by Kathi Daley
“Tansy mentioned that she was able to connect with someone in great pain. I’m not sure if she was channeling the person who burned down the Santa House or the mistletoe vandal if they aren’t the same person,” I said.
“Or maybe she was connecting with someone else altogether,” Tara said. She stood up from where she was kneeling on the floor looking through a box. She glanced around the room. “Did you find the new paperbacks we ordered?”
“They are over by the coffee bar,” Cassie said. “I’ll put them on the new-arrivals rack.”
“You really don’t have to. This is your day off,” Tara reminded her.
She shrugged. “I know. And I’m not going to stay long. I’m just hanging out while my friend, Rosalie, drops off her sister at the day care center.” She picked up a book on grief. “Does anyone know if Finn ever talked to Clifford Little? It seems like Cliff is as good a candidate to be the mistletoe vandal as any after losing his wife and son at Christmas.”
“I spoke to Finn about Cliff,” I answered. “He was off the island on the day the Santa House burned up. Of course, that doesn’t totally let him off the hook because a timer set off the explosion that ignited the fire. Yet, while it is possible that Cliff set up the bomb before leaving the island, Finn also said that generally speaking, arsonists like to watch the destruction they cause.”
“I saw something about that on TV,” Tara shared.
“And the brother-in-law?” Cassie asked.
“I’m not sure,” I answered. “I guess I should check in with Finn today. Cody and I were so busy moving this weekend that I never had a chance to see how his investigation was going.”
Cassie’s face lit up. “Moving? Does that mean I will be able to move into the cabin soon?”
I wanted to say no. “Just give me a couple of days, and the place will be all yours.”
Cassie clapped her hands together and then jumped into the air, letting out a small screech of joy. I supposed knowing that I was making my baby sister that happy softened the blow of saying goodbye to the home I loved just a bit.
Chapter 9
“I think we’ve done what we needed to today.” Tara pushed her hands into her lower back to relive an ache there. “I’m going to head over to O’Malley’s for a glass of wine. Want to come?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Yeah. I could use some wine. I should probably go home to finish packing my personal possessions, as I promised Cassie I would, but a glass of wine with my best friend seems like the less emotionally charged choice.”
“Maybe the wine will help you relax so when you get home you can tackle the packing.”
“I’ll probably need more than one glass to accomplish that, but I do get what you are saying. I’m just going to text Cody to let him know where I’ll be.”
As most of the other businesses on the island had done, O’Malley’s went all out with their holiday décor. I suspected Tara might have helped; while I could see my brothers decorating the tree in the corner, I couldn’t picture them draping real pine garlands from the bar or hanging hundreds of white twinkle lights overhead.
When we walked in, Danny smiled, although it seemed to be directed at Tara, not both of us, and she smiled back. While they had dated and even entered into moderately serious relationships with other people since they’d last been a couple, there was no use denying they had spark.
“The place looks great,” I said to Danny, who stood behind the bar. “I especially love the beer-drinking Santa by the front door.”
“The Santa was Tara’s idea, but the beer was mine. You want a glass of wine?”
“Please. White.”
“Tara?” Danny asked.
“I’ll have some of the Syrah you gave me last night. It was really good.”
So, the two of them had been together last night? Interesting. The bar was closed on Sundays, so I didn’t think they were here. Not that it was any of my business. Exactly. Although we were talking about a coupling between my best friend and my brother. A coupling, I reminded myself, that seemed like a very bad idea to me.
“Where’s Aiden?” I asked.
“He’s off today. I think he said something about heading to Seattle for Christmas shopping.”
I groaned. “I haven’t even started mine. I really should get on that with Christmas practically around the corner. It’s just with Sammy and the move and all, it really has been hectic.”
“Mom wants a new computer,” Danny said. “The one she has keeps freezing. Aiden and I were going to go in on one together. Do you want in on the action?”
“I do,” I answered. One gift down, a bunch more to go.
“Aiden was going to pick it up. He knows more about them than I do. Once he gets it and I know how much it cost, I’ll let you know what your share comes out to.”
“Did you remember to order the wine we talked about for the Christmas Eve party?” I asked.
“I did. It should be here by the end of the week. I’m going to take it over to Mr. Parsons’s place, so it doesn’t get mixed up with the bar’s inventory. By the way, I took a tour of the remodel when I stopped by to chat with Cody this weekend. It’s really nice. I bet you are excited to get moved in.”
“Yeah. Real excited.”
“Did you hear about the vandalism at the toy store?” Tara asked Danny, changing the subject. If I had to guess, she’d done that intentionally to forestall the whole moving conversation.
“I did,” Danny answered. “Finn stopped by for lunch. He says the place was a real mess.”
I nodded. “It does sound like the mistletoe vandal was busy last night.”
Danny took out a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a shot. “Finn shared with me that he is confused by the whole thing. Normally, if a single person carries out a series of crimes, whether it be murder, vandalism, theft, or whatever, the severity can escalate over time. But with the ones we’ve been witnessing on the island, the burning of the Santa House was the most severe of all, and it came first. The pattern feels off to him. Someone destroys an entire building, killing someone in the process, then goes out and cuts down a tree, steals baby Jesus from a nativity scene, and then starts a very small fire on Chappy’s boat. Why? Even more curious is the fact that whoever it is seems to go goes dormant for a few days, and then jumps back in with a big mess at the toy store. Finn felt the sequence was off, and I agreed it made very little sense.”
