by Ami Diane
Ella frowned and stared at the bare spot, a full shade brighter than the surrounding skin, exposed and vulnerable. She’d never seen him without his wedding band.
It was Wink’s turn. She’d just launched into a description of her family’s yule log recipe passed down through generations when the picnic basket beside her shook.
Both Ella and Will stirred.
Ella pointed at the quivering whicker. “Uh, Wink? Your food’s moving.”
Wink’s gaze dropped to the basket. “Oh, that. That’s not food.”
“It’s not?” Ella couldn’t hide the disappointment in her voice. “You sure there’s not dessert in there somewhere? Like a cookie, perhaps?”
The lid popped up. A gray head full of whiskers and a twitching nose poked out.
Ella’s chest deflated as she glared indignantly at Chester. “Not sure I’d want a cookie now. How am I supposed to distinguish between raisins or droppings?”
“That’s good,” Wink said, “because there aren’t any cookies.”
“Well, no. Not now that he ate them.”
Wink closed her eyes for a breath and seemed to be counting in her head.
“If you haven’t been home since—” Ella stopped herself before mentioning the gun range and run-in with the Norseman “—since this afternoon, then where’s he been?”
Wink petted the squirrel’s head. “Stew was watching him.”
On the rug in the corner, Fluffy’s eyes drew open like shades on a window. He dropped to a crouch, pupils dilated, tail twitching.
Ella glanced from one ball of fur to the other and scooted to the edge of her seat. Every encounter between the two seemed to end in broken furniture or dishes. Before there was a furry battle royale in the parlor, she distracted the feline by plopping a remnant of meat from her dinner plate in front of him.
By the time she returned to the couch, Chester sat on Wink’s shoulder in all his elf costume glory, scratching behind his ear and trying his best to lick himself over his clothes.
When eleven o’ clock rolled around and Jimmy was now harmonizing his snores with Edwin’s, they called it a night. Rose woke her husband, and together, along with Will, the three took flashlights and a lantern to the basement to retrieve cots for everyone to sleep on.
The moment their lights faded, Ella motioned Flo over to the couch.
“Finally,” she said. “Move your bones, Flo. I don’t know how much time we have. I’ve been dying to talk to you two all night.”
She wasn’t sure why she didn’t want the others to hear what Chapman had told her, but it felt appropriate keeping it secret until the killer was caught, only sharing it with her partners in crime.
The cushion beside Ella dipped as Flo dropped to the couch with a grunt, causing Ella to fall into the woman’s gravity well.
Flo’s elbow dug into Ella’s ribs. “Scoot over.”
“You scoot over.”
“Ella?” Wink snapped her fingers in front of their faces to get their attention.
“Right.” After a glance towards Edwin, who hadn’t moved except for a slight tilt of his head in the past hour, Ella dropped her voice to a loud whisper and paraphrased her conversation with Chapman.
“So? They had a brawl.” Flo picked at her nail, bored. “Big deal.”
Ella turned to Wink for help.
“It is a big deal, Flo,” Wink said. “It casts aspersion and suspicion on the man. Did you ever see those two fight before?” Flo opened her mouth, but Wink added, “Besides when they practiced sparring and sword fighting. I mean, actual arguing to the point they beat on each other.”
Flo’s gummy mouth flapped closed.
“So,” Ella said, “what’s this mean? I don’t know about you two, but this solidifies his spot at the top of my suspect list.”
Wink sighed. “It’s certainly pointing to him killing Erik.”
“Was he trained enough with a gun to kill Erik from that distance? I’m assuming so because he had one and seemed to be into his weapons… a little too much if you ask me.” Ella looked pointedly at Flo who was still too enraptured with her nails to notice. “I’ve been trying to find a connection between Erik’s murder and the break-ins. Suppose Leif did kill him, why break into the diner and destroy the pies?”
“To throw off aspirations?” Flo said, without looking up.
“I’m assuming you mean aspersions,” Ella said.
“That’s what I said. Get your ears checked.”
