by Alayna Fox
Louisa. That was connection number two. First the locket, and now her grandfather’s key. Even the ivy cap could have been Louisa’s doing. Mason did say he couldn’t remember everyone who had bought one.
“Axel, do you remember where you last saw your key?” I asked.
Just as Axel was about to respond, I saw Tessa pick up his spoon. Before I had a chance to stop her, she scooped some chowder out of his bowl, then shoved the spoon in her mouth.
Axel wasn’t fazed. He handed her some of his bread, and Tessa plopped it in her mouth.
“The last time I saw it was eight months ago. It was late April and I was painting the boat hull. I’d just went back to my truck to get another gallon of paint. Came back to the docks and tried to open the gate, but I couldn’t find my key. Not sure if it fell out of my pocket or if someone swiped it off my boat.” He stared at Tessa as she chewed his bread. “How did you girls get it?”
“We found it yesterday,” I said, deliberately not mentioning the snowman. I wanted to solve the mystery before I told him who I thought had stolen or found his key.
“How were you able to get to your truck without a key to open the gate?” Tessa asked as she took another spoonful of chowder.
I tried to take my eyes off Tessa, but the smell of saucy chowder drifted to my nose, making me forget why I was here in the first place.
Luckily, Axel brought me out of my chowder dream and back to our mystery. “My buddy was with me. He opened the gate, so I didn’t notice the key missing until I tried to get back onto the docks.”
Someone could have stolen the key off Axel’s boat while he was getting the paint from his truck. But he could have also lost the key on the docks or in the parking lot. Either way, the secret snowman got it. But why put it in a snowman? What was the point? Was the secret snowman sending a message that the town had a thief?
“Thanks for the information, Axel. I’m glad we found your key.” I tore the spoon out of Tessa’s fingers and handed it back to Axel. “Hope you all have a Merry Christmas.”
The men wished us a Merry Christmas.
As we headed for the front entrance, we said goodbye to some of our old customers from the flower shop. Once we reached the door, I opened it and we walked back outside into the cold. And that’s when I saw it. Right across the street from the Rowdy Chowder.
A snowman with a fancy red scarf around its neck, waving in the air.
Chapter 7
“I think that scarf belongs to Mayor Mia. We could always send her a picture of the scarf and ask her if it belongs to her,” Tessa suggested.
“I heard on the news that she was having knee surgery today and would be off duty until January sixth,” I told her.
“Let’s catch her before they knock her out.”
I shook my head. “I think it would be best if we left Mia to focus on her surgery. I’m sure a scarf is the last thing she wants to think about today.” I racked my brain for another solution. “I have it. Let’s go down to the library and look through the local newspapers. There must be a picture of Mia with her scarf.”
Tessa agreed. We headed over to the library to check.
The library was housed in an old building next to the town hall. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it had plenty of books for people like me who enjoyed the smell of musty books. It was one of my few quirks. Unlike Tessa who had more quirks than a porcupine had quills.
As we headed up the stairs, I held onto the railing for dear life. Tessa had called Mayor Mia several times to complain about the lack of facilities for us old folks. Mia had assured her that an elevator was in the next budget, and she promised Tessa that if she couldn’t get up the stairs, she would personally get her books for her.
A mayor who worked for her constituents. That was our Mayor Mia.
When I got to the top of the stairs, I noticed the billboard hanging on the wall. Next to a note about a lost wedding ring was the announcement for the Christmas play. “I hope you got tickets for the play this afternoon. I’d hate to miss it.”
Tessa lifted her left foot onto the landing and took several deep breaths as she held onto my shoulder. “Bought them two weeks ago. Let’s get there early this year. Being in the last row isn’t fun for a short person. The only thing I could see at the play last year was the top of the actors’ heads.” She let go of my shoulder and straightened herself up. “I think Asher has no hair. He was wearing a white fuzzy wig in the Christmas play last year.”
“That was a sheep costume,” I explained.
“Oh. That would explain all the baaing. Thought he’d had too much eggnog.”
I laughed. I never knew what would come out of Tessa’s mouth. “Let’s go and see if we can find a picture of Mayor Mia with her scarf.”
An hour later, we found what we were looking for. On the front page of the Dream Cove Newspaper was a picture of Mia cutting the ceremonial ribbon on our newly built gazebo. And she was wearing her red scarf, the exact one stuffed in Tessa’s purse.
“At least we’ve identified Mia’s scarf. Now, we just need to figure out who our secret snowman is.” I folded up the newspaper and put it away.
As we walked out of the library doors, we noticed it had snowed again. With all the snow we were getting lately, I doubted we’d have an early spring.
“Pepper, don’t look now, but we have another snowman sighting.”
Another one? I looked in the direction that Tessa pointed. Sure enough, it was snowman number six.
The town park was just across the street from the library and the mayor’s office. And inside the park’s gazebo, where Mayor Mia had cut the ceremonial ribbon, was a big perfectly round snowman.
Chapter 8
T essa and I checked the snowman for items but couldn’t find a thing. We took off all the buttons, looked under the hat, checked behind the carrot, and even took the snowman’s head off to see if something was hidden there.