“What about the theory we discussed at the Scooby meeting in which the guy who burned down the Santa House did the other stuff to divert attention from his real activity?” Tara said.
“Yeah, it could be that way,” Danny said. “If Tom was the target all along. But why trash the toy store after being quiet for a few days?”
“Did Finn say whether he was getting anywhere with the case?” I asked.
“Not really. He’s talked to a lot of people. Some he’s cleared after obtaining their alibi, others he’s left on his suspect list pending further investigation. He is trying to track down the source of the mistletoe. There are several places selling it on the island. So far, none of the vendors he’s spoken to remembers selling it to anyone who asked for a large quantity. Most customers buy one or two pieces, so anyone buying four or more would stand out.”
“I suppose the mistletoe vandal might have purchased it off the island,” I said.
“I think that is the conclusion Finn has come to.”
Tara took a sip of her wine. She set down the glass and ran a finger along the rim. “If we take the fire at the Santa House out of the picture, the fire on Chappy’s boat stands out to me as being the odd man out. The vandalism of the nativity scene took place at Saint Patrick’s, which is in Harthaven. The tree that was cut down was in the park, which is in Harthaven. The trashing of the toy store also took place in Harthaven. All three happened at night when no one was around, but the fire on Chappy’s boat took place at the marina in Pelican Bay, and in the middle of the day. It doesn’t fit the pattern.”
>
I frowned. “You do have a good point.” I looked at Danny. “Is Chappy back living on his boat?”
“He is,” Danny confirmed. “The boat itself suffered very little damage. Only his decorations were the worse for wear. Though if you hadn’t seen the smoke when you did, the boat could have been a total loss. Chappy was lucky.”
Yes, he was lucky, but I still had to agree with Tara that the fire on the boat didn’t fit with the other acts of vandalism. Even the fire at the Santa House took place in Harthaven, although it did happen in the middle of the day.
“I guess Finn must not have recovered any physical evidence at any of the scenes,” Tara said.
Danny shook his head. “He dusted for prints, but all the targets were public locations with lots of traffic, so there were a lot of prints. He didn’t find anything that stood out as being significant. Other than the mistletoe, he didn’t find any sort of physical evidence that seemed to be evident at all the locations.”
“It seems to me that someone must have seen something at some point,” Tara said. “Especially Chappy’s boat. Based on the small amount of damage, the fire must have been set within minutes of Cait spotting the smoke. It almost seems as if the person who set the fire should have still been hanging around.”
“I don’t remember seeing anyone,” I said. “But I do agree with what you just said. It seems as if at the very least I would have passed the arsonist leaving as I approached along the wharf.”
“Unless the guy didn’t leave,” Danny said.
I raised a brow. “Didn’t leave? If he didn’t leave, I would have seen him.”
“Not if he set the fire and then hopped onto one of the other boats in the marina. There are still a handful of houseboats left.”
Danny made another good point. It did seem likely that whoever set the fire on Chappy’s boat had been close by to see how it all turned out. If he set the fire and then disappeared below the deck of a nearby boat, he could keep an eye on things without being seen.
“Who owns the boat two slips over from Chappy’s?” I asked, knowing that the slip right next to Chappy’s was vacant.
“I’m not sure offhand, but I can make a call and find out.”
As it turned out, a businessman who lived in Seattle but had a weekend home on the island to Chappy’s owned the boat closest to Chappy’s. He was not on the island when the fire was set, but that didn’t mean that whoever started the fire hadn’t hopped on board to hide out on it. The vessel had a large living area below deck, which would have provided the perfect place to keep an eye on the fire he’d set on Chappy’s boat and avoid being seen.
Danny had to stay at the bar because Aiden wasn’t there to cover, and Tara indicated that she planned to stay and have dinner there, but I decided to stop by the marina on my way home. The boat docked closest to Chappy’s was a large vessel. Older, but it appeared to be serviceable. I stood on the dock looking between the two boats. I didn’t necessarily expect to find anything, but I felt compelled to look.
“You lookin’ for me?” Chappy asked from his own deck.
I smiled at the old sea captain. “Not really. I was chatting with Danny and Tara at the bar, and it occurred to us that whoever set the fire on your boat must still have been at the marina when I showed up. We figured that he must have hidden on a nearby boat to watch what happened. I hoped to notice something that would prove that theory.”
“No need to look any further. I figured out who set the fire on my boat. I confronted them, and we worked things out.”
“Who was it?” I asked.
“I’d rather not say.”
“But the same person who set fire to your boat is most likely the one who vandalized the nativity scene at the church and cut down the tree in the park and trashed the toy store and possibly burned down the Santa House.”
“Weren’t the same person.”
I narrowed my gaze. “How can you be sure?”
