The Worst Noel

by Amy M. Reade

Lilly was getting ready for bed when there was a knock at the front door. She froze in the middle of pulling on her pajama pants, wondering who could be at the door. Bill or Noley would have texted first. Barney, cooped up in Lilly’s bedroom behind the closed door, jumped around as if his tail were on fire. When Lilly opened the door for him, he raced down the stairs at top speed, skidding into the front door on all fours. Lilly wasn’t far behind. She pinched the curtain on the sidelight, trying to peer outside to see who was there.

  It was Mrs. Laforge. Lilly opened the door and Barney bounded around Mrs. Laforge’s legs as the neighbor stepped into the foyer and Lilly tried to shush Barney. Finally she offered him a piece of cheese and shooed him out the back door. Mrs. Laforge followed her into the kitchen.

  “Is everything all right, Mrs. Laforge?” Lilly asked. Though the older woman was nosy and could be miserable, Lilly felt a bit protective toward her, as she lived alone in the big, rambling home next door.

  “I’m here to tell you that that daughter of yours brought her boyfriend right into the house while you were at work the other day.” Lilly suppressed a groan.

  “Don’t worry, Mrs. Laforge. I’ve met Nick and he’s a nice boy,” she said, making a mental note to read Laurel the riot act before she left for school the next morning. “I’m not concerned about them as long as Tighe’s here.”

  “But Tighe wasn’t here,” Mrs. Laforge noted, a triumphant smirk on her face.

  “Well, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I’ll be sure to speak to the kids in the morning. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “No. I just thought you deserved to know what your kids are up to while you’re always at work.”

  Lilly had an uncharitable urge to strangle Mrs. Laforge’s chicken-like neck, but refrained. Instead she pasted a wide smile on her lips and shared her good news with her neighbor. “You’ll be happy to learn, then, that I’ve hired an assistant at the shop. That should give me more time with the kids and with my mother.”

  Mrs. Laforge nodded. “Good. Your poor mother deserves better.”

  Lilly opened the back door, hoping Barney would drape himself over Mrs. Laforge with snowy, frigid paws, but Mrs. Laforge turned around to head toward the front door.

  “No need to show me out, Mrs. Carlsen. I know the way.”

  “Good,” Lilly muttered. “The sooner the better.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot.” Mrs. Laforge’s voice grew louder again as she was apparently making her way back to the kitchen. Barney turned from where he was gobbling a biscuit Lilly had placed in his dish and raced over to Mrs. Laforge. She looked at him with disdain.

  “There was a man parked outside your house for a long time yesterday. In a dark blue pickup truck. Unsavory-looking sort.”

  “Did he have longish blond hair?”

  “Yes.”

  Beau. Lilly shivered at the thought of him sitting outside her house when no one was home. Wait—what if someone had been at home?

  “Do you happen to remember what time this was, Mrs. Laforge?” Lilly asked in her sweetest tone.

  “Sure do,” the neighbor said, nodding. “It was eleven thirty in the morning. I know because I wrote it down.” So the kids would have been in school. Lilly didn’t know whether to feel relieved or even more creeped out.

  She writes stuff down? Lilly couldn’t help smiling as she pictured Mrs. Laforge, using ream after ream of paper to take notes on the various comings and goings of each neighbor. I probably have my own file at her house, Lilly thought with a grimace. Like the FBI.

  Barney was snuffling around Mrs. Laforge’s feet and apparently the woman couldn’t stand it any longer. Lilly knew her to be a lover of cats, and it was probably taking every ounce of willpower she possessed to be in Lilly’s house with a slobbering dog. She smiled at Mrs. Laforge again and waited for the woman to leave. “Thanks again, Mrs. Laforge!” Lilly called behind her as she returned to her own house through the snow. Lilly made sure Mrs. Laforge was safely inside her own house before shutting her own front door and going upstairs to bed.

  “Who was at the door, Mom?” Tighe asked, coming out of the bathroom.

  “Mrs. Laforge.”

  “What did she want?”

  “To tattle on your sister and Nick. And you.”

  “Why me? I didn’t do anything.”

