Free A Cavanaugh Christmas by Marie Ferrarella Page A

wondered if for some reason she had objections to the area. “Anything wrong?”
    Squinting at the paper didn’t help, either. It was like trying to read hieroglyphics. “You ever consider being a doctor?”
    He took a guess as to what was behind her question. “You can’t read it?”
    Kait shook her head. “Doesn’t look like any alphabet I’ve ever seen.”
    It wasn’t that bad, he thought, looking back at the paper himself. He rattled the address off for her. “That says 1551 Monroe Circle.”
    She examined the paper again, then shook her head. Even with the address now no longer a mystery, she still couldn’t see it in what he’d written.
    A hint of a smile crept to her lips. “If you say so. Personally, I think I’m better off following the scent of the pizza.”
    “Whatever works.”
    But just as he drove up to where she’d left her car, she asked him, “You’re sure your friend won’t mind you bringing a stranger over to stay at his house?”
    “As long as you don’t throw a wild frat party while you’re staying there, he’ll be fine with it.” In reality, there wouldn’t even be a reason for Matthew, his friend, to even know that anyone else had stayed there.
    She stared at him as if he’d just said that he landed from Mars ten minutes ago. “Why would I want to throw a wild frat party?”
    “I was being funny,” he told her.
    There wasn’t even a glimmer of a smile on her lips as she said, “If you say so.” She got out of his car and glanced at the paper again. “1551 Monroe Circle, huh?” she marveled with another shake of her head. Not a single letter even remotely resembled what he said he’d written. Crumpling the paper, she stuck it into her pocket. “I’ll see you there,” she promised as she unlocked her own car and got in behind the wheel.
    Driving out of the lot, Tom wondered if he’d just made a mistake.
    Following close behind him, Kait was wondering the very same thing.

    Chapter 6
    T he house where Detective Tom Cavelli/Cavanaugh apparently lay down his head at night was located in the middle of a residential development that boasted of seven hundred and fifty one-and two-story homes, all huddled together on small lots, none of which was larger than approximately a tenth of an acre. A great many were resting on less than that, bordering on being euphemistically called “patio homes.”
    Kait couldn’t help feeling closed in as she entered the development, following closely behind the other detective’s white Crown Victoria. She was accustomed to homes that stood on sprawling pieces of property.
    She readily admitted that the houses back home might not be as fancy as what she saw here, but a person could stretch out his or her arms and take a huge breath without accidentally hitting a neighbor in the nose.
    She pulled up in the driveway a couple of beats after he had done the same and brought her vehicle to a stop right next to his.
    “So, what do you think?” Tom asked, noting the way she was slowly looking around at her surroundings after she had gotten out of her car.
    Her first impression was that this was all too rich for her blood. “I think if I lived here and came home to find a car like this next to yours, I’d call the police,” she commented honestly.
    Her twelve-year-old car, despite the fact that she did baby it, had already had two owners by the time she had gotten to it, and the odometer now had close to two hundred thousand miles on it. While she normally kept it in top running order and incredibly clean, the latter had been a casualty of the road trip she’d taken from her native state to California.
    The urgency of the case had made her forget about appearances.
    But, confronted with this pristine community, it brought the fact that her roots were from the poorest side of town back to her in glaring lights.
    “My friend’s not a snob and he’s not that shallow,” Tom assured her. “And besides, he’s not coming home for another couple