Mistletoe is Murder

by Kathy Cranston

  Lottie grabbed her phone from the table and began to scroll through. Jessie nodded meaningfully at her cousin—Melanie seemed to get through to Lottie in a way that Jessie herself was failing to.

  “Hmm, let me see,” she said, biting her lip. “Here’s my call log for that day.” She scrolled down a bit further. “Yes, here it is. Oh. Drat.” She looked up and smiled sheepishly. “I’ve got his number saved as Ray Clintock. It doesn’t say cell or office. Shall I call him and see?”

  Jessie almost lunged for the phone in her haste to stop her friend. “No! Don’t! Don’t call him. Look, we’ll work on the assumption that it…” she stopped and snapped her fingers. “Wait. Do they have a website?”

  Lottie tapped the screen and brought up her browser. Jessie stood behind her and watched as she brought up the Clintock’s Meats website. On it, Ray looked totally different than how he did in person. Lottie tapped the ‘contact us’ button at the top and they waited with bated breath as the page loaded.

  Jessie exhaled loudly. “Darn it, they’ve only got an email form. No numbers.”

  Lottie shrugged, disappointment written all over her face. “It’s okay. Because really, I don’t think it was him.”

  Melanie nodded slowly. “Yeah. I agree. It seems like a bit of a leap.”

  Jessie snapped her head around. “What do you mean? He was totally cagey. He set off this whole thing by sending that email. And he’s left-handed. So is our murderer.”

  Melanie smiled kindly. “I don’t mean to be dismissive of your theory, more like challenge it. Like Lottie says, he wasn’t at the party. So there’s that. And you can’t pin a murder on him just because he’s left-handed. I mean, one in ten people are left-handed. What are you going to do, arrest them all?”

  Jessie froze.

  “I’m sorry if I…” Melanie stopped. “Jessie? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Jessie waved her hand to indicate she was fine. She’d been hit by the most incredible sense of déjà vu. She’d heard somebody say those exact same words not so long ago, but now they seemed to take on new meaning.

  If only she could figure out how it was linked to all of this.

  “Jessie, what is it?” Lottie said, squeezing her shoulder and looking at her with concern.

  Jessie shook her head. She felt faint all of a sudden, like all of the air had been knocked out of her. “I don’t know,” she whispered, grasping behind her to find a chair. “I just… where have I heard that before?”

  Mel helped her into a chair and Aunt Bee kneeled down in front of her. “What is it, sweetie?”

  Jessie shook her head with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. That was the strategy they’d tried to help Lottie remember—would it work for her? She tried to picture her surroundings—where had she been? What had she been doing?

  It was no use. She sighed. “What Mel just said. I’ve heard it before. Something about left-handed people being one in ten. But I can’t place it. I have a feeling this is important.” She groaned. Why wouldn’t her brain cooperate?

  “Oh, that?” Mel said cheerily. “I picked that up from Lainey. Remember? You were there too. It was the morning of the party and Claudia was having trouble chopping or something.” She waved her hand. “Apparently she’s a leftie and she struggles to use normal kitchen tools.”

  Jessie’s eyes widened. “Yes! That’s it! But no, it can’t be Claudia. She was there with us, helping us prepare.” She turned to look at Lottie, who had turned deathly pale. “What is it?”

  Lottie’s hand was clamped to her chest and she appeared to be having trouble breathing. “We used to be friends until we had an argument last year. I can’t even remember what it was about anymore.”

  Jessie kept staring at her. “Okay. So things are good between you two now?”

  Lottie shrugged. “Not exactly. I don’t know. That’s the thing. I don’t know. It could be nothing. But it just… she’s been cold ever since, like I wounded her or something.”

  “But she was with us in the café that morning. She can’t have emailed you from her home.”

  “Not true,” Mel said quietly. “Don’t you remember? Lots of people left to go home and change after we’d done the bulk of the prep. Don’t you remember? Maybe you don’t, because Edna came along a little early and so did John. The place was bustling, but I remember Claudia grabbing her coat and leaving.”

