Christmas Shop Murder

by Linnea West

  Hey Sweet Thing, I'll come get you tonight and we can go get a drink. Is that 911 emergency soon enough?

  I smiled when I read it. Max had been calling me Sweet Thing since we were in high school and it still made me blush with happiness every single time.

  That'll be fine. See you later :)

  The day was first spent dusting the main level and then hanging up holiday pictures and setting out holiday knick-knacks. Before my mother sprung this party on me, I had been planning on scrimping a bit on the interior decorations because I was just too busy to do everything. Thankfully, Trina was in town staying with her fiance over the holiday break and she was able to work the desk for me more than originally planned so that I had one thing I didn't have to worry about.

  I lost myself so much in the decorating that I was confused to see Trina hurrying over to me as I was contemplating how to hang mistletoe in one of the doorways to the living room.

  "You look like a mess," she said. "Isn't Max going to be picking you up in like two minutes?"

  I pulled out my phone and flipped it open. Yikes! She was right.

  "Thank you Trina," I said, jumping to my feet and running to the stairs. As I took them two by two, I called back over my shoulder: "If he gets here, please stall for me. I won't take long!"

  I dashed past the living room yelling a hello to my mother before shutting myself in my room. Dating in a small town was not as easy as many might think. The nice thing about Max is that he is laid-back and doesn't expect me to spend hours getting ready. But anywhere we went out on the town, there would be someone there to judge.

  Looking in the mirror, I saw a cobweb stuck to my hair on one side. Gross! I picked it out and ran a brush through it, glad that it was still relatively straight from when I had done my hair a few days ago. I swiped on some eyeliner and some lip gloss and then took a look at my outfit.

  My outfit was currently an old t-shirt and jeans that were covered in dust. That obviously wouldn't do for a date. I pulled on a nicer pair of jeans and then looked in my closet. I had a drawer full of folded-up t-shirts in my nightstand, but I hung my nicer shirts in the closet. I tried not to take too much time on my decision, finally just pulling down a thin, sweater-like tunic that I put on over a tank top. I looked in the mirror and decided it would have to work for tonight.

  As I pulled my bedroom door back open, I could hear Trina yelling up the stairs.

  "Tessa, he is pulling into the driveway right now!"

  "Thanks Trina. I'll be right down."

  I grabbed my clutch purse and dashed into the living room to give my mother a quick hug before I bounded down the stairs. Max was standing just inside the front door and when he saw me, he smiled a wide smile. His blue eyes twinkled at me and I tried hard not to go to jelly inside.

  "Let's go get a drink at the Loony Bin," he said, holding my jacket up so I could slip my arms in.

  "Is that a good idea?" I asked, remembering how cold Rich's daughter Marie had been to us. "They aren't exactly going to be happy that you have their dad in custody for a murder."

  "That's partially the point," Max said. He gave a quick wave to Trina and held the door open for me. He put out his arm to help me down the stairs and I gladly accepted, knowing my family wouldn't survive the holiday season if I slipped on the ice also.

  "I want to show Rich's kids that there aren't any hard feelings on the side of the police," Max continued as he helped me into his car. He ran around the other side and hopped into the driver's seat. "And I wanted to tell you that he is no longer just a suspect. He is going to be put under arrest very soon."

  Oh boy, Max was sure going to hate me when I showed him what the emergency had been about. He never liked it much when I messed up his investigations. I couldn't really blame him. I peeked inside my purse to make sure the little plastic bag with the note was still inside. It was in there between my flip phone and my wallet along with a miniature flashlight.

  "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," I said. "See, I've done some looking around and I found something that I need to give you."

  Max shot me a look. I put my hands up in defense, knowing a tirade about me not butting into his investigation was about to follow.

  "Hear me out," I said quickly. "I went into the room Claire was staying in at the bed and breakfast because someone asked me to get something from in there. So I went in and I found something that may be relevant to your investigation."

  "We looked all over that room," Max said as he pulled into a parking spot in the lot across from the Loony Bin and the Christmas Shop. He turned to look at me. "How would you have found something that we didn't find?"

  "It helps when you work at the B&B and you can see when something is out of place, even if it is neat," I said. I explained the stack of magazines and finding the one that didn't belong and how the note fell out of it. I opened my purse and pulled out the little plastic bag with it inside.

  Max tentatively took the baggie and looked at the note through the clear plastic. I told him what it said so that we didn't have to open it in the car.

  "I thought it was important because I remember you saying that your theory about Rich being the murderer was that he found Claire in the store and confronted her," I said. "But this note proves that Claire was invited to the Christmas Shop by someone and I'm not a handwriting expert, but I think the handwritten bit was written by a female."

  I left out the bit about Sue being the person that Claire probably wanted to meet and the fact that Sue wore a gold charm bracelet. The police would get to that point eventually and I wasn't even sure I was right.

  Max sat for a moment staring at the bag before he looked up at me.

  "You know, I'm always glad when your investigating turns up something useful," he said. "But you really know how to make my job quite a bit harder. We were just ready to arrest him and now we have new evidence to take into consideration."

  "I know," I said. "But something was telling me Rich didn't murder Claire and I couldn't have him charged with murder when he wasn't the one who did it."

