The Christmas Tree Caper

by Melodie March

  Gladys and I both stared at her with our eyes wide.

  “Kit, did you tell the sheriff any of this?” Gladys asked. Kit just shrugged.

  “I didn’t even think of it until last night. Besides, I’m not even sure there are any Middletons left in Wintervale these days. And we never figured out who wrote the letter. The post mark was all smudged and the handwriting was atrocious. I can’t believe that anyone besides me would still have an attachment to the star all these years later.”

  The Grannies and I had seen enough in our combined years to know that people will go to great lengths over seemingly inconsequential things.

  “And this is the first time you’ve had the star out since the last window display contest all those years ago?” I asked. Kit and Steve nodded in unison.

  “I keep it in a special box in our curio case at home. It wasn’t difficult to find, but I imagine breaking into someone’s home is a very different story than…” she pointed sadly at the place her window used to be, “this.”

  I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “We’re going to figure this out, Kit. And until we know anything for sure, I think it’s better if we keep the story about Ruthie’s star to ourselves. If we make any headway, then we can loop Ross Slater in. For now, trust that Gladys and I are on the case.”

  We all said our goodbyes, then Gladys left for work at The Flour Girl and I made my way to the shop. In between Meow & Then customers, I would be doing some research on all of the information that Kit and Steve gave us.

  It seems there was more to Ruthie’s star than met the eye, and it just might be enough to break a shop window over...

  Chapter Six

  “I don’t understand how you do this every week, Meggie! Have you and Gladys ever considered taking up knitting?” Liza Matheson asked through gasps as we rounded the corner on the hiking path. Liza was the newest member of The Green Mountain Grannies, and an honorary one at that, since she still wasn’t technically a granny. When Gladys and I established the GMGs as an exercise club for “ladies of a certain age,” as Glady put it, we decided anyone was welcome to join as long as they loved Vermont and a good brisk bit of calisthenics. But Liza still wasn’t quite used to the altitude in Wintervale and our cold winter hikes were especially tough to get used to.

  Gladys, who was already ahead of all of us, laughed so loudly, she scared away a deer that had been watching us power walk by.

  “Knitting? I think not. I have been thinking about starting up a ballroom dancing class if anyone is interested!” she called back. Allison Rieger, who had lived in Wintervale since she was ten and was also a provisional member of the Grannies, rolled her eyes.

  “Gladys, I know you were a ballet dancer but not all of us are as graceful as you,” she answered back as she tripped over her own feet. Liza reached out to catch her before she could hit the snowy ground but Allison managed to correct her balance before she could fall.

  “No kidding,” Liza said with a chuckle.

  I paused to take off my mittens since I was starting to overheat from the hike. “Anyway, you’re going to have a hard time finding a lot of fellas in this town who are interested in ballroom dancing.” All three of my friends laughed at me like I was a standup comic. “What? What’s so funny?”

  “Megan Marie Harrison, while the rest of us might have trouble finding a partner, you know as well as we do that your dance card is well and truly filled,” Gladys said without turning around.

  “Not this again,” I groaned as I kicked snow in Glady’s direction. “Are you ever going to stop singing me this tune?”

  “Maybe when you stop carrying that torch,” Allison said from behind me. I stopped and put my hands on my hips.

  “Hey! Since when are you in on this?”

  Allison held her palms up defensively.

  “I’m just saying… three of the four of us are widows, Meg. We get it. But Griffin has been gone for a long time. I don’t think he’d be offended if you let Will Slater take you out to The Middle Road Inn for a burger or something.”

  I tucked my fingers up under my snow hat to rub my temples. I may have acted tough when it came to Will, but the truth was, I did still have feelings for him. I just wasn’t willing to give up my heart again. Not yet. I was sure Will understood it, even if my friends thought it was time to move on.

  “Can we stop talking about Will Slater for a minute and see if we can figure out who destroyed the window at Goldie Oldies? I’m pretty sure Kit would agree with me that her situation is a little more pressing than my love life?” I said as I stubbornly picked up my pace to catch up with Gladys.