  Lilly sighed. “I know. You weren’t home when Laurel brought Nick to the house, that’s all.”

  “I’m not her babysitter.”

  “I didn’t say you were. But apparently Mrs. Laforge thinks you should be. Go to bed and don’t worry about her. She’s lonely and has nothing else to do than spy on the neighbors.”

  “When you put it that way I feel sorry for her.”

  “Yeah, I know. Feels better to be mad at her, doesn’t it?” Lilly smiled at her son and snapped off the light.

  Chapter 33

  Taffy was waiting when Lilly arrived at work the next morning. Lilly showed her the office, the location of the vaults, and showed her how to work the copy machine. Taffy was eager to show Lilly how much she had learned by reading the books Lilly had sent home with her.

  “I never knew there were so many kinds of gems,” Taffy said as she followed Lilly into the front of the shop. “I think my favorite is tanzanite. I always loved sapphires before this, but tanzanite is only mined in one place in Tanzania, so that makes it rarer.”

  “Tanzanite is a beautiful stone,” Lilly agreed.

  “Is there any in the shop?” Taffy asked. “I’d like to see it for real. Not just in a picture.”

  “No, we don’t carry any right now. If someone comes in with a question about it, I could always order a few pieces. But people tend to prefer the better-known stones, so I only discuss it with people if they ask about tanzanite specifically. Same with spinel and a few others. I really should order some, because they are beautiful. But I have to cater to what people want, and that’s mostly diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. And gold and silver, of course.”

  “And you design jewelry, right?”

  “Yes, but I like to use stones that are local to the Rocky Mountain region. They don’t have to be from Colorado, but my customers prefer that they come from the western part of the United States.” All this talk about gems and stones was making her think about Hassan. When would she hear from him again? She shook her head to dislodge that thought and turned her attention back to Taffy.

  “Sounds like you learned a lot and that you enjoyed it,” she said, smiling at her assistant.

  “Yeah. This is going to be different from working for Eden because it was boring there. She just carried normal stuff, like first aid supplies and toys and stuff.” She stopped talking and the silence widened between them in the wake of her mention of Eden’s name.

  Lilly finally broke the silence. “Taffy, I’ll set you up at my desk so you can fill out the employment forms and then I’ll show you around up front.”

  Taffy followed her to the back, where Lilly gave her a small pile of papers to fill out. The store wasn’t open yet, so Lilly stayed in the back going through invoices while Taffy worked. When both women had finished, Lilly stuffed the papers into a mailing envelope and texted her accountant to come pick them up. Then she led Taffy to the front, showed her how to lock and unlock the front door, and showed her the proper way to hang necklaces and bracelets for display. Taffy was a quick learner and asked if she could set up the displays in all the glass cases.

  “Sure,” Lilly said. “Just remember to face the price tag away from the customer.”

  Lilly busied herself with other paperwork on top of one of the display cases while they waited for the first customer. Lilly had explained to Taffy that her job was only to watch Lilly interact with customers on this first day on the job, but beginning tomorrow she would be able to take care of customers under Lilly’s watchful eyes.

  The first person who came through the door was an elderly man who needed a new watch. Lilly showed him the watches she
had on display, then waited patiently as he tried on one after another. Taffy stood by her boss the entire time, watching Lilly’s movements and noting which watches Lilly showed the man and in what order.

  While other customers came in to browse, Lilly left Taffy in charge of the man trying on watches and it wasn’t long before Taffy approached her to notify her that the man was buying one of the more expensive watches he had tried on. Lilly smiled and introduced her to a couple who were looking at bracelets for their daughter for Christmas. She asked Taffy to assist them while she took care of wrapping the man’s watch and taking care of the payment details.

  She kept her ear cocked while she waited on the elderly man, listening to what Taffy was saying to the couple. Apparently she was about the same age as their daughter, so they were asking her advice about what styles were popular with young women and which design Taffy thought their daughter might like. She was doing a great job.

  Lilly thanked the man for shopping in Juniper Junction Jewels and was holding the door for him when her cell phone rang. It was Tighe. The last time Tighe had called her during school hours it was to announce he had broken his wrist playing tennis in gym class. She answered the phone with a breathless “What’s wrong?”

