NOT a CREATURE WAS STIRRING

by Christina Freeburn

  Cassie paled. “I should’ve asked you. I didn’t want to go back to my house. I don’t trust Bonnie.”

  “Bonnie had nothing to do with your father’s death.”

  Cassie shrugged and stared at the ground.

  “The snow is coming down hard.” Abraham said.

  I looked out the window. It was hard. Thick snow falling at a steady pace. I hoped Raleigh changed her plans and would stay home until tomorrow. I didn’t want her traveling in this weather.

  “I’m cold,” Cassie said. “Can I borrow some socks?”

  I nodded, it gave me time to figure out what to do with this new information. “You can also change into one of my shirts and leggings. Yours are soaked.”

  She wrapped the afghan around herself and headed up the stairs, pausing halfway up. “I came to get my ticket you found. Is it in your room?”

  I had totally forgot about that fib and added a new one onto it. “No. I’m sure what I found wasn’t what you were looking for.”

  “Oh.” Cassie clomped up the stairs.

  “Can we finish decorating?” Abraham asked, a slight smile on his face.

  “Sure.” I was glad Abraham’s worry about his mother eased a bit. Maybe Cassie’s presence made Abraham see his time here as more of the sleepover his mother had promised. I’d invite her to stay over as well. The girl had arrived barely dressed, and I had a feeling her mother, Lynne, wasn’t interested in Cassie’s welfare.

  Abraham and I finished decorating the tree and the mantle before Cassie came back downstairs.

  “Sorry, Merry, I fell asleep on your bed.” She looked at the ground.

  “That’s okay.” I smiled and tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear. She leaned her cheek into my palm. Tears trickled onto my hand. I tipped her head up. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m sorry. I really am.”

  “Don’t apologize to her.” A woman’s angry voice boomed down on us.

  My head jerked toward the sound. Evelyn Graham—Lynne—EG—was glaring down at me. She moved down the steps, one step at a time, hand hovered near her hip like she was readying to pull something out. A gun.

  The woman wasn’t worried about Cassie because her daughter let her in. It would’ve been easy for her to retrieve the ladder from in front of the house where I left it yesterday and go to the back and climb in through my bedroom window. That was why she was sorry.

  “Where’s my dad’s ticket? I searched everywhere.” Cassie stepped away from me. “If you’d just have given it to me, I wouldn’t have called my mom for help.”

  “I don’t know where it is.”

  Abraham shifted to the right. I followed suited, wanting to keep him behind me and calm. His nervousness could be mistaken for anger and a woman with a gun was likely to shoot and kill a man she deemed a threat.

  “You said you have the ticket and then said it was the wrong one. You want my dad’s ticket.” Anger shook her voice. “You think it’s yours.”

  “No, I don’t. I’d give it to you. I made up that story because I wanted you to come over and look at a photo album.”

  Evelyn laughed. “You think the girl is that stupid? A photo album. Did you want to sit with her and reminisce about her dad who you divorced?”

  “No, I wanted her to tell me who was missing from an album. I was trying to find out who killed Samuel. Because it wasn’t me.”

  “I know you went to the RV last night,” Evelyn said. “You went to get it.”

  “It wasn’t there.”

  “I told you we should’ve kept the RV.” Cassie shifted her weight from foot to foot and twisted her hands into the hem of her t-shirt.

  “We needed the money.” Evelyn glared at her.

  Not to mention getting rid of Samuel’s body.

  Cassie dipped her head. I had a feeling the girl gave her mother the money from selling the RV and hadn’t seen a penny of the money since.

  My cell phone was on an end table near the Christmas tree. Was there a way I could get over there and send a text for help?

  “Samuel told me he gave the ticket to you.” Evelyn approached me. “You demanded it.”

  I snorted. I couldn’t help it. “The only thing I wanted from Samuel was a divorce. Which I never got.”

  “And that’s why you can’t stay alive,” Evelyn said. “You’ll get the money.”

  Cassie stared at her mother, tears trailed down her pale cheeks. “When did you talk to my dad? You said you came because a friend told you he had died. You came for me. You lied.”