  “I don’t believe she would, but catch us up anyway,” Liza said, huffing and puffing a few feet behind us. I told Allison and Liza everything we’d learned and while it seemed like a lot at the time, I realized we weren’t exactly better off than where we started. Just as we reached the scenic overview on the hiking trail that meant it was time to turn back, Gladys and I finished filling the other ladies in.

  “So, that’s where we’re at. None of Ruthie Middleton’s family still lives in Wintervale as far as we know and no one could ever figure out who this Levine person was,” I said while we stretched. Suddenly, it was as if a lightbulb went on over Liza’s head.

  “Did you say her last name was Middleton?” Gladys and I both nodded. “Before Thanksgiving, I went to the nursing home on the other side of town, Wintervale Glen, to donate some dresses to the ladies there for the holiday. I could swear I heard one of the women yelling at a man with the last name Middleton. It doesn’t have to be the same family, I suppose. But it’s interesting, nonetheless.”

  Gladys nodded like she was hearing a guitar riff in her head… which she probably was. “Okay, well, that works out! Because Meg and I are teaching that exercise class for seniors over at Wintervale Glen tomorrow.”

  Liza just stared at us with her eyes wide.

  “Are you from some alien planet where the older you get, the stronger you get?” she asked, still breathing hard from the last leg of the hike. I gave her a gentle punch on the arm.

  “You just wait. A few more years of hikes like this and you may catch up with Glady and me yet!”

  Liza looked horrified. “You do these every year?”

  Gladys and I couldn’t help but laugh. While Gladys encouraged the other ladies down the hiking path, I made mental notes of everything Liza had said. If there was a member of the Middleton family still in Wintervale, even after all these years…

  Could they be the one who stole Ruthie’s star?

  Chapter Seven

  Gladys and I were unpacking our exercise equipment from the trunk of her car when the woman who ran Wintervale Glen, Bernadette Martin, came out to help. Wintervale Glen Community for Active Seniors, or The Glen as it was called by the residents, was a really nice place, even nicer than the senior living community in Hadleigh. Back when I broke my leg, I actually considered moving there but in the end, I couldn’t give up the house my kids and my granddaughter, Belle, had grown up in. Eventually, my leg healed and I felt even stronger than I had before, so I was glad I hadn’t moved.

  No one else was happy about my decision to stay put, though, mostly because Will lived in one of the condos on the property and they were rooting for a proximity romance. I had started to wonder if they were more invested in my love life than I was.

  “Ladies!” Bernadette said in her usual cheery tone. I don’t know how she managed to stay so perky all the time but I wished she would bottle her energy and sell it. “You’re going to have a big class today. Everyone seems to want to work off some of those holiday calories. We’ve cleared out the TV room for you, so you should be good to go!”

  Gladys poked me in the ribs, as if I’d forgotten the one thing we’d been talking about in the car all the way from my house to The Glen.

  “Before we get started, I have a quick question, Bernadette. Do you have anyone living here with the last name ‘Middleton?’ One of our ladies th
ought she might have heard something to that effect.”

  At first, Bernadette looked like she was uncomfortable, and I couldn’t say I blamed her. I wasn’t even sure she was allowed to tell us about the residents of The Glen and I didn’t want to get her in trouble. But then, Bernadette sighed and nodded, as if she were exhausted just thinking about it.

  “You must be talking about Murray Middleton. He’s one of our oldest residents and he’s been living here since before the condos were added. He’s… a card,” she tried to say gently, though Gladys and I got the hint. We knew plenty of people from The Glen who were a bit crabby but it was rarely anything that Gladys and I couldn’t handle with a good attitude and our Green Mountain Granny can-do spirit.

  “Bernadette, would you mind if we sat down and chatted with Mr. Middleton for a few minutes before we start the exercise class? It shouldn’t take long but it’s really important,” Gladys said as she adjusted the yoga mat under her arm. Bernadette looked apprehensive.