“But even that’s wrong. You’re using the word incorrectly.”
“Oh dear,” Wink said. “Did I use it incorrectly?”
“I can’t remember.”
Meanwhile, under her breath, Flo repeated the word aspersion several times.
“Aspersions aside…” Ella said, pausing, “Okay, now I just hate that word. I’m going to say suspicion because I think that’s what we, all, actually mean. So, Leif breaks into the greenhouses to, what? Steal food or something? Erik tries to stop him. They argue, maybe pick up their argument from the bar the night before, which may or may not be related to Leif stealing food. Leif kills his friend. Then, destroys the pies both at the diner and at the inn to throw off suspicion?”
They lapsed into silence.
Flo finally looked up from her nails. “What if he destroyed the pies to cover the fact that he took more food? Stands to reason the son of a gun stole more food.”
“Except he didn’t. There was nothing else taken from either place—” Ella slapped her forehead. “Wait. There were a couple dozen eggs missing the day after the pie bake.”
Wink frowned. “And who’s to say he didn’t steal a couple of pies before destroying the rest? We wouldn’t have noticed in the mess. Did you count pie tins while cleaning up?”
Ella shook her head. “Didn’t cross my mind at the time that I should.”
Satisfied that she’d won some sort of unspoken argument, Flo returned to her nails, a smug expression on her face.
“Half-a-dozen, we would’ve noticed,” Wink continued. “But a couple could’ve gone amiss.”
“I suppose it’s possible. Except….” Ella pulled out her phone and swiped to the photos she’d taken in the diner’s kitchen. She landed on one that showed one of the suspect’s footprints in comparison to her own boot. “If we’re right, these would have to be Leif’s—” She held up her hand before Flo could speak “—and no, we’re not going with some sort of giant woman.”
Wink’s mouth turned down at the corners. “I’m not sure.”
“About the giant woman? Really?”
“No. These are still too small to be Leif’s. Also,” Wink said, squinting, “looks like the tread’s more modern than those wool and animal hide shoes he wears.”
Ella zoomed in on the photo. Wink was right. The fact that there even was a tread pattern should’ve clued her in. Either Leif had worn a different set of shoes, several sizes too small and from a more modern era to cover his tracks, or he wasn’t their vandal.
CHAPTER 22
ELLA PEELED OPEN her eyes. Her cot creaked beneath her as she rolled over and pulled the silk comforter she’d dragged from her room up to her chin. The parlor was full of makeshift beds on sofas and cots dug up from the basement. Waking up to a room full of friends wasn’t a bad start to Christmas morning, she decided.
In the corner, Will sat on his cot with his back against the wall, his face partially covered in stubble and his hair fluffed up at odd angles. His eyes were trained on a book, but he seemed to sense her looking at him.
“Merry Christmas,” he said in a low voice so as not to wake the others.
She returned the greeting as she crawled out from beneath the comforter and layers of blankets to have a peek outside. The view out the windows was partially blocked by a wall of snow that was almost chest-level for her. Light flakes fell from a pale sky, flushed pink on the horizon.
Softly whistling at the glittering view, she drank it in, never having seen so much snow in her life.
&nb
sp; “It’s like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” she said under her breath. Turning a side-eye back to the inhabitants of the room, she hoped being trapped in the snow was the only likeness to the old movie, and they could avoid the whole kidnapping, barn-raising part.
Wandering back to her cot, she shivered and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. “We should build a ski lift on one of the hills.”
A soft chuckle floated over from Will’s cot.
“What are you reading?”
His eyes never wavered as he lifted the book so she could read the dust jacket of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
“Fitting.”
Her skin prickled in the cool air, not wanting to think what the temperature was like in the rest of the inn. Reluctantly, Ella dropped the blanket again and exchanged it for her sweatshirt. Then, she padded over and stoked the coals.
A couple minutes and two pieces of kindling later, she had a small fire burning. As she stifled a yawn, a horrible question struck her. What would they do for coffee? Maybe they could put the percolator over the fire.
