by Linnea West
“You’re right that I forgot to tidy,” Leon said. “I’ve been sort of having a hard time this year and after you told me that you were dropping by, I didn’t get back here in time to get things in order. It’s also why I must have forgotten to lock the door. But honestly, I never imagined someone would actually come in to sabotage the List. What would possess a Christmas elf to sabotage the Christmas List?”
Cordelia had to agree. Christmas elves were born festive, full of the Christmas spirit and ready to do everything in their power to make Christmas Eve run smoothly for Santa. To think that there was a possibility that one of the elves out there was capable of ruining Christmas was a sad thought. It went against everything Cordelia knew about the North Pole elves.
The tinny sound of Christmas carols filled the sad silence of the List Room. Usually, crunch time was a hectic, but happy time, full of bustling joy and the knowledge that Christmas was just around the corner. The only sadness was usually December 26th, after the joy of Christmas was over and the elves knew they had to wait for another full year before they could do Christmas again.
Leon stood up from his chair and walked over to the window behind his desk. The top part was covered with shelves of books and the bottom was hidden behind the leather chair. In fact, Cordelia hadn’t actually realized there was a window in the room until Leon started to look sadly out on the snowy scene.
She glanced out and saw that his office looked out over the park area where a dozen pine trees were decorated year-round with lights and ornaments. It was a beautiful view and one that Cordelia’s own office shared. It was a wonderful reminder of why they did what they did. Seeing those trees all festive and bright with snow lightly falling around them was always a good way to lift Cordelia's spirits.
A loud knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and made her jump. Leon yelped as he jumped also, spinning to face the door as though it were fate knocking and not just Clarence wanting to be let back in. Cordelia crossed the room and undid the deadlock. Clarence slipped in, slamming the door shut behind himself and locking the deadbolt in one swift movement.
“What did you find?” Clarence asked, his eyes shifting to look at Leon.
Cordelia could feel her face turn pink. She had gotten distracted and hadn't really found much of anything. She couldn’t tell Clarence that, though. He would be furious that he had gone and rearranged things and she had found nothing to help their case.
“Well, I had a good look around the office,” Cordelia said. “It is certainly more of a mess than usual and Leon here has admitted that he forgot to clean up a bit before we came.”
She tried to make what she said sound very official and serious, as though it had an enormous bearing on the mystery of who sabotaged the list. But as she said it, Cordelia couldn’t help but cringe at just how bad it sounded.
“And how does that relate to the investigation?” Clarence asked.
He arched one eyebrow and Cordelia felt herself shrink a little bit. She smiled a weak smile at him.
“It helps because we know that this mess didn't come from the saboteur,” Cordelia said. “It was already here.”
“I wouldn’t say that was much help,” Clarence said.
Cordelia wrinkled up her nose at him. Even though she knew that it was her own fault, she couldn't help but be annoyed at that sourpuss. Clarence was looking at her like he had just sucked on a lemon and he blamed her for how sour it was.
“I’m still working on it,” Cordelia said. “Maybe you could help me look around a little more.”
“Excuse me, but if I could ask a question?” Leon said. “How do we know someone did this on purpose?”
Cordelia thought for a moment. That was an excellent question.
“I don’t actually know someone did it on purpose,” Cordelia said. “But I know people think Nick is getting a bit stale. And I think it just makes more sense that someone sabotaged the List than that someone did it accidentally and then didn’t want to say anything. If someone did this by accident, wouldn’t they want to fix it so that Christmas wasn’t ruined?”
Leon shrugged his shoulders at her as if to say that she must be right. Any North Pole elf would make sure Christmas stayed on track. They might be embarrassed, but they would make sure the List got back to its original state so that everything would stay on track.
“We still have lots to do today besides play detective,” Clarence said. “I managed to rearrange most of your schedule, but we can’t just drop everything, not during crunch time.”
It was Cordelia’s turn to harrumph and scowl at Clarence. She flounced back to the desk, keeping her back to him. She was mostly mad because she knew he was right. There was a lot to be done, mostly things she had decided to take on herself. She had loaded up her own to-do list and now she had reached the breaking point of things to do.
But what was she supposed to do? Nick needed to stay Jolly Old Saint Nick, not worry about the minutiae of how the North Pole was running. Cordelia just wanted Nick to be happy. And he was happy, which made Cordelia happy. No matter how stressed it made her to do everything herself, she was always glad when Christmas Eve came and everything ran smoothly. It was proof that she was doing things right. Except for times like right now when her schedule and list were maxed out and she was stuck trying to keep all of the plates spinning while adding something large and important to it.
“Why don’t you let me take over the investigation for a little while and you go out and do the things you are supposed to be doing, Mrs. Claus?” Clarence asked.
Cordelia turned to look at him, her face softening as she saw that his eyes were full of concern. Clarence might try to pass off his concern for her as his job, but the head elf cared deeply about his friend. Every year he warned her against running herself ragged. But every year, Christmas Eve went off without a hitch and Cordelia would simply point at it smugly as proof that everything was alright. This year was happening a bit differently.
