Classified Christmas. B.J. Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ thing he planned to do was talk to a reporter about Grace.

      ON THE WAY HOME after leaving a note for Cade Jackson at his bait shop, Andi realized she couldn’t wait until morning to find out what was on this cassette tape. She called the publisher and asked if anyone had a tape player that took regular-size cassette tapes.

      His daughter just happened to have an old one she no longer used, he said. If she stopped by, she was welcome to borrow it. He also had a couple of tapes she could use if she needed to tape something.

      Mark Sanders had bent over backward since she’d applied for the job. She’d told him she needed a change of pace. He, in turn, had needed a reporter after Glen Whitaker had been murdered. Not a lot of reporters wanted to come to Whitehorse, especially after they found out what it paid.

      Sanders had been worried that Andi had too much experience and wouldn’t be staying long.

      “Whitehorse is nothing like Fort Worth,” he’d said with a laugh. “Maybe you’d better come up here and have a look-see before you take my offer.” He had already apologized for how little he could pay her.

      She’d had to convince him that Whitehorse was exactly what she was looking for. She didn’t tell him her real reason. Only her friend Bradley knew that.

      Back at her apartment, Andi took the cassette tape from her pocket and popped it into one side of the player. Hitting Play, she turned up the volume and went into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine.

      At first all she heard was static. She was beginning to think that the tape was blank as she took the wine bottle from the fridge.

      But as she reached for a glass, she heard a woman’s voice on the tape and froze.

      Like a sleepwalker, she moved into the living room, the wine bottle in her hand as the tape continued.

      She didn’t recognize the voice—she’d never heard Starr Calhoun speak. Nor did the woman have much of a Texas accent. No, it was what the woman was saying that captured all of Andi’s attention and convinced her that the voice was that of Starr Calhoun.

      On the tape, the woman talked about robbing a series of banks. After a moment, a male voice could be heard on the tape. Her accomplice.

      The tape went to static but Andi didn’t move. Couldn’t. She stood too shocked to do anything but stare at the tape player.

      Who had sent this to her?

      And why?

      And where had it been the last six years?

      She told herself not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Why not just revel in her good luck at having a story like this dropped into her lap?

      But she knew that hadn’t been the case. It was no coincidence someone had sent her this. Just as it was no coincidence she was here. Was it possible that someone had sent her the job notice, counting on her need to escape Fort Worth and her interest in the Calhouns? With Lubbock’s arrest just miles from here the person who’d sent her the job notice knew she wouldn’t be able to resist.

      Just as she wouldn’t be able to resist breaking this story once she had all the facts.

      She stepped to the player, her fingers trembling as she rewound the tape and listened to it again before she went to the kitchen and poured herself a healthy glass of wine. She was shaking now, the realization of what she had in her possession starting to sink in along with the apprehension.

      She needed to talk to her friend Bradley. He’d been her sounding board through the whole secret-admirer-turned-stalker trauma in Texas. She dialed his number, needing him to be home.

      “So how’s the weekly newspaper business,” Bradley said after they’d exchanged pleasantries about the weather in Montana versus Texas and he’d told her the TV-station gossip.

      She hesitated but only for a moment before she told him about the story she’d stumbled across. Bradley, being Bradley and a journalist at heart, was ecstatic.

      “What an incredible story,” he cried. “So you were right about there being something to Lubbock Calhoun’s arrest up there. Well, that’s why you’re the hotshot news celebrity and I’m the lowly researcher,” he joked. “And to have this story dropped in your lap…” He suddenly turned serious. “Oh, sweetie, I almost forgot. I saw on the news that Lubbock Calhoun was released from prison three weeks ago and has already broken his parole.”

      Her heart leaped to her throat. Lubbock was on the loose?

      “You don’t think he’s the one who sent you the information, do you?” Bradley asked.

      “Why would he?” she asked, although she already knew.

      “Isn’t it obvious? He figures a hotshot reporter like you will find the money,” Bradley said.

      She bristled at the hotshot reporter comment. “I work for a weekly newspaper.”

      “Now you do. Stop being so modest. You are a great reporter. Lubbock must have seen you on TV during one of your stories that made national news,” Bradley said. “Sweetie, I don’t like this. I think you should hightail it back to Texas. If Lubbock Calhoun’s feeding you this information, then it’s too dangerous. The man is a hardened criminal.”

      “You know I can’t come back to Texas.”

      “But can you stay there? What if I’m right and he’s hoping you find the money for him?”

      “It would make quite the story,” she said, only half joking.

      “Sweetie, but what if you don’t find the money?”

      “For all I know Starr faked her death and has already spent all the money,” Andi said and took a drink of her wine, unnerved by the news about Lubbock. “Don’t forget Houston. He could have already blown the money. No one has seen him since he and Starr pulled off that last robbery six years ago.”

      “If Houston was her accomplice,” Bradley pointed out. “We know it wasn’t Lubbock. He didn’t resemble the man in the bank surveillance photos. Plus he was arrested on an old warrant so he wasn’t even a suspect in the robberies apparently.”

      Andi had been thinking about the millions of stolen dollars. “You can bet one of the Calhouns has already spent that robbery money.”

      “If that were the case, wouldn’t Lubbock Calhoun know that—if he’s the one who sent you the information?” Bradley asked.

      He made a good point.

      “Maybe he doesn’t know what happened to the money—or Starr or Houston. Maybe he’s winging it just like me,” she said.

      “Maybe. Or maybe Starr hid the money, planning to take off with her new identity, but hadn’t planned on losing control of her car and dying.”

      “That’s another possibility,” she admitted. “That’s the problem. There are too many possibilities.”

      “Oh, wait,” Bradley said, “but if Starr had hidden the money, surely her husband would have found it by now. Unless he did СКАЧАТЬ