Christmas, Criminals, and Campers

by Tonya Kappes

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t fully listening to her. I took the notebook out of my purse to write this down under Dawn’s timeline. “Tell me again what she said.”

  I scribbled as Christine recalled her interaction with Dawn. It had to be Dawn. She had described her to a tee, including the motorcycle.

  “I even told her I’d deliver them since she was driving that motorcycle.” She laughed. “Who ever thought of driving a motorcycle in the snow? I told her she could go to Grassel’s Garage to see if Joel had a car she could rent.”

  “What did she say?” I asked.

  “She said she didn’t plan on being in town long and left.” Christine’s interaction with Dawn had me on high alert. Why didn’t she tell me? What was Dawn Gentry hiding?

  After I paid Christine for the donuts, I decided to walk down to The Laundry Club. There was no sense in trying to find a cleared parking spot since I already had one and The Laundry Club was only a short walk down Main Street.

  The snow didn’t seem to bother the tourists. I’d never known people to love hiking so much that they’d strap on snow shoes along with their hiking gear to find the perfect trails in this sort of weather. They were lucky the rangers hadn’t closed down the park since the snowfall hadn’t let up since yesterday morning.

  The lampposts along Main Street had garland wrapped around them and the loveliest poinsettias in hanging baskets added the perfect pop of color against the snow. Each hanging basket sported the logo of the Sweet Smell Flower Shop, a perfect way to advertise. I waved at Gert Hobson, the owner of The Trails Coffee Shop, when I noticed she was in the display window adding the finishing touches to the coffee mug Christmas tree she’d cleverly crafted. It was so cute.

  The Trails Coffee Shop was another local shop I had an agreement with for Happy Trails Campground. Gert supplied the coffee that was the perfect accompaniment to Christine’s donuts. It was a good way to promote their businesses and when I passed by the coffee shop, I noticed a couple of my hikers inside enjoying a steaming cup of something Gert had to offer.

  The Smelly Dog Groomer had their grooming tables all lined up. I had to get Fifi in there for her Christmas haircut and nails. Ethel Biddle tapped on the window to get my attention. Rosco, Fifi’s boyfriend and father of her pups, was sitting next to her. Ethel gave me the telephone sign up to her ear to tell me to call her. She’d been driving me crazy about setting up a play date for the lovebirds. . .er . . .love dogs. I nodded and smiled, heading right past Cute-icles. I tried not to make eye contact with Helen Ryle, who was yammering away at a client sitting in the stylist’s chair, snipping off hair as fast as she talked.

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough. Helen pointed to her own orange hair, her bejeweled smock glistening more than the Christmas ornaments she had dangling from the ceiling all over the salon. That woman had more glitter on those ornaments than her nail techs were putting on their clients’ Christmas nails. Glitter and big hair had never gone out of style in Normal.

  Downtown was very interesting. Each shop had had its own outdoor courtyard. Today each shop owner had a Christmas tree decorated to match their store’s theme, but during the warmer months, each shop held fun activities each day in their courtyard. It was fun to walk around Main Street when you needed something to do.

  I glanced across the street at the Tough Nickel Thrift Shop and Deter’s Feed-N-Seed. Both looked busy. I was glad the snow didn’t stop the tourists from coming. But I wondered if the news about Nadine White, once it got out, would change that.

  “Where’ve you been?” Queenie tapped her watch after I pushed through the door at The Laundry Club. She tapped the glass globe in front of her. It was one of those electric globes that sent little lightning bolts to the surface of the glass when you touched it. She was so odd. She liked to scare patrons of the laundromat by acting like she could tell their futures. Her neon green headband and matching neon green bodysuit didn’t help matters.

  “What on earth do you have on?” I shook my head as I walked past her to take the donuts back to the table with the half-finished Christmas puzzle Betts was working on.

  “I like to wear my Jazzercise one piece as long johns and I don’t look too bad for an old broad.” She slid her hands over the sides of her body and did a little shimmy, following along behind me. “So, I can afford to eat one of those donuts in the Cookie Crumble Bakery box you got there.”

