by Linnea West
“Why don’t I walk there with you?” Clarence asked as he continued to gently usher Nick to the door. “I have a few things to do over that way anyway.”
The two men waited for the metal door to open, stepping into the hallway together when it opened. They turned to look back into the strange little office that seemed a world away from the North Pole outside the metal door. Nick waved his jolly fat hand at her, using it to blow her a kiss before he turned to start down the hallway. Clarence stared at Cordelia, exchanging a meaningful look and nod before he turned to follow Santa to the Reindeer Barn.
The metal door clanged shut again, shutting Cordelia into the strange electronic world. Nate sat in the big leather chair, looking across the desk at her. For a moment, neither of them knew what to say. Cordelia thought of a new tactic.
“Nate, the reason Clarence and I came was to tell you that we know you were in the List Room and we know that you were touching the List without informing Leon of what you were doing,” Cordelia said.
She made sure not to mention that she didn’t actually know what he was doing with the List or why he had been there. From the way Nate sank back into his chair again, she was sure that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Cordelia crossed her legs and tried to lean back casually like she was in total control of the conversation. She was, even if she didn’t know where the conversation was going.
“How did you know that?” Nate finally said.
“That’s not something I can disclose,” Cordelia said. She felt like a top-secret agent. “But I need you to tell me what you were doing in the List Room this morning.”
“I wasn’t doing anything,” Nate said. “I swear that I didn’t do anything to the List. Wait, is something wrong with the List?”
Cordelia could feel herself start sweating. She tried to keep her cool, folding her arms across her chest like Clarence always did when he was confronting someone. It helped a little, but she could feel her stomach start shifting around, making her feel sick. It wasn’t often that someone at the North Pole was caught in a lie.
“Please answer the question, Nate,” Cordelia said, side-stepping telling a lie about the List. “What were you doing in the List Room?”
Nate sighed and closed his eyes. He lifted his hands to his face, covering his face and mumbling to himself. He was talking too low for Cordelia to hear him, so she hoped she wasn’t supposed to actually be able to hear what he was saying. Finally, he moved his hands and looked at her.
“I love technology,” Nate said. “Everyone here at the North Pole has a passion for what they do. Well, my passion is technology. But it’s hard when my passion is something that no one else understands. Sure, we’ve implemented some things in the sleigh and in the toy-making room to automate the process. But no one appreciates my vision for the North Pole.”
Cordelia wanted to jump in and start reminding him about what Christmas was about and how important traditions and the old ways were. But something deep inside of her told her to wait. Right now, she needed to sit back and listen. She made sure her face didn't display her feelings and she waited for Nate to continue talking.
“I’ve been by the List Room a few times, trying to talk about making some changes with Leon,” Nate said. “But every time, he won’t even let me see the List. So this morning I was just going to try talking to him again except this time the door was unlocked. So I went in to get a good look at the List. This time, I accidentally opened it and the List came out. I managed to fold it back up and get out of there as fast as I could. I swear I didn’t do anything to it.”
Cordelia nodded, smiling a gentle smile. The poor elf was flustered and it was clear to Cordelia that he hadn’t sabotaged the List. She didn’t have anything besides his word to prove that, but her gut told her he was not the one to blame.
“I might want to automate, but I would never do anything to hurt the old traditions,” Nate said. “Everyone seems to forget that I was raised with them too.”
“I believe you, Nate,” Cordelia said. “Thank you for being so honest with me.”
Nate’s shoulders relaxed and Cordelia could feel herself relaxing also. The only problem was if Nate didn’t sabotage the List, who had done it?
“I must be going now,” Cordelia said. “We’re in crunch time, you know.”
She stood up and started toward the door, but it didn’t slide open. Turning to look at Nate, his face was hopeful.
“Could I ask a favor, Mrs. Claus?” Nate asked. “Would you perhaps try to put a good word in for my technology plans? I feel like no one ever really listens. They just immediately shut them down.”
“I will try,” Cordelia said. “I have a little advice for you, though. I am a heavy believer in tradition. I think when you are so gung-ho about overhauling everything, it scares those of us who love tradition. Not everything needs to be changed. Maybe you could try a softer, slower approach. I would certainly be open to that.”
Nate grabbed a pen from the cup and scribbled a note down on a scrap of paper on the desk in front of him. Looking up, he smiled as he hit a button on the console in front of him. The metal door slid up and Cordelia walked into the hallway, turning to give one last smile and wave at the technology elf. The poor dear was just misguided in his efforts, listening to his passions and nothing else.
But Nate’s technology ideas needed to be put in the back of her mind. For now, Cordelia had to return to the List Room and make Leon check the tapes again. Someone else had to have come in. Nate wasn’t the saboteur, so who was?
Chapter Eight
Cordelia knocked on the wooden door of the List Room, glad it wasn’t a metal one like at Nate’s office. Wood felt so familiar and comfortable. The metal door felt like Cordelia had been forced off into space or something. It was unfriendly and off-putting.
After waiting for a moment, Cordelia knocked again. She could hear that someone was inside bumbling around and she figured that it had to be Leon. There were a few crashes that didn’t sound great and Cordelia hoped Leon was alright.
