BETTER WATCH OUT

by Christina Freeburn

  His furry body tensed. Ebenezer sputtered out small hissing sounds. I spun, crossing my other arm over Ebenezer to protect him. A fiber optic scarf blew gently in the wind. I planted a kiss on Ebenezer’s head. “I guess you don’t like eight-foot tall hamsters. Don’t worry. Hammy won’t hurt you.”

  I had a feeling Ebenezer doubted it. His body didn’t relax until after we crossed the street. I knocked on Cornelius’s door.

  The curtain moved. Cornelius peered out, green eyes glaring at me. “Can’t you tell it’s dark outside?” He yelled through the closed door. “Decent people don’t come visiting at this hour.”

  “I’m not visiting. I’m here for information. Did you see who put a package at my door?”

  “I’m not your doorman.” The curtain fell back into place.

  “Someone put a naughty list with my name on it at my door.”

  A barrage of deadbolts clicked out from the cylinder. The door was cracked open, showing one of Cornelius’s eyes. He looked a little amused. “Now why would someone go and do that?”

  “Not sure.”

  Ebenezer wiggled in my arms, trying to get a sniff at the eyeball peering out at us.

  “Let me guess, you’ve been making someone’s business yours that you shouldn’t have been.”

  “This isn’t the first naughty sign to show up with someone’s name on it. They took a risk stopping by my house. Everyone knows you keep an eye on what’s going on around here.”

  “True. So, that makes this our problem.” Cornelius opened the door wider, motioning for me to come inside. “This is what I get for deciding to live near a nosy woman. I hadn’t heard anything about a sign. I’d have kept a better watch if I’d known those were being placed around town.”

  I decided not to remind him that I had moved in second. “Don’t tell anyone I told you about the sign. The police wouldn’t be happy with me. It’s not common knowledge.”

  “Lately, they don’t ever seem to be happy with you. Orville looked downright miffed when he was at your place earlier.” His eyes widened. “Was it another sign?

  “Other items related to the Wilcox case.”

  His mouth twitched, fighting a smile. “You a suspect again.”

  “No.” I squealed as Ebenezer wiggled himself, behind first, from my grasp and plopped onto the floor. He scurried down the hallway.

  “You brought a rodent into my house.” Cornelius took off after Ebenezer.

  “He’s a guinea pig.”

  “Makes him a rodent. Look it up.” Cornelius shouted at me. “Great. Now he’s under there.”

  I followed after Cornelius, stopping just before I stepped fully into his living room. I gawked. I felt lightheaded, giddiness rushed through. His living room was a Christmas spectacular. There were multicolored Christmas lights strung up on the wall. A wooden handmade creche with wooden handmade nativity figures was under the Christmas tree. White lights were attached to the roof and inside the manger, twinkling a heavenly glow around the Holy family.

  Every inch of the room had an ode to Christmas, whether it was a Santa figurine, a miniature Christmas scene, or a wireless musical decoration. The room looked like the most amazing Christmas store ever. I didn’t know Cornelius had this type of over-the-top, every inch full of holiday charm, Christmas bedazzled at the finest, in him. I was kind of in love.

  Ebenezer’s furry head poked out from behind the creche. His eyes glowing evilly from the effect of the lights above his head. Gazing up at the lights, Ebenezer rose and opened his mouth, ready to gnaw on the tempting wires.

  “He better not bite it.” Cornelius glared at my furry sidekick, who was taking an interest in the lights on the tree.

  “I’ll get him.” I dropped to my hands and knees. Ebenezer’s eyes lit up and he wiggled his nose and scampered out, hiding behind the presents located near the wall. “We’re not playing hide and seek, you rascal. Get out from under there.”

  Flattening myself to the floor, I shimmied underneath. Ornaments jingled and jangled. The branches swayed.

  “You better not break anything.”

  “Ebenezer, you’re not being a very good guest.” I moved presents out of the way. For someone who didn’t like Christmas, Cornelius sure did complete a lot of shopping this holiday season. He wasn’t quite the curmudgeon of Christmas that I pegged him for.

