“Let’s try the back.”
Fred Hunnicutt, as round and pleasant as his wife Dolly, was manning the crosswalk, his orange Day-Glo vest shining under the streetlamps. “Is there a problem?” he called out as Ted and Liv hurried past.
“Only that the Trim a Tree store stayed dark when everyone else turned on the lights,” Ted said.
Fred shook his head. “I saw. That woman is going to make life here very uncomfortable for herself if she doesn’t get a better attitude, and soon. People won’t put up with someone who doesn’t enter into the festivities.”
“Starting with me.” Liv headed down the pedestrian throughway, followed by Ted. A larger delivery alley ran behind the row of stores, where Dumpsters were shared by the businesses and emptied weekly.
Liv slid on a patch of ice as she rounded the corner. Ted grabbed her by each elbow.
“Steady now. You don’t want to break something before you can give Grace Thornsby a piece of your mind.”
Liv slowed down, grabbing at the edges of her temper. It wouldn’t do to let her anger get the best of her. You never won a screaming match. So even though she felt like letting the manager of TAT have it with both barrels, she took a breath, mustered her killer-but-calm Manhattan power-face, and proceeded at a more dignified pace, past a Dumpster and a pile of broken-down boxes, and stopped at the back entrance of Trim a Tree.
She knocked, received no answer. Four doors down, Dolly came out of the bakery carrying a black garbage bag. “Liv, Ted, is that you? What’s going on?”
“Nothing to worry about,” Ted assured her. “The TAT lights stayed dark. We’ve come to rectify the situation.”
Liv knocked harder, called out, “Ms. Thornsby, are you in there?”
Dolly dumped her trash and came hurrying down to meet them. “Do you think she did it on purpose, or is something wrong?”
An icicle shot up Liv’s spine. “Ms. Thornsby. Grace!” This time she didn’t knock but shook the door handle. It turned in her hand and the door opened.
She exchanged looks with Ted.
He frowned and stepped past her, pushed the door wide, and stepped into the darkness. “Anyone here?” Silence.
“What’s he doing?” Dolly asked, her arms crossed over her holiday apron to ward off the cold.
Liv shrugged. Something inside the store clattered to the ground. Seconds later an orange blur shot out the door. Liv jumped back. “The cat,” she said. “Good grief. Do you see him?”
Dolly stepped back into the alley and looked into the shadows cast by the parking lot fence. “There he is, over by that Dumpster, down there near the Pyne Bough.”
The door of the bakery opened and Ida Zimmerman’s head poked out. “Dolly, what’s taking you so long? Do you need help?”
Dolly waved. “Over here. I—”
The cat darted out of the shadows and tore torn down the alley. As he passed the bakery, a sharp bark resounded from inside. Before Liv could yell to Miss Ida to stop him, Whiskey shot out of the bakery in hot pursuit.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get him.” Miss Ida took off after the animals. Edna looked out. “Ida, what the heck are you doing?”
“Don’t slip on the ice!” Dolly yelled after her. “Edna, can you watch the bakery until I get back?”
Edna nodded and went back inside and shut the door. Dolly took off after Miss Ida, Whiskey, and the cat.
“Careful,” Liv yelled after her and reached for her walkie-talkie. “Fred, can you have everyone on the lookout for Whiskey and Grace Thornsby’s cat? They’re headed toward the south of the square. Miss Ida and Dolly have gone after them.”
She stepped inside the store. “Ted?”
She passed a small storeroom, which was the source of the small patch of light, then groped through the dark into the main part of the store. “Ted.”
“Just a minute I’m looking for the light switch. Ah.”
The lights jumped on.
Liv blinked against the sudden brightness. Then blinked again. One of the artificial trees had toppled over and lay on its side. Broken ornaments littered the floor.
Standing over it was Penny Newland, unmoving, her mouth agape.
Liv didn’t envy her. Paying for those broken ornaments would cost her more than her salary, which still didn’t explain why the Christmas lights weren’t on. Obviously Penny couldn’t have done it, because she’d been singing at the tree lighting. Though she must have left the singing early when she saw the lights fail to come on. She’d managed to get back to the store before Ted and Liv. But where was Grace Thornsby?
