Crushed in Christmas River

by Meg Muldoon

  Damn Gertrude. She’d told him I’d been there with Riley.

  I could tell.

  Maybe I should have explained it all to him in that moment.

  But instead, I took our plates into the kitchen and started washing the dishes.

  Chapter 8

  “Hey, there you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

  Riley stepped out of the back door of the auditorium and into the steamy alleyway.

  The sun beat down hard on my shoulders. It was mid-afternoon, and the sky had taken on an acid shade of white.

  “I don’t know if I can do this anymore, Riley,” I said, peeling off my velveteen vest and unbuttoning the top button of my white blouse — I was burning up and my shirt was practically soaked through with sweat. “I should have quit yesterday like I said I would. Doreen is even crazier today than she was then.”

  Riley stepped toward me. He wore a white shirt that hugged his muscles in all the right ways and I could smell the fresh aroma of his aftershave.

  It made my knees feel like they were made of butter.

  “Don’t quit, Kara. This play can’t go on without Mrs. Claus.”

  He stepped closer looking down into my eyes.

  “And I need you.”

  “What do you mean... you need me?” I said breathlessly.

  “I think you know what I mean, Kara,” he said, standing over me, his eyes filled with longing.

  Before I knew what was happening, he’d swept me up in his arms, pulling me close, planting a kiss that was hotter than any summer sun on my lips.

  I should have pushed him away, should have told him I was married and that I wouldn’t stand for this behavior, but instead, a kind of wild, burning passion took hold of me. I kissed him back and started pulling off his T-shirt. He pushed me back into the brick wall and before I could come to my senses, he—

  My eyes flipped open and I let out a short gasp.

  It took me a moment to realize where I was — at home, in the safety of my bed, with John sleeping peacefully next to me.

  It took me another moment to realize that my phone was buzzing on the nightstand.

  I reached for it, noticing the time. It was just after six.

  The number that showed up had a Salem area code.

  “Hello?” I said in a quiet, raspy voice.

  “Kara?”

  I recognized the voice immediately, and I felt my cheeks flush like I’d just opened a million degree oven.

  “I hope I didn’t wake you,” he said.

  “Uh, no. I was just…”

  Having a dream about you… I thought.

  “What’s up?” I said.

  “Have you seen this morning’s news?”

  “No, I haven’t had a chance to—”

  “Turn it on.”

  I stood up and tip-toed out to the living room. Laila was sleeping in for once, and hadn’t woken me up at 5 o’clock wanting to go to the park, as was her usual routine these days.

  I flipped the TV on and turned it to the local news station. Travis Wahl, Christmas River’s 20-year-old news anchor of the moment, looked stoically at the camera as he spoke.

  “… June McKinney was leaving the Pine Needle Tavern and crossing Main Street at approximately 11 p.m. last night when a vehicle traveling westbound hit her. McKinney was taken to the hospital and suffered a compound fracture of her left leg. She is listed in stable condition at this time. The driver of the vehicle fled the scene. If anyone has any information about this incident, the Christmas River Police Department asks that you call them at…”

  I realized that I had clamped a hand over my mouth as I watched.

  June McKinney had been the star elf in the production.

  “Reindeers in Rhode Island…” I mumbled.

  “Yeah, something like that,” Riley responded.

  I broke out in goosebumps, getting a big hit of Déjà vu from four years earlier when the parade and play had been disrupted after a psychopathic arsonist came after the actors.

  The person behind these incidents might not have been lighting things on fire.

  But they were hurting plenty of people, all right.

  “That’s got to be the same car,” Riley said. “The one that nearly hit me the other night. Don’t you think, Kara? Don’t you think this proves it?”

  I let out a sigh as the child news anchor moved on to a story about rising gas prices.

  “Jeez… I don’t know, Riley. I mean… I just don’t know.”

  But I felt a tremor circulate through my body as I said it because the truth was, I did know that he was right.

  Something was going on.

  Who was doing this? What was their motive?

  Unlike Cinnamon, I wasn’t much for solving mysteries.

  But being so close to all of these bad things happening had me spooked and feeling like we needed to get to the bottom of what was going on before it was too late.

  “Are you going to be at rehearsals today?” Riley asked.

  “I, uh, well…”

  A smart person would have quit right then and there. Gotten themselves as far away from the play as possible.

  “Hey, so I don’t want to pressure you, but, uh… it would be great if you stayed on Kara,” Riley said. “I don’t know why, but I feel this kind of… I don’t know what you call it. A feeling about you. I think you’ll be able to help me figure this out.”

  I felt my cheeks grow hot, remembering that dream I’d been having a few minutes earlier.

  I cleared my throat.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll be there this afternoon. But I’m not promising anything beyond today. All right?”

  I blew out a long breath, turning off the TV and gazing at my reflection in the screen.

  I knew I should have said no.

  But when it came down to it, I couldn’t seem to find the word.

  Chapter 9

  “Oh, sorry — I didn’t mean to interrupt, girls.”