The others began to stir, grumbling about Ella’s and Will’s loud voices. Down the passageway came the faint sound of the front door opening and a rough voice calling out.
Since Ella was the most awake and Will was still engrossed in his novel, she went to greet the newcomer, wondering who’d managed to burrow through the snow.
Chapman stood in the entrance hall, hat in hands, looking very much out of place.
“Merry Christmas,” she greeted him.
“Hope Rose doesn’t mind.” He dipped his head, still massaging the brim of his bowler hat. “But I got snowed in at the office last night and ran outta wood this morning.”
“I know for a fact she won’t mind. But how’d you make it down the street?”
He pointed a weathered hand at a snow shovel and snowshoes propped up beside the coat tree.
After leading him into the parlor, she went to see if Rose needed help bringing in coffee supplies, mostly to move her along.
“Just carry the grounds and stop getting underfoot,” Rose said as she carried a tray with the percolator, cups, and fixings down the hallway.
Back in the parlor, Jimmy had set aside some good coals in the fireplace. Water sloshed around inside as Rose set the percolator on top.
“You’re going to arrest him?” Will was asking Chapman.
Ella straightened. “Who’s he going to arrest?”
“Leif,” Chapman answered. “Once the snow’s cleared up enough that Horse can make the trek out to his cabin.”
Ella sank to the sofa cushion beside Flo. So, that was it then? Leif would be accused of killing Erik. Despite the fact that circumstantial evidence fit, it didn’t sit right with her.
“Time for presents?” Wink hopped up from the chaise in a manner that should’ve been impossible for a person without caffeine pumping through them.
While she dug under the tree, Chester poked his head out from above a branch, bristled his nose, then promptly disappeared again. With the gifts doled out, Will stoked the fire and added a log before settled on the sofa next to Ella.
“Me first,” Wink said as she disappeared from the room.
“Should be good,” Flo muttered. Ella shot her a dark look.
A moment later, Wink returned, her arms full of packages wrapped in burlap sack with ribbons. “I hid these in the study yesterday.”
She passed one out to each of them, blushing when she got to Chapman. “Sorry, I didn’t know you’d be here.”
He waved her off.
Ella peeled back the rough material one fold at a time. A swatch of red peeked up at her as she pulled back the last fold. It was a sweater. And not just any sweater, but the gaudiest Christmas sweater she’d ever seen. It had gold bobbles, a snowman with antlers, and a tree with eyes.
Her mouth gaped open a moment before she smiled at Wink and thanked her, stopping herself short from saying, Cool, an ugly Christmas sweater.
When Wink had turned away, Will bent over and whispered, “Don’t worry. We only wear them on Christmas.”
“Not bad,” Flo said, climbing up from the couch. “Mine’s better.”
“It’s not a competition,” Ella said.
“It is for them.” Rose pursed her lips as she shook her head.
“I thought we were just doing a Secret Santa swap?” Ella swallowed. “I didn’t get presents for everyone.”
“We are. This is just their annual tradition.” Rose’s voice dipped in an uncharacteristically dark tone, adding, “For the past ten years.”
Flo’s present to everyone also happened to be Christmas sweaters, just as gaudy, only the majority of the material made out of green yarn instead of red, with elves performing various cringe-worthy actions.
On Will’s, they appeared to be decorating a Christmas tree, but the crazy woman explained they were actually stealing the ornaments. On Ella’s, an elf appeared to be taking a dump in the fireplace. Wink’s, however, was most disconcerting, with Santa wrapped in rope and the elves hanging him from the chimney.
“I don’t know what to say,” Ella said, truly at a loss for words. “Thanks?”
A smug smile filled Flo’s face as she sat back down.
An awkward silence filled the room as they each had to make a decision of which sweater to don. Naturally, most picked Wink’s. Jimmy passed his Flo sweater off to Chapman, telling him it wasn’t right to leave him out.
