It took nearly two hours to get home, so it was much later when he pulled in. He was tired and eager for bed, but he took a few minutes to walk up to the front house to see if everything looked okay. Somehow, against all odds, Uriah and Carl seemed to be getting along. At least there hadn’t been any arguments or other problems in the past few days—none that Tobias was aware of.

Tonight, too, everything seemed to be fine. Carl’s car was parked where it should be, so he was home for a change, and all the lights were off.

Hoping Uriah’s son was asleep, which meant there might be peace for the rest of the night, too, Tobias returned to his own place, where he found a gift sitting on his doorstep, wrapped in a red-and-green plaid with a small bow.

He saw a tag, but when he checked there was no information in the To and From. It just read Merry Christmas.

He looked around, wondering who’d left it. Maddox, Jada and Maya would give him a gift but they’d wait until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, whenever they could get together and Susan wouldn’t be there. Aiyana would get him something small, too, but she’d wait for the staff party planned for Monday afternoon. That left Uriah, but Tobias couldn’t imagine Uriah could wrap like this or would bother to do so even if he could.

Puzzled, Tobias carried the gift into the house and opened it. As he was ripping off the paper, he had the thought that maybe Susan had left it for him—a box wrapped extra nice to make him think he was getting a great gift when really it was a pile of dog shit or worse.

But it wasn’t anything bad. On the contrary. It was a watch with onboard GPS, maps, music, contactless payments, even blood oxygen saturation and heart rate monitors—a gift that would be appealing to any outdoor enthusiast.

“Wow,” he muttered. This was nice. Probably the nicest thing he’d ever been given. He would’ve guessed it had come from Atticus, since it would be useful on their hike, and Atticus was so excited about going. But there was no way Atticus would have an extra six or seven hundred dollars to drop on him, despite their plans for the summer. Jada’s brother had too many other people to buy for that he cared about more.

Tobias rummaged around in the tissue paper, hoping to find a card or note that would resolve the mystery, but there was none.

Damn. He wanted to know who’d given it to him.

He could ask Uriah to take a look at the security feeds in the morning, he decided.