Mad Love: Madison (10 page)

Didn’t they have another song they could play
, she thought as she
tried her sister’s cell phone again.

Her gaze travelled past Santa and the line of
kids as she waited for Sarah to answer her phone. Two little boys ran past, zigzagging
through the moms and dads standing around waiting to get a picture of their
child on Santa’s lap. They raced around one another, laughing and giggling as
they fought over a toy, not paying attention to the people around them.

Sensing she was on a collision course with the
two, Madison instinctively stepped back and into an immovable wall. Two strong
hands in white gloves with white fur tipped red sleeves, gripped her arms
tightly to keep her from falling. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said glancing over
her shoulder at the Santa behind her.

She tried to turn around, but the man’s hands bit
into her arms, holding her firmly in place.

“Hey!” she said in annoyance as he squeezed her
arms tightly. “You’re hurting me. Let go!”

A few heads turned to stare at them, but turned
back to the Santa’s Village when the man immediately dropped his hands, pushed
her aside, and hurried away.

Madison shook her head in annoyance. “And Merry
Christmas to you too,” she said to his retreating back.

He stopped suddenly.

Madison watched as the man slowly turned around
and faced her. She frowned at his threadbare Santa costume and the long ratty
grey beard that obscured his face. “Is there something I can help you with?”
she asked coldly when he continued to stare at her.

He nodded.

Slowly.

Pointedly.

“I did apologize,” she said.

He shook his head. Again very slowly. After a few
seconds, he waved goodbye and rushed away.

Madison glanced back down at her phone. “I hate
going to the mall on Christmas Eve. No one has any patience,” she muttered to
herself as she dialed her sister’s number once again.

She knew the odds of Sarah hearing her phone was
rather low, considering the noise coming from the crowd of shoppers and the
Christmas music blaring from the sound system, but she had to try.

A few seconds later, she dropped the phone back
into her purse. It seemed the only hope Madison had of finding Sarah was by
physically tracking her down.

Sarah wasn’t the only hunter in the family
, Madison thought as she
climbed on top of the nearest partial empty bench. She ignored the looks from
the passersby as she scanned the crowd.

She squinted her eyes.

There, in the distance, she caught a glimpse of a
blonde in a pink coat heading past the food court and out the doors toward the
strip mall.

Finally,
she thought as she hopped down from the bench.
She juggled the packages in her arms as she hurried toward the blonde in the
pink coat. Dodging people left and right, she raced through the door and out
into the cold night air.

She looked around in vain for a few seconds until
she saw a flash of pink turn down an alley towards the parking lot.

Madison dashed down the alley in pursuit. It
wasn’t until she burst out into the parking lot that she finally got a good
look at the blonde she had been following so diligently.

Her shoulders sagged as the forty-year-old
stranger greeted her husband and then got into their car and drove away.

Realizing that her hunting skills clearly needed work,
she turned around and froze.

The creepy Santa she ran into earlier was
standing at the end of the small little alleyway watching her.

Madison looked around her as people passed
through the alley going to and from the parking lot.

The only people not moving were she and the Santa
at the end of the alley.

Feeling more and more nervous the longer they
stood there watching one another, she reached into her purse for her phone.

“Paul?” she asked taking a wild guess as to who
was underneath the Santa costume. He was about the right height and build. Who
else would follow her through the mall right now? “Mr. Harris, I know it’s
you.”

The Santa shook his head as he continued to stare
at her.

She was safe, she told herself.

There were people everywhere.

Suddenly, a red headed woman in a leopard print
coat appeared behind him. Linking her arm through his, she tugged him away from
the alley.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Madison warily walked
back down the alleyway and toward the shops. Once she emerged from the alley,
she spotted the Santa and the red head a few feet away talking.

The red head tossed her hair over her shoulder as
she spoke soothingly to the man. “Don’t worry about it, Baby. Everything’s
fine.”

A memory tugged at Madison’s mind as she stared
at the woman. Somehow, she knew the redhead but couldn’t think how. She took a
step closer hoping the memory would come to her.

“Alex, honey,” the red head continued in a
pleading voice, “I’m sorry. I just got tired of waiting for you.” She glanced over
his shoulder, her brown eyes flickering over Madison and then back to the Santa.
“Here, carry these for me,” she said pressing a bunch of packages into his
hands and then added in a chipper voice, “Come on, sweetie. Let’s go home. I
need to get these presents wrapped. Now, don’t peek, I want you to be surprised
when you see what I got you.”

Madison sagged in relief as the two walked away.

It was nothing. Just some creep with too much
time on his hands waiting on his wife or girlfriend.

Her phone vibrated in her hand. “About time,” she
said, answering the call. “Where have you been?”

“That boutique I pointed to. I told you I was
going in there.”

“That was an hour ago,” Madison said in
exasperation.

“I know.”

“I looked in there. I didn’t see you.”

“Did you check the dressing rooms?”

“No, why would I? You’re supposed to be buying something
for Hannah and Grandpa.”

“I did…along with a pretty sweater for me.”

“Excellent. Can we go now? The service starts in
an hour and we still need to get ready.”

“Did you get something for Ethan?”

“No, but I thought of a gift to give him. I can’t
get it here though. We’ll have to make one more stop before we can go home.
I’ll tell you about it later. Are you ready to go?”