  “Gladys, Meg, you are both troopers and everyone here loves you. But Mr. Middleton is a little bit… prickly? If he doesn’t know you, he’s worse. I’m not sure I’d recommend just walking up to him and starting a conversation.”

  Gladys elbowed me in the ribs again and I smacked her hand away. I knew how important it was that we spoke to Mr. Middleton and I had no intention of leaving The Glen before we did. But if she kept popping me in the ribcage, I wasn’t going to be able to help with the exercise class.

  “I don’t want to be a pest, Bernadette,” I started, knowing I was being a pest, “but when I said that it was important, I mean it’s a matter of life and death.”

  A little exaggeration never hurt anyone, right, Meg? I thought as I examined Bernadette for any sign that her defenses were crumbling. When her shoulders slumped with a sigh, I knew I’d won her over.

  “Alright, I’ll take you to him. He’s probably in the sun room playing chess this time of day,” she said as she looked at her watch. “But I can’t promise he’ll be cooperative.”

  “We just need the chance,” Gladys said quickly before Bernadette changed her mind. She nodded and we followed her into The Glen, a sunny, friendly place that looked more like a resort than an assisted living facility. Back in my younger days, when I worked as a physical therapist, I saw my fair share of substandard nursing homes. I couldn’t help but be proud that Wintervale had a place for their residents that was more worthy of the town’s seniors.

  Gladys and I followed Bernadette to a bright sun porch at the back of the main building. It looked out over a babbling brook and had a beautiful view of the Green Mountains. Unexpectedly, though, the porch was completely empty except for one grumpy-looking old man. He was sitting in the corner at a chess table and it looked like he was playing a match against himself.

  “Where is everyone?” Gladys asked curiously.

  Bernadette cleared her throat softly and whispered, “Murray tends to clear the room when he shows up. Let’s just say he’s not one of our more popular residents. I’ll let the exercise class know you’ll be with them in about ten minutes?”

  I nodded. If Murray Middleton was as unpleasant as Bernadette described, it didn’t feel like we were going to get far with our questions. Once we were alone, Gladys and I apprehensively approached the elderly gentleman. There was nothing terribly remarkable about him at first, but then I noticed he had Ruthie Middleton’s emerald green eyes…

  I wonder how he and Ruthie are related, if they are at all, of course.

  “Mr. Middleton? Mr. Murray Middleton?” Gladys asked first in her cheery California lilt. Mr. Middleton didn’t look up from his chess board.

  “It depends. Does he own you money?”

  “No,” Gladys and I answered in unison.

  “Did he borrow a lawn mower from you in 1967 and break it by running over an ugly lawn gnome you insisted on keeping on his side of the property line?”

  “No…” we answered together again.

  “Did he marry you in Vegas before he joined the Air Force and then never call you again?”

  “You did that?” Gladys asked incredulously.

  “Never said I did. But did Murray Middleton do that to you?”

  “No,” we said again, though I could see Gladys getting a little peeved. The old man finally looked up from his chess board.

  “Then, yes. I’m Murray Middleton. What do you want?”

  I could see out of the corner of my eye that Gladys was still fuming over the Vegas thing, so I suspected it was best if I took over from here.

  “Mr. Middleton, are you related to a woman named Ruthie Middleton? She passed away in 1974, so I know it’s been sometime but...”

  For the briefest flash of a second, I thought I saw sadness in Mr. Middleton’s eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

  “Ruth was my baby sister. I was still in Vietnam when she died. What’s it to you, anyway? She’s been dead for forty-five years.”

  I could feel Gladys’s energy getting more and more negative, so I stepped in front of her, just in case she started to give Murray the evil eye.

  “Mr. Middleton, an ornament that belonged to your sister was in the care of a friend of mine for the past forty-five years and someone stole it a couple of nights ago. We were hoping that if you were related to Ruthie, you might be able to give us some information to help us get it back. Kit is really devastated about the whole thing. She and Ruthie were good friends and that star…”

  Murray held up a bony old hand to stop me from saying anything else.

