Christmas by the Sea (Haunting by the Sea Book 6)

by Kathi Daley

  I went through the photos we’d taken and began working on the arrangement process. I wasn’t unhappy with the shots I’d taken the past couple of days, but I really felt that the collage I had so far was just okay. If I was going to have a shot at winning the contest, I needed better than okay. I had to find that one photo, theme, or hook that would turn okay into exceptional.

  The photo of the girl with the red jacket talking to the old woman was my favorite. I experimented with different gray tones until I found just the right contrast. I also had the images of the boy with the red jacket playing with the puppy, who was still with me. Perhaps I’d try using a gray tone on those as well, leaving only the red jacket for contrast. In fact, I decided I’d try doing the entire collage using a gray tone with a splash of red to really set it off.

  One of the sailboats in the marina had red and white lights strung along the mast and around the windows of the cabin. I found a snowman with a red scarf, a young boy with a red sled and red hat and gloves, and a couple walking hand in hand with matching red sweaters. The penguins in Santa’s Village had red scarves around their necks, as did the polar bears. I went through my photos one more time looking for images that may not have stood out the first time around, but given my current theme might work even better than some I had selected. I’d just come across a wonderful image of a dog running through the park with a red knit scarf in his mouth when my phone rang. It was Woody.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I answered.

  “When you spoke to Holly, did she mention anything about a payment she received from her attorney?” he asked.

  “She did. She said that she wanted to settle with the town so she could pay her bills and get back on her feet, but the attorney was adamant that they hold out for the big payday. She said that her attorney arranged for her to have an advance on her anticipated settlement to help her get by in the meantime. Why do you ask?”

  “I’m looking into Holly’s financial records, and I noticed a large deposit into her account. I guess that must be the deposit from the attorney.”

  “Did you find anything else?”

  “I spoke to Dave, the bartender, and Rowen, the owner of The Rusty Nail. Both admit to speaking to Holly on the night she died, but neither claim to know how she might have ended up with drugs in her system or where she went after she left the bar.”

  “Holly said that the bar owner gave her a ride.”

  “I remembered you said that, so I asked him about it. I told him that a spectator had seen him giving Holly a ride, but he denied it. He said the spectator must have seen someone else. I couldn’t very well tell him that it was Holly who gave me that piece of information, so I can’t prove anything at this point, but I will say that Rowen Morton is my prime suspect. Not only did he have access to her drink, but he is part of the lawsuit Holly was involved in, so he had a motive as well.

  “How was he part of the lawsuit?”

  “Rowen Morton was on the town council.”

  “Trevor and I discussed the town council members and I don’t remember his mentioning anyone by that name.”

  “That’s probably because Morton is no longer on the town council. He resigned after the lawsuit was filed and was replaced by Francine Rutgers. But he was on the council when the suit was filed and is still listed as a defendant.”

  Ah, the plot thickens. “If the bar owner is part of the lawsuit it does sound like he makes a good suspect. It appears he had both motive and opportunity. Still, something about the whole thing feels off to me. Holly said she heard voices coming from the other side of the door that scared her, and when someone tried to open the door, it caused her to run and hide. She said that before the door was opened, she had been passed out in the Santa chair. That indicates to me she was already safely deposited in the Santa House before the people she ran and hid from entered. If this is true, even if the bar owner did give her a ride, it sounds as if she was still alive after he dropped her off.”

  “That’s true. I wonder why he would lie about giving her a ride if he didn’t kill her.”

  “That part really doesn’t make sense unless he just wants to distance himself from the whole thing. He must know that he is going to be a suspect. Holly had been in his bar before her death, and she had been involved in a lawsuit that stood to cost him a whole lot of money. Maybe he was afraid to admit that he was most likely the last person to see her alive.”

  “He wasn’t the last person unless he’s the one who broke in after Holly was already in the Santa House. We really need to figure out who Holly heard that night.”

  “Based on what Holly said, it sounds as if one of the people who broke in had the code to the door of the Santa House,” I pointed out. “Holly said it took the person trying to open the door a few tries, but that they did get in using the keypad.”

  I could hear Woody breathing over the phone line. He wasn’t speaking, so I assumed he was considering the situation.

  “Okay,” he eventually said. “It sounds like we need to get a list of the people who have the code.”

  “Trevor and I are volunteering at the Santa House this weekend. I asked about access and was told that the code is reset several times a week to try to keep the building secure. The event coordinator is supposed to text me the code on Saturday morning. If the code is reset every few days, the number of people with a particular code that will open the door will be limited. Of course, there is no guarantee that someone who was given the code didn’t pass it along to someone who wasn’t authorized to have it, but a list would be a good place to start.”

  “I’ll call the coordinator and get one.”

  Woody and I spoke for a few more minutes, and then I hung up. I really wanted to decide on a theme for my collage by the end of the day. The red with the gray tone was striking, but I just wasn’t sure. My mom was an artist, so I decided to get her opinion.

