Not So Merry Murder

by Amabel Daniels

  Maintenance had arrived with tools and a new, albeit still cheaply manufactured, door to replace mine. I led them in, letting the manager’s criticism in one ear and out the other. Since my door was the only one broken, it must be my fault. I had to have attracted the trouble, so I should have to pay for the door. It only took one minute of my retort to shut him up. If the exterior door hadn’t been broken as well, no one would have even gotten inside in the first place.

  As soon as they were done and I tested the new lock, I showered and got dressed. I wasn’t going to sit around here all day, at least not without finding some simple pillows to replace the couch cushions. It was the first day I hadn’t woken up and gotten dressed in my elf suit since I’d started. It lay there over the back of a chair, the velvet still shimmery from the lights in the kitchenette. Eyeing it for a moment, I frowned. While I loathed it, I doubted I’d get to wear it again, and those couch cushions weren’t going to come from thin air. I needed the money.

  “But it’s just me and Garth now….” I reminded myself as I left. I still couldn’t believe Seth was arrested.

  And really, that could work—me and Garth. I could just take the pictures now. And Garth could sit on his butt and be jolly.

  Or…maybe not. I winced as I stepped outside onto the shoveled and salted sidewalks. Would Garth be jolly? How could he? His wife was just murdered.

  God, Jade. Be a little bitchier, why don’t you?

  Yet, I couldn’t help but hang on to a strong hunch Garth wasn’t going to be one of those moping, crestfallen and broken men at losing his spouse. I wasn’t any kind of authority on relationships or marriages, but they weren’t exactly trying out for a couple-of-the-year award. Yeah, people fought and bickered, but the Ridges had done so with a ferocity and frequency I bet even a seasoned therapist couldn’t comprehend.

  Besides, if the crime scene was miraculously cleared after one day, and Garth and I felt we could make the formerly four-person deal run on two, there was still that woman from the mall’s management to contend with. I walked toward the mall, enjoying the sharp clarity that rinsed my mind alert from each deep breath of crisp, cold morning air. I rehearsed my persuasive pitch to El…

  What was her name? Ellen? Eloise… Elise! Elise Fenner.

  I formed an argument for Elise Fenner that would convince her Franklin Mall had to reopen the North Pole Hut. It was simply too close to Christmas.

  As I formulated my speech, I was distracted by her name. It’d struck me yesterday when Knox mentioned it and now, again, after the hell of last night and after having a chance to decompose while cleaning, I wondered about it again.

  Fenner.

  I doubted I knew her, Elise. Despite her youthful appearance, she seemed older than me, not a peer. But perhaps I’d met someone else in her family?

  When I’d relocated us to the city, Damon and I hadn’t attempted to meet people and make friends. Well, I hadn’t. I’d been busy working two jobs and taking GED classes. He sure made some buddies from the wrong crowd.

  I’d only moved us here for the sake of escaping a too-tiny town. I’d hoped we’d have better chances of help and at least easier public transportation in “big-city” Missouri than in “small-town” Missouri. Of course, I hadn’t planned for the larger enticement of crime in the bigger city, either—Damon’s problem.

  Fenner. Maybe it was one of Damon’s ex-girlfriends? He’d had a few, but each and every one that he’d declared was the one, he’d bring her home and introduce her to me. Stars in his eyes and his heart on his sleeve. I remembered the one, the pink-haired girl he’d knocked up. He’d been head-over-heels for that one. Maybe they would have stuck together if he hadn’t been imprisoned.

  Didn’t matter now, anyway.

  When I got to the mall, I entered at the wing of stores where I’d find the thrifty home goods store. There were a few pillows I could see fitting on my couch, but I didn’t want to buy them just yet. My growling stomach reminded me I hadn’t eaten my staple cereal breakfast, so before I burdened my arms with bags of pillows, I headed for the food court.

  Coffee was a must and a bagel would have to make do for my beloved Snap, Crackle, and Pop. Better yet, I had a coupon for frequent purchases that an out-of-town family had given me when we small talked in the North Pole Hut line. They’d stopped by the bagel place and had gotten enough bagels among them that they qualified for a freebie, but they wouldn’t be back to use it.

