“And then she got Horace, too.”
“Hmm, lucky girl. It’s a pity she never appreciated him.”
I didn’t know what to do. That remark about office spouses made me wonder if their relationship went further outside of the office, too. “You’re a very good friend to visit Horace every day.”
“The office reopens officially on Monday. Goodness, but there’s a lot to do. I hope he can come home soon. People mend so much faster at home.”
Had she really said come home? As if he was coming home to her? As gently as I could, I said, “It sounds like you had a crush on him when you were young.”
“How did you know?”
“You’re obviously still extremely fond of him.”
She patted my arm. “Let me know what Edith tells you. I’m quite anxious about his condition.”
I watched her walk away, wishing she were Brown-Eyed Girl.
I window-shopped as I walked, but my heart wasn’t in it. And then I spotted Natasha through a store window. She was perfectly coiffed and dressed in a coat and matching plaid scarf in her signature robin’s-egg blue. Her chic winter boots had impossibly high heels. She seemed totally pulled together. But she held a gold star in her hands and didn’t move. She simply stood there with tears streaming down her otherwise flawless makeup.
I hurried inside. “Nat?” I placed my hand against her back.
“They laughed at me, Sophie.” She spoke in a bare whisper. “I’m the big joke around town.”
“Who?”
“The women who work here.”
I glanced toward the cash register. They were snickering all right. One even made motions like she was bashing the other one over her head.
I took the star out of Natasha’s hands. “Let’s go home.” I placed my arm around her and guided her toward the door.
We shuffled by the women, who burst into laughter as we left. Natasha didn’t say much on the way home. I didn’t, either.
Safely back in my kitchen, I put on the kettle for tea and handed her a warm washcloth to clean her face. “Spiced holiday tea, or just plain black tea?”
“Plain.”
She had walked home with her head bent forward and still sat that way at my kitchen table. I lit a fire and helped her out of the coat she hadn’t bothered to take off.
Her hands trembled. I’d never seen her this was—beaten down and hopeless.
I doctored her tea with a little sugar and milk, which I knew she didn’t take. Mars had said she wasn’t eating, so I was determined to get some food into her. I found the cookies she had baked for the cookie swap and brought a few to her on a little plate. Surely she would eat her own cookies.
I sat down and watched her. “Tell me what’s going on.”
She didn’t raise her eyes. “I work all the time. Around the clock. Every day. I try so hard to look and be professional. My house is impeccable. Do you know what I’ve gone through to get where I am? And in one second, Gwen wiped out all my efforts. No one remembers my fabulous recipes or my beautiful decorating tips. All they can see is those hideous pictures. I’m a laughingstock. I’m ruined.”
“They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” I wasn’t sure I agreed with that, but it was what she needed to hear. “Why don’t you turn this around by using it to your advantage?”
“That’s impossible.”
“What if you went online and made a joke about having a bad hair day? You could ask people to submit pictures of their bad hair days and make a contest out of it.”
Natasha sat up straighter. “And I could tell them how to fix their hair problems!”
“Noooo. You wouldn’t want them telling you how to fix your hair problem in those pictures.”
“They think I already have by murdering Gwen. Why did Gwen hate me so much? Why did she post those stupid pictures?”
“You often tell me that people want to be you. In this case, I think Gwen might have wished she were more like you.”
“I don’t know why anyone would want to be me. No one likes me. Everyone comes over to your house instead of mine. Maybe I should be more like you. I mean, look how you’re dressed. You don’t care what people think. You don’t even have a signature color. Your house isn’t fashionable, you even use red and green to decorate for Christmas, just no originality at all.”
I would have protested if she hadn’t looked so miserable.
“Mars says you’re even cheerful in the morning.”
“Not every morning.”
Natasha pointed at her cookies. “Look at these pathetic cookies you baked—”
“You baked those.”