  “Take it easy, Mom. No big deal, but I left school to go to the diner for breakfast during second period and the car wouldn’t start when I left the diner.”

  Lilly breathed a sigh of relief. No injuries.

  “What did you do? Where are you calling from?”

  “I’m calling from school. The tow truck guy gave me a ride back here after he dropped my truck off with the mechanic. Can you pick me up later today and drive me over to get the truck if they can fix it?”

  Lilly glanced at Taffy. She wasn’t ready to leave Taffy in charge of the shop while she left. She was working toward that goal, but Taffy wasn’t ready to run the shop by herself.

  “It may have to wait until this weekend, or maybe Uncle Bill could take you over. That might even be a good thing. If you show up in your uncle’s police car, maybe the mechanic won’t overcharge you.”

  “I won’t know until later today how long it’ll take to fix the car. I might not even be able to pick it up today. I was just checking since you got that new assistant.”

  Lilly lowered her voice. “I don’t think I want to leave her alone in the shop just yet. I barely know her. I’d hate to come back and have the place cleared out of all my inventory.”

  “Oh. That makes sense. I’ll call or text you when I know about the car and maybe Uncle Bill will be free later.”

  Lilly hung up and walked over to where Taffy had indeed helped the couple choose a bracelet for their daughter. It was a gorgeous tennis bracelet with alternating diamonds and sapphires. It happened to be Lilly’s favorite piece in the store, other than her own designs. She was thrilled that Taffy had sold it, but sorry to see it leave the store.

  “Taffy, you’re a born saleswoman,” Lilly said when the delighted couple had left the store.

  “Thanks. I just have a special connection with people, I guess,” she answered.

  An odd way to phrase “people person,” Lilly thought. Aloud, she said, “Whatever it is, I’m impressed.” Taffy grinned at the compliment.

  It was a quiet day in the store. Taffy left for a half hour at lunchtime and when she returned Lilly sat at her desk to eat the sandwich she had brought from home. She sat back, trying to remember the last time she had enjoyed lunch at her desk. Normally she ate it standing up at one of the display cases. This assistant idea of hers was a gem. So to speak.

  Despite Taffy’s success, however, when Tighe called later that afternoon to tell Lilly that his truck would be ready early that evening, Lilly wasn’t ready to leave Taffy in charge of the shop while she took Tighe to the mechanic. It wouldn’t be fair to Taffy, either, to ask her to mind the shop alone on her first day at work.

  “Can we pick up your truck early tomorrow morning?” Lilly asked Tighe. “I can drive you over there early and you can still be at school on time.”

  “That’s fine.”

  Lilly sent Taffy home an hour before closing and locked up the shop herself. She hoped it wouldn’t be long before she could let Taffy do the end-of-the-day work and she could get an afternoon off once in a while. But the holiday season was not the time to start easing up—it was the time to work longer hours, to try to benefit from people’s generous spirit of giving.

  Lilly went home to a deliciously-scented dinner of pork tenderloin in the crock pot. She had slathered it with a maple-bourbon glaze and set the timer to cook the pork all afternoon. Laurel had baked some potatoes for the three of them and Gran, so all Lilly had to do was whip up a Waldorf salad to round out the meal. Before they sat down to dinner Tighe drove her car over to her mother’s house and dropped off dinner.

  “How’s Gran today?” Lilly asked when Tighe had returned home and the little family was sitting down to dinner.

  He shrugged. “Can’t we get her a kitten or something? She seems lonely.”

  Lilly felt a pang of sadness for her mother, who had spent years caring for her own children, husband, and countless friends and family who were always coming through the door. She had always found enough food to feed anyone who happened to be at the house at dinnertime and she did everything with a cheerful smile. She hated to think of her mother, now aging, living alone and depending on others for the things she used to do for herself and her own family.

  On the other hand…a kitten? Bill would flip.

  “That’s a great idea!” Laurel said, the excitement shining in her eyes. “Please, Mom? Can we surprise Gran with a kitten?”

  “I don’t know,” Lilly answered slowly. “Let me think about it.” Did she really need to be worrying about her mother with a kitten on top of everything else?

