The Worst Noel

by Amy M. Reade

  She wanted to tell him to stay away, that it would be too painful to keep seeing him when he was going away after the holidays, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  She was struck by a feeling of embarrassment and despair usually reserved for teenagers in the throes of puppy love. What if I like him more than he likes me? What if I don’t mean anything and this has been nothing more than a fun vacation fling for him? I should break up with him now before he can break up with me.

  When Taffy came out of the office after eating her lunch she took one look at Lilly and exclaimed, “What’s wrong with you? You look terrible!”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “I’m afraid so. Why don’t you take off early and do something for yourself while you wait for your window guy to come? Go get a facial or a manicure or something.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Lilly said with a sigh. “Are you sure you don’t mind? I hate to leave you in the lurch like this.”

  “This is why you hired me, remember? Now go so you have some time before you have to be home.”

  Lilly grabbed her purse and, thanking Taffy, went out onto Main Street, where the snow sparkled in the sunshine and the Christmas decorations creaked and swayed in the winter wind. She headed straight for the day spa right up the block, where she knew her friend Leslie would squeeze her in for a quick facial.

  An hour later she emerged into the blinding white of Main Street feeling fresh, scrubbed, and hopeful. Taffy had been right—an hour-long facial had done wonders for her mood and her outlook. Walking behind the Main Street shops she was headed toward her car when she saw Hassan exit through the rear of the jewelry store. He held a folder and he strode off in the opposite direction.

  What is he doing now? She opened her mouth to call out to him, but thought the better of it and said nothing. If she was going to stop seeing him she needed to have the willpower to keep quiet when she saw him from a distance, for God’s sake.

  At home she waited for the window man in her winter coat and mittens. Barney sat beside her in the den and their body warmth kept each other from freezing. The man was right on time. He and his assistant got right to work and by the time the kids got home from school there was a new window in place of the broken one and Lilly had the heat cranked up.

  “Finally! It feels good in here,” Laurel exclaimed when she came through the door. Tighe voiced his agreement and the small family ate a quiet dinner in the cozy kitchen.

  That evening Lilly’s cell phone buzzed several times. Each time she looked at it, she saw that Hassan was calling and declined to answer. When she went upstairs she called Noley.

  “I feel like I haven’t seen you in weeks!” her friend said. “How’s everything?”

  “Everything stinks.” Lilly proceeded to tell Noley about Hassan. “He’s going to go back to Minnesota after New Year’s and I just don’t think I can see him again. It’s going to be too hard when he leaves.”

  “I wish I could help,” Noley said, her voice sympathetic. “If you want my two cents, keep going out with him. You enjoy his company and he obviously enjoys yours. So have fun while you can.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Lilly grumbled. “Bill’s not going anywhere.”

  “Maybe he can find you a good cop down at the station and we can double-date.”

  “That would be a great idea if cops could fraternize with suspects,” Lilly said grimly.

  “You’re not a suspect.”

  “It sure feels like I am.”

  “Listen—you’re grouchy. Get some sleep and we can talk tomorrow. I think everything is going to work out just fine, but you’re too miserable to hear that right now.”

  “Okay. Goodnight.” Lilly lay back against her pillows. She was grateful for a friend that would tell her the truth, even when it wasn’t pleasant.

  Lilly got to work early the next morning to make up for being out of the shop for so many hours the previous day. After hanging up her coat, the first thing she did was turn on the space heater so the office would be toasty warm in no time. She went through the receipts from the day before, noting that Taffy had made some substantial sales.

  Once the office was cozy and comfortable, she turned to her bookcase. This would be the perfect time to get some design work done. Reaching for the sketchbooks she kept at the far end of the top shelf, she was surprised to see they weren’t there.

  She ran her finger across all the titles on the top shelf, but the sketchbooks weren’t there. Then she knelt down to examine the other shelves, but the books weren’t there, either. She stood up and brushed off her knees, then turned to look around the office.

  Thinking she had probably left the books on the desk yesterday, she rifled through the contents of the desktop, but the books weren’t there. Her heart was beating a bit faster now and it felt hot in the office. She switched off the heater and wiped her forehead, which felt damp.

  Stop it, she chided herself. They have to be here somewhere. But the ensuing thorough, if rather frantic, search of the small office turned up no sketchbooks.

  That’s when she remembered seeing Hassan leave the jewelry shop through the back door the previous day. He had been holding a folder.

  Could Hassan have taken the sketchbooks? He had seen her work and commented on the quality of her designs.

  She swallowed hard. His family was in the business of selling gems. Could it be that they were looking to branch into jewelry design and had decided to use her ideas?

  It seemed impossible, but she was growing more sure every passing minute—Hassan had taken the sketchbooks. Everything pointed to his hand in stealing the designs for his own family’s gain. She reached for her cell phone and called Bill. It seemed like she was calling him with every little thing, but then again, nothing had been little lately.

  Chapter 54

  “Bill, I think Hassan stole my sketchbooks. They had all my jewelry designs in them. I saw him leaving here with a notebook in his hand yesterday. I’m sure he was using it to hide the sketchbooks.” She finally drew in a long breath.