She picked one up and nibbled on it. “See how distracted I am? I didn’t even recognize my own cookies. They’re good, too!” She ate the cookie and helped herself to two more. “I should bake more of these. I know! Gwen goofed everything up, but I’ll go forward with the big block decorating party just like I planned. I’ll bake cookies, you can bring mulled cider or hot chocolate. Think you could manage that? And we’ll finish stringing lights on the trees along the sidewalk and on the homes of those who can’t do it themselves. That will restore my holiday spirit.”
She stood up but bent over to hug me. “And one day, you really must let me tell you what you should do with this kitchen.”
After she left, I grabbed my coat and made my way to Rocking Horse Toys. It teemed with children and parents. I waived at Twiggy briefly. “Kat’s not here?”
“Sugar is supposed to pick her up from school.”
A woman sidled over to us clutching two dolls in her hands. They were identical except for the color of their dresses. “Can you set these aside for me to pick up tomorrow?” she whispered. She flicked a credit card at Twiggy and hurried back to twin girls who were admiring a dollhouse.
The busy store was perfect for what I had in mind. I wasn’t sure I wanted to draw Elvin’s attention just yet. I browsed through the store in search of mice like the one Edith had bought. Two of them perched on a shelf laden with stuffed animals. My heart thudded when I saw them. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the glasses Kat said she had found in the Babineaux living room. I held them up to one of the mice. They were a perfect match.
I slid the glasses back into my pocket and brought the two mice to the register to pay for them. Twiggy smiled when she took them from me. “These are so cute. They’ve sold very well for us.”
“Did Gwen or Baxter buy one?”
“Not that I know of. Excuse me, Sophie. Elvin, would you please ring these up?” Twiggy hurried off.
Elvin looked at the mice in his hands. He paused for a long moment. Without raising his head, his eyes moved up to meet mine. A little chill shook through me. Elvin was definitely uneasy.
He forced a smile. “Cute little guys, aren’t they?”
I tried to sound casual. “I thought Kat might like one. She seems to have the glasses but not the mouse.” I pulled the glasses out of my pocket to show him.
The genial flush in his face blanched to white. He rang up the mice and with a shaking hand, slid them into a bag.
I persisted. “Do you know where Kat found these?”
“Not a clue.” He told me the price.
I handed over the cash. “That’s funny. I thought you told Kat she could have them.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. In a very low voice, he said, “She found them in the living room. Okay? I didn’t know they belonged to a mouse.”
“But you do now.”
“I guess Gwen or somebody had one of those mice. Maybe the glasses broke off when she was decorating. Excuse me, Sophie. There’s a line of customers behind you.”
I backed away certain of one thing—Elvin knew more than he was saying. I was pondering a way to pry more information out of Elvin when I heard Twiggy scream, “No!”
Jonah did his best to calm her but there was no hope of that. Twiggy ran past me to the back of the store.
“Everything okay?” I asked Jonah.
“Kat’s missing.”
“Can I help?”
“Uh, sure. We’re going over to her school right now. The more people searching for her, the better.”
Twiggy returned with their coats, and we fled out the door before they had them on.
We arrived to a gathering of a distressed teacher, Sugar, assorted police officers, and, much to my surprise, Alex. For once, Sugar wasn’t clinging to him.
The teacher was explaining that she had brought in a classroom kitten, but it turned out that one of the little boys was allergic to it. “So I informed the children that it would be Harry’s last day with us. Kat wouldn’t let Harry out of her arms. She just clung to him and accused me and the allergic boy of lying about his allergy. I was telling Sugar about it, and when we looked around, Kat and Harry were gone.”
“Have you searched the school?” asked a police officer.
“Yes, of course.”
Sugar seized Alex’s arm with both of her hands. “Could social services have taken her? Is that something they would do? Sneaky like that?”
“Social services?” Twiggy appeared doubtful. “Why would they snatch her?”
“Because Baxter isn’t her father. And no one knows who her dad is,” I clarified.
Sugar glared at me. “I know who he is.”