  “Listen, lady. I don’t know anything about any star. If you’re so curious, why don’t you go look it up at the library? Or how about on the internet? Everything is supposed to be on there nowadays. I don’t care what you do or how you do it. Just leave me the heck out of it.” Murray reached for a walker that was folded up in the corner, opened it up, then stood up from his chair. “Thanks a lot for ruining a perfectly good chess match. I was just about to win.”

  The man slowly inched away leaning on his walker, leaving Gladys and I standing there like bumps on a log. Suddenly, Gladys found her voice again and yelled after him,

  “Some loss! You were playing against yourself, you old coot!”

  Now it was my turn to give her an elbow pop in the ribs.

  “Gladys, if you insult him like that, he’s never going to tell us anything!”

  She scoffed and shook her head.

  “What makes you think he’s going to tell us anything anyway? I can’t believe that cranky old codger is Ruthie’s brother. I don’t even remember Ruthie having a brother.”

  Actually… I did remember the Middleton’s mentioning an older son who was in the military, but I don’t think I met him even once. If I focused as hard as I could manage, I remembered a photo of a handsome man in a military uniform, but that was it. Had Murray Middleton really been in Wintervale all this time without any of Ruthie’s friends knowing about it?

  I looked at my phone and saw our ten minutes were up five minutes ago.

  “We need to get to the class but that ‘old codger’ did have one good idea. We’re going to need to do some research on the internet and at the library. And I know just the mini super sleuth to help us. Now… let’s get in that TV room and break a sweat!”

  Gladys was filled to the brim with nervous energy and impossible to tolerate when she was like that, so I had a feeling the workout was going to benefit everyone today...

  Chapter Eight

  Between Christmas craziness at Meow & Then, worrying about Kit, and meeting Murray Middleton at The Glen, it had been one exhausting day. By the time I got home to the cats, I was grateful for the quiet of the house, even though they were both meowing for their dinner like I’d been gone for a week.

  “Alright, boys. Alright, let me get inside before your yowling wakes up every cat in Wintervale.” Henry was about as old as I was, but you’d never know it when it came to dinner time. He leapt from the floor up on
to my shoulder and nuzzled against my cheek until I finally went into the kitchen. “You are the most determined boys in this entire city, I can tell you that much.”

  I had just finished filling their bowls when there was a knock on my front door. I pushed aside the curtain and saw that Will Slater was standing on my porch.

  “I spoke too soon,” I said as I opened the door.

  “You what?”

  “Nevermind. What can I do for you, Will?”

  He took off his baseball hat and nodded politely. “Would you mind terribly if I came in, Meggie?”

  I hadn’t grocery shopped in a few days and the house was a mess since I’d been at the shop so much, but I had a feeling Will had seen worse.

  “Sure. I’ll put on some coffee. But I’m wiped out and was hoping to get to bed early…”

  “I promise not to overstay my welcome,” he said as he took off his jacket and hung it by the door. “Just one cup of coffee and then I’ll be on my way.”

  I couldn’t help but notice that Will had an old file folder tucked under his arm, or that he looked awfully handsome in his heavy, dark green sweater. But since only one of those things was pertinent to the current situation, I tried to put the other out of my head completely. Instead, I got the coffee maker going and gestured for Will to take a seat at the table while I grabbed a box of cookies Belle gave me the day before.

  “As much as I appreciate the company, that folder tells me you aren’t just here on a social call,” I said as I set the cookies on the table. Will nodded in agreement.

  “I wish it was social, Meg, but I think you’ll be glad I’m here just the same. After I last saw you, I decided to go through some of my old boxes of files that I kept in the attic when I retired. Along with those boxes were a few that belonged to Skip Lessing, the sheriff I trained under. It had been a long time since I thought about the Middleton family, but with the ornament and all the talk of Ruthie going around again, something clicked.”