  “Why did you bring that creature with you?” Cornelius voice came from up above.

  I glanced up. Cornelius had moved aside a branch and was glaring down at me. “Because he’s not that into people.”

  “Well, I ain’t that in to him.”

  Neither was I at the particular moment. The critter was taunting me. Ebenezer cha-chaed a few inches from my fingertips, moving closer than farther. “It was dark and if someone was trying to sneak up on me, he’d let me know.”

  “Why would anyone do that?”

  “For the same reason they left a naughty sign with my name on it.”

  “You brought a rodent into their house too.”

  “No. It was…never mind.” Why did I think talking to Cornelius would get me any information? The man was about as cooperative as Ebenezer. A door started to open.

  I froze. Jack. I had totally forgotten about his car being outside. What if he had left the sign by my door? Not one motive popped into my head. A huge change for me as lately I was good at thinking of reasons for people to be added to a naughty list.

  Ebenezer whizzed past me.

  “Stop him.” I wiggled out, doing everything in my power not to knock over Cornelius’s Christmas tree. Long, muscled arms snagged Ebenezer before he made it out of the living room.

  “Uncle Corn, why is there a woman under the tree?” Jack asked.

  I scooted backwards as fast as my knees allowed. Watching me with amusement was veteran, former bodyguard of the mayor, and forensic auditor, Jack—Cornelius’ nephew.

  “I didn’t know you had a nephew.” Or a niece and grand nephews and nieces. Though, I did see the family resemblance in the behavior shared by Jack’s niece and his uncle.

  Jack’s brows quirked up and he turned toward his uncle. Ebenezer tried to break out of Jack’s firm hold. With what sounded like a defeated sigh, Ebenezer relaxed his body, feet and head dangling down. He looked like a floppy, stuffed toy.

  “What are you doing here?” I narrowed my eyes on Jack.

  “I thought we established that.” There was a twinkle in Jack’s eyes. “Visiting family.”

  Okay, he had me there. He wasn’t over here for forensic auditing business. “You lied to me.”

  His brows quirked up. “Excuse me.”

  “You. Lied. To. Me. You said you were a security guard.”

  Cornelius snorted.

  “No, you thought I was security guard and I just went along with it. Seemed better to have a cover, and it was a valid reason for searching items and asking questions.”

  “You had no right to go through my bag. What would you have done if you had found something? It wouldn’t have been allowed as evidence in a court of law.”

  “The mayor was more interested in getting the money back than charging anyone with the crime.” Jack sounded disappointed. “He was certain you’d hand over the cash.”

  “I had nothing to do with it.” I stared at Cornelius with desperation in my gaze. I couldn’t stand for anyone to think I was a thief and in cahoots with Samuel. Who I was almost certain hadn’t borrowed or stolen the money. The police had gone through Samuel’s finances when he was murdered. They’d have found a large chunk of money that showed up in his back account without a job attached to it.

  “That’s what I told him. Kids don’t listen too well these days.” Cornelius righted the tree I had knocked askew. “The mayor only brought you and your maybe-husband into it because of the money. But apparently someone else feels diffe
rently.”

  “What does that mean?” Jack asked him.

  “Someone left the lady a sign with her name on it.”

  Jack’s features scrunched up in confusion.

  “A naughty list. The last—” I stopped talking. I probably shouldn’t share the last two people whose names I saw on a naughty list were now dead. And one of them was my first choice in having left the sign. Maybe, Jack saw someone. “Did you see anyone by my house? Or a package by my door when you arrived?”

  “No. I went over to your place right after I got here and there wasn’t anything by your front door. I’ve been in the attic dragging down Uncle Corn’s outside decorations.”

  He had outside decorations? Since I moved in, Cornelius had never placed even one string of lights on his house. Focus. Cornelius newfound Christmas love was not any of my concern. Could simply be his great-niece loved Christmas and he didn’t want to get on the child’s bad side. “What time did you stop by?”

  “About twenty minutes ago.”

