by anna snow
Sure enough, there was a new Santa in place, elves surrounding him with smiles on their faces as though everything was normal.
A loud, hollow bang sounded.
"What was that?" I asked, unable to see over most of the crowd due to my petiteness.
"There," Kelly pointed to one elf standing on a tall stepladder. She held what looked like a mutated Nerf gun. Attached to the back of it was what looked like a small air compressor. A moment later, she pointed the gun toward the air and pulled the trigger. Another hollow bang rang out, but this time I was able to see something red fly out of the end.
"T-shirt cannon," Kelly said. "I've seen them at football games. The cheerleaders sometimes use them to shoot T-shirts, soft foam balls, and other stuff out to the fans in the higher up seats. They also sometimes shoot glitter," she added.
I raised a questioning eyebrow at her. I started to ask her how she knew that, but knowing that she could get a little wild on the weekends, decided against it. There were just some things about Kelly that I wasn't ready to know.
"Come on." I pulled on her sleeve.
We made our way to a directory hanging on the wall beside a door leading into what I was certain, due to the picture of stairs hanging on it, was a stairwell.
"This says that the human resources department is on the second floor."
I had no idea if the resources department would be open or not with it being Christmas Eve, but it was worth a shot.
"There's a problem."
I looked at Kelly. "What?"
"That Detective Smith is at the elevator."
I jiggled the doorknob leading to the stairwell.
Locked.
"I have an idea."
Kelly grasped my arm and pulled me along to the only empty bench available, then drew me down on the seat beside her.
"What are we doing?" I asked her. We were now in plain view of Smith. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought our objective was to stay out of Smith's sight."
Kelly took a drink of her coffee. "The way I see it, he's a good cop. He's going to see us at some point today. Why not go ahead and get it out of the way, and in the meantime I'll call information, get the number to human resources, and make a call to see if anyone is even up there today."
I thought about it for a minute then nodded. "That's as good of a plan as any I guess."
It took a mere second for Detective Smith to spot me and stride over. He looked tired. His deep brown hair was a little disheveled, and the expression he was casting me was anything but welcoming.
I glanced over his shoulder and spotted the man he'd pointed out as his replacement. His eyes met mine then he quickly looked away. Heat prickled my skin.
I returned my eyes to Smith and his closed expression. He knew without a doubt that I was up to something.
He reached down and pulled me gently to my feet. "What are you doing here, Ms. Jackson?"
"It's Barb," I reminded him. "We're doing some last minute shopping," I said as calmly as I could.
He glared at me. "Is that the only thing you're doing here?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" I asked.
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I just find it funny that you found a body in this very mall last night, and you seemed to be more interested in that body than you should've been. Then here you are again this morning. Just shopping." He squinted at me.
This guy was good. I had a feeling that Detective Smith was one of those people who would be able to tell when I was lying before I even opened my mouth, but I tried anyway.
"I'm a naturally curious person, that's why I was interested in what happened to the man. But we're just shopping today. Scout's honor." I smiled up at him in an attempt to look innocent.
He glanced over at Kelly, who was sliding her phone back into her pocket, and frowned.
"Shopping?" he asked Kelly.
"Of course." She grinned. "What else would we be doing here?"
I wanted to close my eyes and shake my head. If there was one thing that Kelly liked to do, it was poke the bear. It didn't even matter who the bear was. She just liked to stir the pot.
"Listen," Smith said quietly, "I don't believe for a second that you're here shopping. You're up to something. This is my case. I know that you're an investigator, but there's no reason for you to be here. I've been a cop for fifteen years. I've got this covered."
"Kelly asked for my help. I'll be out of here as soon as possible." I tried to convince him, but he was having none of it.
"You're a PI, I get that, but if you have some plan in your pretty little head to try your hand at solving this case, you need to forget it. I don't have time to worry about your safety, Barb, and that's exactly what I'd do because that's just the kind of guy I am." He shoved a hand through his hair. "I'm no closer to finding out who killed the Santa than I was last night. I want to spend Christmas with my family, but I have to do my job."
"My finding that body is the reason you're missing Christmas with your family. If someone had found it an hour or so later, this would be someone else's problem. Forgive me"—I held up my hands—"but I feel guilty for you missing the holiday with your family. I want to help."
Smith blinked and cocked his head to the side. "Barb, there's nothing for you to feel guilty about. This is my job. While you're a sweet woman for wanting to help with this case so that I can be with my family tomorrow, there's really nothing for you to do. I can handle this."
I shook my head. "I didn't say that I was investigating, did I?"
"You said you wanted to help." He propped his hands on his hips and frowned down at me. "That's the same thing."
"Is it?" I asked.
Before he could say anything further, I patted his arm. "We both know how to take care of ourselves. Besides, all I'm doing is shopping."
He looked like he wanted to argue but didn't. Instead, he bit his lower lip then blew out a breath.
"You're a licensed private investigator, aren't you?"
"Yes." I nodded.
"Do you at least have your weapon on you while you're 'just out shopping'?" He air quoted the phrase.
