Santa Sleuth (6 page)

“Scooter told me that you stopped by Ellie’s on the way home from town.”

“Yeah. It seems he’s going to be an elf in the play on Friday, and I wanted to ask her if she would sew his costume. She was happy to do it. She even said it would give her something to do, now that she had so much time on her hands. I can’t tell you how bad that made me feel.”

Zak stopped rinsing the dishes and turned to look at me. “It is not your fault the Hut burned down. Ellie doesn’t blame you for what happened.”

“Well, she should,” I retorted as I returned the watering can to the cupboard where we kept it. “I may not have lit the match that torched the place, but if I hadn’t confronted Jason none of this would have happened.”

Zak didn’t say anything, I imagined because he knew I had a point.

“You’re going to investigate, aren’t you?” he asked after he returned to loading the dishwasher.

I didn’t answer. I knew he didn’t want me to get involved in the investigation and I really didn’t want to fight.

Zak poured soap into the machine and closed the door while I wiped off the counters.

“You know I would prefer that you leave this alone, but we both know you won’t. I want you to promise me, though, that you won’t do any investigating without me.”

I turned and looked at him. He did look frightened, and I guess I understood that. I had almost died. I couldn’t imagine how he must have felt when he heard I was in the hospital.

“Promise me,” Zak insisted.

“I promise.”

Zak let out a long breath. “Okay, why don’t you tell me what you’ve dug up so far, and what your plan of action is.”

I shared everything I’d learned, including the lead I’d gotten from Tina that afternoon about the woman named Riley, who Jason had been seen having a drink with prior to the incident at Ellie’s.

“I was thinking about going over to Lucky’s to ask around,” I informed Zak. “Maybe someone knows where we can find this Riley, or someone might know something else that can help us. Kelly said Jason used to hang out there a lot.”

Zak frowned. “Okay, but I’m going with you. The kids are all doing their homework. They’ll be fine for a little while. And let me do the talking. You tend to get all fired up.”

“Okay,” I agreed. I was glad to have Zak’s help with this one.

Lucky’s was a seedy bar where beer and whiskey were the drinks of choice and everyone ignored the law in spite of the fact that there were “No Smoking” signs posted everywhere. Lucky’s was a place for drinking and didn’t serve food or provide live music. I didn’t know it for a fact, but I’d heard it had more bar fights annually than all the other bars in town combined.

“It’s so dark in here,” I whispered to Zak as we walked in the front door. I coughed. “And smoky.”

“This probably isn’t good for your already smoke-damaged lungs. Maybe you should wait in the car.”

“No. I want to stay here with you. Let’s just make it fast and get out of here.”

“There are two seats at the bar.” Zak took my hand and led me across the floor. I really didn’t understand why people would choose to frequent this place when there were much nicer bars in town.

The cushion on the stool I sat down on was torn and all I could think of were the germs that most likely lived in the exposed padding. I was glad I had on long pants.

“What can I get ya?” the bartender asked.

“Actually, we wanted to ask you a few questions,” Zak responded.

“I talk to people who buy drinks,” the man answered. “It’s my job. If you don’t buy a drink you aren’t my customer and I don’t have to talk to you. Now what’ll you have?”

“White wine,” I answered.

“Same,” Zak added.

I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to drink my wine. The place was filthy. I bet they didn’t even wash their glasses properly.

The bartender poured us wine that came from a box. A very old-looking box. It was obvious very few patrons of this particular establishment ordered wine, white or otherwise.

“So what can I help you with?” the man asked after setting our drinks in front of us.

“We wanted to ask about Jason Overland,” I began.

“What about him?”

“I guess you know he died in a fire on Saturday,” I continued.

“Yeah. So?”

“I heard he was here prior to the event.”

“Yeah. He was here,” the bartender confirmed. “He was waiting in the parking lot when I showed up at two to open the place.”

“Did he meet anyone?” I asked.

“A regular named Riley. They put down half a bottle of whiskey between them before he left.”

“Before he left? He left alone?” I asked.