  I stepped into the hospital room, the plastic sleeve of the daisy bouquet I was holding crinkling loudly as I entered.

  June, who was in her late teens, glanced up from where she was lying in the hospital bed. A young woman with long blond hair and sun-kissed skin sat in a chair next to the bed and glanced over at me. Both of them had been in the middle of laughing at something and the smiles were still on their faces.

  “I wanted to come by and see how you were doing, June,” I said. “I heard about your accident on the news and I know I only just met you this week, but I—”

  “That’s so sweet of you,” she said, looking touched. “Those are beautiful. I think there might be a vase somewhere around here.”

  She craned her neck to look around the room.

  “Yeah — there’s one here,” the girl with the blond hair said, standing up and going over to a table. She grabbed a chipped white vase that had seen better days and filled it up with water in the room’s sink.

  “Here you go,” she said, handing it to me.

  “Thanks,” I said, putting the flowers in the vase.

  She nodded back, then grabbed a jean jacket draped over the chair.

  “I should probably get going, June. I’ve got to get ready for practice anyway. But I’ll be back tonight. Okay?”

  June looked a little crestfallen at her friend’s departure, but she smiled as best she could.

  “Okay. See you later, girl.”

  The young woman smiled and nodded at me on her way out.

  I took a seat in the chair, feeling a little awkward for breaking up the moment and thinking that maybe I was in over my head.

  Earlier, I’d called Cin and asked her if Daniel knew anything about the hit and run. She’d told me that the local city police were heading the investigation — not the Sheriff’s Office — so Daniel wasn’t in the immediate loop about the situation. She asked me why I wanted to know, and I found that I had no choice but to tell her about Riley and everything he’d said about the strange
accidents the cast had been having.

  Well, Cin was never one to ignore a mystery. She offered her help straight away. She told me she was going to talk to Daniel about it and see if he could look into all of it for me. Cin also suggested that Riley go talk to the police about the car that almost hit him in the parking lot the other day.

  Visiting June had been my idea. I figured the more information we could get about what happened to her the night before, the closer we would be to figuring out who was targeting the cast members.

  But now, as I sat there smiling awkwardly at a woman I hardly knew lying in a hospital bed, I suddenly felt like I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was doing.

  “So, um… how are you feeling?” I said.

  June shrugged.

  “As well as somebody whose entire summer has been ruined can be, I guess,” she said, tilting her head up toward the ceiling and letting out a slow breath. “But I guess I was just lucky that the car only clipped me. The police said if I’d been a split second slower crossing the street, I probably wouldn’t be here talking now.”

  A shadow passed over her face.

  “It’s such a crazy thing. I mean, I’d been drinking last night. But I wasn’t drunk when I walked across the street. That car just came out of nowhere. Like, the street was completely empty one moment. And the next, it was barreling toward me like… like…”

  She trailed off, not finishing the sentence. But I understood what she was saying, anyway.

  Like the driver was after her.

  I shifted in the chair, feeling a chill pass through me.

  “Were you able to see what kind of car it was?”

  She sighed, shaking her head.

  “It was dark, and the headlights blinded me. By the time I came out of the shock of getting hit, the car was long gone.”

  She rubbed her face and looked out the window.

  “I had so many plans for this summer.”

  I gazed at June’s despondent face, thinking about when I was her age.

  Summers seemed to mean so much back then. Even though I was working at the Christmas River Shake Shack to pay for my community college classes in my early twenties, the summer was always a special time of hanging out with friends, going to the lake at night, listening to country music, and lying out in the sun on the weekends.

  Things that weren’t so easy to do when you were bedridden with a broken leg.

  “I guess Jimmy will have to find another dance partner,” June mumbled. “That, or he’ll have to drop out.”

  I was suddenly plucked from daydreams of my youth and brought back to the room.

  “Did you just say something about dancing?” I asked.

  June nodded.

  “Yeah. My boyfriend and I were entered in that big dance competition that’s coming up next month. You know, the one with that huge top prize?”

  It wasn’t lost on me that Gertrude had also mentioned the dance competition.

  I guess I’d been busy lately and had only read the headlines about it. The local paper had mentioned that a big regional ballroom dance competition was taking place in Christmas River at the end of the month. The competition was held in different cities every year, and they’d selected Christmas River to be the site of this year’s event.

  “I don’t know much about it,” I said.

  “It was going to be so much fun,” June said glumly. “Anybody can enter. The top prize is $20,000 for the winning couple.”

  I felt my eyes bulge.

  “Twenty-thousand-dollars?”

  June nodded.

  “I’ve been taking ballroom dancing since I was a kid. I thought I had a good shot at winning. But I was mostly just doing it for fun. A competition that big hardly ever comes to Christmas River.”

  She sighed, looking down at her leg suspended in a sling.

  “But I guess I’m out of the running now.”

  I stared at her for a long moment, trying to think of something to make her feel better about the lost summer.

  “You know the great thing about being your age?” I said.

  She looked up.

  “There’s always another summer to look forward to.”

  She bit her lip, and I knew that that was little consolation at this moment.