“I would just really like a few suspects in mind before I go about my business,” Cordelia said. “As it is, we have no ideas. There is nothing for me to mull over while I go do whatever boring jobs I have scheduled today.”
“How do you figure out who the suspects are?” Leon asked.
He left the window where he had been leaning to look out at the snow pensively and joined Clarence and Cordelia by the desk.
“Well, we just need some sort of evidence,” Cordelia said. “We need to know who could have possibly been in here.”
“Is that all?” Leon asked. “Hold on.”
His eyebrows wrinkled together in confusion as he looked around the desk. Cordelia couldn't tell what he was looking for or thinking about, but she hoped he would say something soon. Leon’s insight would be incredibly useful seeing as Cordelia stepped into this room exactly once a year and otherwise had no idea how the List worked.
“What exactly are we waiting for?” Clarence asked.
“Oh, sorry, I was trying to remember something,” Leon said as he rummaged around. “But I did think of something that could help you. The only problem is that I’m the only one who can really look at it.”
Cordelia shot a glance at Clarence, who seemed just as confused as she was. She couldn't tell if Leon was actually being helpful or not.
“I’ll bite, what is it?” Clarence asked.
Leon opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a small remote. Pointing it at one of the walls of shelves, the wall split open to reveal a small computer console. Cordelia looked sideways at Clarence, whose eyes were practically popping out of his head.
“I have security cameras in here,” Leon said. “Anyone who has been in or out of here is on tape.”
Chapter Five
“Great, then let’s fire this thing up and see who has been in here,” Cordelia said.
She started toward the computer console, but Leon jumped in front of her. She tried to walk around him, but every time she took a step sideways, he did the s
ame, locking them into a silly sort of dance in the small room.
“Leon, you need to let us see,” Cordelia said. “This may be the only way we figure out who did it.”
“I know, but I want to be the one to look,” Leon said. “This is all very high-tech security and I don't think anyone else should have access to it.”
Clarence stepped up next to Cordelia. He loomed over Leon, standing at least six inches taller than the other elf. Leon puffed out his chest and stared defiantly up at Clarence, not letting his imposing stature scare him into submission.
“Show us those tapes now or we will go to Santa,” Clarence said.
Cordelia turned and scowled at the Head Elf. Now all three of them were at odds with each other.
“Here’s what I think we should do,” Leon said.
His voice shook, but he stepped back and folded his hands in front of them, putting his pointer fingers up to his mouth as though he were thinking hard through the different scenarios. After a moment, he spilled the plan to them.
“I want to maintain the security of the security system,” Leon said.
“That’s ridiculous,” Clarence said, butting in before Leon could finish. Cordelia elbowed him, but Clarence took no notice, barreling on with his statement. “What if something happened to you and we needed to see the security tape? How would we do it?”
Leon sighed and rolled his eyes as if it were the dumbest question he had ever heard, although Cordelia had to admit that she was worried about the same thing.
“I do have the passwords and security protocol written down in case something happens to me,” Leon said. “I’m not stupid. But right now, I’m perfectly healthy and not willing to compromise it. So I will start watching the tape from when you came in and we discovered the problem. I’ll rewind it until I can see who else was in here.”
“Are you sure this problem happened today?” Cordelia asked. “It was at the beginning of the list. Maybe it happened weeks ago.”
“I’m not going to sit and try to explain the magic of the list to you,” Leon said. “It’s complicated. But I can say with certainty that the sabotage happened today. I do a daily check at the end of each day on the List overall. As of last night when I closed up the List Room, everything was fine. The problem must have happened sometime today.”
Cordelia longed to ask about the magic of the list. Of course, most of the North Pole used an element of magic in how it worked. It was instrumental in making sure everything got done and ran smoothly. But now she was intrigued by the List. Apparently, it was not simply a piece of paper with writing.
“Leon, you’re going to have to back up,” Cordelia said. “I don't need a full explanation on List magic, but I need some sort of explanation. How could someone mess up the beginning of the List today and cause so much trouble?”
Leon pursed his lips and scowled at the same time, which was a facial expression that Cordelia had never seen before. After a moment’s thought and a throat-clearing sound from Clarence to let him know that an answer was required, Leon beckoned them to follow him to the desk.
Opening the book, Cordelia peered over his shoulder. Leon took the piece of metal that looked like a ruler and held it up for them to see.
“This is what makes the List work,” Leon said. “This is what holds the place and changes the naughty or nice setting. If it somehow isn’t used the right way, it can disrupt everything. When this is in place, the List can be easily changed and the columns will line up. Otherwise, the list may shift the columns around because of the sheer length of it.”
Clarence grumbled under his breath and Cordelia looked at him. She was sort of glad that he was also confused and it wasn’t just her. Leon was explaining it like what he said made perfect sense, but it sounded like gibberish.