  It wasn’t Eric. Twenty minutes ago, I was talking to the police about Eric stumbling into the road. Who had left the sign?

  “Are you okay?” Jack asked, stepping toward me.

  Ebenezer flung himself toward me, like he sensed I needed some comfort. I opened my arms and caught Ebenezer as he managed to escape Jack’s grasp. Ebenezer placed his front feet on my shoulders and cuddled into my cheek. My daughter had been right, getting a pet was a good idea. I stroked his soft fur.

  “It wasn’t Eric,” I croaked out.

  “Who put the sign at your door,” Jack finished the sentence.

  “How can you be sure of that?” Cornelius asked. “The man doesn’t like you.”

  My legs felt shaky. I sat on the ground. “Because he was dead.”

  “What’s going on?” Jack squatted beside me.

  “Twice I’ve found a sign that had additional names on it. Both of those people are dead.”

  “What?” The men stared at me.

  “After Norman and I found Jenna’s body in the bag, the naughty sign in One More Page’s window had her name on it. This afternoon, I found the same sign—that had been taken from me—in the garbage with Eric’s name on it.” I swallowed the lump of fear growing in my throat. “Twenty minutes ago, Eric was being removed off the asphalt after having fallen onto the road in front of my car.”

  “Now your name is on it.” Jack frowned. “I don’t like this.”

  Neither did I.

  Cornelius headed for the kitchen. “I’m calling the police.”

  “Do you have any idea who could’ve left the sign?”

  I shrugged. The person I had really ticked off was now dead and the other one—Rachel—was in jail. “Maybe it doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Do you really think that?”

  I wanted to.

  I sat on Cornelius’s couch, a sleeping Ebenezer in my arms as Orville collected evidence—the wrapping paper and sign—from my house. It was not being taking lightly. I had asked him numerous times about Rachel and the investigation into Eric’s death and received no response. Not even a stop asking me.

  What now? Or rather who? The only other person I had irritated was Sarah Heath. She wasn’t the leave a passive aggressive threat on someone’s door, more the barge into the house and confront them type.

  The image of a van flashed into my head. I hadn’t told Orville about the van. He had cut me off when I tried to earlier, probably thinking I was once again going to say I didn’t kill Eric.

  Jack and Cornelius, who were whispering in a corner, stared at me. Neither man looked pleased. Probably had overstayed my welcome. All my presence had done was involve them in a possible threat to my life and allowed Ebenezer to taste-test a few of Cornelius’s decorations. I had wanted to leave but decided this time to follow Orville’s directive and “stay put” until after he retrieved the items from my house. I had borrowed a jacket from Cornelius, zipped it up hallway and placed Ebenezer into the makeshift pouch. So far, it had contained my little buddy, and Ebenezer was snoozing away.

  The front door opened, and Orville stepped inside scanning the room. “Everything’s clear. You can return home.”

  I rose and jostled Ebenezer. He snorted and resettled into the jacket pouch. “I just remembered that a car drove by right before Eric fell into the road. A twelve-passenger van.”

  “We should discuss that elsewhere.” Orville glanced in Jack and Cornelius’s direction.

  My face heated. “They know about Eric dying.”

  Orville pressed his lips together. He was avoiding looking at me. There was something he wasn’t telling me, and he wished he could.

  Jack was watching both of us. “With Jenna having been killed, and now Eric dying, the mayor isn’t going to be able to keep the missing money under wraps. There are a few members in town who already know about it.”

  Orville sighed. “I know. You. Cornelius. The pastor and his wife. Norman. Rachel. Merry.”

  “And Nancy,” I added.

  “People are going to bring Merry’s name into it,” Jack said. “The mayor isn’t going to take the blame for it. He’s made that clear to me.”

  Orville faced me. “It might be best if you stayed somewhere else tonight. Just until I find out who left the sign there.”

  “I have a good guess…the person who was driving the twelve-passenger van.”

  “There are a lot of places someone could’ve been or heading to besides your house.”

