Gingerbread and a Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “That’s really pretty,” I said, looking at it. “I love the silver work on the base.” The base was heavy with silver colored metal that had been molded with pretty curly cues and swirls.

  “Oh, Natalie,” Stormy said turning to her. “This sure is a pretty snow globe, isn’t it?”

  Natalie turned to look, and grinned. “It is. Whoever gets that for Christmas sure is going to be happy.”

  “Yes, whoever gets it would be delighted to receive it,” Stormy said putting emphasis on delighted.

  “Sadly, I’ve done most of my Christmas shopping already,” Natalie said shrugging.

  “Oh,” Stormy said sadly and set the snow globe back on the shelf.

  “I haven’t finished my shopping yet,” I said. “I wonder if I know someone that would like a snow globe?”

  Stormy gave me a cheesy grin. “I bet you do know someone that would love a snow globe.”

  “I guess that person better be really good or Santa won’t bring it to her,” I said and walked away from the snow globe.

  “Oh, she is! She is very good,” Stormy said following after me. “I still don’t know what to get Bob. I hate getting him the same thing every year.”

  “What do you get him that’s the same?” I asked.

  “Tools, or clothes. I don’t know, I guess I don’t actually get him the same thing every year, but it feels that way. I want to give him something special this year. I wish I had a clue what that might be.”

  “We’re running out of time, so if you’re going to get him something special, you better get working on it.” I had no room to talk. I still hadn’t bought my boyfriend Cade anything. But I had an excuse. We’d only been dating a few months, and I wasn’t sure what he would like.

  “I’d like a new car,” Mom said, coming up behind us. In her hand was a box of red glass ball ornaments.

  “Well you better tell Santa then,” Stormy said. “Because his little elves don’t have money for a new car.”

  “His little elves need to get better jobs,” Mom said.

  I chuckled. “I would totally get you a brand-new car if I could afford it,” I said. “I appreciate you helping me to get into my house and it would be the least I could do for you.”

  “The least you could do for me is right,” Mom said, picking up a crystal icicle that had a red satin ribbon to hang it with.

  “Are we about ready to move on to the next shop?” Stormy asked.

  “I am,” I said. The gift shop had a lot of beautiful things to look at, but I hadn’t selected anything yet. I had always had trouble making decisions about gifts.

  “I’ll pay for my ornaments, and then we can go,” Mom said.

  When Mom finished paying for her ornaments, we headed for the door. I decided I would slip back later and pick up that snow globe for Stormy. I was pretty sure she knew I would get it for her, but I didn’t want to buy it in front of her. Let her wonder.

  As we stepped out into the cold, I pulled my coat close around me. That was when a scream pierced the night. Everyone stopped and looked in the direction of the fountain.

  “What’s going on over there?” Natalie asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” I said, hurrying over to Santa’s workshop. There was a young woman backing away from the table that the gingerbread houses sat on, a look of horror on her face. She screamed again. I tried to move quickly without slipping on the icy sidewalk. “What’s going on?” I called as I got closer.

  The table was covered in a long red tablecloth that touched the ground. The girl looked at me and shook her head, pointing at a spot near the bottom of the tablecloth. I hurried over to the other side of the table, but the tablecloth touched the ground and I didn’t see anything. I looked at the girl. A volunteer was behind the counter in Santa’s workshop, and Santa sat on his chair. The two watched what was going on, but neither moved.

  “Under there,” the girl breathed out.

  I hesitated, then kneeled down and lifted the skirt of the tablecloth. Chrissy Jones lay beneath the table, her glassy eyes staring up at the bottom of the table. I inhaled sharply, the cold air hurting the back of my throat. I stared at her for a moment, then reached a hand out to her wrist and felt for a pulse. She was ice cold and blood pooled onto the floor from beneath her head. I quickly released the tablecloth and stood up as people gathered around.

  “What’s going on?” a man said from behind me.

  Without answering him, I pulled my phone from my pocket and quickly dialed Cade.

  When he answered I let my breath out. “Cade, you need to come down to the Center Plaza. There’s been an accident.” Chrissy had had more than an accident, but I didn’t want to go into detail with people standing around and listening to my conversation.

  “What kind of accident?” he asked.

  “A serious accident, the kind that you handle,” I said, speaking in code.

  “Seriously?” he asked.

  “I wish I wasn’t,” I said. “You need to hurry down here. There are a lot of people milling about.”

  “There’s a dead body?” he asked for clarification.

  “Yes,” I said, glancing at the people gathering around me now.

  “I’ll be right there. Try to keep people from walking through the crime scene or seeing the body,” he said and ended the call.

  I turned around and looked at the crowd that was gathering. “I need you all to back up, please. It looks like there’s been an accident and the police will be here any moment.”

