Christmas Shop Murder

by Linnea West

  "Could we wait until Wednesday and do our grand opening then?" I asked as I shoved the flyer under her nose. "Wednesday is the Downtown Shady Lake Holiday Shopping Night."

  Sue read the flyer a few times with a blank look on her face as I tried not to make excited noises. After a moment, she set it down and looked at me.

  "I can't believe I forgot about this," she said, gesturing to the flyer. "That is a great idea Tessa. We could do the grand opening at six when people are out and about shopping. Hopefully the ribbon cutting will draw people over."

  "I can believe you forgot it," I said. "You've had some bigger things on your mind than that. But I think that will be perfect. Hold on a minute and I will try to mesh these two plans together."

  We ate in silence for a bit while I combined plans for the quick grand opening and the big grand opening together. It was like the best of both worlds and I hoped that it would make up for the event that had derailed the first grand opening.

  Once I had the plan written down, I went to the kitchen to grab us both a slice of apple pie that we had leftover from Thanksgiving. I was hoping it would entice Sue to eat a bit more. She had just picked at her lunch and while I was sure she was still pretty shaken up by the murder, I also knew that she was so skinny that she couldn't stand to lose any weight.

  I sat down and took a few bites of the warmed pie with whipped cream before I started to explain my plan to her. I had previously worked in marketing, so I told her I would come up with a short-term marketing plan if she would agree to some sort of grand opening sale. Sue nodded and agreed to figure out a good sale. I was just hoping I wouldn't have to talk to Chelsea at the newspaper. She thrived on the crime beat and would want to spin the whole story to be about the murder instead of about the holiday store.

  Then I told Sue my other ideas for the opening. I knew that one of the high school choirs was performing at the shopping event and I said I would talk to the director to see if they could perform a special song in front of the store. We also had at least two strands of lights leftover from the house decorating and I knew I could use them to decorate her windows a bit more. I would jazz up the window displays.

  Throughout my explanation, Sue nodded along and looked like she was listening, but the twinkle in her eye was gone. When she first came up with the idea for the Christmas Shop, she had been so excited that she practically danced when she talked about it. Her eyes twinkled merrily and you could just see her passion.

  But now her eyes were dull and lifeless. I wasn't sure if Sue had just taken the entire situation really hard or if there was something else going on. I wouldn't blame her if she had been hit really hard. After all, someone had been murdered in her shop. That is a pretty big deal.

  After I finished telling her the plan, I sat back and waited for her to give her input. She ate a few more bites of her apple pie and I was pleased to see she had eaten nearly the entire slice while I had rambled on. That was a good sign.

  "I think that is a great plan Tessa," Sue said. "I'm so glad you have agreed to help me. I don't know what I would do without you."

  "Well don't worry, I'm going to be here with you through the holiday season," I said, even though I wasn't exactly sure how I was supposed to get everything done. I would just have to manage. At some points in life, you just get through and the next couple of weeks would be one of those times for me.

  We wrapped up a few final details, writing down what each of us would need to do. Then, we agreed to meet the next day to update each other and decide on the next steps. We would need to work really hard to get everything ready, but Sue didn't have anyone else to help her.

  When it was time for her to leave, I walked her out to the front door. As we said goodbye, she paused for a while, like she didn't really want to leave. I took my chance to ask her what was going on.

  "Sue, are you okay?" I asked gently. "You seem to be really distracted. I know you've had a lot going on, but is there something else you'd like to tell me?"

  Sue shifted her weight back and forth, wringing her mittened hands together. I took her momentary silence to mean that there was something else going on. It was like she was deciding if she really wanted to divulge the information to me.

  "I'm just a bit distracted," she finally said. "But there isn't much I can tell you about."

  "I'm always here if you need to talk," I said. Sue may not have a family, but we were the closest thing she did have.

  "Thank you Tessa," she said.

  As I watched her leave from the front window, I thought about Rich again. Maybe I should have asked her specifically about him. But she already seemed so sad. I didn't want to make it even worse. Besides, we didn't have time to dwell on Rich right now. We had another grand opening to plan out.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The beginning of the week had flown by in a bustle. I had been able to have the local paper put in a story about the new grand opening. I had also been able to have a different reporter do the story, so the story was actually about the store and not the murder. I worked on the window displays in the evening, spending the days working at the B&B and getting the outside decorated for the contest while also making sure my mother was well taken care of.

  Finally Wednesday dawned and it was such a big deal in my family that we helped my mother get ready and bundle up before getting her in the station wagon along with a wheelchair we rented for the occasion. When I had told her about our plans for the grand opening, she had told me that in no uncertain terms would she miss it.

  That morning, we had put up the ribbon in front of the door to drum up some more interest. The longer the ribbon was up, the more people would see it and remember our ribbon cutting ceremony that night. Between that and the deal that Sue had decided to offer on most of the Christmas ornaments, we were hoping for a stellar night.

  Now a crowd was starting to gather outside of the door as Sue and I waited inside. Rich's daughter Marie had come over with a giant pair of scissors that Rich had been planning to give Sue for the ceremony. Marie had seemed cold and nonchalant, not wishing us a good opening. She probably didn't have room for good feelings right now as her father was in jail and she had to keep running the Loony Bin.