  “I’m glad I stopped by because Christine gave me some new information.” I set the box down and took the notebook out of my bag.

  “I stopped by to see Abby on my way in. Lester is going to see her this morning too.” Betts picked one of the candy cane donuts and Queenie took one of the s’mores. “Hank said she wasn’t talking.”

  “Good. I’ve got Ava Grandy coming to see her this morning. Do you know Colonel Holz?” I asked Betts since she knew everyone in town.

  “Yes. He’s a member of the congregation,” she said under a muffled mouthful of donut. “If you came to church every once in a while, you’d know him too.” She couldn’t let that one go without a little dig. “I’m guessing you want to go talk to him about the case.”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a few questions about the autopsy.” I was starting to second guess if the knife was the only murder weapon.

  “What about it? It seems pretty clear she died from the neck wound,” Queenie said.

  “By the looks of it, but I’m wondering if she were poisoned by a donut.” My words made the two of them look at their half-eaten sweet treats and then at each other.

  Both shrugged and kept eating.

  I opened the notebook to the timeline and notes I’d made on the case and told them about Dawn Gentry coming into town fairly quickly after I called her as the Nadine’s next of kin. They were more interested in Nadine’s real last name than my overnight guest. But when I mentioned she’d been in town longer than she’d disclosed to me and how she’d gotten donuts around noon, that got their attention.

  “What’s her name?” Betts took out her phone and typed it in as I rattled it off. “She lives in Chicago and she’s single. She’s a bartender.”

  “How do you know all that?” I asked.

  “You really need to get on Facebook.” She handed me her phone. “You can learn a lot about someone on there.”

  I scrolled through Dawn’s Facebook while they finished eating and the coffeepot Betts brewed finished percolating. There were a few photos of Dawn and Nadine together. There were a couple of comments under a photo from one of Nadine’s book signings.

  “I’m thrilled to see you made up,” I read out loud. “This was just a couple of months ago at the release party for Cozy Romance in Christmas. I wonder what this was about.”

  I clicked on the person who made the comment and hit the message button.

  “What are you doing?” Betts grabbed her phone back.

  “I was sending this person a message. I want to know what he is talking about.” I reached for her phone again.

  “Get your own Facebook.” Betts’s eyes lowered. “I’m not letting you use mine to investigate. It’s the church’s account. Besides, Lester thinks we need to let the police handle it.”

  “If that was the case, Hank would already have Abby in the electric chair for killing Nadine.” I knew something was up with Dawn. There had to be a motive.

  “What can we do to help?” Queenie asked.

  “I’m going to go right over there and join Facebook. If I send you a screenshot of Dawn’s profile photo you can take the list of all the people from Nadine’s library talk and see if they recognize Dawn.” I knew it was a long shot, and it’d take time, but it sure would help me out. “You did say that everyone at the library bought Tupperware from Abby, right?”

  “They did, and I can stop by to see Abby. Kill two birds with one stone. See how she’s doing and ask her where the list is.” Queenie stood up. She did some sort of stretch and trotted off towards the computer Betts kept for the customers of The Laundry Club
to use.

  I wanted to protest both, but I let her.

  “Now, back to Colonel.” I turned to Betts. “How quick do you think you could get me to see him?”

  “I guess we could go now. I know he works first thing in the morning.” She took another donut and handed me one.

  “Perfect,” I said biting into the donut, talking about it and the fact that Betts could get me to see the Colonel ASAP.

  Fourteen

  “This is all sorts of creepy,” I said to Betts as we took the freight elevator that just so happened to be big enough for a church cart to carry a dead body to the freezing cold basement of the only emergency clinic in Normal.

  “The morgue is in the basement, so yeah. It’s creepy.” Betts didn’t seem to be as uncomfortable as I was as I fidgeted in my skin. “Here we are.”