Penny’s mouth closed, then opened. “Shoes,” she said.
“Shoes?”
“Shoes.”
Ted left the light switch and went to stand by Penny’s side. “Honey? What are you talking about?”
Penny jabbed her finger toward the tree.
Ted’s eyes bulged. “Oh damn. Grace?”
“What?” Liv squeezed past the fallen tree and looked down. There on the ground, sticking out from beneath the tree, were two black boots. She could see glimpses of their owner through the branches. At least now they knew why no one had turned on the lights at the Trim a Tree shop.
Ted grabbed hold of the tree, lifted it off the body, and thrust it to the side.
It wasn’t Grace.
It was a man, dressed in khaki pants and a long-sleeve beige shirt. Blood covered his collar and spread across his chest. His neck was covered in blood, almost hiding the slash across his throat. His eyes were partly opened, but they were long past seeing anything. And he looked familiar.
“It’s Phil,” Penny said quietly, sounding confused.
The TAT Santa. Liv hadn’t recognized him at first without his costume.
“Ah crap,” said an exasperated voice from behind them. Liv didn’t have to turn around to know who it belonged to. The editor of the Celebration Bay Clarion sounded totally exasperated.
“What are you doing here?” Liv asked. It was the last thing she needed to know, but it was the first thing that came to her mind.
“I heard Santa lost his suit. I thought it would make a good human interest story.” Chaz Bristow stepped past her, revealing Fred Hunnicutt behind him.
“I just came to tell you they found Whiskey,” Fred said. “They’re still looking for—Whoa! What happened? Shouldn’t somebody do CPR?”
“Too late for that,” Chaz answered over his shoulder from where he squatted down to look at the body.
“Are you sure?” Liv asked.
“I’m sure. You might want to get Bill Gunnison in here.”
Ted got out his walkie-talkie.
Dolly came through the door. “Fred, are you in here? Did you tell them we found—”
Fred put an arm out, stopping her from coming any closer.
“It was an accident, right?” Liv asked.
Chaz stood up and gave her a look, half-resigned, half-incredulous. “No,” he said.
Fred tried to stand in front of Dolly. “Dolly, you shouldn’t be seeing this. Why don’t you go on back to the bakery?”
“I’m not leaving you here alone. And what about Penny? Penny, honey? Are you all right?”
The girl looked up at Dolly, then sank to the ground. Chaz just managed to catch her before she hit the floor.
“Poor thing, she’s fainted,” Dolly said, eluding Fred’s grasp. “Here, Chaz , take her over to that chair behind the counter.”
Chaz rolled his eyes but hoisted the girl into his arms and followed Dolly just as Bill Gunnison, accompanied by A.K. Pierce, the head of Bayside Security, hurried into the room.
“What’s going on here? Where did all you people come from?”
Before anyone could answer, Bill saw the body. He waited while the head of security knelt down, checked for a pulse, then stood up shaking his head.
“Okay,” Bill said. “Everybody, just step back and stay calm. Dare I ask if anyone touched him?”
They all shook their heads.
<
br /> “Well, that’s progress.” Bill stepped closer to the dead Santa. “Guess I better get the medical examiner in here. And a crime scene wagon.”
“Crime scene?” exclaimed Dolly.
“I don’t suppose there were any witnesses.”
Everyone shook their heads again, then looked at Penny, who was slumped against Dolly’s shoulder.
She shook her head spasmodically.
Liv could only stare at the body.
“Close your mouth,” Chaz said. “You remind me of a fish, and then I start thinking about how long it is until the season reopens instead of wondering how you get yourself embroiled in murder all the time.”
“I do not.”
“And don’t get all pissy, and don’t step on my foot like you did the last time you were minding someone else’s business. I have boots on and you might hurt yourself.”
“I said I was sorry.”