"Always."
He scrubbed his hand through his hair.
"I have to get back to work. Behave yourself, Barb Jackson. I mean it."
"Of course." I grinned.
I watched him walk away and meet up with the other detective before I turned back to Kelly. "Do you have to poke the bear that way? You better be glad that he's not an ass, or he would've tossed us out of here for interfering with a police investigation."
"He enjoyed it." She chuckled.
"You're ridiculous, you know that?"
She shrugged. "While you two were beating around the bush, I called human resources, and they're closed for the holidays. According to the recording, no one will be back in the office until Monday. So, we're at a dead end on that front."
"All right." I scanned the area. "That's really not a big loss as long as we can find and talk to the mall supervisor. I'd really like to know if he knew about Marvin's record, and how exactly he got hired. It might not be pertinent to the case, but I'm curious. I saw him last night after we found the body. He's the one who told everyone to get out, so at least I know who we're looking for."
"Are you talking about the guy who looked like the cop dad from that show with Steve Urkel?" Kelly asked and finished off her coffee.
"That's the one."
"Seriously." She laughed. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear they were the same guy."
"Let's find him and see what he knows about Marvin. He's probably hanging out around the tree and new Santa since that's where everything went down last night."
We made our way through the slowly thinning crowd. The line of children waiting to meet the new Santa extended from the front of the tree, around the corner of the food court, and almost all the way to the coffee shop at the main entrance again.
We picked our way around the kids and their parents until we were near the rear of th
e tree where I'd spotted the body the night before. Sure enough, the mall supervisor was there, along with two security guards, I recognized one of them as Eric, whom I'd met the night before.
"There he is." I motioned discreetly in the man's direction.
We approached the men calmly so as not to attract any attention to ourselves. I hadn't seen Detective Smith again, and I wanted to keep it that way.
"Ms. Jackson? I didn't think I'd see you again." Eric, the security guard we'd met before, stepped toward me and held out his hand. I took it.
"It's nice to see you again. You remember my friend Kelly."
"It's nice to see you again, Kelly." He nodded once at her then shook her hand.
"I'm surprised the mall is open today after what happened."
"We couldn't close. Not on Christmas Eve." The portly man standing to Eric's left stepped forward. "I'm Reginald Moore, the mall supervisor."
I introduced Kelly and myself.
"I know who you are," Reginald said. "Eric pointed you out last night. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Finding a body," he said, whispering the last word, "has to be a traumatic experience."
I glanced at Kelly. "Um, sure. It was horrible," I lied. I mean, it wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't traumatic, either. "Did you know him long?"
Reginald shook his head. "No. Actually I'd never met the man. We were in search of a Santa because our first one quit to take a job at the Northside Mall, and Bambi recommended Marvin."
"Does Bambi have a job here other than as an elf on the holidays?" I asked curiously.
Eric was regarding me with an odd expression, but I ignored him.
"Yes, she works up in human resources but comes down and helps out as an elf during the holidays." He pointed to the tree. "It gives her some extra hours, and you know we all could use some extra cash this time of year."
"Certainly," I agreed. "How did she know Marvin?"
Reginald frowned. "Now, I don't know that really." He rubbed the small patch of hair on his chin. "I never thought to ask."
Something caught his attention. "If you'll excuse me, I have something to take care of. It was a pleasure meeting you ladies."
"It was nice meeting you," I said to Reginald as he hurried away.
I turned to the security guard. "It was good to see you again, Eric." I smiled at him.
He squinted his eyes at me. "Nice seeing you again too, Ms. Jackson." Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear, "I thought the police were handling the case."
"They are," I assured him, "but they need a little help from time to time."
"Do they know that?"
"Not exactly."
His expression lifted, and he smiled. "If you need anything, just let me know."
I nodded and tossed a salute his way.
When we were out of earshot of Eric, Kelly said, "So now we know how Marvin the alcoholic got the job as Santa. He and Bambi were having a fling, and so she gave him the job."
"We need to talk to her." I said.
"I knew you were going to say that."
We stopped beside the winter wonderland scene when we were right next to the red velvet rope separating us mere mortals from the great Santa Claus (number three).
"It looks like all of the elves are wearing name tags," I said. "Can you see them well enough to read the names?"
"No." Kelly shook her head. "But I'm thinking that one right there is Bambi." She jerked her head toward a tall, buxom redhead with obviously plastic-surgeon-altered body parts.
"Why do you think that's her?" I asked with a frown.
"I just do."
I shrugged.
We stood beside the tree and watched as the woman we assumed was Bambi shot T-shirts and other fluffy goodies out of her air cannon. After about five minutes she stopped and stood on a stool.
"Boys and girls, Santa will be taking a thirty minute break, but don't worry because he'll be right back, so have your lists ready."
She stepped down from the stool and ducked under the red rope.
"She's headed toward the coffee shop. Come on." I grabbed Kelly by the forearm and tugged her along behind me. "You're taller than I am, so keep eyes on her."
"You're the boss," she said.