  Evelyn’s eyes widened for a second. She pulled the gun out.

  I raised my arm, using it as a barricade to keep Cassie behind me. “Samuel hid that ticket so well no one will ever find it. Just leave before you make things worse.” Even to my ears, the order and potential consequences sounded lame.

  “You’re lying. You have it. That’s why he came up with the plan of hiding in the bench. He’d surprise you and you’d give it to him to make him leave. When he got in to test it out, I realized I didn’t need him to get the ticket. Traveling all day exhausted me so I had to take a seat for a while.”

  She sat on the bench, hoping her weight stopped him from getting out. It worked. I fisted my hands. Samuel broke my heart. Hurt my mom. But, he didn’t deserve to be murdered.

  “Merry Christmas, she has a gun. Guns are bad.” Abraham walked toward her.

  “Stay there.” Cold sweat broke out all over me. My breath felt thick in my lungs and my limbs heavy. This was total all-encompassing fear.

  “Mama says men protect women.” Abraham hulked toward her.

  Evelyn moved the aim of the gun onto him.

  “No.” I jumped in front of Abraham, colliding into him and nearly bringing us both to the ground. Abraham steadied me. I stood in front of him, it did little good to protect him as the young man was nearly a foot taller than me. “He doesn’t understand. Just leave him alone.”

  Cassie was crying, muttering over and over she was sorry.

  My anger grew. Evelyn killed Samuel and used his daughter. Her daughter. She preyed on the grieving girl’s emotions, acting like she loved the girl to get her hands on the lottery ticket.

  A movement near the window caught my eye. Evelyn sensed it too. Her gaze traveled in the same direction. The snow was piling up. The clouds were eliminating what little light there was. I prayed harder that my daughter stayed home. My children knew they didn’t have to knock before they entered their home.

  Don’t think about that. Stay in the now. Enough trouble here without imagining more. The advice did little to bring me total calm, but it kicked in my designing mode. Look at everything around me, put all the pieces of the situation together and find a way to get us out of the mess.

  “Raleigh isn’t coming home today is she?” Abraham asked. “Too much snow.”

  “Who’s that?” Evelyn asked, an evil spark in her eye.

  “Merry’s daughter,” Cassie said.

  A grin stretched Evelyn’s thin mouth, like the Grinch when he thought of his most diabolical plan. But all he wanted to do was steal Christmas, not suck out the last breath and rip out the heart of a mother by killing her child. I couldn’t escape knowing Raleigh might walk into this. I could get Cassie and Abraham out. All I had to do was stay alive long enough to save the kids.

  The lights. “I’m going to ask Abraham to turn on the Christmas lights and then I’ll get the ticket.”

  She pointed the gun at Abraham. “Don’t you move. I thought you said you didn’t have it.”

  “I lied,” I said.

  Cassie’s expression said I betrayed her. I was willing to give up the ticket for Raleigh, my real daughter, but not her who I had sworn I loved as much as one of my own.

  “The problem for you is Samuel signed it,” I said. “The only one who
’s entitled to the money is his wife.”

  “I can fix—stop that.” Evelyn glared at Abraham.

  He was swaying back and forth.

  “He’s upset because he can’t turn the lights on,” I said. “I promised him.”

  “He isn’t right in the head is he?” There was a flicker of empathy in her eyes and I played on it.

  “Routines are important to him. He knows the Christmas lights go on now. I’m Merry Christmas.”

  Evelyn raised a foot and itched at her ankle. There was gauze wrapped around it. Matching mother-daughter tattoos. Grace wasn’t the only one who wanted that tree, so did a certain heavily made-up customer. Had she searched my garage for the ticket and feared her fingerprints, or blood, was on the tree?

  “You were at the event.” I said it more as a statement than a question.

  “I shouldn’t have fussed over that stupid tree. You just wanted to keep it so much, I figured it was a clue to the ticket.”

  “Nope, I just don’t like bossy customers.”

  “Merry Christmas…” Abraham pointed at the light switch near the front door.

  “Can he?” I asked. “I promise you, I’ll get you the ticket.”

  “So, he can run out the door for help? I don’t think so.”