  “Whoa. Slow down. Tell me exactly what happened.”

  Lilly told her brother how she discovered her sketchbooks missing. She told him that she had seen Hassan leaving the shop through the back door the day before, something he hadn’t done before.

  “Did you talk to him?”

  “No. It’s a long story. I was going to, but I didn’t because I’ve decided not to see him anymore.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s going back to Minnesota after the holidays and I just don’t want to see him anymore, that’s all.”

  “I’ll never understand women,” he said.

  “Stop it. Now tell me what I should do about the sketchbooks.”

  “I’ll send someone over to the shop right now and you can file a complaint.”

  “Thanks.” After she hung up she tried replying to some of her emails, but she couldn’t concentrate long enough to craft a coherent sentence. She gave up and went to the front of the shop to wait for the officer to show up.

  She didn’t have to wait long—it must have been a slow morning at the police station. She admitted the officer then locked the front door again behind him. She took him back into the office and showed him where the sketchbooks were supposed to be and told him how she had come to find them missing.

  She filled out a complaint and he told her he would do some investigating to see if he could find some answers. He also said he could take a look at some of the security cameras along Main Street to see if he found anything unusual or suspicious.

  “But I think I know who did it,” she said. “His name is Hassan Ashraf and he’s renting a house over in the Aspenwoods section of Juniper Junction.”

  The officer took down the information she was able to provide about Hassan and the rest of the Ashraf family and promised to look into it.

  When Taffy got to work Lilly told her what had happened. Taffy listened to her, wide-eyed and mouth agape. />
  “I can’t believe he would do such a thing,” Taffy said. “What makes you think it was him?”

  “I saw him leaving the back of the store yesterday with a folder under his arm. I think he took the sketchbooks and hid them in the folder. Did you see him after I left the shop yesterday?”

  Taffy’s eyes narrowed as she thought back to the previous day. “Come to think of it, I did see him after you left. He came into the shop and I remember he was holding the folder. He didn’t tell me what it was for, but I guess now we know.”

  “And what did he say? What did he do?”

  “He asked if you were still here and I told him you had left. He asked if it was okay for him to leave through the back door because he had parked in the lot back there. I told him it was okay. I’m so sorry. I had no idea what he had in mind.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Taffy. You couldn’t have known. None of us had any reason to suspect him.”

  “Are you okay?”

  Lilly smiled ruefully, trying to imagine if there was a worse judge of character anywhere on earth. “My pride is hurt, but otherwise I’m okay. I’ve filed a report about the missing sketchbooks. The police officer said he would check out Hassan and his family.”

  “Do you want to go home or take some time for yourself?”

  “Actually, that’s probably the last thing I should do right now. All I’ll end up doing is feeling sorry for myself. Working is the best thing for me right now, so I can keep my mind off everything.”

  “Whatever you say. If you need some time to yourself, you know I’m happy to take over here.”

  “Thanks, Taffy,” Lilly said with a wan smile.

  Chapter 55

  Christmas was now only a week away, and shoppers were out in force buying last-minute gifts. It seemed jewelry was an especially popular choice for gifts this year; Lilly could always gauge the health of the economy based on her sales. People liked to give jewelry for Christmas every year, but in certain years she sold more precious stones. Diamonds and sapphires were selling like hotcakes this year, so Lilly knew the local economy was booming.

  Lilly helped one customer after another all morning and into the afternoon. Despair was never far from her mind and heart, but she kept it at bay as long as she had new and old clients to engage. Hassan didn’t stop by as he had said he would; Lilly wondered if he had been contacted by the police yet. He was probably furious that his twisted plan had been unearthed.

  She got two calls that afternoon: Tighe phoned to ask permission to have dinner at the Main Street Diner with a friend and Laurel called to say she had been invited to have dinner with Nick’s family.

  Lilly was faced with the prospect of eating dinner alone. Well, Barney would be there, but he wasn’t much of a conversationalist and she needed conversation tonight to keep her mind busy.

  “I couldn’t help overhearing those calls,” Taffy said a little while later. “I feel so bad that you’ll be eating alone tonight. Why don’t you come for dinner at my house? You could probably use some company.”

  Lilly sighed with relief. “That would be great, Taffy. Thanks so much. I didn’t know how I was going to handle being alone this evening.”

  “I’ll help close up tonight and you can follow me to my house,” Taffy said.

  “Great.”

  The rest of the afternoon sped by as Lilly and Taffy waited on more clients and Lilly began the laborious process of trying to recall and sketch some of her lost designs. She left Taffy to wait on people in the front of the store and put on headphones in her office while she tried to concentrate on the fledgling pencil drawings in front of her.

  Six o’clock came and Taffy poked her head into Lilly’s office. “Ready to lock up?”

  Lilly took off the headphones and pushed her chair back from her desk. “I’m ready. If you could help me put away the displays, I would appreciate it. Then we can head out. You’re sure it’s not a problem for me to come home with you?”

  “Not a bit.”

  They put away the display pieces and made sure the vault was locked, then left through the back door. Taffy got in her car and waited at the end of the alley for Lilly to catch up, then she drove up Main Street and headed out of town.