Everyone turned toward her. Jonah rolled his eyes and brushed a shock of hair off his forehead.
“I’m Kat’s mother,” declared Sugar.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Dear Natasha,
We have a TV over our mantel, and a fireplace under it. Our taste leans to clean, modern décor. How do we decorate it for Christmas?
The Klauses Jr. in North Pole, Alaska
Dear The Klauses Jr.,
Leave the mantel bare. Place a narrow white Christmas tree on each side of the fireplace. Decorate it with solid-colored ornaments in rings. Red at the top, orange, yellow, green, blue, and finally violet. Festive, sparse, and modern!
Natasha
I did a double take. “I thought you were Gwen’s daughter and Kat’s sister.”
Sugar glanced at Alex, who said, “Social services is much more professional than that. And they wouldn’t have taken the kitten.”
Twiggy staggered backward into Jonah. “You’re Kat’s mother? Not Gwen?”
Sugar placed her hands on her hips. “I am Kat’s real mother. I’m downright ashamed by what a lousy mother I was. Look, let’s split up and look for her. I’ll explain after we find her.”
They assigned me the way back to our block. It was a long shot, but Kat might have gone home. I wished I had Daisy with me. She’d be more likely to notice a little girl with a cat if Kat were hiding somewhere.
I walked along the sidewalk, peering behind bushes. There were too many little passages leading to backyards. Kat could be anywhere. I kept walking. When I neared our block, I cut through the alley behind the Babineaux house, intending to pick up Daisy at Mars’s house.
The gate to Edith’s garden hung open. Would Kat have wandered in there? Anything was possible. I peeked inside. “Kat?”
I didn’t see her anywhere. The chandelier glowed in Edith’s dining room window. I scouted the garden, poking around a bit. When I neared the house, I made out Edith sitting at the dining room table. Across from her, little Kat drew something.
I knocked on the back door.
Edith opened it and invited me in. She was actually attractive when she smiled.
“I see you have a visitor. Everyone is in a panic about her.”
“I should hope so! I’ve been phoning the Babineaux house, but the line is always busy. She doesn’t want to go home.”
“Did she hide in your yard?”
“I heard her crying. She was so sad, holding that kitten and whimpering. So I brought her inside and gave her something to eat. She told me that everyone lies about cat allergies and that she won’t let them take Harry away from her. Given that she just lost her mother, I think it’s extremely unreasonable to take away the cat. What are they thinking?”
I explained what had happened. “I’d better call Alex’s cell phone to let them know she’s safe.”
When I hung up, I watched Edith with Kat. A gentleness had replaced the anger in Edith’s face. The taut lines and cold eyes had softened.
Edith heaped praise on Kat’s drawing. She sat in the chair next to Kat, who held Harry.
“Kat,” said Edith, “your family is looking for you. They’re very worried about you and Harry.”
“Don’t tell them I’m here. They’ll take Harry away. My mommy went away. I don’t want Harry to leave, too.”
Edith pulled Kat onto her lap. “They love you as much as you love Harry. I’ll make you a promise. If they won’t let you keep Harry, he can stay here. That way you can come over to play with him any time you want.”
Kat nestled her head against Edith’s shoulder. I had to turn away to wipe the tears off my face.
An hour later, Kat and Harry were safely home and playing in Kat’s princess bedroom. In the living room, Sugar thanked us all for helping.
Sugar clung to Alex again as she told us about Kat, which did not make me happy.
“When Kat was three months old, I left her with my mother, Gwen. I was a dancer at the time—pole, not ballet—and I left with my new boyfriend, who was in a little band that was touring the country. I’m ashamed that I did that, but I just wasn’t ready to settle down with a child. When I came back, Mom was gone. I didn’t know anything about Baxter or their marriage or her new name. I’ve spent the last five years searching for her on the Internet. When Elvin said he was going to visit his brother, I didn’t make the connection until we drove up, and there she was.”
