Wish Upon a Christmas Star Read Free Page B

demanded. It would have been
difficult to tell that Maria was the only one in the room with training in
interrogation. Then again, the two sisters were close. They never kept secrets
from each other.
    “Key West,” Maria said.
    “Florida? I don’t ever remember you going that far for a case
before,” Annalise said. “You’ll be back in time for Christmas, right?”
    She hesitated. “I don’t know.”
    Her sister narrowed her eyes, propped her hands on her hips and
demanded, “What’s going on?”
    Maria’s instincts told her to remain mum. However, that wasn’t
realistic. If Annalise was reacting this badly to her possible absence at
Christmas, other family members would, too. Maria needed somebody to smooth the
waters and support her alibi.
    “You’d better sit down,” she said.
    “I don’t want to sit down.”
    “Then promise you won’t freak out.”
    “You’re freaking me out by acting like this,” Annalise
declared. “Just spit it out.”
    Maria forced the words through her lips. “I think Mike might
still be alive.”
    Her sister shook her head. “No, he’s not. Why would you even
say something like that?”
    As succinctly as she could, Maria relayed the details of the
visit from Caroline Webb. Annalise listened in silence, her expression giving
nothing away even though she’d always been the most demonstrative of the four
siblings.
    “Say something,” Maria said when she’d finished.
    “I’m thinking about how to phrase it.” Annalise scratched her
head. “On second thought, to hell with tact. I’ll tell you how I really feel. I
can’t believe you even let Caroline in the front door. Don’t you remember how
she treated Mike?”
    “Caroline’s not a high school kid anymore, Annalise,” Maria
said. “She’s almost thirty years old.”
    “Once a mean girl, always a mean girl,” her sister said
heatedly. “Mike never would have dropped out of school if she hadn’t broken up
with him in front of all their friends.”
    One of the cafeteria workers had later provided their family
with the details. Caroline had been cruel, saying she was sick of Mike and
adding that he was worthless and stupid. She claimed she already had someone
waiting in the wings to take her to the approaching homecoming dance.
    Her words had hit the mark. Mike had rushed out of the school
building and sped home, sideswiping a parked car on the way. Then he’d had
another argument. With Maria.
    Afterward, he’d packed a bag and split. Nobody had known where
he was until Logan Collier called a few days later from New York City to say
Mike was staying at his apartment.
    “We don’t know that Mike wouldn’t have dropped out of school,
Annalise,” Maria said. “His grades were so bad he barely made it through junior
year. Remember how much trouble Mom and Dad had with him?”
    “Most of that was because of Caroline,” Annalise said. “If I
remember correctly, you thought so, too.”
    Maria couldn’t dispute that. Over the years, however, she’d
come to realize there were many factors in Mike’s disconnect from the family.
That included Maria making it crystal clear she’d disapproved of his
girlfriend.
    “That’s water under the bridge,” she said. “The important thing
now is to find out if Mike’s the one who’s been in contact with Caroline.”
    “You said you were doing some online searches when I got here.
You ran Mike’s social security number, right? Did anything come up?”
    “Well, no,” Maria said. “But nothing would show up if he’s
using an alias.”
    “An alias?” her sister exclaimed. She shook her head and came
forward, laying a hand on Maria’s arm. “Listen to me carefully, Maria. Mike’s
dead. You know as well as I do that nobody in the restaurant survived that
day.”
    The hijacked plane had hit the North Tower a few stories below
the Windows on the World complex. The official report was that all the
restaurant customers and employees survived the initial attack,