Satisfied that we’d checked the snowman from top to bottom, we leaned against the railing of the gazebo and thought about what this latest snowman meant.
“I think Mayor Mia is the secret snowman,” Tessa rubbed her mittens together to get off some of the snow. “Didn’t you say she was being operated on today? She probably made the snowman last night before going to the hospital.”
“Possible but not likely. I doubt she rushed over to the park, made a snowman, then drove two hours to the hospital for her surgery today.”
Tessa frowned. “Well, you did say it was possible.”
I wasn’t in the mood for one of Tessa’s batty ideas. “Mayor Mia is not a suspect. Think about it. She’s having knee surgery. I think making snowmen is the last thing she would be doing.” I pointed at the snowman. “Besides, someone had to be very strong to roll that big ball of snow onto the gazebo.”
“I guess you’re right.” Tessa straightened up and patted the snowman’s back. “That means Willa isn’t a suspect either. I doubt she’d be able to lift the snowman’s head.”
Tessa was right about that. Since all the snowmen were large like this one, we could easily strike Willa off the suspect list. Louisa, though, she was a strong looking woman. Pregnant but strong. She was still a suspect. She had a connection to two of the items. The locket and the key. Maybe even the ivy cap if she bought one from Mason.
“Don’t you find it funny that there isn’t an item on this snowman?” I asked Tessa.
“Maybe the secret snowman made a decoy,” Tessa said as she stepped out of the gazebo. She waited as I joined her by the fence a few feet away.
A blue sweater hung from one of the posts. It looked familiar, but I just couldn’t place it. “I should drop this off at the library. People are always posting notes of lost items on the board. Maybe they have a lost and found basket,” I said.
Tessa shook her head. “Do you really want to walk up all those stairs again?” She grabbed the sweater and stuffed it in her handbag. “I’ll give it to Lynette. She’s always going to city hall to c
omplain about something or other. She can drop it off for us.”
I agreed to Tessa’s plan. Before long, we were walking down the sidewalk on our way to the retirement home.
In the distance, I saw something amazing.
Standing at least eight feet tall was the biggest snowman I’d ever seen.
“What does that sign say?” Tessa asked as we neared our retirement home.
“It says, Compliments of the Dream Cove Curling Club,” I read out loud.
When we reached our front lawn, we walked over to the huge snowman. Several of the residents were taking pictures of it and laughing and joking about how funny the snowman was. Instead of a black hat, the curling club employees had put a fake plastic curling rock on the top of it.
Working our way around everyone, we checked the snowman for any hidden items. We were too short to check it’s head, but there didn’t seem to be any stolen items. Satisfied that the snowman was clean, we sat down on a nearby bench and admired our newest lawn decoration.
“Do you think Asher is our secret snowman?” Tessa asked.
“This snowman is nothing like all the others. It’s not even the same size,” I said as I took a picture of the snowman for my digital album. “Sure, Asher helped build this one, but that doesn’t mean he built the others.”
“Well, he’s still my number one.”
I didn’t even bother to change her mind because I knew someone else would be her prime suspect in an hour or so.
Not wanting to waste any more time on this snowman, I told Tessa that I wanted to eat, shower and change for the Christmas play this afternoon. I suggested she do the same. We had tickets for the early showing, and I didn’t want to miss it.
Four hours later, we were sitting in our seats waiting for the play to start. There was an excitement in the air that only Christmas could bring. It was my favorite time of year, with all the lights and decorations, not to mention the hope that Christmas signified. I loved the Christmas season.
I glanced around the theatre. Although it only had enough room to house a couple of hundred people, it had plenty of space for laughter and fun. A cozy spot on a cold winter afternoon like today.
While we were waiting for the play to start, I took the opportunity to see who else was here. I spotted Nora and her curling friends sitting in the middle of the audience. Foster sat at the back playing on his phone. Willa and a few of the other retirement home residents were a few rows back. I saw Lynette glaring at Tessa. I didn’t bother to tell Tessa that she had a bullseye on the back of her head. Didn’t want to ruin the play for her.
“He’s here,” Tessa whispered in my ear.
“Who?”
“The secret snowman.” Tessa shifted back and forth in her seat as she stared to her left.
“Who do you think it is now?” I was curious if Asher had been bumped off the suspect list.
She pointed at Luke who ran down the side aisle ahead of his mother. They seemed in a huge rush to get backstage.
“Louisa’s little boy,” I almost shouted, stunned at Tessa’s latest prime suspect.
“Look,” she said, the lines between her eyes deepened. “Luke might be little, but I bet he’s the mastermind behind all those snowmen. Probably had his great-grandfather Axel make them for him. Stole from his own relatives, to boot.”
I would have burst into tears of laughter if I wasn’t so shocked. Tessa never seized to amaze me with her wacky logic. “Luke is not the secret snowman.” I needed to reassure Tessa, because she looked as if she were about to get up and confront the little lad. “He’s wearing a wise man outfit. Probably running because the play starts in a few minutes.”
“Makes sense that he’s playing a wise man. Masterminds are wise.” She leaned against her plush seat. “Just the same, I’m keeping my eyes on that one.”