  Max took my hand and gave it a squeeze. I held onto his large, familiar hand. Max's hands were always warm and seeing as it had started to snow outside again, they felt delightful.

  "Here's what we are going to do," Max said. "I am going to have you put this back in your purse. Then we are going to go in there and have a drink. Then you are going to give me it again afterward and we are going to pretend we only did that once because then I'll have to immediately bring it in to the station. And I really don't want to cut our date short."

  Max shut off the engine and hopped out of the car. After so many years of dating, I knew to sit and wait in the car until he went around and opened my door too. The first date we went on, I tried to get myself out of the car and he had been so broody that he finally got mad at me over our artichoke and spinach dip appetizer and told me that he always wanted to be the one to let me out of the car. We had actually laughed about that just a few weeks ago because while he did still like to open and close my door for me, he was no longer the angry, broody teenager we all seem to start adult life as.

  As he opened the door and gave me his arm, I smiled at him. Unlike with Clark, I didn't have to look up to Max because we were about the same height. I loved that about him because I could stare into his beautiful blue eyes much more easily. I looked into them now and knew I was the only woman he would break police policy for. I'm not sure he would have even done that for his first wife.

  The rest of the night out went well. As expected, we received the stink eye from Rich's kids behind the bar, but it was somewhat off-set by Max throwing his hands up and telling them he came in peace. We had a drink and talked about the party I was suddenly planning.

  "So don't be surprised if this is the last time you see me before the party," I teased. "I have so much to do that I don't even really know where to start."

  "Well that's alright if I don't see you for a while," Max said wit
h a wink. "Lately you've just been making more trouble for me."

  I laughed before taking my last drink of wine. Max took the last dregs of his beer and stood up to grab our jackets. Ever the gentleman, he held mine up as I put my arms in. After throwing a few dollars onto the table for the server and waving to the regulars as we passed them by, we were out and back to the truck.

  As Max drove me home, I grabbed his hand and watched his face as we drove in and out of streetlights and the glow coming from the light displays. In high school, I was so sure I would be riding next to this man every day for the rest of my life. And then I left and we were over and I married Peter. But here I was, riding next to him again. Life was funny like that.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  As someone who doesn't have a normal 9-5 job, Mondays usually aren't as terrible as everyone makes them out to be. But this Monday was definitely one for the books. I spent the day frantically cleaning the main floor of the bed and breakfast. At least the house was pretty clean to start with since people did stay here, but for a party I knew my mom had much higher standards. If some of these townswomen came and saw some dust in the house, they would gossip about it for quite a while and I didn't want that for my mother.

  I have specific memories of coming home from school in the week before the party to see my mother cleaning literally every square inch of the house. She would pick a room, start at the top and clean everything: dusting all of the bits, cleaning ceiling fans, wiping down walls, cleaning baseboards, vacuuming furniture. If there was a way to clean something, it was cleaned.

  I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to cleaning, but I did my best to make my mother proud. I started with the front entry and finished that and the dining room before lunchtime. I made a vegetable stir fry for my lunch and ate it in the living room with my mother. After all of the sweets and junk food, a simple vegetable filled lunch was just what the doctor ordered.

  The next area to clean was the desk area, which I was glad about. I downloaded a true crime podcast on the desktop computer and listened to a story about a deranged doctor while I tidied. Of course we couldn't totally clear the desk area away as we were running a business, but I did put things in order and make a pile of things we needed for now, but that could be hidden away during the party.

  "Knock knock," Mandy said. She knew not to actually knock, but came right in. She was holding two cups of coffee that she had brought in the extra, extra large travel cups she kept hidden away mostly for me. "I come with refreshment and an extra set of hands."

  I rushed forward and grabbed the cup, slurping down the hot liquid. As much as I loved Mandy's donuts, I was extra happy to see she hadn't brought any with this time. I really wanted to be able to fit in my cute Christmas outfit but if I kept scarfing down the sweets I would need to wear my nightgown instead. I did give myself a pat on the back for my lovely, healthy lunch.

  After a short break to drink a bit of coffee, Mandy and I headed to the kitchen to clean it top to bottom. The kitchen wouldn't really be seen during the party, but that is where all of the food preparation would take place and my mother had a rule that the cleaner the kitchen was before a large event, the easier it was to get the kitchen back to clean.

  The cabinets were wiped down before we started on the counters. We worked in silence for a while, which is something you can comfortably do only with someone you've known for a long time. After a while, though, I needed to ask Mandy more about what she thought about Claire's murder.

  "Mandy, you hear a lot of things at the Donut Hut," I said as I wiped off the containers of flour and sugar that we kept on the counter. "What have people been saying about the murder?"

  "They mostly talk about how unfortunate it was for Sue," Mandy said. "It isn't like anyone really knew Claire, so they don't talk about her much except about her dog grooming plan. But no one is convinced that Sue or Rich really had anything to do with it. I think people have started to kind of forget about it, except for occasionally when they talk about how Rich shouldn't be the main suspect."