  The doors opened onto a long hallway with concrete flooring, making it even more eerie. The sound of the elevator ding echoed off the walls, creating goosebumps all over my arms.

  “You coming or not?” Betts had noticed my hesitation when I didn’t get off the elevator behind her. She held the box of leftover donuts in her hands, which I found odd.

  The sound of our footsteps was the only sound around us as we made our way down to the end of the hall. There was a big silver button on the wall that we had to push to open the steel doors.

  “Colonel? It’s Betts.” We stood in the entrance of what appeared to be an office.

  Colonel’s face appeared in the small round window in another set of double steel doors. He smiled when he made eye contact with Betts.

  “Betts, to what do I owe the pleasure?” He peeled off the long yellow gloves that reached to his elbows before he reached out to pat her on the arm.

  “This is my friend Mae West.” She introduced me.

  “Ah, the famous Mae West. Owner of Happy Trails Campground.” He bowed. “Part-time sleuth.” He lifted his brows and gave me the side-eye.

  “So you’ve heard about me?” I asked with a smile.

  “I’ve been warned that you might stop by. It wasn’t with this case, but a previous one. Now, what are you snooping around about?” The corners of his mouth turned up.

  “Since you asked, you know that it appears as if Nadine White, um, Dembrowski’s cause of death was a stab wound to the neck.” Here was my conspiracy theory. “I’m wondering if that was a secondary wound and maybe poison killed her.”

  “Since I’ve just started to work on the victim, I can tell you that I’ve only gotten to the stab wound.” He grabbed a chart off of his desk and pulled the glasses down off of his bald head. “Without saying anything to hurt Hank Sharp’s investigation, and honoring my commitment to Betts and her friendship, I will tell you that the blood around the stab wound doesn’t correspond with when the rigor mortis set in, which I’m placing at around 8 p.m.”

  “So, you can confirm that something else killed her?” I asked.

  “I’m not confirming anything until I talk to Hank first.” His stomach grumbled. His eyes shifted to the box Betts held.

  “Here.” I took the box. “We brought you some donuts.”

  “Betts,” he winked. “You know my weakness.”

  “I’ve never stopped by without bringing you a sweet treat.” Betts had known all along the Colonel loved donuts and I loved that she had used them to get what we wanted.

  Colonel took the box and laid the file on the desk. He patted the file.

  “I’m going to grab my coffee. It might be a few minutes.” He gave me a sly smile. One that told me he wasn’t giving me permission to look in the file he’d left behind, but he didn’t try to hide the file either.

  Once he was through the door, Betts grabbed the file.

  “Where’s your cell?” She asked me in a hurried voice. “You need to take pictures of this quickly.”

  “You are awful, and I love it!” I was excited to have Betts on my side with this one. She was just as invested in getting Abby out of jail and bringing the real killer to justice as I was.

  “Are you done?” He’s coming back.

  “Yes.” I flipped the file closed with one hand and put my phone back in my pocket with the other. “I noticed you didn’t get your hands dirty.”

  “That’s for you to do. I just said I knew Colonel.” Betts wasn’t dumb. She knew exactly how to keep her squeaky clean image as the preacher’s wife.

  “Now. Where are those donuts?” Colonel didn’t give us a second glance. His eyes were focused on the Cookie Crumble Bakery box. “You know, Christine is a whiz at this.” He took one of the s’more donuts out of the box and rotated it, looking at it from all angles. “There’s something to be said about using fresh ingredients. Did you know she buys as many local ingredients as she can from local farmers and the farmer’s market?”

  “I can tell a store-bought chicken egg in a minute.” I smiled, lying through my teeth. “That’s why I love this town so much. We support each other. That’s what we’re doing with Abby Fawn.” I gestured between me and Abby. “I truly don’t think she did it and if what you said about the blood from the neck . . .”

  “What did you say?” Hank Sharp stood behind us. His green eyes had a hint of wonder in them.

