Free A Christmas Kiss by Caroline Burnes Page B

reality to a place where not even all his considerable law enforcement skills could help her.
    Making the first move she'd taken since sitting in the chair in Jolene's living room, Cori walked to the window. She watched Joey as he moved among the trees, forming a pattern as he walked carefully along the backyard, working his way to the cottage and the sloping lawn beyond where the giant oaks kept their many secrets. He had to find something. A print. Something. There had to be some trace of Kit that would prove that she'd seen him. That he was alive.
    But instead of joy at that possibility, Cori felt a slowly growing dread. If Kit was alive, if he had been standing at the window staring in at her, why hadn't he talked to her? Why had he allowed two years to pass without even a sign that he was alive?
    Why had he abandoned her?
    She heard the sound of the morning paper thudding on the front porch and did not turn around as Jolene went to the door and retrieved it. Seconds after Jolene returned, Cori heard a soft exclamation of dismay.
    "Joey is going to be furious," Jolene said as she finally drew Cori's attention from the window. She walked into the living room, the newspaper opened before her.
    "What is it?" Cori knew it was not good news.
    Jolene held the paper out to her. The headline was bold. One by One: Eye Witnesses in the DeCarlo Murder Trial Return to City. Beneath it was a photo of Cori at the French Market surrounded by cops and the woman and her crying child.
    Cori studied the photo, hoping for a second that somehow Kit had been captured in the background. But the only hopeful note she found was that the picture had been taken before Joey arrived. He was not shown.
    "Joey is going to be furious," she agreed, handing the paper back to Jolene. "And he has every right to be."
    Jolene was scanning the story. "So the news is public that you're back in town and going to testify at the retrial. The other witness who was in New Orleans was murdered. Found in the trunk of his rental car." Jolene lowered the paper. "Why are you here, Cori? The trial isn't for another few weeks. Don't you see how dangerous this is?"
    "It's a long story." Cori felt a sense of friendship with Jolene, and at the moment she didn't want to destroy it by proving she was crazy.
    "How did that photographer happen to get your picture?" Jolene was looking at the paper again.
    "And how would he have identified you as one of the original witnesses in the trial? It was a sensational case. I remember it well. And I watched the television accounts and read the paper. I must have seen your picture, but that was two years ago. Two years and there have been many more murders, many more newspaper stories."
    Cori suddenly remembered the cop. Officer Lewis. He had recognized her. And more than likely he had offered the scoop to the Times-Picayune reporter. "I think one of the policemen at the scene might have told a reporter." She walked over to Jolene's side to find the byline of the writer. Farris Quinn. The same person who had written the story about Emmet Wyatt's murder. The reporter obviously had a snitch in the NOPD, and it could easily be Lewis. Cori had not liked him.
    "If that's true, that policeman is going to have to answer to Joey." Jolene folded the paper and dropped it on the coffee table in front of the fireplace. She stacked another log in place and signaled Cori to follow her into the kitchen. "How about some French toast? An old recipe of Joey's family."
    "Sure." Since she'd snapped out of her dreamlike state with the arrival of Joey, she was feeling better and even hungry. Since she'd come home to New Orleans she'd found herself eager to eat.
    Before, in Houston, she honestly couldn't remember what she ate from one meal to the next.
    Jolene waved her to the table as she heated the cast iron skillet. "Are you leaving New Orleans today?"
    "I don't know." Cori's answer was honest. "First I'm going to pay a visit on an old friend."
    Jolene dropped