“Yeah, he left alone. I think they were fighting. I don’t like to pry, but they didn’t look happy.”

I turned and glanced at Zak. I was supposed to let him do all the talking and so far I hadn’t let him say a word.

“How long did Riley stay?” Zak asked.

“Most of the evening. I think she passed out at around midnight and one of the regulars took her home.”

So she couldn’t have killed Jason, I realized. Zak seemed to grasp that as well because he changed the direction of his questions.

“Do you know of anyone else Jason used to spend time with?” Zak asked. “Another woman? A friend?”

“Seems like you’ve used up the questions two glasses of wine will buy you. I might be persuaded to answer a few more if you were to buy a couple of glasses of whiskey. The good stuff.”

“Sure,” Zak answered. “We’d love a whiskey.”

We hadn’t even touched the wine. Neither Zak nor I wanted the whiskey, but I guess that wasn’t the point.

“So about that friend…” Zak said after he paid the man and left a generous tip.

“Jason was friends with a guy named Billy Sand.”

“And where can we find this Billy Sand?” Zak asked.

The bartender eyed the wad of bills in Zak’s hand. Zak gave him another twenty. Geez. Talk about extortion.

“Billy works construction next door at the mall. He’s there most weekdays.”

“Thank you for your time,” Zak said before taking my hand and leading me out the door.

“That’s it?” I asked. “He might have had more information.”

“You were beginning to turn blue from lack of oxygen, and the group of guys sitting at the table behind us looked like they were planning to have you for their next meal. We’ve eliminated Riley as a suspect and we’ve got an identity to go with the name Kelly gave you. We did okay, and if we feel like we need more information from our friendly bartender we know where to find him.”

I took a deep breath of the crisp, cool air. Zak was right. It was late and I was tired, and we’d done all right for our first day of sleuthing. I planned to check in with Salinger tomorrow for an update and then we’d take it from there.

Chapter 5

Friday, December 18

I sipped my coffee as the snow fell gently outside my kitchen window. It was early and the rest of the family wasn’t up yet, but I found I couldn’t sleep. Yesterday had been a long and frustrating day and I was beginning to think that finding out who’d killed Jason was going to be an impossible task.

I tried to take comfort in the warmth of the seasonally decorated room, including the white lights Zak had strung pretty much everywhere, the small tree in the corner near the kitchen nook, the fire that crackled in the brick fireplace, and the scent of bayberry candles that gave off a festive aroma. But all I could feel was a heaviness.

I got up from the barstool I was sitting on to pour myself another cup of coffee. I turned the sound system on low and selected a Christmas CD. The fact that Christmas was only a week away made me realize that I needed to get organized. There was shopping to complete, baking to do, gifts to wrap, cards to mail, Secret Santa deliveries to make, and Hometown Christmas obligations to meet. I really didn’t have time to chase after a killer, but the more I pondered the situation, the more I realized I would never find peace until I knew who had killed Jason.

I decided to mix up some cranberry nut muffins while I waited for the family join me. I’d already drunk three cups of coffee and it seemed prudent to eat food of some sort before I started on a fourth.

I’d begun my investigation the previous day by paying a visit to Salinger. He’d managed to track down and interview all the men Jason had worked with when he was doing construction for Tyson Gallagher. Everyone had reported the same thing: Jason started off as a good worker and a pleasant guy to hang out with after work, but his personality had changed as time went on until he’d pretty much driven a wedge between himself and every other man on the crew. Salinger reported that while none of the men had really liked him, they hadn’t spent any time with him in the past eight months and therefore didn’t appear to have a motive to kill him.

After I spoke to Salinger I decided to try to track down Billy Sand. Zak didn’t want me sleuthing alone, but he was tied up at the Academy that day so I asked Ellie to go with me. It was fun to have her as a partner once again.

Billy’s answers to my questions seemed to mimic that of the men Salinger had spoken to. He’d started off friends, but things had gone south, and after Jason had totally blown the temp job Billy had gotten him at the construction site he’d cut him out of his life. He said he hadn’t seen Jason in weeks.