He grinned, a grossly inappropriate expression considering the gruesome spectacle in front of them. “You did. But I didn’t believe you.” His eyes were teasing. And really blue. He winked and she found herself smiling in spite of the tragedy.
“Can any of you identify the, uh, him?” the sheriff asked.
“He’s the TAT Santa,” Liv said. “And Grace Thornsby said he would be gone by this morning.”
“And he is,” Chaz said in her ear.
“Stop it.” Liv stepped away. How could the man be so callous?
“Where is she?”
“That’s why we’re here,” Ted said. Compared to Chaz, he sounded like the voice of reason. “The store remained dark during the tree lighting, and Liv and I came over to see what the problem was. Grace wasn’t here. I turned on the lights. And there he was.” He stopped, frowned, glanced over at Penny. “Penny was here.”
“Penny, do you know what happened?”
Penny shook her head.
“You didn’t see or hear anything strange?”
“I wasn’t here,” she said in a barely audible voice.
“She was singing in the choir,” Dolly volunteered, and patted the girl’s hand.
“And no one has seen Grace Thornsby?”
“No,” Ted told him. “At least—we didn’t look.”
They all moved at once.
“Just stay put,” Bill said.
“She isn’t here.” Penny’s voice was thin and frightened.
“Do you know where she is?”
“No. But she called just before she was supposed to come in so I could go sing. She said something had come up and she wouldn’t be able to make it.” Penny shuddered. Hiccupped.
Dolly gave her a squeeze.
“But you did sing?”
Again that jerky nod. Liv was afraid the girl might be going into shock. After all, it looked like she had discovered the body, or at least the shoes. Liv felt an insane giggle about to erupt. She coughed it away.
Bill frowned at her.
“Phil was waiting for Grace so she could give him his paycheck. Liv and Ted said he couldn’t work here. I told him I was supposed to sing, everybody was counting on me, and he said to go on and he’d mind the store until I got back.” She shot an anguished look at Liv. “Then . . .”
Now that she was talking, she couldn’t seem to stop.
“I told him just what to do when it was time to turn on the lights. I wrote down the cue and everything. He said he would do it and not to worry. When the tree was lit and the store didn’t light up, I ran back here. I didn’t even wait for “Silent Night.”
“So you were the first to discover the body?” Bill asked.
“Sort of. I guess I did.”
The sheriff’s eyes narrowed. “Penny, how did you get here before Ted and Liv?”
Penny looked around as if she wasn’t sure where she was. “I came in the front. The door was unlocked because the store was supposed to be open as soon as the lights went on and Phil was here. I ran in to see why the lights weren’t on and I tripped on the tree. It was on the ground. And then I could see that Phil was under it. Grace is going to fire me for sure.” She burst into tears.
Dolly put her arms around the girl and glared at the sheriff. “Bill Gunnison, don’t be so mean, the girl’s had a fright. It’s not her fault that the tree fell on the poor man.”
“Now, Dolly,” Fred began.
Several security people and police officers came into the store.
Chaz snorted. “How many residents of Celebration Bay does it take to contaminate a crime scene? Oops.”
“What?”
“There’s someone looking in the window.”
Bill turned toward the window. Two faces peered in from the other side. Bill nodded, smiled, waved.
“Meese, go out there and tell those two people the store will be closed due to, um, an electrical problem.”
“Yes sir.” The young officer disappeared.
Bill dispatched two others to cordon off the alley and wait for the ME.
“Johnson, see if you can find something to cover the windows with.”
“I’ve got a roll of brown butcher paper at the bakery,” Dolly volunteered. “I’ll show him.” Dolly turned Penny over to Fred, and the young officer followed her to the back door.
Dolly let out a screech as she reached the door.
A streak of orange flew into the room and past Bill’s feet. “What the—”
“Grace’s cat,” Liv said, hoping fervently that Ida and Edna had leashed Whiskey and taken him home.
In answer to her prayers, a white ball of fur galloped through the back door, followed by both Miss Ida and Miss Edna, who stopped to catch their breath.
“Sorry,” Edna said between gasps. “Whiskey, you come here.”
“Treat!” Liv screeched.