  An uneasy feeling settled over Jessie. She grabbed her cell to call the chief, but not before she’d closed all the drapes in the room to shield them from prying eyes. Just in case there was somebody outside watching them.

  Chapter 27

  “Jessie,” the chief said jovially. “I was just about to call you.”

  Jessie smiled—it was more for the benefit of Lottie and the others than it was a reflection of how she was feeling. “Great, I saved you the trouble.”

  He laughed. “Very efficient of you. Look, Jessie, I’ve been hounding the tech guy. He was able to remotely access the hard drive from here after I put lots of pressure on his boss.”

  “Chief, I—”

  “It doesn’t look like he’s our guy, Jessie. The email he showed us this morning is the only version that was transmitted. But there’s more. I was suspicious about his behavior, so I got the guy to keep digging. Well, it turned up quite a treasure trove. He tried to delete several folders. Derren had a cursory look and there are payment instructions and odd transfers. It all seemed innocuous except for the fact he tried to delete them. We think we’ve found evidence of financial fraud going back decades. Which explains why he didn’t want us poking around his files.”

  “That’s great, Chief,” Jessie said with a sinking feeling she was about to ruin his day.

  “I know. While it doesn’t solve the murders, we can try and relax for the day.”

  Jessie cleared her throat. “Not exactly, Chief,” she said in a small voice. “I think we’ve turned up something that might be useful.”

  “Oh?” There was so much apprehension in his tone that Jessie felt bad. But this couldn’t wait.

  “Yeah. Can you come by?”

  “Who is it, Jessie?”

  Jessie shook her head. The strangest feeling had come over her; she hadn’t had time to figure out if it was prudence or paranoia. But she knew one thing—she wanted to stay on the safe side. “I’ll tell you when you get here if that’s okay. I’m worried he might be listening.”

  “Who, Jessie?”

  She shook her head. Bee was watching her curiously. “I’ve got to go. See you soon?”

  “Okay,” he grunted and dialed off.

  “What was that about?” Bee asked before she’d even had a chance to put away her phone. “Who’s ‘he’? I thought you were talking about Claudia? Did he find something on that man’s computer?”

  Jessie giggled—it was a stress reaction more than anything. “One question at a time, please,” she gasped.

  Bee’s eyebrows quirked and soon—to Jessie’s surprise—they were all laughing. It may have been from total delirium, but they were laughing nonetheless.

  “No, they found evidence of a financial scam or some such,” Jessie said at last when she got her breath back.

  Bee shook her head. “But you said he,” she gasped.

  Melanie dissolved into giggles again. “Oh, Aunt Bee. I want to know the same thing, but it’s the way you’re asking! You sound like a dog with a bone.”

  Bee glared at her, causing the two cousins to burst into laughter again. Jessie had to wipe the tears away from her eyes to find her way to the door when the doorbell rang.

  “Be careful,” Mel warned, suddenly serious. “That could be him or her or whoever…”

  Jessie nodded. “I think it’s the chief. But I’ll check the peephole just to make sure.”

  Mel’s caution had set off a chain reaction in her. Adrenaline had flooded her body by the time she reached the front door, which was strange because she would have bet that she didn’t have a drop of adre
naline left in her system. She backed against the wall and approached the door side-on. She didn’t know why—what was she expecting, a maniac with a shotgun? But she didn’t care. Better safe than sorry from now on.

  She darted forward and glanced through the peephole. She could have cried from relief.

  “Chief,” she gasped after she’d thrown the door open. “It’s you.”

  “Were you expecting somebody else?” he asked with a frown.

  Jessie didn’t know what had come over her, but she threw her arms out and fell into him. “Mel freaked me out,” she explained weakly.

  “Okay,” he said awkwardly. The chief wasn’t one for spontaneous displays of affection—neither was Jessie. This case was making her act crazy.

  Jessie closed the door and followed him to the living room. “Sorry for the secrecy,” she whispered when she’d closed that door too. “But I think there’s something sinister going on.”

