Wish Upon a Christmas Star Read Online Free PDF

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sidetracked. “Everybody’s good. You keep up with Annalise. My parents are still
working, and Jack’s going back to school to work with developmentally disabled
kids. I think he’ll be engaged soon.”
    “Glad to hear it.” Logan licked a drop of coffee from his lower
lip. He put down the cup and rested his wrists on the table. “Do they know you
think Mike might still be alive?”
    The conversation and background music that had created a
constant hum since she’d arrived at Donatelli’s Restaurant seemed to fade. Her
ears rang with the question. No way could she avoid the subject any longer.
    “No,” she stated. “I thought it would be better not to say
anything until I know something definite.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “It’s pretty obvious. Losing Mike was hard enough the first
time. I don’t want them to have to go through that pain again.”
    “That’s why I agreed to talk to you when Annalise called.”
Logan leaned forward slightly, pinning her with his gaze. “Mike’s dead,
Maria.”
    She dragged her eyes away from the certainty in his. “How much
do you know about what’s going on?”
    “I only know what Annalise told me,” he said.
    “Then I’ll fill you in.” Once she shared the details, maybe
both Logan and Annalise would leave her alone to conduct her investigation. She
relayed the day’s events, omitting nothing.
    He listened in silence with his arms crossed over his chest.
When she was through talking, he released a harsh breath. “Someone’s playing a
sick joke. But it’s not Mike.”
    “How can you possibly be sure of that?” Maria snapped.
    “I already told you,” Logan said. “Mike’s dead, Maria. He died
on 9/11. You’ve got to accept that.”
    “Did you personally witness him going inside the World Trade
Tower that day?” she asked.
    “No, but I talked to him that morning. He was up early because
he was working the breakfast shift.”
    She picked up a thin wooden stick and stirred her coffee,
watching the circular pattern as she thought about what Logan had said. Finally,
she looked up to find his hazel eyes trained on her.
    “What if he didn’t go to work that day?” she asked, the idea
gaining momentum. “Mike never could stick to anything. He quit a ton of summer
jobs for one reason or another.”
    “Okay, let’s go with that,” Logan said. “Then why didn’t he
come back to my apartment and get his things? Why didn’t he let anybody know he
was alive?”
    Very good questions, Maria thought.
“That’s what I’m going to find out.”
    “Listen to yourself,” Logan argued. “You sound like you’ve
already convinced yourself he’s alive.”
    “I’m a private investigator,” she said. “I know enough not to
jump to conclusions before I have proof.”
    “You’ll never find proof, Maria. I know you want to believe
Mike’s out there somewhere. Hell, I’d like to believe it, too. But he died that
day.” Logan ran a hand over his mouth, a gesture that used to mean he was upset.
His brows drew together. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
    She was almost afraid to hear it. This time she was the one who
crossed her arms over her chest. “What?”
    He pursed his lips and blew a breath out through his nose. “You
know I was the one who got Mike the job at Windows on the World?”
    Maria nodded. Logan had also given her brother a place to stay
in Manhattan. At first she had been angry about that. She’d told her parents
that Mike might have come home if Logan hadn’t let him sleep on his sofa. Her
folks had countered that Mike might just as likely have lived on the
streets.
    “He didn’t much like being a busboy,” Logan said. “The morning
the towers fell, he talked about quitting.”
    “I knew it!” Maria cried.
    “Hold on.” Logan put up a hand. “I hadn’t charged him anything
up to that point. I told him he needed to help with rent.”
    “So he was going to quit,” Maria said, her mind spinning. This
revelation made