While Hope waited for Adele to return, she made sure everything was progressing. She was not the hostess of the year, but she was competent. Since nothing was burning, she felt she had a handle on things.
After a few minutes, Adele returned, and Hope enlisted her to help with the serving. Adele was eager to help as it would show everyone that she wasn’t just looking for a cigarette break.
By Hope’s standards, the meal was a total success. Everyone laughed and ate and carried on. Cori had come up with some trivia about Hawaii, such as, how many letters were in the Hawaiian alphabet, and how many acres were added to the big island each year. They all had a good time with the game, although some of the answers baffled everyone—except Cori.
As Lottie and her parents were getting ready to leave, they all discussed the arrangements for the day after Christmas. They would have to leave early since they had to drive to Raleigh. The forecast was typical December—cold, but no snow.
Hope and Cori stood on the porch and watched the car pull away. The blinking lights they’d draped along the railing reminded Hope of Ohio. Doug had purchased the lights, telling her that they were the best ever. They blinked, but never in the same pattern back to back. To Doug, that was clearly fantastic. A moment of sadness washed over Hope.
“That was great,” Cori said, as they walked back into the house.
“They’re very nice people, so you have to be at your very best.”
“I know, I know. I’ll be Miss Perfect.”
“No need for perfection. I’ll tell you what everyone values most, and that’s the truth. If you tell the truth, about everything, everyone will like you. They may not love you, but they’ll like you, and respect you. It’s people who lie who have a hard time in life.”
“I always tell the truth.” Cori beamed.
“Mostly. But if you break something or lose something, own up to it immediately. You might get in some trouble, but you’ll earn respect.”
“Lottie sometimes doesn’t admit when she breaks something. She says her mom hates that.”
“Never mind Lottie. You do what’s right. Better to take responsibility than to hide things.”
“I know, I know.” Cori smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For letting me go.”
“I know you wanted to go back to Ohio,” Hope said. “But I didn’t think we could swing that this year. This is better, and you deserve it.”
“So do you.” Cori hugged her mother.
“Someone has to be the parent.” Hope stroked her daughter’s long hair.
Cori laughed. “Like you’re never the parent. Right.”
By the time they’d cleaned up and put things away, it was time for bed. Hope was too tired to march up to her office and check on Max. He could manage by himself. She was pretty sure that a conversation with him would include any number of interesting highlights from the journals he was reading. As eager as she was to hear the information he’d found, all of that could wait until after Cori left. Then, she and Max could go over the journals line by line.
She took a last look at the Christmas tree before she turned it off. She considered turning off the outside lights, but that didn’t seem necessary, not on Christmas Eve. In bed, she fought the sadness that accompanied Cori’s trip to Hawaii. Hope would miss her daughter. It was that simple. Yet, the sadness didn’t keep her from sleeping. Fatigue closed her eyes.
Max opened them.
“Mrs. Herring,” Max whispered.
Feeling momentarily disoriented, Hope blinked open her eyes. “Max? What are you doing in my room? What time is it?”
“It’s two o’clock in the morning, and, while I know I’m not supposed to be in your bedroom, I feel this qualifies as an exception.”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Hope sat up in bed, still blinking her eyes.
“I have been busy with the journals, and, well, I should have been more vigilant.”
Hope pushed her hair back from her face. “Max, just tell me.”
“It’s the front porch.”
“What about it?” Hope swung her legs out of bed, and she reached for her robe.
“There’s a man on it.”
“On the porch? A man is out there?” Adrenaline coursed through Hope’s veins. “Is he trying to break in?”
“No, he isn’t. He’s dead.”
12
Hope knew right away that the man on the porch was dead. She had seen enough dead bodies to recognize the glazed eyes and pale skin, the lack of the chest rising and falling. Yet, she took the time to feel for a pulse anyway. She avoided his neck, as the blinking Christmas lights were wrapped around it. His wrist was cool to the touch which meant he’d been dead for a while. That was all she did before she stood.
“I am immensely sorry,” Max said. “I should have been more aware.”
“It’s okay. You can’t be everywhere,” Hope said, as she dialed 911.
“I generally do a walk around once an hour. I assure you this will not happen again.”
“I believe you,” Hope said, just before her call was answered. “There’s a dead man on my front porch. Yes, I’m sure he’s dead. I believe his name is Clive Thomas.”
Once the emergency personnel arrived, Hope waited inside the house while the police and EMTs did their work on her porch. She didn’t wake Cori, who was still sound asleep. That the police and emergency vehicles came without sirens wailing or lights flashing was a blessing. No one wanted to be wakened on Christmas morning, unless it was by Santa Clause and eight clattering reindeer.
She made coffee for anyone who wanted it and waited for a detective to arrive. That the death was clearly a murder was obvious to her. No one committed suicide by wrapping wire from Christmas lights around their necks. The only saving grace was that the media hadn’t shown. Maybe nobody worked on Christmas morning?
Detective Derrick Robinson arrived, bleary-eyed and casually dressed. An acquaintance of Hope’s, he sipped coffee and chatted for a few minutes before he started on the real questions.
“How did you come to find the body?” he asked.
Hope had rehearsed the lies that would protect Max, not that he needed protecting. She needed protecting since no one was going to believe a ghost patrolled her house.
“Well, we had a little party here last night, some neighbors came for dinner.”
“What are their names?” Detective Robinson put his phone on the table to record the conversation.
“The Wells. They live down the block. Rob, Adele, and their daughter Lottie. They’ve been kind enough to invite Cori on their holiday vacation to Hawaii, so we had a little planning session and enjoyed dinner together.”
“Must be nice, heading to Hawaii. You’re not going?”
Hope shook her head. “I can’t afford it.”
“All right, back to the body. How did you find it?”
“I drank a bit of wine, and well, I needed to use the bathroom so I got out of bed and that was when I noticed the lights.”
“The lights?” Derrick asked.
“The Christmas lights on the front porch. They weren’t the same. You know, the blinking was different.”