  My heart plummeted for a second, bouncing back up when Evelyn walked over and turned on the switch.

  “There we go, problem solved. Everyone follow Merry to the ticket.”

  Where to go? The kitchen had been trashed. Upstairs? The attic? My gaze flickered toward it. Cassie moved her head slightly left to right and tapped her chest. No. The noise I heard in the attic was Cassie searching it.

  Where? Think. The laundry. Samuel’s dirty laundry. “It’s in my car.”

  “Your car?” A hard look was fixed on Cassie.

  The teenager whimpered. Evelyn had sent Cassie to search my vehicle. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, drawing her to me. “It’s in a dirty laundry bag I picked up from my mother. Samuel had dropped off laundry for her to do.”

  “Send the guy to get it.” She nodded at Abraham.

  Darn. I hoped she’d leave the kids in the house and follow me out.

  Abraham sent me a questioning look. I smiled at him. “It’s okay. You’re fine.”

  He reached for his coat.

  “No coat.” Evelyn waved the gun toward the door like it was a wand. “Go on.”

  Mumbling under his breath, Abraham took the keys from me and went to the car. As he approached the door with the bag, I snagged it from him, slammed the door shut and locked it.

  Evelyn screeched. The side of the gun struck me in the head. I fell to my knees.

  “You stupid woman.”

  Cassie started crying.

  I fought through the pain wanting me to curl into a ball. “You’d never forgive yourself if you hurt him. He isn’t going to know what to do. He can’t process situations like this. Cassie and I will find the ticket. It’s in one of the pockets.”

  Evelyn grabbed the bag and dumped the contents over me and Cassie. Cassie drew her knees to her chin, dropped her head onto them and cried. This was too much for her. Her dad’s clothes. Her mother wanting money, not her. The scent of stale, dirty laundry enveloped me. Slivers of anger wormed their way into my heart. Samuel had actually brought my mother his dirty laundry.

  I grabbed a shirt then a pair of pants, searching frantically through the pockets and any spot where I thought the seam could be split, like at the collar, and a ticket hidden inside. Nothing.

  Evelyn crouched down, nearly sitting on her heels. “You’re lying to me.”

  A bundle of fur launched through the air toward Evelyn’s face. Instinctively, her hands rose, and she screamed. The gun landed in the laundry. Ebenezer! He was trying to help. He landed smack in the middle of the laundry and scurried around in utter glee. No, of course he wasn’t trying to save us. He was a guinea pig, not a guard dog. Ebenezer just wanted to play in the pile of dirty clothes. Maybe I should think about getting a dog. A large one.

  Or just not let murderers into my house.

  But Ebenezer’s glee of dirty clothes had been a distraction and caused Evelyn to drop the gun. Something I needed to take advantage of. I flattened myself on the laundry and wiggled around until the gun pressed into my stomach.

  “Run, Cassie.” Evelyn needed the gun—and the ticket—more than she needed her daughter to stay here.

  Evelyn snatched a handful of my hair and yanked. I scooped up a bundle of dirty, stinky laundry and hugged it tight. Tears blurred my vision. My glasses slid down, almost falling into the laundry, I tipped my head back, resettling my glasses and relieving some of the pressure. As long as Evelyn had hold of my hair, she couldn’t get the gun. Where were the police? Cornelius should’ve called them by now. A work shirt was under my nose. I turned my head to get away from the smell.

  Ebenezer lifted his head from a section of the pile, wiggled his nose, and dove back in. Why hadn’t I adopted a dog? There had been a nice, sturdy German shepherd at the adoption event.

  The pain in my head lessened. Evelyn must’ve realized her error. No free hand meant no chance getting the gun. I jerked my head backwards, slamming the back of my skull into Evelyn’s face. She howled. A part of my head felt wet. I was free. For now.

  A pounding rattled the door.

  “Go, Cassie.”

  The girl was immobile.

  “I’ll kill you too!” Evelyn held her hands to her face. Blood seeped through her fingers.

  Evelyn’s scream scared Ebenezer and he ran out of the pile of clothes.