Will must’ve felt bad for the old woman because he tugged Flo’s gift on over his pajamas, which Ella felt best since his was the least offensive.
Next up were the Secret Santa presents. Rose cooed over the new charms Ella had bought, immediately adding them to her bracelet. While Jimmy opened his present, she continued to fawn over the new additions to her bracelet, dangling them in the gray light seeping in through the windows.
“Alright,” Wink said, rubbing her hands together, “who had me?”
All around the room, eyes turned on each other, but nobody spoke. Beside Ella, Flo took a box the size of two coffee mugs stacked on top of each other and slipped it behind her back, her eyes on Chapman.
“I had you. It’s, uh, upstairs. Sorry, ol’ girl.”
“Well, go get it.”
“Later.”
“But I want to open it now.”
“Later,” Flo bit out again, her eyebrows wiggling and tipping her head in Chapman’s direction.
“Subtle,” Ella murmured.
After a pregnant pause, Will cleared his throat, stretching off the sofa. “I pulled your name, El,” he said, handing her a lumpy, hard gift. He continued to stand, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “I hope you like it.”
Ella’s fingers ripped apart old editions of Keystone Corner. Three strange looking devices rolled off the paper and into her lap. It took her a moment to recognize them, and a small gasp escaped her mouth.
“Are these the walkie-talkies you were working on a while back?”
He nodded. “Well, the next generation, so to speak. The farmers I made them for seemed to like them. They gave me feedback on how I could modify and improve them. I figure—” his eyes flitted to Chapman “—they could come in handy.”
He didn’t have to say more; she understood what he meant. Rolling the devices onto Wink’s lap, Ella leaped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, thanking him profusely.
Leaning into his ear, she whispered, “I promise we won’t get into too much trouble.”
He winked as she released him.
He spent a few minutes showing her how they worked and the charging cords he’d made for each one. “Of course, you need electricity to charge them, so they might die on you before we get the power restored.”
For the next half hour, Ella, Wink, and Flo hid around the manor, testing the walky-talkies’ range and practicing speaking in code—an unnecessary precaution given nobody else was on their channel.
Rose’s voice rang through the
inn, heralding them back to the parlor. Chapman, Jimmy, Will, and Edwin were in the middle of a game, slapping cards on a poker table that had been set up next to the fire.
While drinking her second cup of coffee, Ella studied the sheriff’s poker face, cataloging any micro-expression for further use. Her walkie-talkie dug into her stomach, alongside her cellphone.
Wink had just finished convincing her to join Rose and Flo for a game of bridge when outside the window, a tall shadow struggled through the snow. All she could see of the figure was a faded gray Stetson hat. For the town being snowed in, a fair amount of people seemed to be able to wander about.
Telling the others she had to use the restroom, Ella slipped into the foyer and creaked open the front door.
Six’s hand froze in mid-air as if he’d just been about to knock. It dropped to his side.
“Hey, darlin’.”
She cringed, hating that he called her that, but she knew if she asked him to stop, he’d only use it more frequently.
“Merry Christmas, Jesse.”
The cigarette in his lips rolled to the side, and he corrected her through his teeth. “Six.”
“I know.”
After a peek behind her, she opened the door wider. “Do you want to come in?”
His head tilted to the side, seeming to consider the proposal until Chapman’s voice echoed down the hall.
Six sneered. “What’s he doin’ here?”
“I invited him. Just like I’m inviting you.”
“Who’s at the door, Ella?” Rose called from the parlor.
Ella opened her mouth, but Six shook his head. “I ain’t comin’ in.”
“No one,” Ella hollered back. Then softer, she said, “Please, Six. It’s cold, and it’s Christmas. Come inside.”
“Look, I just wanted to give you this.”
It wasn’t until that moment she noticed one of his hands had been hiding behind his back. She flinched, not sure what to expect. It didn’t go unnoticed by him as he let out a husky laugh.
“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt ya.”
He held aloft a strangely shaped object wrapped in brown paper.
“Well go on. Take it.” He shoved it forward.