  “More sinister than the fact that two people are dead?” the chief said, not unkindly. He was tired—they all were.

  Jessie glanced at Mel, who looked like she was about to burst into laughter again at any moment. She looked away and tried to compose herself. They all needed this to be over so they could get a good night’s sleep without wondering if the killer would come for them in the night.

  “Chief, just before you called, we struck on something. Mel said something about there being one left-handed person out of every ten people, right? It was because I was stuck on this idea of Ray being the killer. Lottie just doesn’t think he’s a possibility and you’ve confirmed that now.”

  “Go on,” the chief said gravely. He was still standing beside the door as if ready to leap into action at any moment. Jessie was glad of that—she knew what was coming next.

  “It struck me the moment Mel said it. I’d heard somebody say that before. Mel helped me put it together. It was at the café right before the party. Claudia was using the scissors and she slashed her hand. It was because she’s left-handed and she couldn’t hold it the way it’s meant to be held. I didn’t think much of it until I saw Lottie’s reaction. She and Claudia had an argument last year and Claudia has never let it go.”

  “I thought you said it was a he?” Chief Daly said, scratching his jaw.

  Jessie nodded, getting warmed up now. “Yeah, exactly. See, the reason I was so convinced it was Ray was this email business. He swore blind that he sent Lottie a nice friendly email, whereas Lottie says the email from him was nasty and made her leave immediately to go speak to him. Oh!” she stopped, smiling. “I almost forgot. Lottie is sure she deleted the email because we can’t find it. Which is funny, because I’ve seen her inbox. She never deletes anything if the mountain of junk in there is anything to go by.”

  Lottie nodded good-naturedly. “She’s right. I’m a bit of a hoarder in that sense.”

  “Now,” Jessie said, trying not to jump to conclusions too quickly. “All that is fine, except for one thing. Claudia works in IT. She told me all about it one time and it went completely over my head. What if.” Jessie paused to take a breath and think about what she was about to say—she didn’t want to put forward yet another conspiracy theory, but it made sense no matter how much she thought about it. “What if somebody hacked Lottie’s emails? I’ve read about it in the papers—these people intercept your emails and change the details to what they want. As far as the recipient is concerned, it’s a normal email from the sender.”

  She watched the chief, barely daring to breathe. Was this it? She couldn’t tell from the look on his face. Finally, he shook his head. Disappointment rose within her—not because she was wrong, but because it put them right back at square one again.

  And then, to her surprise, he turned and hurried to the door.

  “Where are you going, Chief?” she asked, hoping he wasn’t storming out because her theory was stupid.

  “Yeah,” Lottie added. “I really think we’re onto something here.”

  The chief wheeled around. Jessie was surprised to see he looked amused rather than angry at her for wasting his time. “I’m not leaving because I don’t believe you; I’m going back to the station to get those tech guys to investigate Lottie’s laptop. I presume you haven’t collected it yet?”

  Lottie shook her head. “Nope. It’s been the furthest thing from my mind.”

  “Good,” he nodded, turning back to the door. “Actually, why don’t you come with me, Lottie? I don’t know how these things work, but if you’re able to spare these techies a few seconds by sharing your passwords, then all the better, right?”

  She nodded and leaped to her feet. “Absolutely. To be honest, I’ll be glad to do something of use. It feels like I’ve been sitting around idling these past few days.”

  Mel shook her head. “It was the safest option for you.”

  “You think this is a lead?” Jessie asked, looking around wildly at the others.

  Chief Daly paused before nodding. “I think you might be on to something.”

  “You really think so?” Lottie asked quietly. “Gosh, I wish I’d seen it. It all makes sense now.”

  He turned to her and smiled slightly. “I don’t want to give you hope, dear, but this is the most plausible theory we’ve had yet. Now, come on. The rest of you can come too if you want. Jessie—if we find anything, I want to leave immediately so you should definitely join us. You can ride along with Pete if he’s still out there.”

  Chapter 28

  The atmosphere in Chief Daly’s office was tense. They were all frustrated and tired, especially Lottie who hadn’t been back to her own home for several days. The chief was wandering in and out—each time he entered, they all looked up at him with hope and expectation.