  “What’s going on, Rainey?” Stormy asked in a whisper as she came to stand beside me. Her long blond hair had come out from beneath her knit hat and she pushed it away from her face.

  I shook my head. “Cade will be here any minute.” I looked past Stormy to Natalie. Her eyes were wide, and she was biting her bottom lip.

  Chapter Three

  “Rainey,” I heard from behind me. “What’s going on?”

  I turned around to see my boss, Sam Stevens, coming toward me, his face questioning. Sam owned Sam’s Diner, and I was a waitress there.

  “Sam,” I said with relief. “There’s been an accident. Cade is on his way.”

  He moved close to me. “I heard someone scream,” he whispered. “What happened?”

  “There’s a body beneath the table,” I whispered back, my eyes cutting to the table that held the gingerbread houses. “We need to keep it quiet. Can you help me clear the area?”

  He nodded. “Okay folks,” he said, turning to the gathering crowd. “We need to clear the area. The police will be here any minute.”

  “I saw a dead body,” the girl who had screamed said. She looked to be about sixteen and I was sorry she had seen Chrissy in the state she was in, but she needed to be quiet. The last thing Chrissy’s parents needed was for talk of their dead daughter being spread around town before they even knew she was gone.

  I groaned. “We’re going to wait for the police and they’ll take care of everything,” I assured her. “Why don’t you have a seat on the bench near the fountain until they come. I’m sure they’ll want to speak with you.”

  She looked at me wide-eyed. “Why? Why would they want to speak to me? I was just walking past the table looking at the gingerbread houses and I dropped my phone. It landed partway under the tablecloth and when I brushed the tablecloth, I saw a finger. I swear that’s all that happened.” She shook her head, her eyes still wide with shock.

  There was a murmur from behind me and I wished she would be quiet about the body. I needed her to wait for Cade without panicking herself and the crowd, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to achieve that. “I understand completely. Why don’t you have a seat,” I repeated.

  “Who was it?” a woman asked the girl. “Who did you see down there? What happened?”

  I sighed. “Look, we don’t know anything right now. I need everyone to step back.” Most people stood right where they were when I said it. Crowd control didn’t seem to be my strong
suit.

  “Who is it?” the woman repeated.

  The girl looked at the woman and shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t take a good look at her. I just saw someone was under the table and I think I saw some blood.”

  The woman looked at me. “I want to know who’s under there. What if it’s someone I know?”

  “If it’s someone you know, do you really want to see them like that? The police are going to handle this,” I repeated firmly.

  She thought about what I’d just said and took a couple of steps back, nodding. “Okay then. I’ll wait for the police.”

  Stormy, my mother, and Natalie were hanging back near the fountain and I looked at them and shook my head. Natalie wrapped her arms around herself and looked at me, questioningly. I wondered how Natalie would react when she found out it was Chrissy beneath the table and that she had been murdered.

  Most of the crowd still hadn’t left. Cade was going to have a job keeping these people in line. I heard sirens in the distance and I heaved a sigh of relief. I needed Cade to take charge.

  The woman that was volunteering at the workshop walked over to me. The shocked look on her face said she had no idea Chrissy was beneath the table. “I don’t know how she got there,” she whispered. “Honest. I got here an hour and a half ago. I didn’t see a thing.”

  “How long has this table been set up?” I asked.

  “We put it up last night when they brought the gingerbread houses over. I don’t know how this could have happened.” She shook her head sadly. “Is she dead?”

  I smiled without answering. My mind turned with thoughts. Where was Chrissy last night? Had she stopped by to see her gingerbread house on display? Who had keys to Santa’s workshop?

  Sam kept trying to direct people away from the workshop and Chrissy’s body, but most people just stepped back a few feet and refused to leave the area. Some grumbled about being asked to leave, but moved away without being forced.

  Cade parked his car in the parking lot closest to the fountain and jumped out, striding quickly toward me.

  “What’s going on?” he asked when he got to me.

  “She’s under there,” I said, pointing to the tablecloth.

  Cade went to the far side and knelt beside the table, lifting the tablecloth just enough to see beneath it. He reached for Chrissy’s wrist and took her pulse. “She’s been gone for a while.”

  “That’s what I thought,” I whispered. I was relieved when uniformed officers pulled up and headed in our direction. “The troops are here.”

  “Clear the area,” Cade ordered the first uniformed officer that got to us.

  The officers began surrounding the plaza and directing people back, away from the area. They quickly put up crime scene tape so people wouldn’t wander closer. It was amazing how quickly the crowd moved when it was the police directing them to do it.

  I went to Stormy. “Why don’t you take Mom and Natalie home and I’ll call you later,” I said.