  That made sense. I had met Claire, so I at least saw her as a person but for anyone who hadn't been in the Christmas Shop that day, she was more like a mythical creature who only came to Shady Lake to end up dead. But I understood that the concern was more for Sue and her livelihood.

  "So I gave Max the note that I found yesterday," I said. "I gave it to him right after he told me that they were going to formally arrest Rich."

  Mandy had been down on her knees wiping off the lower cabinet faces, but now she sat back on her heels and stared up at me. She looked happily surprised by the news.

  "Really? Good, I just can't imagine Rich doing it," she said.

  "Don't worry, the note has thrown a wrench in that plan," I said. "But there is something else. I am starting to wonder if Sue really was the one who did it."

  "Oh Tessa, really?" Mandy said. Her eyes were still wide with surprise, but this time it was a bit less happy. "Why do you say that?"

  I told Mandy all about the charm bracelet I spotted on Sue's wrist and how it could potentially have been where the charm came from. Her mouth moved silently like she wanted to speak, but didn't know what to say. We went back to cleaning for a moment before Mandy finally spoke.

  "Couldn't the charm have just fallen off Sue's bracelet while she was stocking the shelves or something?" she said. "Wouldn't that make the most sense?"

  "If there hadn't been a murder that occurred right next to the charm, then I would agree," I said. "But haven't you noticed how weird Sue had been acting? She seems like she's residing in another dimension and just occasionally poking her head into ours to make sure everything is alright."

  "I'm not sure how she is supposed to act after someone has been murdered in her shop," Mandy said. "I think I'd be in a tailspin for a while if someone died in the Donut Hut even if it wasn't a murder. What if someone was murdered here at the B&B? How would you feel then?"

  She had a point. Death was hard and unexpected death was even harder. If it happened here, I know it would take a while to get back to where I felt okay. We continued to work in silence, moving on to scrubbing the oven and stove.

  We silently got to a point where we agreed the kitchen was clean, so we plopped ourselves onto the chairs in the eating area of the kitchen so that we could finish our coffee.

  "You know who else is acting weird?" I asked. "Jill. She asked me to find a necklace in Claire's room and I did, but when I messaged her to ask when we could meet, she hasn't gotten back to me."

  "As someone who lives above her shop in downtown, I can tell you that I've had the worry that if someone broke into the Donut Hut, they would come upstairs after not finding much to take," Mandy said. "I understand being quite shaken that a murder happened basically in my home while I blissfully slept upstairs."

  Darn that Mandy and her empathy, always setting me right with my thinking. She was right though. A murder is going to make people connected to it act weird and it doesn't mean that they are the murderer.

  Except in this case, one of them was the murderer and I wasn't sure it was the one they had in custody.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  When I woke up the next morning, I had a message from Jill saying she was free to meet that day. I had been starting to wonder if somehow she hadn't gotten my message, but I was glad she didn't wait much longer because as the party got closer, I had more and more to do. She invited me to come to her place late morning to return the necklace so after a bit more cleaning in the morning, I headed to Jill's house just before lunch.

  I found the outer door that lead upstairs to Jill's apartment. While Sue's shop was definitely in an old building, it didn't look old from the shop. It was just cozy. But the stairwell and hallway up to Jill's door looked old and shabby. The floor was covered with a threadbare, blue carpeting and the walls looked dirty, but I wasn't sure if that was just the horrible lighting or if they were actually dirty.

  Upstairs, there was only one
door which I assumed was for Jill's apartment. I knocked on the door and waited. One of the lights started to flicker and I immediately stuck my hand in my purse and grabbed hold of my flashlight, just in case. But I didn't need to use it because just then, the apartment door flew open.

  Jill was standing in the doorway, but she didn't offer any sort of greeting. I tried not to read too much into her behavior because, as Mandy pointed out, she was probably still somewhat terrified. But unlike the other day, she didn't seem frantic today. She seemed almost devoid of emotion, like a strange robot.

  "Hi Jill," I finally said. "Can I come in? I have the necklace for you."

  Jill stared at me for another beat before plastering a smile on her face and stepping aside to let me in. As I came in, she shut the door behind me and I looked around. The apartment was small. I was standing in the kitchen and eating area right now and through a beautiful set of wooden columns, it was open to the small living room. There were two doors on the right side of the room and I assumed these were for the bedroom and the bathroom.

  I followed Jill into the living room and saw that the windows looked over Main Street. They had a beautiful view of the holiday displays outside and I could imagine that the view of the lights at night was spectacular. The living room was sparsely decorated with a love seat and arm chair that didn't match, but seemed to be picked to complement each other. The couch was a green and dark blue plaid with a maroon throw on the back while the chair was mostly maroon with some dark blue buttons on the back.

  Jill sat down on the edge of the seat and stared at me as I sat myself on the couch. I looked around and noticed how sparse the walls were. I remember moving somewhere and not hanging anything on the walls for a while because that just felt almost too adult and official. There were only two pictures, but they were set on the television stand. One was a family portrait and the other was of a horse.

  I sat quietly while I took in everything around me. The quiet was making me a little nervous, but I wasn't sure why. The couch was scratchy when I put my hands down and for a moment, I almost forgot why I had come. But I knew Jill wasn't going to speak first, so I did.