  Outside, bundled up locals of all ages were gathered. Main Street had been shut down for the event so that people could walk up and down without being afraid of being hit by a car. Right now, they were all turned to face the high school choir who was standing in the middle of the street singing a few songs that they had thrown together last minute for us. When I had approached the choir director, it turns out Sue had just brought her a hot dish for supper a month or so ago when her kids were sick at home. She agreed to put on a good performance for the opening and she had delivered.

  Inside, I was starting to get nervous. What if the only people who came were looky-loos? What if they didn't actually want to come inside or they came in, but only to see where a murder had occurred instead of buying anything? I just wanted this to be as successful as possible for Sue.

  We could just barely hear the choir outside as they finished up their last song. The crowd applauded and then shuffled around to face the store again. I turned to look at Sue.

  "Let's get out there and get this ribbon cut," I said.

  I grabbed the giant pair of scissors and opened the door for Sue to go through first. It was her store, so it was only right for her to go first.

  My dad and Tank were standing just to the right of the door with my mother in front of them in her wheelchair. She looked the coziest of all, all wrapped up in a fluffy blanket. Mandy and Trevor were next to them and I could see Clark standing at the back of the crowd. I smiled at my family and gave a little wave to Clark, who winked at me over the heads of some of the townspeople. Max was on duty, so I had figured I wouldn't see him at the grand opening and I was right.

  "Welcome everyone," I said once the talking had died down a bit. "We are so glad you are here to help us open this shop. I personally have seen how ex
citing this entire idea has been for Sue and I have been so glad to help her with this passion project of hers. Now, I'll turn it over to the woman of the hour."

  Everyone clapped for Sue as she shyly smiled. The sparkle in her eyes had returned a bit and I was glad to see she had perked up.

  "Thank you everyone," she said quietly. "I hope you all love this shop as much as I do. I have picked out every item in here and I hope you love them. Without further ado, I'm going to cut the ribbon."

  I handed her the giant pair of scissors and after she tried to wrangle them all by herself with little success, I helped her pick them up and clip the ribbon. As it fell to the ground, the crowd clapped and cheered again and a few camera flashbulbs went off.

  Sue was the first person back into the store followed by Tank, who had agreed to come in right away to help with the initial surge of customers. I stepped back and pressed myself against the wall. I couldn't move anywhere else as the people pushed into the store. My parents hung back, not wanting to try to maneuver a wheelchair through the giant, bustling crowd. I gave them a little wave as I waited to be able to cross over to them.

  First, though, I saw Jill coming through the crowd. She was only wearing a thin fleece jacket and she looked upset, but I wasn't sure why. She may just be too cold. I put my hand out and grabbed her arm as she came by me.

  "Oh hi there Tessa," she said, stepping over to stand next to her. "You did a great job of getting the store back on it's feet."

  "Thanks Jill," I said. "How have you been? I hope you haven't had to be out of your apartment too much for the police."

  "Oh no," Jill said, her eyes darting around. "They did come up and do a quick interview with me, but otherwise I haven't really been bothered by them. I've been busy making a lot of jewelry for the store, do you think I could bring them in tomorrow? I didn't want to bother you too much before the grand opening."

  I nodded and studied her face. Jill's eyes were puffy and red. She looked like she hadn't been sleeping well, like she had been up all night crying instead. I didn't know Jill very well but I just couldn't stop my mouth from shooting off.

  "Are you okay Jill? You look like you've been crying."

  Jill's cheeks went red and she reached up to touch her face. Now, she just looked embarrassed instead of upset. That is definitely not the reaction I had wanted from her.

  "Oh yeah," she said. "I was just watching a sad movie while I finished up a few more necklaces to sell. I should probably just go back up to my apartment if I look that bad."

  "You don't look bad," I said in a hurry. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

  "That's really sweet of you," she said. "Have a good evening."

  Jill turned and rushed away so quickly that she bumped into an old lady who was trying to come into the store, causing her to stumble. As someone in the crowd grabbed the lady to make sure she didn't fall down, Jill continued on without even offering an apology.

  As I waited for the crowd to finally die down, I thought about how weird that interaction had been. I didn't really know Jill, so maybe she was just an anxious person in general. I decided not to hold it against her. It had been a weird week for all of us.

  Instead, I walked up and down Main Street with my parents as we waited for the crowd inside the Christmas Shop to die down a bit and make enough room for a wheelchair to come in. We bought a corndog from a food truck for dinner and a funnel cake for dessert. Then we sat on a picnic bench that had been set up as we listened to holiday music that was being piped out over some speakers.

  This was the first year that Shady Lake had put on this holiday shopping event and from what I could see, it was a raging success. The streets and shop were filled with people and the entire area was so festive that it looked like it should be a picture in a calendar.

  The tops of the buildings were lined with large, white lightbulbs and garlands with lights were strung from lamppost to lamppost and crisscrossed across the street. Large wreaths were hung on every lamppost and a large Christmas tree had been erected in the small park at the end of the street. The tree lighting ceremony had happened on Black Friday, but unfortunately we had missed it because of the murder and then Tank being questioned. I promised myself I would go next year. At least I was seeing it now.