  I sat down with my coffee and bagel and before I could even dump the sugar into the cup, someone pulled out the chair across from me. A large-gutted, huge man. I jerked back, scrambling for a fleeting moment to place him. Without the red suit and the white beard, it was hard to recognize Garth.

  “Hey,” he said by way of greeting.

  I nodded and tried to smile.

  “Funny running into you here,” he said as he plopped down, his breath whooshing out in a way that made me wonder if his back was going bad.

  “Morning. And yeah…it is.” Before I started at the North Pole Hut, I never came to the mall. At least, not for breakfast at the food court.

  “I didn’t want to be at home.” He shrugged as though he couldn’t make sense of that either, like Franklin Mall’s food court was the last place he’d imagine being. On any other day, we’d be reporting to work at the photo hut.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. Garth and I didn’t have a close enough relationship to make me feel like wanting to cover his hand with mine. In fact, he was creepy enough to make me never want to touch him. Yet, my heart crumbled at the hardness in his voice. The man had just lost his spouse. I could be sympathetic, if wary of him.

  He shot out a hard breath and shook his head. “Me too.” Then he grunted. “Those fuckers were going in and out of there all damn night.”

  I raised my brows. “Huh?” Okay, he’s annoyed, not sad?

  “Oh. Yeah, you wouldn’t know.” He scooted to sit up more. “Seth was arrested last night.”

  Ooooh. Right. Seth. Knox had been one of the cops to arrest him. I’d forgotten, again, that Seth was the Ridges’, er, well, Garth’s neighbor. I nodded.

  “Finally got caught with all the kiddo porn stuff.” He laughed once, bitterly. “I wonder if that’s what got her killed.”

  “Huh?” I gaped at him, shocked he was being so easygoing about it and stunned at his suggestion. Seth shooting Marlena? Actually, it wasn’t impossible to believe.

  “Marlena was always bitching about that kid. He kept visitors late into the night. Loud music.” He waved his hand as though to dismiss the inconvenience. “She’d called about him before and the cops didn’t even do anything. But he’d had another rumble in the hallway the night before. Some yahoo who thought he was some kind of badass pimp. Seth and him had words.”

  “And fists?”

  Garth nodded. “Yeah. That kid was always stirring up trouble.”

  “But how would that get Marlena killed?” Seth didn’t sound like a great neighbor, but that didn’t equate to murder.

  He slanted a dubious expression at me. “You kidding me?”

  I shook my head. What was I missing?

  “Seth probably shot her.”

  I frowned.

  “You didn’t hear them arguing yesterday before lunch?”

  I hadn’t heard anything. Just that godawful Mariah Carey song looping over and over. Then again, I’d been tasked with “fluffing up the snow those bastard kids trampled on.” Marlena’s barked order before the line got too long. I’d been at the entrance to the Christmassy area, further from the hut where the others would have been. Too far away to hear an argument.

  “He and Marlena got into it. She came up to him, bitching about the noise, and he told her to fuck off.” He scoffed. “She shoulda. God, that woman was always up in other people’s shit.”

  All right. Definitely not mourning her then.

  “He told her to quit threatening him and she said fine. She’d report him to the cops.”

  �
�Marlena threatened to…turn him in?”

  Garth bobbed his head up and down again. “Yep. And I know those cops had to be asking about that argument yesterday after you found her dead and all. Wonder how he explained it.”

  And if Seth was in custody now, although for a different crime, maybe Knox and his officers would have the killer’s confession.

  But…when would Seth have had time to put the gun at my apartment? Right after we left work? How would he even know where I lived?

  “So I didn’t get a good night’s sleep.” He grunted and wiped at his mouth. “Those goddamn cops tracking in and out of there. Jesus.”

  I licked my lips, tasting the coffee and knowing it needed more sugar. Before I’d get up to grab another packet from the condiment counter, I had to know. “You didn’t miss sleep because, you know, Marlena was shot?”

  He shot one brow up. “You asking me if I’m sad she’s gone?”