  Not far from Juniper Junction Taffy turned her car into the parking lot of a condominium complex. Lilly had seen the complex many times: it was one of the older developments outside town, but it was still in nice shape. The parking lot had been plowed and Lilly could recall the beautiful landscaping that surrounded the units in the springtime.

  Taffy pulled to a stop in front of an end unit that was attached to another, larger unit. There was another large building next door, but it didn’t look like another condo. She got out of the car and waited for Lilly to join her. Together they walked up the steps that led to the front door.

  Taffy unlocked the door and stood aside to let Lilly pass. “Take off your stuff and have a seat,” she said. “I don’t cook, so I sent BJ to the diner for take-out. He should be here before too long.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Lilly said. “I hope roast beef is okay,” Taffy said. “That’s what we usually order. I do have a killer chocolate fondue I make for dessert, though.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Can I get you a glass of wine? Beer?”

  “I could use a glass of wine, thank you.”

  While Taffy went to the kitchen to pour two glasses of wine, Lilly stood up and walked around the spacious living room, glancing at mementos and knick-knacks that were placed about on tables and shelves. She was surprised there were no photos of Taffy or BJ. Most of the photos were of flat and rather plain landscapes, though a few were of snow-capped mountains, taken from a distance. Lilly recalled that Taffy was from Missouri and so assumed some of the photos were of Taffy’s home. The others were probably from Colorado—the mountains looked like the Rockies, but who could tell?

  Taffy returned with the wine.

  “I’m eager to meet BJ.”

  “Come on, I’ll show you around,” Taffy said. Lilly followed her through the first floor rooms, including the kitchen, the dining room, and a small den. “Do you want to see the upstairs?” she asked.

  “No, that’s private,” Lilly said. She had no interest in seeing Taffy and BJ’s personal living quarters.

  “Why don’t we wait in the dining room?” Taffy asked, looking at her watch. “He shouldn’t be long.”

  Lilly followed Taffy to the dining room, which was decorated with a nod to mid-century furnishings and artwork. It reminded Lilly a bit of some of the old television shows she had watched as a kid.

  “Have a seat,” Taffy directed, pulling out a chair for Lilly. “I’ll get the placemats and utensils and everything.”

  She left the room and returned a moment later with the things she needed to set the table for dinner. Then she sat down next to Lilly and smiled. Lilly was going to ask more about BJ when there was a quick knock on the front door, followed by the sound of a knob turning.

  “Time for dinner!” rang out a voice.

  Lilly froze. She knew that voice.

  Chapter 56

  She looked toward the dining room doorway and Beau stood there.

  “What … what’s going on?” she asked, stammering.

  “This is BJ,” Taffy said, her smile just a little off and her eyes just a little narrower than usual.

  Beau Jonathan. BJ. Lilly’s ex-husband was her employee’s boyfriend.

  “Hi, Lil,” Beau said, smiling. “What do you think of our little prank?”

  “What do you mean, prank?" Lilly asked. She could feel her cheeks growing hot from embarrassment and confusion.

  “Taffy didn’t want you to know we were dating. She wanted you to find out in this dramatic way,” he explained. He grinned, a sickening, ear-to-ear manifestation of a perverse sense of humor.

  “I’m leaving,” Lilly said. “Taffy, this wasn’t funny. I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go from the jewelry shop, too.�
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  Taffy tossed her blond locks. “That’s okay. I don’t even care.”

  “Whoa!” Beau interjected. “You’re firing her just because we’re dating?”

  “Not just that, of course, but also because she deceived me and because I don’t trust her anymore. A jewelry store is not a place where you can have untrustworthy employees.”

  “It was just a joke!” Beau exclaimed. “Taf, tell her it was just a joke!”

  “Sit down, both of you,” Taffy ordered. “You’ve brought home a perfectly good roast beef dinner and we’re going to eat it.”

  “I’m not eating with either of you,” Lilly said, looking around for her purse. Where had she left it?

  “Your purse and your car keys are hidden,” Taffy said, her lips curling into a malicious smile. “So you might as well sit down and eat dinner.”

  “I’m calling the police,” Lilly said, a sudden fear beginning to grip her throat. “You can’t keep me here—that’s false imprisonment.”

  “I also have your cell phone,” Taffy said, popping a piece of roast beef into her mouth as she unpacked the takeout containers from the diner bag.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Lilly’s hands were shaking, whether from anger or frustration or her growing sense of unease, she didn’t know. Her breathing was fast and irregular. She had never been so humiliated.

  She sat down hard, refusing to look at either of them.

  “Here,” Taffy said, handing a plate laden with beef and potatoes to Beau. He accepted it without a word, giving Lilly a sidelong glance.

  Taffy helped herself to a heap of meat and vegetables and sat down. She took a big gulp of wine. “Hurry and eat because dessert is going to be delicious,” she said brightly. “I got it started when I got the wine. It’s heating right now.”

  She and Beau ate quietly, though she mentioned now and then how good dinner was and that Lilly didn’t know what she was missing. Lilly felt so sick to her stomach that just the thought of eating prompted waves of nausea to wash over her.