  The town Christmas tree was a real tree that had been planted in the park decades ago and was decorated each year with strands of large Christmas lights and big, plastic ornaments. There was a giant gold star on the top which had been put on shortly before the tree lighting ceremony last week. It also had a light inside, so even when it was dark you could see the star shape at the top. It was extraordinary to look at and I almost couldn't tear myself away, but I knew my mother was dying to see the Christmas Shop.

  When we got back to the store, the initial rush had cleared out and while there were still a lot of people browsing, it was clear enough to bring a wheelchair through. I helped lift the chair up over the lip of the front door and my parents went off to browse while I went to see how Sue and Tank were doing. Tank was running the register while Sue flitted around the store helping customers. It looked like her spark was back, at least for now.

  I waited while Tank rang up a few purchases and the next time he hit a small lull in people wanting to pay, I stepped up to the counter. I had to smile at the uniform that Sue had decided on. It was just a red shirt with a little green apron over it and a red Santa hat. It was easy, but also festive.

  "How is it going?" I asked. I had snuck a peek at his cash register's drawer during the last few transactions and it looked pretty full of cash which made me extra happy.

  "Really good," Tank said with a toothy smile. "We've had a steady stream of paying customers ever since you guys cut the ribbon. And people are buying lots of things, not just the cheap stuff."

  "I'm so glad to hear that," I said. I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I was a little bit afraid that people would just come in to look at where it happened."

  "You weren't the only one who was afraid of it," Tank said. "Quite a few people have also mentioned that to me. But it really is going great. Hopefully we can keep up the crowds."

  I was going to keep talking, but just then another customer came up with purchases to pay for. So I waved goodbye at Tank and went to find my parents. They were standing next to the giant nativity set I had set up, admiring the craftsmanship. I was happy to see that most of the boxed pieces had already sold.

  "We were just waiting to say goodbye," my dad said as I walked up.

  "And we were admiring this beautiful nativity set," my mother said.

  "Isn't that great?" I said. "It is all hand-crafted. And would you like me to drive you home? I'm not ready to leave, but I can drive you home and come back."

  "Oh, I don't think you'll have trouble finding a ride home," my mom said, nodding behind me.

  I turned and saw Clark standing next to the Christmas tree by the door. When I caught his eye, he gave me a little wave and started to walk towards me. I turned back to my parents and blushed a bit, but said my goodbyes.

  "Hi there, would you like to go walk around a bit?" Clark asked.

  "Sure, as long as you can provide a lift home later," I said, smiling at him.

  "I think I can do that," he said as he slipped his hand into mine. I waved one more time at my parents before Clark and I left to walk up and down Main Street, taking in the holiday magic together.

  Chapter Seventeen

  My mom's vision for the holiday decorating contest had been intricate and detailed. Thankfully I had roped Clark into helping. Once school was over, he had driven straight to my house in his old pickup truck and then I had put him to work.

  The theme of the B&B was backyard birds, so my mother had envisioned larger than life displays of the different birds. Thankfully, I was semi-artistic and had painted some large pieces of plywood as large blue jays, cardinals, and chickadees. Then I had taken blue, red, and white Christmas lights and outlined each bird in the appropriat
e color.

  Now, Clark was helping me figure out how to get them set up in the yard. We needed them to be firmly set up so that wind or heavy snow couldn't knock them over, but we needed to make sure it didn't look too cheap either. While he did that, I worked on the other part of the plan.

  We had a little backyard shed that we had dragged into the front yard. We lined it with Christmas lights and put up a Christmas tree outside of it. We wanted it to look like the birds were decorating for Christmas. The problem right now was that we didn't want it to be too cartoonlike. Of course, I wasn't sure how to tell my mom that there really wasn't a way to make "birds decorating for Christmas" look elegant and classy.

  I stood on the sidewalk in front of the B&B looking at the display and wondering what we could add or change. Clark was busy getting the birds stood up which was honestly helping quite a bit. I had been hard at work all day on this display and I needed a distraction now.

  I scooped up a handful of snow in my mittens and shaped it into a ball. Clark was busy attaching some poles to the back of one of the cardinals, so I snuck up behind him and yelled his name. When he straightened up and turned to look at me, I chucked the snowball straight at him, hitting him square in the chest.

  "Tessa!" he shouted in surprise. He scooped up a bunch of snow and I was not going to take any chances. I turned and hightailed it into the backyard.

  I hid behind a bush and quickly made another snowball so that when he came running around the corner of the house I nailed him with an other snowball, this time right in his stomach. I had made the mistake of blocking myself in so that once I started running, he already had a head start and easily caught up to me to hit me in the back with his snowball.

  Clark grabbed me around the waist and tackled me into a snowbank. He pretended like he was going to push my face in the snow and whitewash me, but instead he just leaned down and gave me a big kiss. We laid for a little while in the snow, kissing and holding hands. We were both dressed for the weather, so laying in the snow was okay, especially when we were warming each other up.