The one result of my conversation with Billy was to wonder what it was Jason had been doing during the time he had been split up from Kelly. She said he hadn’t wanted to talk about it, Billy said he hadn’t seen him, Tina reported that he’d broken things off with her; in my mind, that just left Riley. If she’d been at the bar the entire evening of the fire she hadn’t killed him, but maybe she knew what he had been doing. I decided I really needed to find a way to speak to her.

“What are you doing up so early?” Alex asked as she wandered into the room with Bella and all three cats on her heels. Charlie trotted over to say hi before the animals headed into the laundry room for their morning meal.

“Couldn’t sleep. How about you?”

“Same.”

“I’m making muffins. Do you want some hot cocoa to go with them?”

“Thanks, but I can make it.” Alex headed over to the refrigerator for the milk.

“I can’t believe it’s only a week until Christmas. Are you getting excited?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess.” Alex poured milk into a pan, which she then set on a burner on the stove.

“You don’t sound very excited,” I observed.

“I am. I just have this assignment for one of my classes at the middle school that’s due today and I’m still not finished with it. It’s sort of stressing me out.”

Alex began stirring chocolate into the warm milk. I had to admit I was surprised. Alex was an intelligent and conscientious student who rarely had difficulty with her assignments.

“What kind of assignment is it?” I was rarely able to help her with her homework, but it seemed important to ask.

“I’m supposed to write a paragraph about my favorite Christmas tradition and then share it with the class. The problem is that prior to last Christmas, when I came to visit you and Zak, I’d never had a traditional Christmas, so I don’t really have any traditions.”

“You could share something we did last year,” I suggested as Scooter wandered into the room with his dog Digger following him.

“If you do something one time is it considered a tradition?” Alex asked.

“Sure. I don’t see why not, if it was something you enjoyed and plan to do every year. What did we do last year that you want to do again this year?”

Alex sat quietly, I assumed to consider my question.

“When I was little, before my mom died,” Scooter said, “me and Mom and Dad would all sleep on the floor in the living room on Christmas Eve. Mom would leave the tree lights on, and I can remember looking up at all those colorful lights as I went to sleep.”

“That’s nice.” I smiled at Scooter. Sometimes I forgot that the all-but-orphaned little boy once was part of a warm and loving family.

“And when we got up in the morning all of our stockings were filled with candy and presents. After we opened presents Mom would make breakfast while Dad helped me put together whatever toys I got.” Scooter got a sad look on his face. “I still remember the way Mom would smell like cinnamon from making her homemade rolls.”

I wanted to pull Scooter into my arms and give him a hug, but I could tell he wouldn’t welcome my affection at this moment. Better to pretend I hadn’t noticed the look of longing on his face.

“One of the kids in my class told us that every person in his family gets to pick out a special ornament to put on the tree,” Alex shared. “The whole family goes to the Christmas store and they each pick out what they want to hang on the tree that year, and then they drive around town and look at all the lights. After that they pick up a pizza and take it home and decorate the tree with the ornaments from that year and the ones from the past.”

“I love that idea,” I commented. “We’ve already decorated our tree this year, but maybe we can go into town this weekend and everyone can pick out one thing to add to it.”

I slid the tray of muffins in the oven and set the timer.

“I’m going to get an ornament that looks like skis because I’m hoping to get new skis this year,” Scooter said.

“What about you, Alex?” I asked. “What kind of an ornament do you want to get?”

“I’m not sure. I guess I’ll have to look to see what they have. Scooter’s new tradition sounds like fun, but I think my favorite thing from last year that I most want to do this year is go around and look at all the windows on Main.”

“My dad took me to see the windows every year when I was a little girl and I’ve gone every year since I’ve been an adult,” I informed Alex. “Maybe looking at the windows is a tradition we can share.”

“While looking at the windows was my favorite thing from last year, I think doing the Secret Santa project is my favorite thing from this year. Eve and I have already talked about doing it again next year. Maybe I’ll use that for my paper. I’ll title it ‘New Traditions.’”

“Sounds like a good idea.”