Sugar looked straight at Twiggy, who had cried when she saw Kat and appeared to be on the verge of tears again. “Mom, um, was a dancer herself, but she’d gotten too old to make any money at it. She was stuck with my baby and a job in a bar that didn’t pay enough for her to make ends meet. She resented me for being young, and having my life ahead of me, and dumping my child on her. She said when she met Baxter, it was like all her dreams came true. Baxter wanted to have another baby, and Mom wanted Baxter. She told him that Kat was her daughter. She moved and changed her cell phone number, and I couldn’t find her. I didn’t know she had married Baxter. I walked away from Kat when she was a baby, something I will always regret. But Mom could see that I’ve changed and grown up. Alex, you explain the legal stuff.”
“Gwen had obtained custody of Kat. When Sugar told me about Kat, we brought an emergency motion in the court. I couldn’t imagine anything worse for Kat than losing the woman she thought was her mother, and then being removed from her home at Christmas.”
Sugar looked at Jonah, raised her eyebrows, and gestured toward Twiggy.
Twiggy collapsed into a chair. “Oh no. I knew it. You’re leaving me.”
Jonah, who had been silent, kneeled on the floor, picked up Twiggy’s hand, and glared at Sugar. “See what you’ve done now? Did I ask you to let me do this in my own time?”
Twiggy sobbed.
“Honey, don’t cry. I’m not leaving you.” Jonah gently wiped tears off Twiggy’s face. “You see, I met Sugar once before at a convention in Vegas and—don’t cry, Twiggy! I swear I’m not leaving you.”
She couldn’t stop. Jonah shot Sugar a look that could have fried her. “Twig, it was before I ever met you. It was just one night, but you know how that can be. It just happened. I didn’t want to upset everyone until the paternity tests came back, but there’s a good chance that I’m Kat’s father.”
Twiggy froze. Her eyes flicked between Jonah and Sugar.
“Oh, you’re her father, all right,” protested Sugar. “Who needs a paternity test? She’s just exactly like you.”
Jonah focused on Twiggy. “Honey, I swear I didn’t know anything about this until Sugar came to town.” He hugged Twiggy to him. “I thought you’d be upset, that’s why I wanted the paternity results first.”
Twiggy sobbed like she’d lost her best friend.
“Does Kat know any of this yet?” I asked.
“When we know for sure,” said Jonah, “we’re going to ask Luis to help us break it to her. I’m not taking any chances. It’s going to be a huge shock. I can’t imagine how her little mind will be able to deal with it all.”
They had blown my mind! I sat down on the sofa, my head reeling.
I glanced up at the mantel between the two orange-flocked Christmas trees. Gwen had decorated the mantel in this room only a few days ago. At the time, no one had dreamed how many things would change in this house. Maybe she thought she was saving Kat from heartbreak by pretending to be her mother. Whatever her reasons, she had been right about the stag-head candleholders. The mantel wasn’t the same without them.
I gazed around the room. “Where’s the lamp that was in the corner?”
Sugar sighed. “The police took it. The killer used the lampshade to wrap Mom.”
While Twiggy cried, and the others talked about Kat, I wondered about the mouse and the glasses that it had lost. Gwen had been hit over the head by something heavy. I searched the living room for an object that could have been used. Of course, the police had probably collected anything that they thought was suitable. Except for the candlesticks. I had a pair of old sterling candlesticks that had belonged to my grandmother. They were weighted in the bottom. I wished I had picked up one of Gwen’s to see how heavy they were. I could well imagine someone grabbing one of them and slamming it over Gwen’s head. Those antler parts could be very dangerous.
I left the chaos, walked through the kitchen, and tiptoed up the back stairway to peek in on Kat. I found Baxter watching her from her doorway. He appeared a bit disheveled, as though he hadn’t bothered to comb his hair or shower. He held a finger up over his lips.
Diva Wraps It Up, The Page 22