Chaz laughed quietly beside her.
Whiskey slid to a stop, twisted in the air, and galloped back to her.
Chaz leaned over and scooped him up in one graceful move. “Gotcha.”
Whiskey tried to wiggle free, but without success.
“We’ll take him.” Miss Ida came up to Liv, saw the body on the floor. “Edna, come look at this.”
Her sister joined them. Dolly and the young officer returned with scissors, tape, and the roll of paper. In the background, a siren wailed.
Bill pulled out his radio. “There’s no emergency. Turn the damn siren off and try to be a little discreet.” He signed off.
“Miss Ida and Miss Edna, would you two please take Whiskey home or go about shopping or whatever you were planning to do tonight. But keep him on a leash. And don’t tell anyone what you’ve seen.”
“Hmmph. We were next on the scene,” Miss Edna said.
“And we might have important information,” Miss Ida added.
The sheriff’s nostrils flared. “And do you have information?” he asked patiently, though with some effort.
“Well, we won’t know, will we, until you ask us some questions.”
“I will certainly do that. But there’s no reason for you to have to wait here when it’s late, and I really need someone to take Whiskey out of here.”
Whiskey barked at the sound of his name. The cat, who had disappeared beneath one of the trees, shot across the room.
Bill groaned. “Please.”
“Come along, Edna. We don’t want to be in the way. We’ll see you first thing tomorrow morning, Bill Gunnison.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Edna clipped the leash on the still wriggling Whiskey, took him from Chaz, and forced Ida out the door.
“And I only came in after Liv and Ted were already here,” Chaz said.
“And I came with Chaz,” Fred added. “I don’t mind staying, but I don’t much like the idea of Dolly being alone at the bakery.”
Bill rubbed his forehead. “She won’t be alone, the place is packed. And we’ll finish with you long before closing time.
“But you can’t stay here, and I don’t want the whole town to see us parading through the
streets to town hall. Meese, go down to the Pyne Bough and ask Ms. Pyne if we can use her back room. Hank Ousterhout uses it to change out of his Santa suit, but he’s probably home by now, and I’m sure Nancy won’t mind.” He turned away. “Just tell her there’s been an accident and I need a few statements from the witnesses. Do not volunteer anything else.”
“Yes sir, no sir. I’ll go right now.” The young officer practically stumbled over his own feet to get out the door.
“As for the rest of you—Chaz, where are you going?”
Chaz had been easing toward the door, but he stopped. “I didn’t see anything. And I know the drill. No details in the paper. Hell, I won’t even report it. I don’t have room anyway what with all these highfalutin holiday goings-on. So I’ll just be moseying along.”
Liv made a face at him. He was always putting on some good-old-boy act that she didn’t buy for a minute. She’d checked him out online. She knew how many years he’d lived in Los Angeles, which probably helped him cultivate his already developed surfer look. Tall, buff, and blond. The LA Times had certainly perfected his investigative skills, but the closest he’d come to “homespun” was “homeboy,” and the only colloquialisms he’d heard were street slang and four-letter words.
“I don’t want any of this appearing in the paper. Got it? None of it.”
Chaz gave a one-fingered salute and started to leave.
“On second thought. Maybe you better stay with the others until I’m finished here.”
Chapter Four
Bill decided to interview Penny on the premises and send her home. The rest of them trudged down the alley to the corner, where the smell of barbecue drew them toward the Corner Café. But Officer Meese motioned them across the alley to the back door of the clapboard building that housed the Pyne Bough, Gifts from Nature.
Nancy Pyne met them at the delivery door, looking as natural as the gifts she sold. No makeup and no bling. She was a small woman, dressed in a long black skirt and red hand-knitted sweater. Her long gray hair was held back in a raffia tie. She smelled slightly of cinnamon potpourri and incense. Nancy was a latter-day hippie, serene and unruffled.
Though not incurious.
“Come on inside where it’s warm.” She stood back while they filed into the storeroom, then closed the door behind them.
Silent Knife (A Celebration Bay Mystery) Page 4