When we finally made it to the coffee shop, the woman we assumed was Bambi had just taken a seat near the window with a steaming hot cocoa and a scone.
I contemplated ordering my own before questioning her, and my expression must've said so, because Kelly gently redirected my course from heading for the counter to heading to her table.
"Be good and ask your questions. Then I'll get you a scone," she whispered.
I rolled my eyes so hard I almost saw my own brain.
"Excuse me," I said lightly. "Are you Bambi?"
The woman glared at me through wide green eyes.
"Who wants to know?"
"I'm Barb Jackson. I, um, found Marvin last night."
"Oh," Her expression shifted from slightly irritated to just plain dismal. "Have a seat." She waved me toward the chair across from her. Kelly grabbed one from another table, spun it around, and straddled it, because that's just how Kelly is.
Bambi glanced at Kelly, then back at me.
"I understand that you knew Marvin. I'm sorry for your loss," I said.
"Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks. We were on and off for a few weeks, but we broke up for good last week."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't know that you were a couple."
Kelly shot me an I-told-you-so look.
"Yeah, well." She shrugged. "He couldn't keep it in his pants, you know? I can't live like that. I deserve better."
I totally understood where she was coming from. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but was it enough to lead to murder?
"Do the police have any leads?" I asked in my best I-really-care voice.
"I don't know." She shrugged. "They came around and asked me a bunch of questions, but if you ask me, they need to look into that little whore he was seeing on the side."
"Do you know who he was seeing?"
"Yeah, I know who she is." She grimaced. "She works part time at the Gap, but like me, helps out with the Winter Wonderland set up for the little kids over the holidays. Her name is Addison. But right now she's Addie the Elf," she said in a sarcastic singsong tone.
"Did you see Marvin yesterday?" Kelly asked.
"I didn't talk to him. I hadn't seen him in days because I'd been out with the flu, but the day before yesterday when I came in to pick up my check, I saw him talking to Reginald, the mall supervisor, and this girl from Forever 21. I don't know what he did after that. I had a checkup with my doctor at ten o'clock that morning to get cleared to come back to work that day. I was at the doctor's office most of the day because of this crazy flu hitting everyone so hard."
"I'm sorry you were sick. Do you know what they were talking about?" Kelly continued her line of questioning with a soft expression.
"I don't know really." She shook her head. "I just figured that she was another one of his sidepieces. Marvin really liked the ladies."
From all of the cheating husbands that I'd caught over the years, I knew that being a ladies' man could lead to a lot of trouble. Maybe Marvin's cheating ways were what had led to him getting killed.
Kelly glanced at me, and I nodded curtly.
"Thanks for talking to us. We have to be going. I'm sorry for your loss," Kelly said and stood. I followed her lead.
"Thanks," Bambi said and waved before digging into her scone.
Kelly and I approached the counter.
"Well, if we can find out what time Marvin was killed, we might be able to rule Bambi out as the killer. She said she'd been out with the flu but was being cleared to come back to work that day. If she was at the doctor while he was being killed, that's a pretty solid alibi."
"Maybe. I'll call Mona and see if she can find out the time of death for us. We need to talk to Addie the Elf and then see if we can find that girl from Forever 21. It sounds
like Marvin was a busy guy."
"Do you think one of them killed him?" she asked.
"I don't know, but I'm definitely not ruling them out."
"We have a pretty good list of suspects. Now, let's get you that coffee and scone."
CHAPTER FIVE
I made short work of the coffee and scone then dialed Mona's cell phone number.
"How's it going, sweet cheeks?" she answered happily on the third ring.
"We have some leads, but I need to know if you can find out the time and official cause of death?"
"Well, you're in luck. I was just about to call you. I did a little snooping while Smith and his replacement were at the mall asking questions. Time of death is 11:00 pm, December twenty-second, and the cause of death looks to be blunt-force trauma to the head."
"11:00 pm on the twenty second? But that would mean that he was there almost a full day before I found him last night."
It looked like Bambi was still in the running as Santa's killer.
"That's what the report said, doll. How about you? Have you learned anything new?"
"We're getting some leads but nothing promising yet," I said.
"Ooh, give me the deets," Mona said cheerfully.
"It looks like Marvin was seeing someone other than Bambi. She said she thinks he was stepping out on her with a couple of women who work here in the mall. Apparently Marvin was quite the ladies' man. We don't know for certain, but we're about to look into it."
"Well, good luck. Call me when you get something else."
"Will do." I disconnected the call.
"So, Santa was killed the night before you found him. How did no one see him throughout the entire day? I mean, you just caught a glimpse of his boot and knew to take a closer look."
"I'm a private investigator. I'm naturally curious. I'm sure everyone else was just worried about getting what they needed and getting out of the shopping madness intact," I said and looked at the clock on my phone.
"We need to talk to Addie and then the girl from the other store, whoever she was," I said as we stood. I tossed my empty cup in the trash can.
"And how are we going to do that?" Kelly asked. I thought for a minute. "Follow me."