  “You were right.” Colonel pushed the box across the desk with his free hand. “She even brought me some good donuts.”

  “Mae.” The sound of my name coming out of Hank’s mouth was filled with more disappointment than romance like there was before he kissed me the other night. “Betts, I’m shocked to see you here.”

  “I’m just here to say hello to Colonel and thank him for his generous offering during last Sunday’s collection.” Betts wasn’t fooling anyone, even though she’d fully convinced herself she had.

  “Mmmhhhh.” Hank took one of the donuts from the box. “Mae, can I see you in the hall?”

  “Umm. . .okay.” I walked past him with my chin held high. Once we were outside and the door was shut behind us, I told him what I thought, “This is a free country Hank Sharp. You or no one else can’t tell me that I can’t come visit the morgue or the coroner. It’s my tax dollars and my vote that put him in this building and I can darn well go anywhere I please.”

  “You’re right.” He nodded and took a bite of the donut.

  “I’m what?” I asked. My jaw dropped, but my head said that something wasn’t right. There was no way Hank Sharp just told me I was right.

  “I said, you’re right. You do have a right to be here and check out what your tax dollars go towards, but.” Here it came. “ You don’t have the right to snoop into an official investigation.”

  “You’d think that after three other crimes,” I jabbed my finger in the air, “Make that three other murders, that you’d get used to me trying to help you figure this out.”

  “Why is it that makes you so drawn to murder?” He asked a very good question that I should explore. Maybe with a therapist or something.

  That thought aside, I retorted, “Because I love this town and I want to make sure the whole world gets to know how we care for each other. We support each other and that’s why we have such amazing shops and wonderful people that want the tourists to come explore.” I pointed to his donut. “You want to know why Christine’s donuts taste so good?”

  “Sugar?” He asked and stuffed the rest of it in his mouth.

  “No. The fact that she uses fresh ingredients from local farms. That’s what it is. Real love is baked into all that.” I circled my finger around his lips before I used the pad of my finger to swipe off the little bit of chocolate that’d dripped down on his chin.

  “How about supper tonight?” The corner of Hank’s lip curled up. “You’re so cute when you get all huffy and puffy mad. Like an old wet hen.”

  “Hank Sharp, I don’t like to be compared to an old wet hen.” My shoulders drooped as a big sigh left my body. “Supper is good. I need to eat.”

  “And. . .” He hesitated as though he were deciding whether or not to t
ell me something. “I’m not sure why, but people love to talk to you. If you do hear anything about the case, I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

  “Are you asking me to snoop?” I asked. “Because you know that Abby Fawn didn’t do this.”

  “Ava Grady said you sent her down here.” He turned all serious again. “From the phone call I got from Colonel this morning, the initial autopsy report says there was a primary cause of death and the stab wound was secondary.”

  “Like the killer was making sure they’d gotten the job done.” The thought that someone had such hatred towards someone else sent chills all over my body.

  “I’m not sure, but I’ve got a theory.” Hank took a couple of steps towards the door.

  “What is your theory?” I asked.

  He turned shy of the door and glanced at me over his shoulder.

  “That, you don’t need to know. I’m the detective, you’re the ears I need in the community and around the campground.” He made the line very clear. “Nobody in the campground wants to talk to me.”

  I followed behind him as he headed back into the room. Betts and Colonel were discussing some sort of theological issue I had no knowledge of, but stopped when we were all present.

  “Are you ready?” Colonel asked Hank and picked up Nadine’s file.

  “Yep.” Hank gave a hard nod. “Mae, I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Mae,” Betts gushed after there was plenty of time Colonel and Hank to leave the room and head back into the morgue to discuss whatever it was Colonel had discovered. “You’ve got a boyfriend. And you said it was just a date.”

  “It was a date,” I reminded her. “But a dead body interrupted what could’ve been a really good night. First one I would have had in a long time.”

  “It sounds like it didn’t interrupt anything.” Betts curled her arm in the crook of mine as we made our way back to the elevator.