  The fourth time it happened, he sighed and shook his head. “Why did I think it was a good idea to bring you here?”

  “We thought something was going to happen,” Melanie said. She had slid off the uncomfortable plastic chair and was sitting with her back against the wall, playing a game on her phone. “It’s been two hours now. I’m bored.”

  Jessie laughed at her cousin’s impatience. She knew all too well that investigations sometimes stalled as reports were run and details checked. “You sound like a five-year-old.”

  Melanie made a face at her. “I don’t know why you’re acting so holier than thou—you’ve been sighing and grumbling too.”

  Jessie flushed. “That’s different. I’m hungry.”

  “I’m h-uuuuu-nnnnn-gry,” Melanie mimicked, pretending to rub her eyes with her fists.

  “Cut it out, you two,” Aunt Bee said, sounding tetchier than usual. “That might have been cute thirty years ago but it certainly isn’t now.”

  “Talk about an overused catchphrase, huh?” Jessie said to Melanie, jerking her head in her aunt’s direction.

  Aunt Bee spun around and squared her stance. “You needn’t think you can—”

  “Gang up on me now that you’re bored squabbling with each other,” Melanie finished, in a perfect imitation of Bee’s scolding tone.

  Even Chief Daly smiled before Aunt Bee turned and glared at him.

  Lottie sighed. She’d been quiet the whole time so hearing her brought a dose of reality to the others.

  “Sorry,” Jessie muttered, feeling embarrassed. “We’re just being silly. I’m happy to stay here for as long as we need to in order to find whoever did this.”

  “Me too,” Mel nodded, putting her phone away. “Any news, Chief?”

  Chief Daly shook his head. “No. We’ve got the tech patched into Lottie’s laptop. He said it saved him a little time by having the passwords from her, but it’ll take a while to track back through everything—”

  The door flew open and everybody turned to look. Officer Stanley stood in the doorway looking excited. “Chief, Derren wants a word.”

  A hush fell over the room. Derren was the technician who was working on Lottie’s laptop. Jessie made to follow the chief out of the room, but he turned and
shook his head.

  “Stay here with the others. As soon as I know anything, I’ll come and share it with you.”

  She nodded and returned to the chair behind the chief’s desk.

  Time seemed to drag on as they waited. Mel returned to her game, but Jessie could see from her expression that she wasn’t really paying attention. There was something oddly soothing about the chirpy electronic sounds her phone was making.

  Aunt Bee could never sit still in a crisis. She paced the room repeatedly, muttering to herself and not looking at any of them. Lottie was oddly still, even though out of all of them, she was the one with the most at stake in the case.

  Jessie tapped her fingers on the desk and tried to calm her racing heartbeat. This case had thrown up so many dead ends and false clues that she didn’t want to get her hopes up yet again only to see them dashed.

  It felt like an eternity had passed by the time the office door opened again and the chief appeared.

  They stared up at him like he was some kind of prophet.

  “Well?” Lottie gasped. The tension in her voice was audible.

  Chief Daly nodded curtly. “The email from Ray was intercepted and changed.”

  They all gasped before turning to look at each other, confused.

  “Wait,” Mel said. “Why would somebody do that? I’ve heard of email scammers who take company emails and change the payment account details, but this? What was the purpose of the scam?”

  Jessie bit her lip. “The only thing I can think of is somebody wanted Lottie out of the way. So we know that the real killer wanted to strike at the party. Were any of her other emails messed with?”

  The chief shrugged. “He said it was difficult to say without examining each one.”

  Lottie shook her head. “I haven’t received any other important emails recently—well, none that I can think of.”

  “We’ll piece that together later,” the chief said. “We’ve got more important things to do now.”

  Jessie nodded. “Like talking to Claudia.” She stood and reached for her purse.

  The chief held up his hand. “No. What I was going to say was Derren still needs to track the IP address responsible for tampering with the email. We’re not doing anything before that.”