“Leon, open the door,” she called. “It’s me, Mrs. Claus. I just finished talking to you know who. I’d like to come in.”
Cordelia could hear footsteps over to the door and the sound of the deadbolt turning. The wooden door creaked open, just a crack. It was just enough for the top of Leon’s head to peek around at her. Seeing it was actually her, Leon quickly opened the door and grabbed her arm, pulling her inside and slamming the heavy door shut behind her, locking the deadbolt as soon as it was shut.
“I’m so glad you’re back, I don't like being in here alone right now,” Leon said. “I have the heebie-jeebies thinking someone is going to come back to finish off the List and me along with it. I’ve been busy making sure we are protected.”
Leaning over to look past Leon, it appeared that he had been taking all of the old List books off of their shelves and piling them around the desk. One whole stack on the side had fallen over, which must have been the crash she heard earlier.
“What exactly have you been working on?” Cordelia asked.
“Building a fortress,” Leon said. “We needed an extra level of protection for the List and this was the easiest way for me to do it without leaving the room.”
Cordelia just blinked at Leon, who blinked right back at her. The room was in absolute shambles with piles of books everywhere. She had assumed that Leon would get to work remaking the naughty and nice list, not building an unnecessary palace of books in a misguided attempt to protect the current List.
But looking at his earnest face, she just couldn't get mad at him. Perhaps like Santa, she also had a soft spot. Leon seemed totally convinced that the fortress he had been working on was completely necessary. But Cordelia knew someone who would get mad at Leon and he was due back at the List Room any minute. Clarence would blow his top if, besides the fact that Cordelia had ruled out their main suspect, Leon had done nothing to repair the List.
“What an interesting plan,” Cor
delia finally said. “Now, we must start working on the List. I’m going to help in any way I can.”
“Oh, I figured you were just stopping by to tell me that you have Nate in custody,” Leon said. “He can’t sabotage the List and get away with it!”
Cordelia shifted her weight back and forth, biting her lip as she tried to determine how to break the news to Leon. She had been sort of hoping to tell both him and Clarence at the same time so that she would only have to explain once, but it looked like she wouldn’t be able to push it off.
“Well actually, I’m here to have you watch more of the security tape,” Cordelia said.
“Why? Did he actually come twice to sabotage the List?” Leon squeaked.
“Er, no,” Cordelia said, clearing her throat. “He was not the one who sabotaged the List.”
“Yes, he was,” Leon said. “We saw him do it on the tape.”
Leon walked back to the big leather chair behind the desk, sitting down so that Cordelia could hardly see him behind the stacks of books. She peeked around until she found a hole big enough to see all of him through.
“No, we saw him open the book and then fold the List back up inside of it,” Cordelia said. “He was trying to stop by to speak to you about automating the List and when he found the room unlocked and empty, Nate figured it was his chance to actually look at the List and get an idea of what he was dealing with.”
“Yes, and then he knowingly messed it up so that he could try to bully us into implementing his stupid computers in here,” Leon said.
“Well he said that he didn’t do that,” Cordelia said. “And I believe him. As Mrs. Claus, I have a knack for reading people. So there must have been someone else in here. Did you happen to see anyone else on the tape?”
Leon shifted in his chair, disappearing from view behind another stack of books. Cordelia crept along the wall of books, looking through all of the cracks she could find until she found another one big enough to see him through. Leon scowled at her and turned his chair to face the window.
Cordelia went around the desk until she was standing in the windowsill. Leon tried to turn his chair again, but this time Cordelia caught the arm of the chair and stopped it from moving.
“Look at me, Leon,” Cordelia said.
Leon avoided her gaze. Cordelia moved from one side of the chair to the other and each time Leon moved so that he didn’t have to look her in the face. She was going to have to pull out the big guns. She didn’t like using this, but it was her trump card.
“I am Mrs. Claus,” Cordelia said. She straightened up and stepped in front of Leon’s chair. He didn't dare move now. “I am second in command here at the North Pole and you will tell me this instant, was there someone else on the tape who came in today?”
Leon gulped so loudly that Cordelia could hear it. He licked his lips and took a deep breath before he looked her right in the eyes. His handsome dark eyes looked pained to have to talk to her in this way.
“Yes, there was someone else in the List Room this morning,” Leon said.
Cordelia stepped back and was about to celebrate her triumph, but a loud knock on the door made her jump. Unfortunately, she startled right into a stack of books, sending a cascade of past Lists sliding down to the floor. The covers of a few books opened and the Lists sprung out, covering the room in the names of naughty and nice children of yore.
“Now you’ve done it,” Leon said.
He stood up and started to carefully fold up the Lists, delicately putting them back exactly as they had been. Cordelia grabbed the nearest open book and tried to fold it back up. But instead of neatly making it fit back in the book, she felt like she was only making it worse. A loud knock on the wooden door made her jump again. She had forgotten that someone was waiting outside the door, the unknowing catalyst to this List chaos.
“You get the door, I’ll fix the Lists,” Leon said. “It’s probably just Clarence.”