  “The gray tone with the red elements really does pop, but it doesn’t necessarily give me the feeling of warmth I associate with a small-town Christmas,” she said after I’d shown her a sample of what I was thinking.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “I agree. I saw the photo of the young girl talking to the old woman and the image really resonated with me. I loved the pop of red once I manipulated the colors a bit, but a whole collage done in the same theme doesn’t really convey the feeling I’m after.”

  “Why did you like that photo in the first place?” Mom asked.

  I looked at it carefully. “I guess it was the expression on both the young girl and the old woman’s faces. They look so serious, yet you can sense affection as well. Something about their interaction really pulled me in. I have a lot of fun photos of boats with Christmas lights and lopsided snowmen that make me think of Christmas, but the image of the young girl with the old woman in the park causes me to linger. It makes me want to know more about what was being said and what sort of relationship the two might share.”

  “So, maybe that’s your theme. The Faces of Christmas. Let the people you capture tell the story of why Christmas in Cutter’s Cove is so special.”

  I paused to think about this for a moment. “I really like that idea. The photo of the boy with the puppy works as well.” I pointed to the photo. “Look at that face. He is totally into the moment. In spite of the fact that he was trying to get his sled up the hill and it kept sliding back down each time the puppy jumped on him, you just know he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.” I stood up and hugged my mom. “Thanks for the feedback. I’m going to go up and look through the photos again. I’m going to eliminate the images that don’t have people in them and try to focus on the emotion of the season as seen on the faces of those we come in contact with at this time of the year.”

  Mom got up and refilled her coffee. “I’m helping out with the candy making for the town fundraiser. In fact, I’m not even sure if I’ll be back for dinner. I’ll text you and let you know.”

  “Okay. Have fun.”

  I spent the next few h
ours going through the photos I’d taken once again. I tried to find those images that best represented my new theme. I did like the new direction the collage was taking, but I knew I was still missing a few key photos that I felt I needed to round things out. I decided to grab my camera and head into town. It was a weekday, so there wouldn’t be as many people out and about, but there would be women at the community center making candy, a crew should be starting to set up the Christmas Carnival, and the Santa House might be open by now. I supposed I’d just stop by and check.

  Since Trevor and I had arranged to meet for a late dinner after he got off work, I made a sandwich to tide me over, took the dogs for a quick run, and then headed into town. I decided to start in the park. There were always people mingling around, and if the Santa House had reopened, I might be able to get some good shots there. When I arrived, I found Woody standing in front of the house, looking at the doorway. The frown on his face indicated to me that his thoughts were troubled.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” I asked, walking up beside him.

  “I’m just trying to work through the timeline as presented by Holly and narrow down the window for the time of death. It sounds as if she went to the bar right after her shift. I checked, and the Santa House closed at eight that night. I also spoke to one of the cocktail waitresses who works at The Rusty Nail on Friday and Saturday nights, and she confirmed that Holly did meet Chris around eight-thirty and that they sat at the bar. She thought Holly might have left at around ten. I realize that people metabolize drugs differently, but based on what I’ve learned about the specific drug found in Holly’s system, it sounds like it would take around thirty minutes for her to begin to feel its effects. If she was slipped the drug at the bar and began to feel dizzy before she left, I am going to estimate she ingested the drug between nine and nine-thirty. It seems that if the bar owner did give her a ride to the Santa House, and she passed out after she arrived only to be awakened later by the people who entered, he probably isn’t the one who killed her. He could have come back, but I’m not sure why he would do that.”

  “Do you have the official cause of death yet? Is it possible that she died as a result of the drugs in her system, and no one actually killed her?”

  “I considered that option, but decided that if she died as the result of an overdose, there would have been no reason for anyone to move the body.”

  “I suppose that’s true. Go on. You were wondering about the timeline.”

  “I remembered that you told me that Holly shared that she had first attempted to speak to the cleaning lady. It sounds like she was already a ghost at that point since the cleaning lady was unable to see her.”

  “Yes, that is correct,” I confirmed. “She said the cleaning lady came in and she tried to speak to her but was unable to. That was when she began to suspect something was wrong.”

  “I called and spoke to the woman who is contracted to clean the Santa House. She does a graveyard shift, and she told me she arrived at the Santa House around midnight.”

  “So, the timeline between when Holly left the bar and when she realized she was dead was only about two hours. And if the cleaning lady didn’t find the body, the person who moved it must have already done so.”

  “It sounds like the timeline is pretty tight. Did you get a list of everyone who would have had a door code on the day Holly died?”

  “I did.”

  He handed it to me. There were only eleven people on the list.

  “The code changed on Friday morning and was due to change again on Monday, so the only people who were given the new code were the support personnel for the weekend, the event organizers, and the Santas and elves volunteering Friday through Sunday,” Woody explained. “There were two crews per day, although Holly and Owen had shifts two of the three days, and Steve Henderson and Claudia Brown had shifts all three days, so there were only three different teams in all. That’s six people. The other five people listed are the event coordinator, the Santa House supervisor, the girl taking the photos, the woman working the counter in the Santa house, and the cleaning lady.”