  She nodded. “Let me know if you need me to come and pick you up,” she said without asking who was beneath the table.

  I headed back over to Cade. “What did you see?” Cade asked, lowering his voice.

  “The young girl sitting there by the fountain screamed, and I came to see what was going on. This is what I found. The woman working at Santa’s workshop said she didn’t see a thing.”

  There was a uniformed officer already speaking to the young girl. He had his notebook out and was taking down her statement.

  “Do you know the girl beneath the table?” he asked.

  I nodded. “It’s Chrissy Jones. She was in the gingerbread house decorating contest yesterday. She won first place.”

  He looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “Wait a minute. Chrissy Jones? Wasn’t she a suspect in another murder?”

  “Yes she was. Pamela North’s murder,” I said.

  He considered this, then turned back to her. “It looks like someone hit her on the head with something heavy,” Cade said, examining the wound. “We’ll have to wait for the coroner to come. But for now, this area has to be closed down.”

  It was a shame, but I understood. The Christmas season for Sparrow was a busy one and it would mean the nearby businesses would be affected. “Do you think the Plaza will be opened by tomorrow night?”

  He shrugged. “I would imagine, but I can’t swear it will.” He pulled his coat closer against a cold breeze. “I just hope the coroner gets here quickly. It’s getting awfully cold.”

  I nodded. “Kind of a bummer for the Christmas season, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “It is. But it’s even more of a bummer for Chrissy Jones.”

  That was the truth. When Chrissy and Natalie were young, I had known Chrissy’s family well. But when the girls broke off their friendship, I hadn’t seen Chrissy’s parents much. It broke my heart that the chubby-cheeked little girl I used to know was laying dead beneath a table.

  I watched as Cade made the call to the coroner and then made another call to the police station. The night sky was clear and stars twinkled overhead, but it was bitingly cold with a breeze that intensified the freezing temperature.

  “You probably need to go on home,” Cade said when he got off the phone. “We’ll probably have a long wait before the coroner gets here. There’s no use you standing out here freezing with me.”

  “I don’t want to leave you alone,” I said stubbornly. I pulled up the collar of my coat to shield myself from the wind. “How about I go down to the coffee shop and pick up some coffee for you and the other officers?”

  He nodded. “I’m sure that would be much appreciated.”

  There was a coffee shop within walking distance. It wasn’t my friend Agatha Broome’s coffee shop, but Stormy had driven us to go shopping and I was now without a car. Her shop was too far away. I hurried over to the coffee shop on the corner and went in. There had been four uniformed officers that showed up so far and I decided to go ahead and order eight coffees in case more showed up by the time I got back.

  “What’s going on out there?” The girl behind the counter asked me.

  I shrugged. “I’m not really sure,” I lied. I didn’t want to spread around the news about a dead body in Santa’s workshop. “I guess there might have been an accident of some sort.” I put in my order for the eight coffees and ordered creamer and sugar on the side.

  “Hey Rainey,” Sam said, coming into the coffee shop. “Kind of crazy out there, huh?”

  I turned and nodded. “You can say that again. I’m picking up some coffee for the officers. I appreciate your help out there.”

  He nodded. “They’re going to need the coffee to warm up. I’m sure they’ll be out there for a while,” he said.

  “Here you are,” the barista said, setting the cups of coffee on the counter. She had put them into cardboard carriers and loaded them up with packets of creamer and sugar for me.

  “Thanks.” I picked up the cardboard carriers with the coffee and headed toward the door.

  Sam held the door open for me. “Is that who I think it is under that table?” he whispered.

  “Maybe,” I said and mouthed Chrissy’s name. “Let’s keep it quiet though. I’d hate for her family to find out from someone other than the police.”

  He nodded. “What a shame. So close to Christmas, too.”

  I nodded. “You can say that again. Thanks for opening the door for me.” I headed through the door and back to Cade.

  When I got to him, he took one of the coffees and signaled to the uniformed officers to come and get one. I shivered and took one of the coffees for myself. Cade might make me go home at some point in time, but for now, I was going to hang out and see what was going on. You can call me nosy, but I felt like I had a vested interest here. Chrissy had been Natalie’s best friend for years after all.

  “Any ideas on what might have happened here?” he asked me.

  I shook my head. “Not a clue. But a funny thing happened at the gingerbre
ad house contest today. When Natalie and I returned after the break for the decorating portion of the contest, somebody had knocked our house on the floor and broke it.”

  He lifted one eyebrow. “Someone broke your house?”

  I nodded. “Chrissy and Natalie were friends when they were younger, but they had a falling out in the seventh grade. Chrissy sure was happy about our house getting broken, and if I had to bet on something, I would bet that she was the one who did it.”