  Sad, not really. He’d cry about spilled booze before Marlena. But shocked? Disturbed? Something?

  “Hell, I woulda left her years ago if I coulda.”

  I pulled my lips in, trying to hold back my reaction to his bold statement. Did he say that to the cops? In those words?

  “After that lotto ticket debacle…” He rolled his eyes. “God, I couldn’t stand her.”

  “Lotto ticket?”

  He folded his hands on the table and leaned in, like he was readying to lecture me. “Years ago, me and my business partner used to get a lotto ticket every week. For the big numbers, you know?”

  “What business partner?” I thought he and Marlena were partners with this photo stuff. Then again, they had to do something else for the rest of the year.

  “Auto shop. Me and Harry Fenner.”

  Fenner? Again? Was there a connection? “I didn’t know.”

  He shrugged a shoulder. “Me and him had a repair shop and every week we’d get a ticket. Split the cost. One week, Marlena took the cash from my pockets when she did laundry and I didn’t have my half to give him for the ticket.”

  “And he won?”

  Garth nodded slowly. “Big time. So since I didn’t pitch in for the ticket that won, he didn’t really want to share. Marlena was furious.”

  Well, why should they split? Garth hadn’t contributed.

  “He gave me some money, out of pity, really, but not like I shoulda got if it was fifty-fifty. Marlena turned into a downright wicked woman after that.”

  “Bitter?”

  He pointed a finger at me like I’d won Bingo. “So she’s never liked him.”

  He droned on. “I tried to keep in touch, you know. Me and Harry were buddies for a long time, since preschool and shit. But we closed the repair shop and he went into investing.” He barked a laugh. “Why would he keep a repair shop with all that money?”

  I held my coffee cup between my hands, sugar forgotten. “You said his name was Fenner?”

  He nodded.

  “Any relation to the Ms. Fenner from mall management?”

  “Yeah, she’s his wife. He married her right before their daughter Bianca was born.”

  I gasped and smacked my hand to the table. “That’s it!”

  Garth scowled at me, likely pissed I’d interrupted his tale. “Huh?”

  That’s it. Bianca. That was why the Fenner name had seemed so familiar. Why I thought I’d recognized Elise from somewhere. Bianca Fenner. Damon’s ex-girlfriend he’d knocked up. I still felt bad that the poor boy wasn’t getting child support, but I bet that was the least of the worries at the moment.

  “Uh, nothing,” I said. If I mentioned my indirect connection to the Fenner family via Damon, and Garth remembered that it was my nephew who’d tried to break into his home, I bet he’d be potentially more challenging to work with.

  What a small world. Again.

  Garth wasn’t done. “Back in the fall, Elise tried to turn Marlena and me down for the photo crap. The Santa they used to have here moved or something at last minute. That’s how we got the spots.” He jerked his head in the direction of the North Pole Hut out of view. “She didn’t want our business because she’s heard about Marlena from Harry all these years. Ain’t a big fan of us, you know? Thinks we’re some low-life assholes who want to steal her husband’s money.”

  “I heard she wants to shut us down for good now.”

  Garth growled. “Yeah, I heard her too. She was whining and wailing to the cops yesterday, saying this was all over, if she had anything to do with it.”

  I didn’t reply, trying to come to terms with the loss of a job.

  “But we don’t have to close if we don’t want to. You know? Me and you?” He jerked a thumb toward the area where the North Pole awaited us. “You could take the pictures.”

  He’d come to the same idea I had. “Yeah. If they clear the crime scene…”

  With a mean laugh, he slapped his hand to the tabletop. “What’s there to do? They dragged her body outta there and collected the evidence. Done and over if you ask me.”

  I blinked at him, wondering if he could have shot his wife. Clearly, he didn’t care if she was alive or not. Callous words from a cruel man. Even if they weren’t enjoying a happily ever after, couldn’t he be enough of a decent human to not speak so harshly of her death?

  “Uh-huh.” I didn’t know what else to say.