  My face heated again. It was either the start of hot flashes, or my conscience giving me a physical scolding. It wasn’t nice to throw the pastor or his wife out as a suspect based on the fact Sarah was rude to me. “I’ll be fine at home.”

  “That’s not a good choice,” Jack said.

  “If someone is after me, I don’t want to put anyone else at risk.” Already did that once today and it wasn’t a burden I wanted to carry again.

  “You can stay here,” Cornelius said, a little begrudgingly. “I have a couch.”

  I was shocked that he offered. Though, I have a feeling his nephew pressured him to do so. “While I appreciate it, I don’t want to put you and your nephew at risk.”

  “He doesn’t stay here,” Cornelius said. “I doubt your rodent will let anyone sneak in here.”

  “I will stay here tonight.” Jack crossed his arms. “I won’t leave the two of you alone.”

  “Likely a smart thing,” Orville said. “Those two don’t get along too good.”

  “Cornelius and I are present.”

  “I’m not saying anything that isn’t the truth,” Orville said. “Maybe you can visit your kids in Morgantown.”

  There was no way I was going to bring whatever trouble I might have stepped into to my children. “No.”

  “Come on, Merry, be reasonable. You need to be somewhere safe or where the police can keep an eye on you. I can’t really stay here all night,” Orville said. “And Brianna has been pulling sixteen hour shifts since the murder. Heck, we all have.”

  I felt bad. For someone who didn’t like to cause strife, I sure was contributing a lot of it to my friends’ lives. How could I relieve their concerns and mine? The RV. I grinned. It was perfect.

  Orville groaned. “I don’t like that look.”

  “It’s perfect. Trust me.”

  Orville rolled his eyes.

  “My RV. I can stay in it tonight.”

  “How’s that going to help?” Orville crossed his arms over his barrel chest, courtesy of muscles and a bullet resistant vest.

  “I’ll park in the police station’s parking lot.”

  Twenty-Three

  When I bought the RV, I had envisioned many places I’d stay overnight: campgrounds, RV parks, schools, even Walmarts. A police station never entered my mind. I knelt on the couch in
the main living space of the RV and peered out the window. What was going on in there? There were a couple of police cruisers parked in front of the station, and I could see lights shining from the windows but no movement. I was parked at the farthest end of the station, facing it in a spot where I didn’t block the entrance and wasn’t too much of a spectacle.

  Ebenezer squealed and scratched at the couch. I leaned over and lifted him up. “Nothing going on. See?” I held him up to the window.

  There was nothing going on. Or at least nothing I could see. I should just go to sleep, there wasn’t much else to do besides spying on the police station, as I hadn’t retrieved any of my cutting machines or laptop from my house. I had wanted to show Orville I was going to be safe and snagged the keys from my house and jumped into the RV. Also, forgot about bringing a change of clothes. Fortunately, my holiday attire was quite comfortable.

  I could turn on the television and find a Christmas movie to watch. Hallmark played them 24/7 this time of the year. There was enough gas in the tank to keep the generator operational overnight. We’d be relatively warm and entertained. I’d feel better sleeping on the couch then tucked into the bedroom in the back of the RV.

  The parking lot turned brighter. A beam of headlights lighted the way to the police station. I leaned closer to the window, my nose almost touching the glass. A dark colored jeep parked in front of the station.

  Jack? I ran to the craft area and stared out the window across from my work station, hoping to get a better look at the person entering the station. I couldn’t tell, though I was pretty sure it was Jack. Was he coming to the station to turn in evidence regarding the embezzling?

  There was one way to find out, ask him. I made coffee and a bowl of popcorn. After snagging a blanket from the bedroom, I made my way down the step, raising up my glasses as the cold air fogged them up. I settled on the bottom step, tucking part of the blanket underneath me to ward off the chill and being careful not to spill the mug of coffee in my other hand. The popcorn bowl was beside me. The haze started to leave my glasses. It was the one thing I really disliked about winter, going from the warmth of a house or car to the outdoors usually blinded me for a few minutes.