  Chapter 34

  The next morning Lilly and both kids left the house well before the usual time so they would be able to pick up Tighe’s car and everyone could get to work and school on time. Lilly sat behind the wheel of her car, ready to pull out of the driveway, and it occurred to her that she had no idea where the tow truck driver had taken Tighe’s car.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  Tighe glanced at a sheet of paper he was holding. “Horstman Auto Repair.”

  Lilly knew that name. From where?

  Then it dawned on her. The owner, Jed Horstman, had been Eden Barclay’s first husband. Lilly suddenly felt a reluctance to pick up Tighe’s car, and it showed in slow pace of her drive to the body shop.

  “Mom, we’re going to be late to school,” Tighe said, a hint of impatience in his voice.

  “I’ll write you both an excuse if you need one,” was her uncharacteristic response. Tighe, who was sitting next to her in the front seat, turned around and raised an eyebrow at Laurel.

  She finally pulled into the cramped parking lot of Horstman Auto Repair. Between the rusting metal shells of former cars and the piles of used tires, Tighe’s truck sat waiting for the ride to school. A single bulb burned in the office, a pinpoint of light in the early-morning charcoal darkness.

  Tighe got out of Lilly’s car, followed by Laurel; Lilly brought up the reluctant rear. A large man in denim dungarees streaked with grease looked up from the desk where he was pecking away at the computer.

  “You must be Tighe Carlsen,” he said, standing and extending a rough hand. Tighe returned the handshake, nodding.

  “Yes, sir,” he said. “Came in to get my truck.”

  “And you must be Mom,” the man said, turning to Lilly. “Jed Horstman.”

  “Yes, I’m Lilly Carlsen. Good to meet you, Mr. Horstman. Thanks for fixing Tighe’s truck so quickly.” Under the light of the single bulb, she could see that Jed Horstman carried a small paunch inside the overalls. He was of medium height with light brown hair that was a little too long and looked greasy in the dimness. Maybe it was just wet from showering.

  “No problem,” he answered, the
n ran his hand through his hair. “Carlsen. That name sounds familiar to me for some reason.”

  Lilly took a deep breath. She had seen this coming. “I believe you were Eden Barclay’s first husband? I’m the owner of the jewelry store where her body was found. I’m sorry for your family’s loss, Mr. Horstman.”

  He gazed at her for a moment while her heart thudded. How would he react? Was he going to haul off and punch her? Was he just going to continue staring at her? Would he order her out of the office?

  None of the above, as it turned out. “Oh, yeah. I guess. Actually, I think it’s because my son, Davey, goes to school with Tighe here,” he said, nodding his head in Tighe’s general direction.

  Lilly could have kicked herself. She had gotten so worked up about having to talk to Eden’s first husband that it had never occurred to her that he might not miss his ex-wife as much as she thought he would. I’m keeping my big fat mouth closed after this, she thought.

  Tighe confirmed that for her after they had each paid half of the bill for the truck repairs. “Mom, you’re not a movie star. You don’t have to introduce yourself as the owner of the place where a murder took place.”

  Lilly felt her face grow hot, whether from embarrassment or anger she didn’t know. “I know that,” she answered testily. “Normally I wouldn’t, but he was Eden’s ex-husband.”

  “We’re going to be late, Mom,” Laurel said, turning to Lilly. Lilly gave them each a kiss goodbye and they clambered into the truck and drove away.

  Lilly turned toward her own car, thinking she had plenty of time to stop for a coffee before going into work. The door to the body shop swung open and Jed Horstman waddled toward her.

  “Wait a minute, Mrs. Carlsen,” he said, and she was struck by a stab of fear. She should have gotten into the car faster. What could he possibly want with her?

  “Yes?” she replied, her voice noticeably higher than it had been just thirty seconds ago.

  “So you’re the one in the paper—the one the police have talked to about Eden’s death.” It was a statement, not a question. Lilly nodded, trying to judge the distance to her car. She cast a doubtful glance toward him. He looked even fatter than he had in the office. Could he really run fast enough to catch her if she made a break for it?