  He tapped a pudgy finger to the tabletop, almost in sync to the beats of the instrumental version of “Jingle Bells” playing. “I got your number. I’ll call ya if we’re ready for business.” He stood, scraping his chair back loudly on the floor. “You still wanna work there, right? You’re not freaked out about a dead body or nothing, are ya?”

  Dead body. Not my wife’s corpse. Chills raked my spine at his indifference to someone’s life. “Uh…no. I’m not freaked out.”

  “I’ll be in touch then, honey.”

  I shuddered then. Honey. And from his lips. I resisted the need to gag.

  Garth had just ramped up his creepiness factor.

  He left me there to my coffee and now-cold bagel. At least the java was still warm.

  Bothered by this unexpected conversation with Garth, I stood up and left the food court. I circled back to the home goods store and got three pillows—enough that I could stretch across the couch. Before I headed out of the mall, I strolled past the North Pole Hut. I slowed my steps and traced my stare along the drooping crime scene tape that still wrapped around the outermost posts and columns. Fake snow glittered under the usual fluorescent lights. There was enough brightness that the red and green décor shone plenty without the Christmas bulbs plugged in. Reindeer decoys stood still and staring back at me. Stinky pseudo-pine smells clung to the plastic trees.

  Aside from the yellow tape, no one would even know a bitter woman was shot in that teeny shed. It was still the same, enough of a constant surrounding that I felt I could come back to work here, even taking Seth’s place behind the camera.

  It was still exactly the same, just devoid of people.

  Wait.

  No.

  Something was different.

  What is it? I squinted, staring at the yuletide scenery just waiting for big ol’ Santa again.

  A beep and tone sounded suddenly.

  That was what it was. Silence.

  I sighed, relishing the peace of no—

  Mariah Carey’s tune blared once more.

  I let my face fall as the same damn song returned. Hearing those vocals kick in, it sparked a bigger thought.

  How did no one hear a gunshot at lunchtime in a busy mall?

  Chapter Six

  It was a lonely day, this Saturday off from the North Pole Hut.

  Maybe it was facing and swallowing how short life can be, the realization boldly emphasized by my boss being murdered. Was I wasting my meager existence away by taking on these pointless customer service jobs that had no end?

  Or perhaps it was Knox telling me he was interested in me, something not many people had expressed to
me other than for employment at dime-a-dozen jobs. To be the object of desire…it was a heady pull to grasp.

  And not having Damon at home probably added to my mood. He was a mooching, self-serving nephew but he was still a relative, and he’d always behaved better around the holidays.

  Then again, I bet my funky loneliness stemmed from having the day off.

  I wasn’t a slave to earning my paycheck. Even when I balanced two part-time jobs, I’d get a break here and there. But not working today felt weird, like I needed the obligation of shepherding kids to Garth’s lap to keep me centered. Any kind of a distraction from murder or a certain man.

  Simply put, I was restless and lost. I didn’t know what to do with myself.

  Seated on the new pillows on my couch, I’d tried to fall into a vegetative state watching reruns and mindless videos about cats versus dogs. They never failed to preoccupy me. When that didn’t work, I walked to the grocery store and grabbed some items to replace what had been dumped out in my break-in. Preparing and devouring a PB&J didn’t dispel my funk either.

  Then I struck out to stroll—for fun—along decorated sidewalks of the city. I’d ended up at the public skating arena where I people-watched clumsy skaters fall. Only, it was damned cold out and I opted to head back home for the warmth at least.

  I walked to my door and was oddly relieved and surprised Knox was standing there, leaning his big, strong body against the wall. It was strange that defense wasn’t my go-to attitude this time.

  “Knox James,” I said, playing on his greeting yesterday. “We meet again.”

  He gave me a lazy once-over, dragging his intense stare from my boots to my curly hair escaping my hat.

  “We do.” Still, he didn’t push from the wall, like he’d be content to stand there and soak me in no matter what I wore.

  I ignored him, focusing on fitting my key in my lock. Well, I tried to ignore him. Damn thing just wouldn’t go in. Never mind my lack of coordination around this man. Pretending Knox wasn’t there was an impossibility because merely standing this close to him I had to refrain from leaning toward him, into his heat.