“The person who started the fire on my boat had a grudge against me. She got the idea for the fire from the Santa House, but I can assure you, she didn’t burn that down.”
“She?”
His eyes widened. “Or he. Either way. The individual who set fire to my boat wasn’t involved in any of the other things that happened on the island. I can promise you as much.”
“What about the mistletoe? There was mistletoe on your boat, and there was mistletoe left at the nativity scene at the church, the park, and the toy store.”
“I asked about that, and she—or he,” he qualified, “told me that a friend had told her about the mistletoe, so she decided to buy some and leave it as a false clue.”
Okay, from all Chappy’s stumbles, I knew the person who’d set the fire on his boat was a female. I would say she was a scorned lover, but Chappy was too old to be anyone’s lover. Wasn’t he? “Are you absolutely sure that the person who set fire to your boat didn’t set fire to the Santa House, or chop down the tree in the park, or vandalize the nativity scene at the church, or trash the toy store?”
He nodded. “Yes. I am absolutely certain the fire on my boat is not connected to any of the other things that happened on the island.”
I could see that Chappy wasn’t going to tell me the name of the woman who’d gotten so angry with him that she’d burned up all his Christmas decorations, so I nodded and then turned to leave. I figured I could mention this to Finn and let him play the bad guy and interrogate Chappy. I took a step toward the wharf and then looked back. “You said the person who started a fire on your boat heard about the mistletoe from someone else. But the fire on your boat was set only four of five hours after Finn discovered the mistletoe, so it wasn’t widely known. How did your friend know about it?”
“She, or he,” he said in a lame attempt to keep up the pretense, “as the case may be, told me that she, or he, had heard about the mistletoe found at the site where the tree was chopped down from the guy who sells mistletoe from that little stand by the park. In fact, she told me that it was from this man that she bought the mistletoe she left on my boat.”
I tilted my head just a bit. “What did you do to make this woman so angry that she would go to all the trouble of burning up your decorations?”
Chappy smiled a crooked grin. “A man’s love life is not the sort of thing that should be discussed with a youngin like yourself.”
Chapter 10
Tuesday, December 17
Siobhan had decided to work from home today, so she offered to watch Sammy so I wouldn’t have to take him to the sitters. Maggie and Michael had returned home, although they planned to be back for a week at Christmas, and Cassie was working at the bookstore, so Siobhan would be alone with both Connor and Sammy. I asked her if she felt she could handle two babies, to which she laughed and said, of course, she could. My big sister really was amazing.
“Did Finn already leave for work?” I asked her after entering the main house through the kitchen.
“He left hours ago.”
“Did he have a chance to speak to the mistletoe vendor in the park?” I had to admit I was still curious as to the identity of Chappy’s lady friend.
“He did. According to him, only one woman bought a sprig of mistletoe from him the morning after the tree in the park was cut down and that was Valda Cameron.”
My eyes widened. “Valda Cameron? Are you sure?”
Siobhan nodded.
While Chappy was a weathered fisherman whose rough lifestyle had left him physically worse for wear, Valda was a classy and sophisticated woman in her early fifties who earned a good income from the boutique she owned.
“No matter how hard I try, I can’t imagine the two of them together.”
Siobhan picked Connor up and set him in his playpen. “Finn spoke to Valda, who told him that she’d heard a rumor that Chappy had been making eyes at a couple of the women from the senior quilting circle when they came into the bar for lunch on Thursdays. She confronted him about it, expecting that he’d tell
her he only had eyes for her, but instead, he mentioned one of the women specifically, who’d worn a red sweater and jingle bell earrings to lunch that day. He admitted to being drawn to her, but he told Valda not to worry because it was only the fact that she looked like a Christmas decoration that had gotten his attention. Valda admitted to being so angry she couldn’t see straight. After stewing on things for a few days, she found herself so enraged that she went to Chappy’s boat to break up with him, but when she got there, he was gone. She realized that not only had he gone to the bar for lunch early that day, but that it was Thursday, and the ‘Christmas floozy,’ as she referred to Chappy’s crush, would be there. That only made her madder.”
“Valda used the term ‘Christmas floozy’?” I grinned.
“According to Finn. Anyway, she noticed the pile of Christmas decorations Chappy had left on the table and in a fit of rage, she set them on fire.”
I laughed out loud at this point. “This whole thing is just so bizarre. I understand the woman’s anger, but what if I hadn’t seen the smoke? What if Chappy’s boat had burned up?”
Siobhan shrugged. “Valda said she was keeping an eye on the fire. It would most likely have just burned itself out even if you hadn’t come along.”
“So how does the mistletoe fit into this?”
“Before coming to visit Chappy, Valda stopped at the mistletoe vendor in the park to buy some for the entry of her home. While she was there, he mentioned that mistletoe was left at the scene of the tree vandalism. After she started the fire on the boat, she realized she had the mistletoe she’d purchased in her purse, so, on impulse, she decided to leave it there. She realized later that was probably a mistake, but she admitted that at the time she set the fire she was just so dang mad she wasn’t thinking straight.”
I picked up a piece of apple from the tray of fruit Siobhan was slicing. “Did Finn arrest Valda?”