  “Have you spoken to these people?”

  “All but two. Claudia Brown did a late morning and early afternoon shift with Steve Henderson on Friday. She said that Holly and Owen showed up right on time to take over for her and Steve. After she left the Santa house, she picked her kids up from school, and then they all went to the mall in Portland to start their Christmas shopping. They didn’t get home until after eleven, at which time she put her kids to bed and then went to bed herself.”

  Woody took a breath and then continued. “The cleaning lady confirmed that she arrived at the Santa House around midnight and was done cleaning by one. She worked until five a.m., slept until noon, and then went to her part-time job at the laundromat. After she got off work at the laundromat, she began her graveyard shift cleaning businesses in the area. She doesn’t have an alibi for the time Holly died since she was cleaning the Santa House, and no one was around, but in a way, Holly provided an alibi, so I don’t suspect her. The third Santa and elf team, Monica Right and Evan Smith, didn’t work on Friday. I did ask both for alibis for Friday between ten p.m. and midnight. Monica told me she was home with her family, while Evan told me he played poker with his Friday night group. I have since confirmed this.”

  “So, that leaves Owen and Steve,” I said. “Along with the event coordinator, the woman who took the photos, the woman who worked the counter, and the Santa House supervisor.”

  “The same women took photos and worked the counter the entire weekend. Both have alibis for the evening Holly died and I have no reason to suspect either. I haven’t managed to track down either Steve or Owen, but I left messages for both of them. The event coordinator is a woman named Pamela Cobalter. She said she was at home fast asleep during the window when Holly died. I really have no reason to suspect her.”

  “And the Santa House supervisor?” I asked.

  “A woman named Jessica Valdez.” Woody paused before he continued. “I’m not sure about her. She didn’t have an alibi other than being home alone, and I got a strange vibe when I spoke to her. I felt like she was lying about something, but I just wasn’t sure if she was lying about her role in Holly’s death or if she was lying about something else. I did some checking, and she’s had some unusual activity in her personal finances. She seems to have been suffering financially, and there was evidence that she was so far behind on her mortgage that she was in danger of losing her home, and then seemingly out of nowhere, regular deposits began to show up in her bank account beginning about the time the Santa House opened for the season.”

  “Do you think those deposits are related to what happened to Holly?”

  “I don’t know. I asked her about them, and she told me that she had taken on a second job to try to make ends meet. I asked for contact information for her employer, and she told me she was being paid under the table and had promised not to tell anyone about the arrangement.”

  “Seems like a suspiciously convenient reason for not giving you that information,” I pointed out.

  “I agree. I’m going to continue to poke around. If I feel like I have a good enough reason to subpoena the information, I will. It also occurred to me that the second job might just be a cover for embezzlement. Ms. Valdez handles all the administrative functions for the Santa House, including the bookkeeping.”

  “I suppose that makes sense as well. Do you think that Holly realized what Jessica was doing and called her on it, so Jessica killed her to keep her secret?”

  “That explanation makes sense too. There is something else that I’m toying with, but really don’t have much of a foothold on at this point.”

  “And what is that?” I asked.

  “When I was here Saturday after you found Holly’s body, I noticed that there were boxes and boxes of snow globes in the storage room. When I came back the following day for a second look, the snow globes were gone. I asked Ms. Valdez about
it, and she told me the globes were defective, and she sent them back. I didn’t think a lot about it at the time, but after I noticed the deposits to Ms. Valdez’s bank account, I began to wonder if the missing snow globes were a clue.”

  “Do you think she is stealing stuff?”

  “The thought occurred to me, but I don’t think she is necessarily stealing snow globes. I think she might be the middleman in the smuggling of precious gems.”

  My brow narrowed. “Okay, you’ll need to walk me through that.”

  “The globes were real fancy inside. I noticed that a lot of gemstones were used as ornaments on the trees, and diamonds were sparkling in the snow. Of course, it is likely the stones are simply colored glass, but given the deposits to Ms. Valdez’s account and the fact that there were dozens of boxes of snow globes one day and they were gone the next, I have to wonder if there might be something more going on.”

  “Did you ask her for an invoice?” I wondered.

  “I did. She has an invoice for three dozen cases of snow globes from a company called Baylor Enterprises, and a matching invoice for the return of three dozen cases of snow globes. It appears that the snow globes were shipped from Baylor Enterprises’ warehouse in China, but they were returned to their warehouse in Seattle.”

  “So, the snow globes might be a way to smuggle precious gems into the country.”

  “Maybe. I don’t have any proof at this point, but it is a theory, and it might explain the deposits to Ms. Valdez’s bank account.”

  “So, maybe Holly figured out what was going on, and Valdez killed her.”

  Woody shrugged. “I don’t know. It is a theory, but it’s not the only theory. If Valdez is the killer, that could explain the voices. She would have had the code, and perhaps she and a helper or even her buyer were either picking up or dropping off shipments of whatever she was laundering at the time.”