “It shouldn’t be difficult to find her. She’s a looker! I can see why you’d be concerned, though.”

  “You must be subtle in your investigation. I want to know where she is, but I don’t want anyone else to know. If you can locate her in less than forty-eight hours, there will be a five-hundred-dollar bonus for you.”

  “You’ve said that you can account for all of your phone calls, but with your permission, I’ll find out what calls she might have made from your house phone or the phone in the cottage.”

  Linc wrote a memo and signed it to expedite the detective’s search at the phone company.

  “Does she have any friends in Honolulu?”

  “She’s met a few people at my office and in the church, but no one that she has more than a speaking acquaintance with.”

  Suddenly he stopped and slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. “She did mention a few days ago about visiting a woman in Honolulu who’s a friend of someone she knows at home. This friend lives in West Virginia, and she can tell me who Maddie might be visiting here in Hawaii. But I’m not s
ure how to contact this woman, so I’ll give you a few days to find out what you can. I don’t want to worry Maddie’s friends back home unless I have to.”

  After living in Linc’s comfortable home for almost a month, Maddie felt as if she was back in her university dormitory room when she moved her belongings into the austere room Stella Oliver provided for her. Open Arms Shelter was established in an old hotel which had been a plush establishment until hard times hit the neighborhood.

  Motioning to one side of the room that showed signs of occupancy, Stella said, “You’ll be sharing a room with Ailina Zadok, one of our teachers. While you settle in, I’ll see about getting a wig for you. I’ll look for a pair of glasses with tinted plain glass in them, which will also change your appearance. If you have some Hawaiian clothes, wear them.”

  “I have a few native garments.”

  “I wish I had a private room for you, but there aren’t any. Rooming with someone else, you won’t be able to conceal your identity. However, Ailina is about your age. She will keep your confidence.”

  “I appreciate what you’re doing for me. I hope I’m not putting you in any danger. In my concern for Linc’s safety, I didn’t think of that.”

  “We’re often threatened by the families of those we try to help, so I’m used to that. But our mission group named this place Open Arms Shelter to reach out a helping hand to anyone who needs it. You need help, and you’re welcome here.”

  “Thanks. You remind me of Miss Caroline.”

  “Which I consider a great compliment. Caroline gave up a lot to establish the Valley of Hope.”