  Not without the gun. I scooped up the laundry and ran with the bundle. Had to get it away from Evelyn. Away from Cassie. I lied again. “I have the gun and ticket. Run, Cassie!” I lied again about the ticket, praying Evelyn believed me and followed me into the kitchen. Not the smartest place as there were knives in there but it was the quickest room to get to. I just need the woman away from Cassie.

  There was a movement by the back door. I unlocked and opened the door, tossing the clothes and gun into the snow, not caring what caused the shadow lurking in my yard and ran back into the living room. I froze. A body collided into me from behind, grabbed my shoulders and steadied me.

  Evelyn screamed. “Stop it.”

  Cassie’s sobs grew. She was on Evelyn. Hitting. Scratching. Biting. Doing anything she could to inflict bodily harm on the woman who killed her father.

  A voice I had assigned to a Grinch said, “I got this, darling.” From behind me, Grayson emerged and gently pried the girl from her father’s murderer and directed her into my arms.

  Orville and another local officer ran in from the kitchen. Someone still pounded on the front door.

  “Did the whole force come?” I wanted the knocking stopped. It increased the headache caused by the violent hair pulling.

  Detective Grayson cuffed Evelyn.

  The door creaked open. “Mom…” Raleigh. “Cornelius is about to break your door down.”

  He stomped into my house. “The Christmas lights are on.” He slapped the light switch down.

  “She did it.” Cassie pointed a shaking finger at Evelyn who was surrounded by one of Morgantown and some of Season Greetings finest. “It was her.”

  Cornelius puffed out his chest, pleased with himself. “About time the law in Season’s Greetings took things seriously.”

  After what seemed like days, but was only hours, Detective Grayson left, promising Abraham he was returning with his mother in about an hour. I had told the detective I didn’t want to press any vandalizing charges against Grace. I didn’t want Cassie charged either. The girl was grieving for her father and the mother who abandoned her twice. I think this time was more painful for Cassie because it destroyed all her hopes and dreams of what it would be like if she reunited with her
mother.

  Raleigh sat beside me on the couch. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, not sure if I was okay. But, I had to be okay. I wasn’t going to let what happened ruin the day for me. My daughter was home. My son would arrive soon. I was determined to have a lovely Thanksgiving.

  “Mom, you’ve been ignoring your mail.” Raleigh handed me a stack of mail in colorful envelopes. “Christmas mail. You’re favorite kind. Open this one first.” Raleigh shoved a gold envelope decorated with seasonal stickers into my hand.

  There was a bright red envelope hidden behind her back. Like the ones Helen had mailed out. “Let me guess, that one is not from your brother.”

  My children loved giving me the first Christmas card of the season and Raleigh was trying to stack the deck in her favor. I wasn’t playing favorites. “I’ll open the red one first.”

  It was from Helen. The card was shaped like a present. Paperclipped to the card was the lottery ticket and a note: You’re the only one who didn’t ask me about it.

  Raleigh drew in a sharp breath. “You’re a millionaire, Mom.”

  For a moment, I thought of everything I could buy with that money. The freedom it brought, then I remembered Samuel’s fate. A daughter with no father. No mother. A mother terrified of the bleakness of her son’s future when she died. The money could provide a comfortable and safe life for Abraham. Help Cassie get on her feet.

  I had invited Cassie to stay with me while everything was sorted out. She declined preferring to stay in her childhood home where memories of her father were strong. While Cassie didn’t want to live with Bonnie, she didn’t want to throw her out either. She knew the woman loved Samuel and was also grieving. I was proud of Cassie. I wanted to be proud of me. I couldn’t keep it. “It’s not mine. I can’t keep it.”

  “Aren’t you still married to Samuel? His widow.” Raleigh asked gently. “Because that means his ticket is your ticket. It rightfully belongs to you.”

  She was right, but I didn’t want to profit from Samuel’s death. The man who I believed was my ex-husband. “I don’t know. Samuel did sign the decree that was on Milton’s desk, but Milton had told me that it was backdated. I don’t know if that makes it invalid. Your dad said Milton is no longer cooperating with the police. It’s all one big mess.”