Cordelia carefully picked her way to the door and slid the deadbolt open. She opened the door carefully, to avoid any Lists that happened to be in the way.
“It took you long enough,” Clarence said. He took two steps into the room and stopped, looking around at the hoarder’s paradise of books that awaited him in the List Room. “What happened here?”
“Leon decided that the current List necessitated another layer of protection, namely a fortress built of past Lists,” Cordelia said.
She was wiggling her eyebrows at Clarence, hoping he would understand that Leon was in an emotionally fragile state and needed some grace, not a bully. But Clarence just wrinkled his nose at her. He had no time for stupidity during crunch time.
“That’s ridiculous,” Clarence said. “You mean your security cameras don’t work well enough? Your time would have been better spent repairing the List instead of throwing around the books.”
“I didn’t throw around the books,” Leon said. “I built a fortress around the desk consisting of the only supplies I had available to me here in the room that I couldn't leave. She was the one who toppled them all over and made this lovely mess.”
Leon was down on his knees, surrounded by open books. He pointed at Cordelia as he spoke, jabbing at the air in her direction to make sure Clarence knew exactly who he was referring to.
“No matter, get it cleaned up,” Clarence said, making no move to help with the mess. Instead, he turned to look at Cordelia. “So when do we take Nate into custody?”
“Well, that’s what I came to talk to the two of you about,” Cordelia said. “I was just discussing this with Leon. I don’t think Nate did this. See, after you left…”
Before Cordelia could explain herself, Clarence put his hand up in her face, one finger in the air to silence her. She clamped her mouth shut, knowing that until Clarence was good and ready to hear the explanation, he wouldn’t let her get another word in. Her best bet was to wait it out.
Clarence picked his way through the papers on the floor, trying to avoid stepping on them, but too distracted to care too much. Each time he stepped on a piece of paper, Leon winced as though he’d just been kicked in the jaw. Cordelia clenched her teeth, wishing Clarence could be a bit less dramatic about it all.
Going around the edge of the desk, Clarence disappeared behind the stacks of books as he sank down into Leon’s leather chair. Clearing his throat, his disembodied voice drifted out from behind the books.
“Tell me again what you just said,” Clarence said. “I must have misheard you.”
“I said that I don’t think Nate did it,” Cordelia said.
She stepped closer to the wall of books, searching for another crack in the construction to see Clarence through. He cleared his throat from the other side and spoke again as Cordelia continued to search for a hole in the books to converse with him.
“Once more,” Clarence said. “These books must have been in the way of my understanding.”
“Oh for peppermint’s sake,” Cordelia said.
She rushed forward and grabbed a stack of books. Clutching them to her chest, she shoved them on the nearest shelf, not caring to organize them by year or however they were supposed to be shelved. After two more armfuls, the stack of books in front of the desk were chest height. Leaning her elbows on top of the stack, she leaned across and stared into Clarence’s face.
“Read my lips, Nate did not sabotage the List,” Cordelia said.
She was sweating from all of the manual labor she had just done to clear the great wall of books. Taking off her red sweater, Cordelia threw it over the stack of books in front of her. Looking behind her, Leon was sitting cross-legged with a stack of books on one side of him and a stack of open books on the other that he as slowly folding back up, page by page.
“Don’t be ridiculous Cordelia, of course he did,” Clarence said. “What do you think happened? You think he came in here for some light reading and the List just decided to sabotage itself? I’ve had enough shenanigans today.”
“Of course not,�
� Cordelia said. “Nate admits he came in here and handled the List, but he swears he didn't do anything besides that.”
“Then what happened?” Clarence said. "We're just going to take his word for it?"
He was leaning forward now, half-standing up from his chair with his hands flat on the desk in front of him. Clarence’s face was strained and red. Cordelia was a little bit afraid that he was going to have some sort of heart attack, but then she remembered that heart attacks were a mortal affliction, not something that elves had to worry about. But he looked like every mortal on television who had a heart attack.
“Someone else was here.”
Cordelia turned to face Leon, who was still sitting in the same position, staring at the floor. At first, she thought maybe she had misheard him. But then he looked up toward Mrs. Claus.
“But I can’t tell you who it was.”
Chapter Nine
Cordelia turned to look at Clarence. Red was slowly rising up his face toward his hairline. She was a little afraid that when it filled his face, Clarence would blow his top like a volcano.
“What do you mean you can’t say who it was?” Clarence said.
His teeth were clenched so tightly that his mouth almost didn't move at all as he spoke. His hands were almost clawing at the desk as Clarence searched for something to cling onto that would stop him from vaulting over the desk and throttling Leon.
“I mean that there was one other person on the tape that wasn’t me or Nate,” Leon said. “But I can't tell you who it was.”
“Why not?” Cordelia asked.
She didn't dare move out of her spot, afraid that if she moved an inch either way, it would open up an avenue for Clarence to attack Leon. She didn't think Clarence was an elf who would resort to physical violence, but she had also never seen him this upset before. Crunch time did funny things to an elf.
“I don’t want the elf to get in trouble, but I know that she, I mean they didn’t do it,” Leon said.