  I tried to come up with something else to say to make her feel better.

  After a moment, it came to me.

  “Say – have you heard of the Outlander TV series?” I asked.

  “No. Is it any good?”

  I felt my lips curl up into a knowing smile. I got out my phone and looked up the cover image of the TV show on the Netflix app. I held it out for June to see.

  “Let’s just say that after a few episodes, you might be happy about that car clipping you.”

  June looked at the screen and smiled a little.

  Chapter 10

  I slipped into the dark auditorium, a big blast of cool air hitting me. I marched down the aisle, carrying my Mrs. Claus costume over my arm along with those damn heels.

  It was about an hour before rehearsals were set to begin, and I’d closed the ornament shop an hour earlier than usual so I could get over here early.

  I followed the path around the stage and then headed into the back where the dressing rooms were and where the theater office was.

  I needed to have a word with Doreen. I’d told Riley that I’d show up to rehearsals, but after seeing June in the hospital, I’d decided that enough was enough and I was going to quit. I wasn’t sure who was behind all of this. But what I did know was that I wasn’t going to get in their way. I valued my life too much.

  I’d rehearsed it all in my head to say to Doreen. But, as I neared her office, I realized that someone else was already talking to her.

  I paused in the hallway and listened.

  “You should have never agreed to any of this, Dorie,” a man’s voice boomed. “This ridiculous event will sink us. I’m not exaggerating this time. If we go through with the parade and play, we’re cooked.”

  There was a long pause. Then I heard Doreen’s distinct grating voice.

  “I had to do it, Bob. This parade and play is a Christmas River institution, and I will not let it die just because this town is run by philistines who can’t see the value in theater arts.”

  “That’s all very nice and well, honey, but this isn’t just your money here. You’re blowing our retirement on some stupid ideal that—”

  “What are we if we don’t have our ideals!” Doreen shouted in a dramatic tone worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy.

  “Smart, that’s what. And a hell of a lot richer.”

  I thought I heard sniveling after that.

  “But fine. Have it your way. Run us into the ground, honey. You don’t care enough about our future to call this off.”

  “Bob, that’s not—”

  There were heavy footsteps, and a moment later, the door to the office swung open.

  I should have seen it coming and tried to find a place to hide. But I didn’t, so all I could do was stand there in the middle of the hallway, looking down awkwardly, trying to pretend I hadn’t heard any of their argument.

  The short, balding man stopped abruptly when he saw me. He eyed me for a long moment.

  “Oh, I was just, um… just—”

  “Eavesdropping, that’s what,” he growled, his cheeks flushing red.

  “No, I wasn’t. I mean, I didn’t—”

  But he had already turned around and started walking swiftly down the hall, his dress shoes pounding the linoleum.

  “Damn it,” I muttered, letting out a sigh.

  I’d never met Doreen’s husband — but based on the conversation I’d overheard, that must have been him.

  After a little while had passed, I walked over to the office door, stomping my sandals loudly so I wouldn’t surprise her.

  “Uh, Doreen?”

  The swivel chair behind the desk was facing the wall, and I heard a sigh. A moment later, she turned aro
und.

  Her face was red and I could tell from her bloodshot eyes that she’d been crying.

  I cleared my throat.

  “Are you okay?”

  “It’s the same old argument. Bob’s a businessman. He doesn’t understand things of the heart.”

  I swallowed hard.

  “Maybe… maybe he’s right, Doreen. I know this play and parade mean a lot to you. But if it’s sinking your business, then is it really worth it?”

  Doreen sighed and closed her eyes.

  “I know it doesn’t make any sense logically,” she said. “But I’m not a businesswoman. I live by my heart. I’m not thinking about numbers in the bank. I’m thinking about the faces of the children watching the play and parade. The looks of pure…”

  Her voice was brimming with emotion again, and she had to pause for a moment to collect herself.

  “The looks of pure joy on their faces as they watch Mr. and Mrs. Claus come down the street. And then to see them act in a play? Oh, how the children love that. It’s not just a parade and play, Kara. Dreams: that’s what we’re weaving during those performances. Dreams, my dear.”

  She wiped away a few tears that had slipped down her cheeks.

  “Bob doesn’t understand. But I’d go bankrupt not to disappoint those children this July.”

  I gnawed on my lip as I listened.

  After a long moment, she drew in a deep breath.

  “I’m sorry — you probably don’t care about any of this. Was there something you wanted to see me about?”

  I glanced down at the Mrs. Claus costume in my arms and those stupid clunky shoes I was carrying.

  The words I’d rehearsed earlier ran through my head. The ones about not risking my life for a stupid play.

  I sighed, looking back at Doreen’s tear-streaked face.

  “Just that…”

  Here I was again – Kara Billings: The biggest sap alive.

  “Just that I’m excited for rehearsals today,” I said, smiling a phony smile.

  Chapter 11

  We were an elf short during rehearsals that afternoon, but Doreen reworked one of the scenes and spread out the rest of June’s lines among the other elves, and the run-through of the play went surprisingly smooth.