“What does the metal thing actually do?” Cordelia asked. “And what do you mean the columns shift around? Aren’t they just paper?”
Leon sighed, looking more than a bit exasperated with her.
“The metal thing here is what lines up the name of the child with their naughty or nice status,” Leon said.
Cordelia nodded along. She understood that much at least.
“When it is in place, the columns are in the right place and everything will line up,” Leon said. “But if someone were to slide the columns around and put the metal piece back down, it will line the name up with something different.”
Leon picked up the metal placeholder and set it aside. Then he took hold of the paper and pulled on the top right corner of the page. Instead of the entire page moving, simply the column that showed the naughty or nice status moved, which meant that the names on the left were no longer lined up with where they had previously. Instead, the bottom of the list now had an empty space.
“But why does it do that Leon?” Cordelia asked. “That just seems like it would be asking for trouble. And that doesn't explain how everything changed to the nice column.”
“Babies are born every day, thousands of them,” Leon said. “They must all be accounted for on the list. How are we supposed to keep the list organized if we are adding all of those babies to the back pages instead of where they should be within the list? It would be mass chaos. This was the easiest way to be able to add space and shift the columns around while keeping things in some sort of order. Typically, of course, we would pull on both corners and shift both columns to add more space, but that wasn’t the case this time. This time, someone tugged on just above the naughty/nice column. That defaults the column to nice."
"But why does it default that way?" Cordelia asked. She didn't mean to be a bother, but she really wanted to know.
"It was made that way in case an entire page gets messed up," Leon said. "That way if a big mistake is made on the List, the entire page can default. And we would rather default to nice than naughty. Honestly, though, I didn't know the entire List could default. Obviously, I've never tried that before."
Cordelia understood, but it still didn’t make sense to her. It seemed to only cause more trouble doing it this way. Clarence’s grumbling beside her told her that he felt the same way she did about the list organization process.
“Okay, I understand now,” Cordelia said. “Can we get on with watching the tapes so that we can figure out who did this?”
She felt like she could hear time ticking away. During crunch time, every second mattered. Even if she could delegate most of her tasks away, there were still plenty of things that only Cordelia could do. She needed to solve this mystery before any more time passed.
“I will watch the tapes,” Leon said. “The two of you go stand by the door so that you can’t see how I get into the security station.”
“Oh for goodness sake,” Clarence said.
Cordelia shot him a look before she retreated back toward the door. It wasn’t worth a fight. At this point, what did it matter if Leon looked at the tapes or they all looked at the tapes together? Leon would show them the suspects once they were on the screen.
Clarence stood in his place for a moment, his arms folded across his chest as though he were trying to menace Leon into changing his mind. But the Keeper of the List stood his ground, his sense of duty more important to him than any physical threats from a larger elf. Clarence slowly turned and walked back to stand next to Cordelia, keeping his arms crossed.
Once the two elves were by the door, Leon scurried over to the computer station and started typing frantically on the keyboard. He was hunched over, throwing furtive glances toward Clarence and Cordelia, as if making sure they hadn’t gotten out binoculars to watch what he was typing.
After some frantic typing, Leon’s face scrunched up. He alternated between squinting at the screen and opening his eyes wide, every once in awhile turning to make sure no one was sneaking up to look over his shoulder. Cordelia couldn’t help but notice that Leon’s cheeks were red and she hoped that he wasn’t feeling too rushed, although a sense of urgency was certainly appreciated at that moment. Clarence s
tarted to tap his foot, a little louder than necessary.
“Do you think he’s actually doing anything over there?” Clarence asked.
“We have to trust that he is,” Cordelia said. “All three of us have reasons to get the List back on track and figure out who messed with it in the first place. Hopefully, we can get our answer soon and get on with life.”
“Not really, we have to fix the List first,” Clarence said. “No matter what we do, we can’t just ‘get on with life.’ Even if life is full of crunch time activities on top of this whole escapade.”
Cordelia nodded. Clarence was right. It wasn’t like they would figure out who did it and just move on. They had to figure out how to deal with the culprit and fix the List without letting Santa and the rest of the North Pole know what was happening.
Closing her eyes, Cordelia tried to think about her to-do list. She ran down it in her head, trying to find anything she could delegate to someone else. She had been thinking of getting a new dress for the Christmas Day celebration, but she would simply have one of the seamstress elves revamp an old dress of hers. That meant she wouldn't have to try to shoehorn dress fittings into her already packed schedule. Usually, she read stories to the nursery children three times a week, but she could scale it back to just once a week, for the time being.
She could also delegate decorating her personal tree to someone. That one pained her to give away. Mrs. Claus usually got to design and decorate a large tree that was brought in for the Christmas Day celebration. It was wheeled into the toy workshop and sat in the middle as the elves congregated around it, singing carols and eating goodies. Cordelia loved coming up with a theme for the tree and personally overseeing the decorating. But this year, she would have to think of the theme and hand it over to someone else. There were bigger stockings to fill this year.