I shook my head. There was no changing Tessa’s mind. I just had to wait a few seconds, and she’d do it for me.
A few minutes later the red curtains opened, and out walked Asher. He had a mic in his hand and was wearing a white gown with a fake halo over his head. He was supposed to be an angel, but I thought he looked more like Santa Claus with his white beard and round tummy.
“Ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to welcome you to tonight’s performance.” Asher looked behind him and signalled to Mason who held onto a large rope just offstage.
I watched as Mason tugged on the rope. A scene of Bethlehem slid behind Asher. “Turn off the lights,” Asher instructed.
Suddenly the lights went out, leaving only the lights on the stage, which was now crowded with a couple of shepherds with sticks and a flock of fake sheep.
As the play went on, Luke, his older brother, and another boy walked over to the manger. They were adorable as the three wise men. The audience laughed when Luke started to throw hay in the air. His brother tried his best to stop him, but it took Louisa, who rushed out from the sidelines with a candy cane, to get Luke to stop goofing around. He put down the hay and sucked on his candy while the manger scene proceeded.
A half hour later, the audience cheered as the actors bowed.
Just as we thought the performance had come to an end, Asher announced that they had a special gift for the audience. We waited as the owner of the theater pushed a large snowman on a cart out onto the stage.
Tessa and I just looked at each other. The snowman was an exact replica of all the other snowmen we had discovered all over town.
The audience remained silent as the owner turned the snowman around. Stuck on its back were dozens of items.
“Those are my sunglasses,” I heard an audience member yell.
“Mommy, the snowman has my dolly,” a little girl whispered beside me.
Several people went onto the stage to retrieve their items. Even Tessa went up and checked to see if the snowman had anything of hers.
When she came back down to her seat, she showed me a bracelet that she had lost a year ago at the town fair.
“I guess Luke isn’t the secret snowman,” she said with an awkward grin.
“No. He’s not. But I do know who the secret snowman is,” I told her.
“Who?” she asked excitedly. “Is it Asher?”
Asher was back on Tessa’s suspect list.
Chapter 9
“N o Asher is not the secret snowman,” I told Tessa.
“Why not? He worked at the curling rink, he could have stolen all those items from anyone of us,” she pointed out.
“But you lost your bracelet at the fair, you just said so yourself.”
Tessa frowned. “Asher was at the fair with his wife. He might have slipped it off my wrist without me knowing it.”
I wasn’t going down that warped path again. “Asher isn’t our secret snowman because he didn’t build the first snowman.”
“How do you know?” Tessa asked.
I told her about the receipt I’d found at Asher’s birthday party. The second time I picked it up in the parking lot, I looked at it carefully to see if I could find anything that would link him with the snowmen. The receipt was from a hotel in Boston.
“Did he get his senior discount?” Tessa asked.
I nodded my head. “He got ten percent off. And the receipt was dated Monday morning. Asher wasn’t anywhere near Dream Cove when the first snowman was made.”
Tessa seemed satisfied with my answer. “Okay, that leaves Foster as the secret snowman.”
I held up my hand. “Not so quick.” I turned around to see Foster talking with Nora and her teammates. The women were laughing at something he’d said. Bo Philips wasn’t the only charmer in town. “Axel said the last time he saw his key was last April.”
“So? Why does that rule out Foster?” Tessa asked.
“Foster moved to Dream Cove in May and didn’t open his shop until June. Don’t you remember all the renovations he was doing? With the cruise ship crowd and his construction team, I thought Archie was going to go crazy when I took him for his walks.”
“But I suspect he did make one of the snowmen,” I said.
“Which one?”
“The one in the gazebo.”
“How do you know he made it?” Tessa asked.
“Because of the sweater on the fence railing.”
“You mean the blue one?”
“Yes.”
Tessa opened her oversized purse and took it out. “I never got a chance to give it to Lynette.” She got up from her seat and before I knew it, she was headed in Foster’s direction.
I hurried after my friend, hoping that she wouldn’t interrogate Foster again, but it was too late. She was already shouting at him above the crowd’s heads.
“Foster. Is this your sweater?” Tessa yelled.
Hearing his name being called, I saw him turn toward Tessa as she barged her way through the crowd. “Yes,” he shouted back.
When I finally reached his side, I overheard her ask him, “did you make the gazebo snowman?”
Foster smiled. “Sure did.” He whipped out his phone and showed her a selfie of himself with his snowman. “It’s not as perfectly round as the others, but I’m close.”
Tessa ignored him and turned to me. “Guess you’re right. He’s not our secret snowman.”
I excused myself, before dragging Tessa away. When we’d moved far enough away from him, I continued to explain who I thought wasn’t the secret snowman.
“It’s not Nora, either.”
“But why?” Tessa almost whined. She seemed to want to incriminate most of the residents of Dream Cove. “She could have snatched Helen’s brooch when they were talking under the oak tree. Maybe she felt guilty about stealing it and put it on the first snowman.” She played with the strap on her handbag. “And Mason did say she bought an ivy cap from him.”
“Nora’s too short to lift the snowman’s head up onto the middle section,” I explained.
“Louisa?”