“Well, there are just a few teeny tiny gifts I
need to pick up. I already have them in my hand. I just need to pay for them.”

Madison’s brow furrowed. “Who’s left?”

“Some of the regular customers at work. Nate’s
going to keep the pub open, so they can at least have a hot meal and have some
company tonight. A couple of guys don’t have anyone to celebrate with and no
one to give them gifts, so I thought it might be nice to pick something up for
them. Do you think we could swing past there after church?”

Madison smiled. “Sure. Where are you?”

“On the south side of the mall.”

“I’m on the opposite end. I’ll get the car and
pick you up,” she said as she walked toward the parking lot. “Just hurry and
check out and meet me in front of the doors. See you soon.” She ended the call
and hurried toward her car, pushing back her hair as a bitterly cold wind blew
it in front of her face.

She unlocked the trunk quickly and threw the
packages inside, then jumped in the front seat.

She was just about to pull out of her parking
space when she noticed a flyer sticking out from underneath the windshield wiper.
Putting the car in park, she opened the door, yanked the red piece of paper out
from underneath the wiper, and tossed it in the backseat before setting off for
the south side of the mall.

9:31
P.M.

Madison
wrapped her scarf around her neck as she stood near the front door of Sarah’s
pub.

Five minutes.

That’s what Sarah said when they arrived at the
pub after their church’s Christmas service let out.

Madison glanced at her watch. Five minutes had
come and gone at least twelve minutes ago. Before they arrived, Madison had
anticipated spending a quiet few minutes in one of the back booths while
waiting for her sister to finish handing out gifts to a few of the regulars.
That plan was quickly thrown out the door when she arrived and saw the number of
people inside the small pub.

After a few minutes of feeling like a packed
sardine and having her ears assaulted by all the noise that was being generated
between the customers and the Christmas music blaring from the jukebox in the
back of the room, Madison escaped to the wide open and quiet outdoors to wait.

She stepped away from the door and towards the
pub’s bay window as two old men came out singing Christmas carols at the top of
their lungs and waving their hands in the air.

They stopped singing long enough to wish her a
Merry Christmas before hurrying to their car, their voices horribly off-key as
they resumed singing
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
.

Madison smiled as one began to swing his hands in
front of the other like a conductor, eliciting a high-pitched warbling sound
from his friend.

She glanced over her shoulder as the door opened again
and Jamie stumbled outside. He walked over to the lamppost. With his shoulders
hunched underneath his threadbare green jacket, he turned around, pressing his
back against the cold metal. Coughing slightly, he tipped his head back and
stared up at the night sky, apparently in no hurry to move on.

She rubbed her hands against her arms trying to
stay warm as she watched him cover a sneeze.
Why would he stand out here in
the cold when he could be inside where it was warm
?

She glanced back through the window wondering if
the two men who had chased him outside last night had done the same thing
tonight.
It was Christmas Eve
, she thought reproachfully as she turned
her attention back to Jamie.
They could at least give the guy a break and
let him stay inside where it’s warm.

Jamie must have felt her staring at him because
he suddenly turned his attention from the night sky towards her. He looked at
her strangely for a moment before dropping his head and staring at his feet.

Madison’s lips quirked up.
He was probably
wondering the same thing about me
, she thought with a rueful shake of her
head as she reached into her pocket and gripped her phone tightly. Truth was
that she was waiting, waiting for Quincy to call. She knew there was a good
chance she wouldn’t hear her cell phone ring over the noise in the pub if she
waited inside and she didn’t want to miss his call.

Quincy had called the bar last night—probably guessing
she would be there to pick her sister up—but he had no reason to assume she’d
be here on Christmas Eve. She reasoned that he’d probably try her home phone
and when he couldn’t get her there, he’d try her cell.

At least that was what she hoped he’d do.

She desperately needed to talk to him. She needed
to know why he was calling. Was it just a prank? Was he angry with her about
something?

She pursed her lips together. She didn’t know why
she was so freaked out. It was Quincy. Quincy was nice.

However, his voice on the phone last night didn’t
sound nice,
she thought as the feeling of dread that had been steadily building over the
last few days settled into her bones. There was just something strange and
terrifying about the way his voice had sounded.

He sounded like he was in pain.

He sounded angry.

He sounded… scared.

She shuddered. Quincy was six feet three and
almost three hundred pounds. She couldn’t imagine anything scaring him.

Maybe it was her imagination going wild. It might
not even be Quincy. Maybe it was just someone who sounded like him. He had only
said one word after all. She checked her watch again: only a couple more hours until
midnight. She just hoped that whoever was calling her would be willing to say
more than just the number eight.

She looked through the window again. Sarah was
standing near the door with a big brown box in her arms talking to a large man
standing next to her. Madison watched as the man pointed at a piece of
mistletoe hanging above Sarah’s head. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed
Jamie shift positions as he leaned his shoulder against the lamppost and faced
the window. He crossed his arms, apparently waiting to see what Sarah was going
to do.

He didn’t have to wait long. As soon as Sarah
noticed the mistletoe over her head, a broad smile lit up her face. She stood
up on her tiptoes and pressed a gentle kiss on the man’s cheek before doing the
same to another man who was presenting his own cheek for her kiss.